Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 9- Closer

"Grabe lang din no? In three weeks parang close na close na natin si Alora," Hera said as the group walked down the escalator.

"Oo nga. Nung una inisip ko nga na parang maldita lang tong si Alora, yun pala totoo," Sarah said. Everybody laughed.

The group reached the first floor. "Uy wag kayo ha. Mabait naman si Alora," Michael defended.

"Eh maganda? Maganda ba rin si Alora?" Sarah asked Michael.

"Ahh, umm..." he glanced nervously at Alora. Alora locked eyes with Michael. At that moment, he just realized that Alora actually looked beautiful today. A pink hairclip pulled the left side of her light brown hair over her ear. Her round brown eyes seemed to calm his soul. Her light-colored skin seemed to shine from the mall's lights, or what is natural? Michael wondered in awe.

"O-oo naman," Michael stuttered then immediately looked away from Alora.

"Aiyee!" Sarah and Hera exclaimed in unison. Alora's cheeks blushed.

"All of you guys are pretty. Sarah is pretty, Hera is pretty, Joy is pretty, pati yung imaginary friend ko kaya maganda!" Michael said defensively.

"Pero siguro para sayo masmaganda si Alo-" Michael froze time in the whole mall with a snap of his finger before Sarah could finish.

Sarah was at it again. Michael just said the truth. Alora really did look stunning to him today. In the past three weeks he's known her, he didn't pay attention to her looks much. Sure she was really smart and confident in class, but even those didn't strike to make him have a crush on her. Now, he wasn't really sure. Michael just didn't like being teased on these things.

He pulled out some masking tape from his backpack then stuck a strip on Sarah's mouth. He pulled her hand up to cover her mouth so it would appear that she put it there herself.

None of his friends nor even family knew he had these powers. He always covered up his antics with a clever little story which was pretty hard, especially when he accidentally threw his brother off the balcony. He resolved not to tell them just because of the gut-feeling that they could be pulled into some kind of mess if he told them about it. Keeping it a secret also also allows him to pull pranks like this on them if ever they really annoyed him.

Michael suppressed a laugh. With a snap of his finger, the whole mall came back to life.

"Mmmh! Mmpphh!"

"Uy Sarah anong ginagawa mo?" Hera said and she, Alora and Michael burst in laughter at the sight. Now Alora's whole face was red.

Sarah painfully removed the tape then looked really confused. "Ano- anong nayare?"

"Hahahahaha!" Michael checked his watch and saw that it was already 6:00pm. "Guys late na pala! Alis na tayo, tawanan nalang natin siya sa labas," Michael and the other two laughed hysterically at the bewildered Sarah as they went out of the mall.

They went back to PLM since Sarah called for her brother to pick her up from school. She didn't want to go with Michael after getting embarrassed. Her anger seemed to be a little directed to him as if she unconsciously knew he put that tape on her lips.

After she got picked up, the three went on to try to get a jeep at the Roundtable.

"Hahahaha! Ano kaya nayari dun kay Sarah?" Alora said.

"Sayang wala si Joy!"Hera said.

No jeeps seemed to be showing up at all. It was already dark and late they figured, so they decided to ride a jeep by the underpass and had to walk a little longer.

There weren't many people around by the street as they were walking, except a group of guys at the far end of the street, students from another school maybe?

"Nakakatakot naman dito pag ganitong oras," Hera said.

"Okay lang nandyan naman ang body guard natin ah," Alora said.

"P50 per ten steps ng service ko mga ma'am," Michael joked.

Then suddenly those "students" surrounded the three. Five tall and buff young men, around 20+, wearing school uniforms from a school which they couldn't recognize the logo patch of, with two of them holding knives.

"Body guard daw," said one of the guys. "Kunin niyo na sila."

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Author's note: Hey guys! Thanks a lot for supporting this story! I've been on break for awhile but thanks a lot for sticking around. 300+ reads!