Behind the Mask

Behind the Mask | Five (Extra)

Five: Drake

Surely did not expect the first day would be goddamn amusing.

"Well, looks like someone's happy!"

I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back on the tree behind me when I heard Odelle mocking me again. He dropped his backpack beside me before he squatted and stared at my face. I chose to be indifferent to the look he was giving and closed my eyes.

"Not happy, just amused."

My eyes shot open to throw a quizzical look at Zedrick as I realized we just said the same thing simultaneously and even with the same tone. He, in turn, erupted into a huge laughter. I shook my head and closed my eyes again.

"Okay, what's happening?" Odelle asked, probably with his usual confused look: forehead creased, head tipped to the side.

"Drake has been saying that same exact thing every time we asked for the past ten minutes," replied Bryle.

I quickly wiped the grin off of my face and gazed at Bryle with a shocked look, "Fuck, seriously?" For real, I was not the least bit aware of it.

He shot his eyes back at me, his hands pausing from lighting the cigarette between his lips, and retorted, "You didn't know?"

I suddenly had a wave of realization that it was dumb to keep this conversation going.

"Give me a cigarette," I ordered and laid my hand out to Bryle.

"Woah, that was a bad attempt to change the topic," Odelle remarked and settled down beside me. Bryle obediently handed me a stick and a lighter without further talk. That's what I like about him. No homo, though.

"So?" Odelle successfully got my attention again. "What's up with that grin? You found Blaze or something?"

"Dunno, did I?" I threw the question right back at him, making him even more confused. I ignored him and called out Xavier, "Hey, got something for you to do."

***

"What did you mean?" Odelle asked as soon as he was seated on his bed.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him back.

"You know what I'm talking about." He took a sip of his whiskey as he gave me that look of his that screamed 'Don't fuck with me.'

Yep, it's just the first day of classes, and we're already slacking off and making our own rules.

"I'm serious. What are you talking about?"

"'Dunno, did I?'" he mimicked my voice and tone. Fuck, I thought I brushed that off perfectly. "That's what I'm talking about."

"Nothing. Just mocking you," I lied. Of course, I would lie. I didn't want him to think that I was that obsessed with Blaze, a stranger I once saw in the streets but turned out to be the Mafia Princess and the girlfriend of a mafia don at that.

"Oh, yeah..." Much to my relief, Odelle finally let go of the topic. "I forgot to tell you that you were such a fucking lousy liar."

Or not.

Goddammit.

"Drake, just speak because I'm a fucking good listener."

"Drop it. It's nothing important," I attempted to brush it off and chugged down the remaining contents of the canned beer in one shot.

"Wait a second." He suddenly started to stare at me intensely and continued to do so for a while without saying anything.

"What?" I broke the silence. No answer. Another wave of silence ensued.

"Goddamn, how could I be this slow!"

I was taken aback because of his unexpected explosion. Even he looked like he was surprised by it. He dropped his body on the bed but abruptly stood up with a mindblown look on his face.

"What?" I asked again.

"You think the transferee is Blaze." I chuckled as if he was hilarious so that I could mask the shock that washed over my system. Unfortunately, it turned out awkward. "Hah, bullseye! Now it makes sense why you had Xavier run a background check on her."

"I didn't want to jump into conclusions, especially because she looked so different. I might have forgotten how she looked like and mistook that nerd for her." I heaved out a sigh, headed to my cabinet, and took the bottle of whiskey I smuggled into the dormitory.

"Why do you even like her?"

"No clue."

It was not exactly a lie. It might be because she's unique, or maybe because she's not pretentious. It can also be because she's beautiful, or because her voice is beautiful. I could go on and on and still not know what exactly made me like her. It was an endless list.

"No, wrong question. What don't you know about her?"

His question put a stop to my list, like how an author would stop writing because of a new idea popping into his head, how a researcher would revise his paper because of a new discovery that changed everything about his research.

I realized I don't know anything about her aside from the general knowledge that she's a mafia boss' girlfriend who goes by the codename 'Blaze'.

"Drake," he continued his talking, gaining back my attention again, "This is just a hypothetical question but what if—"

I got tired of his roundabout way of speaking, so I cut him off instead and tried to force what he had been meekly pointing out in this rare serious talk of his, "What are you trying to say, Odelle?" I looked him in the eye, which only lasted for a few seconds before he swiftly looked away and laid down on his bed. In his hand was the bottle of whiskey he had just emptied. He's drunk.

"Just saying that love is one scary-ass thing – it fucks you up and leaves you blind so that when she shows something foreign, you mistake it for something else; something nobler and more beautiful."

What he said did not make sense to me. It's not like it was the first time he was all serious and pompous with his words but it was so rare that I tend to forget about everything he says every single time. Does getting drunk make him honest or just poetic? Maybe a tad of both? I don't fucking know.