[The Wattys 2021 Shortlisted Finalist]
One case, two detectives, three friends, and a thousand emotions.
Sometimes nothing is a coincidence, but then again, everything is.
After the mysterious deaths of Amyra Valdez's eldest Uncle followed by her...
"I would rather date you, you know," I said giggling.
"Sure you would," Jonas winked and hurried to grab another pillow to shield himself from the next smack.
As he expected, I commenced my next attack almost instantly, but he was already ready not only to defend himself but to attack me back as well. That initiated a pillow fight between us and soon we both were dashing across the whole room, each trying our best to score the highest in bashing the other person with the pillows. At one point, I noticed small white stuff strewn across the floor. We both stared at each other with a question mark on our faces before realizing that they were feathers coming out from the torn edges of the pillows. I had only seen feathers dematerializing from pillows during pillow fights in movies, but never expected to see it happen live. Well makes sense, Xaviers' pillows were just as hopeless as him.
We both giggled again before resuming our fight, and at one point, I almost took the lead and thrashed him real hard. Wait, was it him or someone else?
I jerked my pillow back to reveal the vexed face of Xaviers with his jet black hair sprinkled with grains of white feathers. I gulped and shifted my eyes towards Jonas to see his reaction. He had the same alarmed look on his face. We were so lost in the pillow fight that none of us realized when Xaviers entered the room through the ajar door.
"What-do-you-two-think-you-are-doing-?" he snapped, blowing out the feather that was clinging to his lips.
Although naturally it was time to be apprehensive now, the look on his face was worth it. It was clearly visible that neither Jonas nor I was successful in our attempts at suppressing our laughter as we both eventually let out a cackle in unison instead of answering Xaviers' question.
Xaviers glanced sideways to first examine me and then Jonas before muttering something like 'What do I do with these two?' and turning away to leave.
"Angry Young Man," I mumbled jokingly, ready for him to turn back and throw another angry remark.
To my great surprise, he didn't. Instead-
I swear I saw him chuckle as he left the room.
"Is it just me, or did you also see-"
"Now that's concerning, we both seem to have developed the same eye problem at the same time," June tittered, answering my question in the best way possible.
We both exchanged another laugh at that.
"But he's so mean, he didn't even try to make you feel better when you were upset," I remarked.
"Who said he didn't?" Jonas replied with a chuckle.
"He didn't even go to the bureau for me today and tried cracking jokes the whole afternoon to make me laugh, even though he's horrible at it. He has his own way of handling my emotional self, and they always work on me, you know."
"Oh, I just saw him being blunt in the morning, so..." I reasoned.
"That was for making me realize what's best for me because he always knows it better than I do," Jonas grinned.
"I see."
"Well, he just doesn't show it in front of you, but he cares a lot for me, you know. After all, I'm the only person he can call his 'family'."
"Your duo is indeed unique," I smiled.
"Maybe we can make it a trio now, if you two finally stop fighting," Jonas giggled.
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I stirred as Bruno licked my face, probably trying to wake his master up to serve him with his treats. To his disappointment, I embraced that mushy fur ball like a side pillow, trying to steal another five minutes of sleep. I had a peaceful slumber without any kind of interruption after days, so I took my time to get up and stretched my arms lazily when my eyes fell on the calendar right on the front wall. Wait-
I let my arms fall back too abruptly as I realized today's date. It was 7th August- the day I had been waiting for.
I immediately rushed out of my room to find Jonas. I doubted that he remembered. To my utter astonishment, Jonas wasn't in his room; there was only Xaviers sitting on a comfortable armchair with his legs crossed, skimming his eyes through the newspaper.
"Where's June?" I asked.
"He has gone to his parent's house, he visits there every weekend," he replied without lifting his eyes from the newspaper.
It was Friday. But did he forget about our mission?
"When's he returning?"
"By evening."
I breathed a sigh of relief. We still could manage to go to the forest at night. I turned to go back when Xaviers called out.
"Take your breakfast, it's on the table."
I found a plate of appetizing lasagna and a cup of frothy café latte on the table along June's bed. That was the best home-made lasagna I ever had. I must say that Mrs. Arabella, I guess that was her name, had magic in her hands. Just like my mom... I lazed in my room afterwards till twilight fell, waiting for June's arrival.
It was already past dusk when instead of June's arrival, then was a call from him.
"June, when are you returning? You remember about going to the forest, right?" I asked straight away after picking up the call, even without saying a hello.
"Amy, I'm really sorry. I had planned on returning there by evening, but mom fell ill all of a sudden. I'm at the hospital with her now."
I asked Jonas to stay with his mother and take care of her until she recovered, his mother was more important. I would have done the same if it was my mother. My heart ached at that thought.
"Amy, you can tell Xav Bro about it, he might accompany you there."
That Mr. Angry Young Man? Never.
He would probably reply something like "I'm out of it" or "None of my business". I would rather go there by myself.
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