'I'm hearing the news about Professor Richard's wedding, is it for real?' Raymond asked as he reached his regular dining table in the buffet hall, he was in his Jersey with a towel hanging over his neck which he uses to wipe off his sweat.
'Yeah, it is' Clint answered dragging Raymond down to sit on a seat beside him and started eating.
'He finally decided to get married' Raymond said
'After living for a thousand years maybe he wants a partner' Clint said
'Where is Asher?' Clint asked looking around the buffet hall and not seeing the person he was asking about.
'He hasn't been back since he went out to hunt for lunch' a voice answered, it came from the person who have been silently seating with them with a book covering his face, Sean. Sean lifted his head from the book to answer them.
'Are you sure he isn't in the mansion?' Clint asked
'I don't know, I've been in the library all day' Sean answered moving his head back to his book
'I don't know too, I was playing basketball with the pack' Raymond answered when he saw Clint glaring at him for answers.
'Oh, he's here' Raymond said nodding his head in the direction of a person who was walking towards them.
'So you've been hunting all day?' Clint asked the person who just sat down beside him. They say on a table which was surrounded with four chairs.
'Stop questioning him, by the way Sean, what are you eating?' Raymond asked standing up from his seat 'Just pineapple pizza' Sean answered without lifting his head from his book
'Asher? Don't worry I would just get you five blood bags' Raymond said quickly as he saw Asher face expression that says "Stupid question".
Asher was staring at Clint as if the answers he seeks are on his face while Clint ate without noticing. As Clint chewed Asher stared waiting for a dimple to show but he got nothing. 'Clint, did you follow me when I went to hunt for lunch?' Asher asked as he leaned on the table.
'Why would I do that I got better things to do' Clint replied turning his head to see him and glared at him.
'You smell like animal is that what you got lunch?' Clint asked as he sniffed Asher a bit and chuckled
'Not only animal also human, it was a nice' Asher said thinking to him what he saw during his hunt, someone that looked like Clint.
Asher wanted to sniff Clint to confirm what he saw in the woods so he leaned on Clint's chair and sniff. "They smell the similar and not the same at the same time" Asher thought to himself.
'I hope you aren't having me for dinner on my own birthday' Clint jokes and Asher leaned back into his own chair.
'I got your orders' Raymond announced as he reached their table with their orders in his hands, he distributed them and sat on his seat to eat his dinner. Clint turned to his friends who were all silently consuming their meal he got fed up of keeping his question to himself.
'Why am I not having a party on my birthday' Clint asked and no one replied him. Raymond lifted his thumb up as if to signal someone and immediately their environment change from an expensive buffet hall to a garden by the sea. The garden was decorated with blue light and snowflakes
'Wow, how did you do it? Your specialty is Earth' Clint asked happily looking around
'Come on, I'm still a witch but we asked for a favor from the witches' Raymond said pleased to see the happy expression on Clint face at night.
'We' Clint asked, not believing that they planned all that together for his birthday.
'Yeah, we' they chorused,
'Ok, chill' Clint said and continued looking around 'One more thing to make this perfect' Clint said making everyone look at him. He stretched out his arm towards the direction of the sea and focused his mind, the sea started freezing from the edges till it reached the middle of the sea and it was completely frozen.
'Perfect' he mouthed.
Some witches who dressed like waiter came over to their table and silently placed a steak cake that had a candle on it and left without saying a word.
'Blow out the candle, softly' Raymond pushing the steak cake to Clint, everyone now had their attention on him even Sean closed his book and placed it on the table and giving his attention on his friends. Clint blew off the candle and smiled stupidly like a child who was gifted his favorite candy, Raymond smiled with him but Sean and Asher looked at him expressionlessly.
'Stop being so gloomy on my birthday' Clint said , shaking Sean’s arm, they loosing up and relaxed into their chair relieved that he's cheerful and not gloomy.
'Why did you guys pick the night to celebrate my birthday?' Clint asked finally noticing something was off. Throughout his previous birthday they always celebrated his birthday at noon and leave him all to himself at night
'We don't plan on letting you stay alone tonight' Sean said taking a knife to cut the cake into equal pieces and placed them in their plates before they ate.
'Who is up for ice skating?' Clint said running towards the frozen sea after they were done with eating.
'Not me' Sean said going back to his books
'Count me out' Asher said, Raymond took the two by the hand and dragged them to the frozen sea. 'No skate shoes' Asher said looking for an excuse to be left of the hook, Clint smile and pointed his index finger at their shoe soles was covered in ice
'Who needed skate shoes when you got me' Clint said and did the same for himself and started skating. They followed after him, happy to see that Clint was happy on the night of his birthday after a long time.
They skated for a while before everyone got tired except from Clint who was still hyped, he melted the sea with a click of his finger and controlled the waves. He made an ice surf board by focusing his mind and started surfing, showing off different moves. He seemed so happy that it did make them a bad person if they disturb him; the rest of his friends sat on the shore and watched him entertain them until he got tired
'I'm so worn out' Clint complained as he controlled the wave to move him to the shore
'Exseptremé' Sean said a spell making Clint cloth dry. 'Let's go back home' Sean said snapping his fingers and immediately their surrounding changed to the seating room of their mansion.
"Alas I can go mourn him" Clint thought tiredly
'We are having a sleepover here in the sitting room' Raymond said
'What?!' Clint said as he jerked off the black rugged floor, just when he finally thought he would be left alone.
'Are you surprised, I can't let you make it rain this night' Raymond said as he went upstairs to grab the blankets and mattress and also change from his jersey.
'You think we didn't notice that every night on your birthday it rains' Sean said
'Oh, I didn't notice, it might be a coincidence' Clint lied
'Stop lying, it's because you get agitated on the night of your birthday' Asher said smacking Clint's head. Soon Raymond was back with four mattress and blanket enough for four of them, they lay down on the ground with heads facing each other forming a four legged star. They stared blankly at the ceiling which was painted white with none of them able to voice out their thoughts until Raymond decided to lighten up the mood.
'Do you remember the last time we had a sleepover at your place before everything happened?' Raymond asked with a hoarse voice
'Yes, that was my best memory' Clint answered.
'The ceiling of my room was transparent and we could see the stars' Clint continued feeling nostalgic
'Yeah, we matched stars together to form images' Sean said.
'He matched a snow flake' Asher joined in the memory lane.
'He looked happy then' Clint said and the cloud outside started gathering as he felt a sharp pain of longing in his chest.
'Clint, think of only good memories' Sean said as he took Clint’s hand and squeezed it.
'I've been working on this, check it out' Sean said and swipe up his free hand as if to clean an imagery glass. Immediately the white ceiling turned to a starling sky, a night sky filled of stars.
'When did you learn this, bookworm' Raymond asked
'I've been working on it, I just perfected it now' Sean replied
'Who taught you' Clint asked
'Books'
'How did you do it?' Clint asked again
'I'm specialized in Nature; I concentrated on the memory of the sky that we matched when we were kids and was able...' Sean stopped his explanation when he saw that they weren’t listening to him they matched the stars instead 'Why did I even bother ' Sean sighed and joined them.
'Clint, if you see your twin brother now, what would you do' Asher asked pretending not to care about the answer but that was what was bothering him.
'I would hug him tell him how much I miss him, we would even do more, but he is dead' Clint answered as he thought of what his twin brother would like if he was still alive even when he knew that they were identical, it made him feel happy and it started snowing.
'Clint, you're making it snow' Raymond said as he turned his head to the window. 'I don't know but thinking about him make him feel close to me, I guess that's why it's snowing' Clint said smiling happily.
'Clint, what's the color of your eyes' Asher asked
'Sky blue' Clint responded.
"That boy in the woods today looks like Clint but he has dimples and familiar deep blue eyes. Do different people look alike? Or... no, he died" Asher tried clearing his thoughts of the person he ran into while he was hunting that afternoon for lunch.