4.Azure - RAY
Morning light streamed in through the glass windows of a foreign room, that had me stumbling over questions, until I remembered it was Caleb's suite. He'd long woken up, evident by the folded sheets and the pillow by my head. Moving my eyes around the room, I took note of the things around me, the windows, the things, the lampshades and even the little things that proved Caleb's presence.
I slowly got up from the bed, then walked over to the window, trying to see the other side through the glass.
After looking here and there, I realized that I was the only one in the room, and Caleb had probably gone out.
I found a new wrapped up toothbrush in a kit in the bathroom, so I brushed my teeth with it. After washing my face thoroughly, I came back to the room, and sat down on the bed.
I was swinging my legs back and forth, something I had not done for so long, when my eyes caught a bright red packet, kept on the dresser by the cupboard. Not noticing it before, I contemplated for a while, then deciding to at least settle my curiosity, I got up and inched closer towards it.
A note lay over the packet, which I picked up, only to find my name scrawled on it.
Ray,
Take them without complaints. I guess you'd prefer to eventually get out of this room, and not in men's clothing. So here's something you could wear. And if I'm not back and you are reading this, I have some work to do, and I'll be back by afternoon.
Good Morning,
Cal.
I folded back the note, then picked up the packet and sat down on the bed, opening the packet to see what it contained.
A white frill top and black pants were folded together in the packet. I got them out and turned them around to get a good look.
Throwing the empty packet on the table, I proceeded to get out of Caleb's T-shirt and wear what I now held in my hands. As I shimmied out of Caleb's trousers and proceeded to put on the black pants, the door slammed open.
"Hey Ray, are you...shit!"
I hadn't even seen him, with my eyes on the pants. I quickly buttoned up the pants and covered my bra clad chest with his T-shirt.
"It's okay Ray, I'm sorry, cover yourself up, I'm outside."
I quickly wore the frill top and put his clothes on the table beside the packet.
"Come in!"
His eyes were downcast, as he wearily walked inside.
"It's okay, I'm decent."
I gave him a small smile, as he looked up at me tentatively. He scratched his chin with his fingers, as he smiled back at me. He put his hand forward.
"I got us food. Hungry?"
I put my fingers on the packet, and pulled it off from his fingers.
"Yes. I'm famished."
He sat down on the couch, after easing out of his black jacket. He opened the top button of his shirt and leaned back on the couch. The ease with which he sat made things seem easy too, if only for a moment. To have a friend with me when I had nowhere to go not even a day before, made me feel safer, from everything that was happening around me. If only for just a moment.
I sat down beside him, opening up the contents in the packet. Chinese, hmm?
"Nice. What's the time, Caleb?"
He took a fork full of noodles, then put it in his mouth. After taking his time to chew and eat it, he turned towards me.
"Cal. It's Cal. And it's 2pm. You better eat fast. You slept till the afternoon?"
I nodded, a bit embarrassed.
"Well, you needed it. God knows you needed some good sleep. Eat up now, we have some things to do after eating."
I licked my fork clean, then put it back in the carton.
"What things?"
He kept his unfinished carton on his lap, then blinked at me with a sombre look in his eyes.
"Well. Since you could hardly, uh, Shayne, uh, during service yesterday, I, uh, oh damn I'm mixing everything up, I just thought you'd want to go? To see him?"
The food I had just gulped down threatened to travel up my throat and out of my mouth. That one broken sentence...
"Go? I... I'm not going anywhere. I'm okay here, absolutely okay. In fact, more than okay. I think I've over-stayed my welcome here. I think I ought to go back, to Zircon. Mum, yeah, she and Dad, and even Scar, they'll be worrying."
Caleb looked at me with utter disbelief at my words. And confusion, lot of confusion. And I? I was shaken out of my wits. Everybody had become the same, proving to meddle with my head, huh? I'd thought Caleb would know. But now, he was the same. He didn't want me to know, did he?
But I knew. I knew it oh so well. They were all lying. About the injuries. About me being a murderer. About Shayne having died. Huh! And now Caleb was just like them.
"Ray? Ray?!"
I shook my head and looked at his palm, that was curled over my hand, warmth seeping through his skin. But my skin felt burnt, my heart betrayed.
I pushed his hand away, then thought over my chances. I got up, then walked up to the side-table beside the bed. Caleb had kept my wallet and my phone on the table. I grabbed them, then checked my phone. Caleb had charged up my phone? But that was least of my worries.
I ran to the door, pulling it open.
"Ray!"
I was roughly turned around, to come face to face with a rumpled shirt covered Caleb, who was now staring at me angrily.
"What are you doing?"
I wrenched myself out of his hold.
"Going."
But that wasn't an answer he wanted, not what he'd liked.
"Where? Why? What are you doing huh? You need to calm down. Can we just sit and talk, if I've offended you enough to have you run away? Where will you even go now?"
I put my phone and wallet inside the two pockets in my pants.
"I have no answers to your questions. I'm going. I'm done here."
He put his hand forward, but I had made up my mind. I walked out.
****
Blue.
She'd always been my anchor. Kind of funny how I'd trust her more than my mom, but I didn't want the overprotective-ness that my own mother would want to give me. Blue would just listen, and be Blue.
The first thing I'd done after I'd left a bewildered receptionist watching Caleb calling my name and running after me, was to call Blue.
She was coming to Iridium. To take me back home. But where was home?
I walked around aimlessly, back and forth, the same path, until my legs couldn't take it. The muscles of my leg eventually started screaming. So I leaned back on the wall of an ill-conditioned building, my fingers playing with my wallet inside my pocket. I didn't once take my phone out to see the time, they say the more you want it to go faster, the slower time goes.
I closed my eyes as the back of my head hit the wall, letting my skin soak in the soft warmth of the sun, that was still partially hidden behind a very thin layer of cloud, the rain having seized its wild dance.
My mind flashed me images, of me, with Caleb, in his suite, as I lashed out at him, madly trying to save myself from what he'd told me, and how that had affected me. Those last minutes with him were a blur, and us? Puppets of irrationality.
I absent-mindedly tugged my top down, remembering I had left my clothes there, and was wearing what Caleb had bought me.
He'd really been a saver. Last night had been a nightmare; the rain, the tears, the drunk man, the lie.
I opened my eyes, staring at my fingers.
Why, why did he have to ruin it by telling me something that was a lie, a badly crafted story? Why wasn't anybody telling me the truth?
The people I'd always held dear, why did they suddenly want to deceive me?
I scratched imaginary lines on my on my left arm, with my right index finger.
But then they could lie all they wanted to. Cause I knew they were lying. And I knew the truth.
I got my wallet out, and counted the money. Mind set up, I waved down a cab and got in.
"Where to, Ma'am?"
I let my eyes linger back, catching the huge modern building, flashy letters greeting guests. Tucking a stray strand of hair waving close to my mouth, I looked at the driver.
"Airport."
****
A cafe had caught my eye, when I'd arrived last day, before the road turned to the airport. So, I had gotten down there, then walked up to the door of the cafe.
Opening the door, my eyes met with those of a smiling brunette, who was just cleaning up a table. Smiling back at her, I walked inside, while she pointed to a small table closer to an alcove. I nodded, then deciding on a cup of hot chocolate until I fancied something else, I sat down.
The same smiling girl put the steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of me. Exchanging a smile again, I watched the heat stretch it's thread-like arms into the cold air, from the surface of my hot chocolate. I put my cold, pale face over the cup, letting the heat caress my face, giving me warmth I craved, in a different way, in a different place.
Smiling ruefully at my own condition, I took a careful sip. Liking the bite of the heat and chocolate, I sipped some more.
I eyed the people sitting around me, most of them having backpacks sitting beside their chair, even though the number of people wasn't that high. But what had me squirming in my seat, was that everybody had somebody to share their cup with. When had I become so lonely, that I squirmed seeing people around me have company?
My phone rang, interrupting my miserable thoughts. I put my cup down on the table, and leisurely got my phone out of my pocket. Blue.
"Hey."
Those were the first words that greeted my ears as soon as I picked up the call. I smiled.
"Hey."
"I'm here. Wanna come and pick me up, so that I can take you back?"
There. That's what I wanted. She knew me so well.
"Yes."
I finished my hot chocolate, paid hurriedly, and started walking towards my destination.
Five minutes of walking, and there it was, the airport. I let my feet carry myself to that one person who'd probably be the only person to believe me, to help me, to not lie to my face.
And there she was.
"Ray! Darling, stay there, let me come and give you a hug!"
She speed-walked the paces separating us and flung her arms around me.
"Oh dear, you had me so worried! And here you are, all safe and sound!"
She pushed back and smiled at me, her lips stretched to a huge smile, as much as her cheek muscles could allow her to stretch them.
I smiled back at her, and we started walking out. I decided to take her to my newest finding.
She didn't question me, or even suggest anything. She followed me wordlessly.
After silently walking back to the cafe, I pushed open the door, watching as the eyes of the staff all swung to see the new customer, widening at my reappeared self.
Their smiles grew, seeing I had not come alone the second time. The waitress who'd served me before, smiling even brighter, started setting up a bigger table, but I stopped her and sat down in the previous spot. Bite me, cause I couldn't stomach the amount of smiling going on around me, when I couldn't have a try at pulling one face muscle to even come close to smiling.
Blue sat opposite me, while the waitress walked up to us, hands clutching her skirt and eyes shining with an inviting glee. I pointed at Blue, and gestured Blue to ask for what she wanted. Asking the waitress, who, now I noticed was named Isla, to get me a cinnamon roll, I leaned back into my chair.
"Our flight is after two hours."
I looked up at Blue was looking at me with those probing, but kind eyes of hers.
I nodded back at her to show her I'd heard her.
"Do you want to tell me what's up, Ray?"
Our food was placed in front of us. Blue smiled back at the waitress, while I busied myself with the cinnamon roll, simultaneously noting it was evening.
I chewed the piece of cinnamon roll I had placed in my mouth, deliberately taking time to gulp it down my throat.
"Sure. I'm fine. How are things back in Zircon?"
It felt weird, talking about Zircon like I'd left it years before instead of a day, but the events in the time that had lapsed between me departing from there, and now, made it feel like years. So much had happened in so little time, I could hardly hold onto my fluttering thoughts moving away from weaving the events of the past hours in order.
I watched Blue sip something from an elongated glass, then put it down. She rubbed the palms of her hands together, then rested her chin on her palm, elbow resting on the table.
"Your family's worried. Really worried. Don't get me wrong, I had to tell your family where you were, the first time you called me. The cops had gotten involved too. It was only when they got to know you were safe, did your parents ask the cops to draw back. Scarlett was so tensed. What made you disappear from Zircon and come here, to Iridium?"
She didn't know?
"Because I had to prove them wrong. And I'm sorry, for making them go through all that just because I'd disappeared for a day."
Blue still had her eyes slightly narrowed, face scrunched up, eyes trying to push through my skin, when I realized this was her work face, when she saw her patients.
"What?"
Blue finished drinking whatever she had been drinking in that elongated glass of hers, then stared at me in silence.
"Do you want to go back home now? They'd be relieved to have you home now."
I nodded my head.
"Sure."
Much to my displeasure, Blue paid for the food, then proceeded to tell me about how my parents had gotten their brains in a twist, once it had been established that I had vanished into thin air.
They'd even called up Blue to ask her if I'd been to her place.
Assured after my first phone call to Blue, they were now eating their toenails instead of their fingernails, waiting for me to put my foot down on Zircon soil.
Blue looked at her watch, then turned towards me.
"Darling, we need to go. You ready to go home?"
Eyeing the dark sky, I suddenly realized I wanted the azure sky back there, high above the ground in Zircon, than the grey cloudy sky here. That was home.
Not here.
"Yes."
~*~
An update!
News. The next chapter will not be in Ray's POV. You'll notice, "Ray" won't be written beside the chapter name. In fact the next chapters will all be in third person's POV, until I mention RAY's POV.
And that man above is none other than the one playing our Caleb Sanders. Cody Christian!
Bye.
Love,
Orlena