A tall figure strolled confidently into the room as his brown eyes scanned the room. He had been missing for several days, and only now had it been that people had finally seen him once again. Unknown to me, he had been watching me the moment he walked in, casting his gaze in my direction.
I had noticed that he entered, I did note his disappearance and I had known the reason why. My feet took their first steps as my mind commanded, my mind obeying the desire to speak to him once again. It was not long before logic and perhaps fear also, had commandeered itself over that desire.
Logic had told me that I may have been the last person he wanted to actually converse with. Logic had told me that I wasn’t going to be much help to him. Fear told me that I may make things worse. Fear told me that I may get more than I was asking for.
So I listened to logic and fear and made a quick turn, directing myself into the direction of the table full of glorious food instead. My attempt went to waste, as he noticed and headed over into my direction. I tried to preoccupy myself with a finger-bun as I watched the distance between he and I grow lesser by the second.
‘You were walking toward me and you stopped, why?’ he asked as I suddenly felt my blood rush hot with nerves. I learned that I very quickly seize up when I’m not certain how to respond.
‘I wanted to speak to you, but I figured that you didn’t care,’ I said slowly, my hands feeling increasingly sweatier with each word. He continued to look at me as I stood there, trying to pay more attention to the food in my hand than the reality of him staring at me.
‘Well I care, amazingly,’ came his words as I moved down the table grabbing a prawn from the bowl. ‘I know I haven’t been around very often, and I’m sorry. I tried being around but I eventually found things too hard; I considered having you murdered just so things would be easier, but I decided that wouldn’t be professional.’
I chewed slowly, choosing to stare at the pocket chief that sat in the breast of his blazer. I suddenly felt awkward.
‘Well, that’s why I have been around less. I figured you mightn’t want to see me around at all, so I thought that it would be best to stay out of your way. I really don’t know why I’m even here at the moment, to tell you the truth. I didn’t expect you to be here, I suppose,’ I hurriedly said, my hands shaking more by the second.
‘I spoke to people about it, you know,’ he started as he too reached over for a prawn and placed it in his mouth.
‘Oh. Who did you tell?’ I asked, wondering if I knew anyone that he has spoken to. It didn’t matter much if it were anyone I knew, but I was just as curious all the same.
‘Yes, one of your good friends, actually,’ he responded, wiping his hands on his jacket and nodding over toward a firmly built man with short brown hair. I recognised the person that very second.
‘Ah, shit,’ I subconsciously blurted out as I realised what this meant. I made a mental note to remove that person from any form of list that I had ever placed him on. There goes another friend.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, trying his best to look apologetic, ‘but I had to talk to someone about it. I know you’re not thrilled about it, either.’ “Not thrilled†was an understatement. This wouldn’t be the first time that I had lost a close friend due to the misconstrued words of another person.
I made effort to remind myself that this most likely wouldn’t be the last time as I stood there remembering previous times I had a friend leave because of someone else. Staring off into “spaceâ€, my memory recalled a time when several friends turned their back on me because I didn’t believe someone.
My memory selected another time, as I was forced to recall a moment where a close friend decided to stop talking to me because of the words of another person. Their fuelled anger being relinquished on me with bitter, hateful words; they chose to listen to the other person without choosing to speak to me, the accused one, about the actual situation.
Almost ten minutes had passed, although it seemed much less that that, before he started clicking his fingers in front of my face in attempt to get my attention. ‘Oh well, its fine,’ I lied as I turned my attention back to the table of food.