I trudged my way inside the drafting room, and the moment I laid my eyes on him, I gave him a stinging look.
"Hey Gette, where's Ryl?", Jane asked while expectantly looking up at me.
I harshly brushed my stray hair up in trepidation and scowled. "I don't know..."
"You're best friends, right? You should know," she said nonchalantly. She opened her backpack and fished out her drafting materials.
I remained silent and gazed outside passively.
'Yeah, I've been her friend, but I don't know if she also sees me that way anymore,' I pondered grimly.
Suddenly the face of a certain person came into my mind. I clenched my teeth at the thought of him.
'That bastard is really the reason why we drifted apart... Ever since they had that mutual relationship, her life became unstable. If only I ha—'
I didn't finish my silent monologue because our drafting teacher arrived. We greeted her, and she returned it with the usual pleasantries. After greeting us, she didn't waste time to introduce us to our practical exam.
"Good afternoon class. For today you'll be drawing the different view of our school, and for that I'll group you into five groups. This group will be the group that will accompany you as you roam around. You're free to choose whatever view you're going to draw—but be sure to use accurate scaling. You can check out the blue prints for the exact measurements so that you can scale accurately the view you'll be drawing," she instructed calmly. She paused for a while then continued, "Is that clear? Any questions? Violent reactions? Lian, what wrong again with you, boy?"
The boys at my left side chuckled when they heard their friend's name.
"Nothing, ma'am; I just left my ruler and my drafting tools," he answered confidently.
His friends seem to find this funny, so they end up chuckling at him again.
Our teacher sighed and gave him a dry look. "You shouldn't have attended my class, Lian, if you're not ready. Anyway, let's start the counting; let's start with Ken, okay... You count 1..."
My gaze strayed again outside, and I absentmindedly thought of the possible reasons why Ryl is absent today. Even though our friendship status wasn't on good terms lately, as a friend who's been with her for almost three years, I can't help but to somehow worry about her.
I rested my head on my palm and frowned when I thought of the possible reason why we're in fray right now.
"Ean...", I muttered under my breath.
My classmate nudged me because apparently I'm so preoccupied with pondering that I didn't notice the counting had already reached me.
"2!", I said audibly, and when I realized what number it was, I clenched my fist.
"Ok, everyone listen—you'll have an hour to explore the school, and the rest of the remaining time will be allotted for you to scale and draw. Be sure to utilize your time well. You can go now," my teacher said promptly as she flicked her hands towards us, gesturing us to go.
'Tchhhh, why do we have to be in the same group?', I thought angrily as I moved toward our group.
I instantly met Ean's gaze as soon as I arrived in our area. My disappointment doubled when I noticed that all of my groupmates were all regulars.
I pressed my lips into a thin line to prevent myself from cursing my rotten luck.
'Congratulation Gette, you finally dethroned Lili on the scale of being unfortunate today!', I sarcastically reverized.
Thankfully, for the next hours of exploring and drawing, nothing eventful happened. My mood somehow lightened up because most of my groupmates were funny. The four hours passed quickly, and after hours of drawing, I'm almost done with mine.
"Why so gloomy, Gette?", Jayne asked while peering down at me.
I raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I'm not—Castor. I'm just focusing hard on my stuff, so buzz off and do yours."
He grinned and just shook his head. "I'll just submit mine tomorrow because beautiful things always take time to finish," he declared airily as he lean on the railings. Some of the regulars chuckled, and I just snorted to prevent myself from laughing.
"You're just lazy, bro," Lian concluded as he erased again the line he had just drawn.
"Wow, coming from you!"
"Yes, Jayne Castor—coming from me, who's diligently working on this damn paper. Why don't we just skipped this and proceed to CAD drafting? I ain't really good with rulers and pens," he complained as he crumpled the paper he's drawing on.
Jayne smirked, and some of the boys laughed when they heard his complaints.
"Deal with it, bro... You should have taken cookery—wait no, you'll burn the cooking lab if you do so..."
"Or maybe accounting, but I doubt your brains will survive it."
"Ahhh, you should have taken the event's management; I bet you'll do great in planning Barbie parties!"
They laughed like a pack of screeching banshees. I frowned at the nonsense that they're talking. Thankfully the bell rang, and I swiftly collected and arranged my stuff inside my backpack.
I was about to go back to the drafting room to return the monobloc chair I've borrowed when someone called my name. I turned around and instantly frowned when I saw it's Ean.
"What?", I demanded impatiently.
"I just want to ask if you know why Ryl is absent... I've messaged her last night, but she didn't reply or read my messages. We aren't on good terms right now, so I thought she's doing it on purpose...", he said tentatively while looking down on the ground.
"You said it yourself—you're not on good terms, so maybe... maybe you're the reason why she didn't attend school," I blurted out bluntly.
He abruptly raised his head and frowned.
"Me?", he asked cluelessly.
"Yes, you. Ever since Ryl got attached to you, all sorts of misfortunes happened to her. Her grades slipped, she became distant to us, and her parents became untrusting to her. So why do you act as if you don't know everything? You're close to her, right? So why didn't you notice?", I jabbered angrily.
He pursed his lips and looked away.
"Sorry...and thank you," he muttered curtly as he walked ahead of me.
I somehow felt guilty about what I've said because it came out insensitively. I didn't expect that I would be carried away with my boxed emotions—and I really regret doing so.
That afternoon I stopped over at the computer shop to check my Messenger account, and the moment I opened it, relief flooded in me when I saw that Ryl's mother finally replied to my message.
Good afternoon, dear. Yes, Ryl is sick; kindly tell your teachers that she won't be able to attend classes yet because her appendix burst. She already had undergone the operation, but the doctor advised us not to let her go to school for now. I hope she'll recuperate fast because it will be really hard for her to catch up with the lessons.
The guilt for snapping at Ean doubled when I finished reading the message.
'So it wasn't about the relationship turmoil they're experiencing... I really barked at the wrong tree,' I realized as I stared at the screen.
After I replied to her, I logged out my Messenger account and went home. The day after that, I badly wanted to apologize to him for the harsh things that I'd said to him.
But in the end, I didn't.
I'm a coward, and up until this day I still feel the regret of not doing so.