Destry knew something was wrong. She doesn't have to feign naivete but she doesn't have to fret about it either. That is why she had taken the initiative to drop the 4 dreaded words “Can we talk?”, apparently those were the words that Destry told Lyle in a text message, only comprised of three words. It was supposed to be the “We need to talk.” phrase, which was originally her dreaded words. She changed it since those four words connote something negative. At times, those words were enough to bring in the bad news and it's always followed by a similarly bad and lame random excuse. I'm not going to be like that she told herself and she would in all her strength, remain friends with Lyle.
Nonetheless she was answered by Lyle that it had to wait since she was busy with her projects and other things.
And so she waited. She's never the one to argue, to bring something up just to satisfy herself or make a fuss over something. She kept to herself and as weeks went by without any sort of communication from Lyle, she knew it was over. At least she would like to think of it that way.
She went on with her usual habits during the week and called Lyle if they could finally talk if she's not busy anymore. Thankfully the day has come to settle and make things clear.
Destry now stood across a rather shabby food house off the outskirts of town. She saw at the other side of the paned glass that Lyle was sitting in one of the tables at the back. Lyle insisted on meeting here and perhaps it was a regret of letting her get her ways. She entered and walked past the eating construction workers and jeepney drivers on other tables. These men can't help but stare at Destry and some of them obviously made second glances.
Destry smiled but it wasn't her usual smile, it was simpler and quite unfamiliar.
Lyle was wearing a shirt, a pair of pants and flip flops. Her hair was tied in a pony tail. Destry was wearing her usual button down shirt in white and with the sleeves rolled up to her arms almost to her elbows and a pair of shorts, she's walking in a pair of gray casual shoes. Originally they were white, however Destry don't have a habit of washing her shoes from the first wear and let it that way. So splatters of mud were visible on the surface of the shoes.
She wanted to frown when she saw Lyle. She knew too well Lyle won't be seen eating here and normally Lyle would dress a bit stylish no matter the occasion. However today was different, Lyle had completely became bland.
There has got to be a better way of showing how you don't care Destry thought to herself and took the chair across Lyle, who was listening to her iPod. Lyle took off her earphones and tucked them away in her shoulder bag with cute little cartoon images printed.
“How are you?” Destry started, her wavy hair rested lazily on her shoulders and her dark piercing eyes caught Lyle's. “I'm fine.” said Lyle and even the slight of being upset was detected by Destry's radar.
“I'm hungry.” Lyle said “Buy me something.” Never had Destry heard Lyle command her to do something similar to what just happened now. It was always Destry who would pick up the tab and would offer things. And Lyle would always ask nicely or not at all. “Alright then, what do you want?” she yielded to her orders and bought a bottle of softdrinks and a pack of chips. No worries, her arteries are as good as clogged... Maybe not. These aren't exactly enough to clog them.
She returned to the table and laid the bottle and snack on the table. Lyle looked at the bottle and with her right index finger she said “There's no straw?”
Destry hasn't even taken her seat yet “I think now is a good moment to give mother earth a break with plastics, imagine as we speak polar bears are drowning in the north pole” said Destry as she took her seat.
This didn't struck Lyle as something to worry about, in fact she thought at that moment what Destry said was senseless but later on she would understand what it meant.
“Fine.” Lyle said and started eating the chips and drinking the beverage.
Truly Lyle is acting peculiar and the absence of her presence in the past weeks only puzzled Destry. Not knowing what had happened in the past three weeks she could only think of one thing. It has to end, at least they must tell each other its over and they can go back to being friends, like before. Then again Lyle has the habit of acting weird when circumstances don't require her to.
Just like that time where she and Lyle were simply hanging out in a park in uptown Middleton Park, just 30 minutes from Destry's house and an hour and half for Lyle. They were reading books in a quiet serenity of nature with the sounds of chirping birds, when out of nowhere Lyle said “You don't love me...” There was a long pause where no one spoke a word, Destry putting her book down looked at Lyle in the eyes, with no trace of reaction on her face. They both waited, Lyle for a response and Destry, for a miraculous power to transport her to another place but here. Destry then bursts into a string of laughter.
Destry looked at Lyle across the table. She wasn't bad looking but Destry had dated better looking girls.
She took a deep breath and said “I guess you know very well why I want to talk to you...”
Before Destry could utter another word, Lyle cut her off “I'm still hungry” she said.
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Author's Comment:
A continuation of "A-Soap" a series of short stories I've been inspired to do.
1st draft, no I have no plan yet on making other drafts or totally refining them, which I should really work on. I shouldn't really post raw stories, here goes. Well since I do this only for fun perhaps I should just leave it at that, for fun.
Next chapter to be posted soon.
Chapter 2: The One
