Chapter 3 - Old Friends

I was in her room. Lumina made me sit down on her computer chair as she tended to my wounds. She dipped a cotton ball into a bowl filled with disinfectant and rubbed it on the cut that was above the corner of my left eye. I saw her face, she looked worried and stressed. But why? Why would she worry about me, a boy that she just met in the central square hours ago. F**k my face hurt like hell when she put that disinfectant. She wiped my nose of blood and put a band aid on the corner of my eye. 

"Who did this to you?" She asked me.

"Long story." I replied coldly. She dared not to ask a follow up question, instead she looked at me with those blue eyes of hers. It was the same look that she gave me in the central square, the look of pity, but this time I did not have the urge to hurt her. 

"Hey.." I said to her.

She looked at me like she was waiting for me to say something.

"Thanks." I said to her while looking to the side.

"No problem. To be honest, I was actually scared at first that there was a person under that tree." she replied.

"I guess I picked a wrong time to crash huh?" I told her jokingly.

"Well you could've called or texted. You have a phone right?" She asked me.

"Yeah, but I don't have you as a contact." I replied.

In an instant she took my phone which was on her computer table. I had remembered that I put it there before I sat down and she tended to my wounds. I was more groggy than I thought. She held up my phone and took a picture of herself and then put in her contact details. She gave me the phone afterwards.

"Now you have it." She said and smiled at me.

She was indeed pretty when she smiled. Her long hair fell to her shoulders and her blue eyes shined vigorously in the night. She was wearing a loose shirt with her pajama bottoms which kinda looked cute on her. Crap what am I saying, this is not the time to be thinking of this.

"So do you still go to school?" She asked me out of nowhere.

"Nope. I quit when I was 13." I replied to her.

"Oh. What do you do now?" Lumina asked me.

"Nothing." I said immediately, I can't tell her that I'm part of some gang, she might think I'm a creep, but then again the wounds are already a dead give away.

"Are you a gang member?" she asked me while she was looking at me with those eyes of hers. It's like her eyes had the power to make you tell the truth or something.

"Yeah I am." I replied coldly. "Now I know what you're gonna say, that I'm probably f*****g up my life now and I should change but I-" 

"I don't care about that stuff." she cut me off. "What matters is you told me the truth." she replied.

Wow for the first time ever, this girl did not feel any repulsiveness about me being a gang member. Usually girls start running away or saying stereotypes about gang members but she didn't.

"Well that's a first." I blurted out.

"Why?" she asked me again.

"Girls usually run away or bombard me with stereotypes after I tell them that I'm a gang member." I replied to Lumina.

"Well I'm not one of those usual girls." She replied 

"Yeah you seem different. I used to go to your school you know." I told her.

"I know. We were in one class when we were in 6th grade." She told me.

What? She was my classmate? It never occurred to me that it was like that. I don't really remember her face, not one bit. Lumina saw the puzzled look on my face. Then she stood up and went to her closet and took out a picture album. She turned it to the page she wanted mo to see and she gave it to me.

"That's our class." she said.

I looked at the picture and yeah she was right. This was in sixth grade, I was 12 years old at the time. 

"There's me." She pointed to the left of the picture.

It resembled her because she had blue eyes. The hair was short though but no doubt that it was her. That smile was a big give away. It's an amazing fact on how many things can change in a little amount of time I was gone. I had remembered her now, she was Lumina, the kid who I always hangout with when I was young. She was a genius so she got accelerated to my grade at a young age. She was eleven at this time in the picture and I was twelve.

"I hoped you would remember me when we last met in the central square." Lumina said to me.

"Well I didn't and you didn't either. You even asked my name while we were at central square." I told her

"I wanted to make sure okay? I didn't want to feel awkward about the situation." she replied to me.

Then it suddenly hit me. I now knew why she knew the meaning of my name. She lied about it and said she learned it in Mythology class. I was the one who told her the meaning of my name when we first met. It was 4 years ago back in the old playground.

"So then, you lied?" I blurted out.

"About what?" she asked.

"When you asked for my name in the station. When you told me that you learned the meaning of my name through some Mythology Class." I told her.

She let out a small laugh. I was looking at her fiercely and that was enough to tell me that she really lied about knowing how she learned the meaning of my name.

"Yeah. I knew that you were the one who told me the meaning. 4 years ago right? Back in the old school playground." Lumina replied.

"Crap I feel like a terrible person. How could I forget you?" I said while scratching the back of my head.

"Well you've been gone a long time Kidel, that was to be expected." Lumina had said to me.

"You've changed." she blurted out.

I know I've changed. I don't need someone telling that right to my face because I wanted to change. 

"Yeah." I replied coldly.

"I never expected you to be a gang member now." Lumina had said to me.

"I bet you never expected this either." I replied as I held in my hand a small blue flame.

"Wow." She said to me. "How'd you do that?"

"Magic." I replied to her.

"Whatever." she replied as she pushed me off the computer chair.

"Hey I'm injured over here." I said to her.

"Well if you didn't get into fights that much you would've been injured like that." she sat down on the computer chair.

I examined her room. There was a part in her room which was filled with photos, you could really see her passion in photography by looking at that wall alone. I went near her and looked at what she was doing. It was an essay. She was still busy as I took her phone from the desk. She noticed it and look at what I was doing.

"What are you doing there?" She asked me.

"I'm putting in my contact information." I replied to her. 

I gave the phone back to her and saw her smile.

"Thanks Kidel." Lumina had said to me.

"No problem, anyway I have to sleep." I said as I sat on the floor and bowed my head in order to sleep.

"Goodnight." Lumina said as she continued to type her essay.

"Hey." I said to her. She looked back at me with her blue eyes.

"What?" she asked me.

"Thanks again, Lumina." I said to her and I finally went to sleep.