DELENE

EIGHTEEN

*Delena and Jovita were standing in front of the window, both looking out. They were watching the man in the middle of the field from inside the classroom on the second floor. The man was sweating and looked exhausted after practicing basketball by himself. When he suddenly looked up and their eyes met, the man waved with a smile.

"Delena, do you know that guy?" Jovita asked without looking.

"Joshua's? Why?"

The woman was silent for a moment before then shrugging her shoulders. They looked down once more, but the man seemed to be gone. "I'm dating Kak Shua from High School, we've known her for a long time" Delena said. The girl smiled.

Then Jovita also waltzed away, leaving Delena alone in the classroom.

"Why is that him?" Delena frowned confusedly. While Delena resumes their pending group assignment, she thinks that Jovita will come back again considering her friend is a good and responsible person. But instead of Jovita, who came later was Joshua. Still wearing sports jerseys, sweaty, and handsome.

"Again what?" asked the man when he was in front of Delena.

"Jain duty, brother. What does it look like?"

Joshua smiled, his eyes narrowing to form a beautiful arch. "Your boyfriend is here. Why do the doorways go on, hm?"

"Jovita said that, even though the task of the group was not finished."

"Jovita who?"

"Temen. That girl in the window was just like me."

"Don't look. In my eyes there's only one thing." Joshua smiled again while Delena was red extinguished due to her death speech.

And Jovita really didn't return, to campus, on that day and so on*.

***

The light from the light bulb bouncing into the all-white space around her made the girl blink when she first opened her eyes. He will just touch his head that feels throbbing when a sense of pain immediately attacks him. Delena did not like to be infused, she became horrified to imagine her wrist being pierced by the medical object. So the girl closed her eyes again, trying to remember what happened until she ended up like this.

"Delene." Joshua's soft voice jolted in, almost like a whisper in his ear.

"Del, I know you're up."

Joshua's voice became even more resolute and real. But Delena wasn't ready to meet the man. When he opened his eyes, he could focus on nothing but the needle that stuck in his wrist. The girl wanted to cry because of her current miserable condition.

"Hey, why? Is anyone sick?"

Delena shook her head, but Joshua had already pressed one of the buttons that was on top of the ward, on top of her head. Then the views of the two met, in a fairly close distance.

Joshua was still bandaged, even though he looked better than the last time Delena remembered. Her bead moved to the right and left, and Delena cursed her stupidity because she was sedated until she was silent like an idiot. Then Joshua moved his face, slowly. The man closed his eyes and Delena's world seemed to be spinning like a top at full speed.

Delena had no idea she should be relieved or not, when a man in a white uniform suddenly walked in and interrupted them. His skin heated up, and he did not get any better when the handsome young doctor began to examine his body. His heart was still beating like a marathon run, and he could not see the doctor's face when he menggeck the beat of his life.

"How are you feeling now?" ask the young doctor.

Delena almost thought that the man was mocking her. But the doctor looked sincere.

"Why am I being infused?" whining Delena in the end. The doctor smiled gently, then the next answer successfully made Delena glare.

"You were unconscious for almost three days. But now it's okay. Soon the nurse will come and take it off."

Three days. Wow, Delena was curious what's wrong with her body?

"Well, if there's nothing left, I'm sorry. Don't forget the medicine's gone, I've written the prescription."

Delena and Joshua thanked her before the man left. An awkward atmosphere immediately enveloped the two, even until the nurse entered and left again.

Not yet Delena replied, with deft Joshua had helped Delena to sit down. The man picked up a glass of mineral water on the nightstand and brought it straight into Delena's mouth.

"I can be alone, sister," said Delena, her voice hoarse. But Joshua remained in his position and Delena inevitably complied rather than lingering in that position.

Shifting his gaze to the various times, Delena finds a newspaper laid carelessly on a nearby table. The room where it is treated must include a vip class to see all the interiors. He also had time to see a neatly folded blanket on the sofa thinking that anyone had spent the night waiting for him there. Then Joshua took notice, aware that there is a portrait of Jovita clearly visible on the front, although in a black-and-white visual with a big headline :

FATAL ACCIDENT IN TAJUR, MOTORIST KILLED

Shocked, that was the first time Delena felt. He almost forgot the incident a few days ago, but he also took responsibility. At least he was there, watching with his own head as Jovita relinquished control of the car they were riding in. They resulted in a serious accident, even to the death toll.

"I saw him the day before he took you away. I should have stopped him earlier." Joshua said softly, feeling guilty.

If Delena had wanted to ask about the dead motorist, she was now staring at the man nearby, confused. The fact that Joshua had saved his life made Delena no longer able to not ignore the man. Joshua lets himself get hit in place of Delena, blocking the speeding motorist from the opposite direction.

"I lost you once. You don't know what it was like, at that time. I'm angry, and I'm making other people lose their lives."

Delena almost thought Joshua was crying. Until suddenly a man barged in, then Joshua looked up, irritated.

"Aren't you papa? Is anyone sick? Oh, my God, my heart feels like it's going to get dislodged."

"I'm fine, breathe first."

"I'm in Jogja, ngabarin you can't. So I called all your family, and they said forget! They're too much, Delena."

"They're my family, Gavin."

Gavin smiled, for the first time since the man had come. The man then hugged Delena, making the two people in the room glare at her for what she did.

Joshua cleared his throat, loud enough to wake even the dead.

Then the two men's views met. Magnets in the opposite direction are always Delena anticipates his meeting. As Delena knows they know each other, in the context of work or perhaps more. Delena did not know, and she did not want to know the truth, because the last time they were seen meeting, Joshua and Gavin exuded a real aura of war before Delena's eyes.

"Joshua," said Gavin. He nodded once, his voice soft.

Joshua also nodded even though the man's face was very flat.

"We need to talk, later."

Joshua nodded again, still silent in his place. Perhaps only Delena felt confused and strange herself in that place.

"Why?"

"Joshua's head is sick. He needs a break, Del."

"Not that..."

"I'm fine, Gavin. You're the one who seems to have to be shaken in order to start being self-conscious here."

"What?"

Delena's dizzy. They really have a relationship behind them. "Why don't you just go if there's something you want to talk about?"

"Later on. Now I miss you."

Jesus, Gavin.