Occasions

CHAPTER 24 | PT Warna Cakrawala

All the families in Bogor, now gathered in the garden behind my parents' house. While I was still in the room, watching them all from my bedroom window. From here, I could see the man who was engrossed in the middle of my extended family.

He laughed, joking with everything. Without a burden, it was as if nothing had ever happened between the two of us. Manipulatively, that's what's in my brain right now.

The man was really good at taking my family's heart, making them comfortable with his presence, but it made it hard to forget, even to keep him away from my family. At the same time, my bedroom door was knocked.

Tok tok!

I opened it, it was Monica, my friend from childhood. He lives in Bogor. And it just so happens that in a few days' time his birthday is over. “Hai, login!”

“I thought you were in the back, but said you were in the room. Why not get down?” asked Monica who stepped behind me then sat on the lip of the bed. I stood by the window again, watching Reza down there.

“What does he mean back to my life, anyway?” I said my back to Monica.

“You didn't ask him? Your relationship isn't clear, Del. She has a boyfriend.”

“I know, it's exactly that I'm confused by his attitude now.”

Monica was the one who knew the most about the matter between me and Reza. I often tell him even though our lives are separate, between Jakarta and Bogor. Monica also often resuscitated me first, while still together with the man ‘petakilan’ it. It's just that, when I was together, I was too selfish. Only attach importance to my own feelings, without realizing if it turns out that feeling is not avenged. It even makes heartache.

“So afternoon he apologized to me,”.

I turned around, stepping closer to where Monica was. Again I took a breath, resigned. “Entailah, I don't understand.”

Monica's face looks like she's caught off guard, maybe she's just as upset as I am. And maybe he can feel what I've been through all this time. “Adel, horrified yes, he has hurt you. He thinks of you as his outburst. When he's having trouble with his girlfriend, he runs into you, having fun. And when she decides to no longer have sex with you, it means she loves her boyfriend. Don’t be a stupid girl!” Monica advised me.

For a moment my brain agreed with what Monica said. It would be too foolish to be selfish to seek my happiness and manipulate myself with such bliss. In fact, I am also a manipulative person.

I nodded slowly, then exhaled as a sign that I had found the answer. It's all over, and I should be able to deal with it, standing in front of it without any taste. Without getting carried away.

Eventually Monica and I decided to get out of the room and join my extended family in the back garden of the house. Reunited with Reza, the man who repeatedly shook my stance without her noticing. I had to dare to look at him with my chest, because he was not my soul mate.

“Adel ... You haven't been here for a long time! Why is it that every time Reza comes here, you never come?” chirp one of the mother's brothers who is arranging dishes on the table. Aunty Ayu. I smiled in response to his words.

Then at a glance I glanced in the direction where Reza was, our gaze colliding.

“Adel ‘kan busy working, Aunt.” Monica suddenly nodded.

“Dih, you know, Mon!” reply Aunt Ayu. Again I just smile.