See You Tonight

Chapter 45: Cindy's Story

I don't feel like I've reached my school. I can see the school building from here. A building full of lights.

The atmosphere around here is quite crowded. Many street vendors lined the roadside. I stopped for a moment at one corner of the road while looking at the school building.

A lot has changed since I went to high school. I have a lot of friends who make my days more colorful.

After a long time of stopping, I continued my footsteps. This time, I will go straight to the house because now the time has shown 9 more.

I slowly moved my feet while looking at the sky. As I was looking at the sky, I suddenly saw a shooting star. I wonder, about where will the fallen star go?

Now, I'm gonna go through the bookstore where Cindy and her grandmother live. I don't know why my heart was pounding when I was going through it. I also accelerated my steps.

Just as I was in front of the bookstore, I saw Cindy sitting on the second floor balcony. Our eyes met each other in that momentary view, then we turned our eyes away after that. My heart really thumped as our eyes looked at each other earlier.

Though our eyes meet, we do not exchange words. Our mouths were silent as if nothing had happened. I didn't stop, I kept my feet up.

When I was almost through the bookstore, suddenly a voice called out to me. Then I looked back too. As I thought, the voice that called out to me just now was Cindy's. I stopped too.

"Grass, wait for the thing I want to say" Cindy said nervously from the balcony, then she came down and met me.

"Sorry to call you out of the blue" Cindy said as she arrived before me.

"Oh yeah gapapa, a-there's a-what's Cin?" ask me who is nervous too.

"You have no time? I want to tell you about my problem" Cindy said.

"Where do you want to tell me?" ask me.

"What about the balcony above?" Cindy said.

"Can" I reply.

We walked into the closed bookstore. Then we went up the stairs to the second floor balcony.

"Please sit here Lang" Cindy said, inviting me to sit in a chair.

"Oh yes, thank you" said I who then sat in the chair.

"So soon, I'll make some tea first" Cindy said.

"Eh, don't bother Cin, this is enough," said I who felt bad for Cindy.

"Don't bother, wait a minute, yeah," Cindy then went to the first floor to make me some tea.

Shortly after, Cindy returned with two cups of warm tea.

"Don't Lang" Cindy said, putting the two cups on the table.

"Oh yes, thank you Cin," I replied rather nervously.

"I'm sorry I suddenly called you on the street like that" said Cindy who was now sitting on a chair beside the table.

"Yes not papa Cin, besides I am not in a hurry. Where is your grandma?" ask me.

"Grandma's sleeping hehe. He always sleeps between 8 and 9. Hence, the store is always closed at 7 p.m.," Cindy replied.

After that we didn't talk to each other for a while. Maybe we both feel awkward. I was shocked when Cindy called me from up here. It's not like Cindy.

"So, what do you want to tell Cin?" ask me to reopen the conversation that had stopped earlier.

"Oh yeah hehe, sorry I was confused to the point of not knowing where to start" Cindy said with a slightly confused look.

"Well, I'll start when you see me crying in the garden alone. Sorry I didn't say anything to you at the time. That time I was completely destroyed" Cindy continued.

"Oh yeah no papa, I don't really care about it either" I replied.

"So my mom just got married again about two months ago. My mother married a man who also had children. He already had two children when he married my mother. Her first child was two years older than me, while her second child was one year younger than me. Both of his sons are women. At first everything was fine, but, "Cindy paused for a moment, her eyes were now red and she looked like she was holding back a cry.

I don't know what to do or say at this point. I just kept quiet and waited for Cindy to continue her story.

"But, in the last three weeks, my half-brother's attitude has changed. I started being told to by them. Starting from washing their clothes, washing dishes, to cleaning their rooms. Not only did my half-brother change, my stepfather also slowly showed his true nature. They often get angry and even insult me with hurtful words. Not infrequently, they also pushed me to fall if I did not obey their orders," continued Cindy who now began to shed her tears without her knowing.

"And what hurts even more is when I tell my mother that bad thing. My mother doesn't seem to care about me anymore and the night defends them. Because I was no longer strong, I chose to move to my grandmother's house. Therefore, I did not attend school for two days because I was still traumatized and crying all day" Cindy continued.

"Sorry Lang, I'm a long story like this. I'm sorry to have to drag you into my troubles, too" Cindy said, wiping away the tears that fell on her cheek.

"No papa kok Cin. I'm even happy that I can help you" I replied.

"I've read that if we tell people about our problems, it's the same as we're sharing the pain that's on them so that we'll feel better after we tell them," continue me.

"Maksih Lang you are indeed a good person. You didn't even tell your friends what you saw in class. So, no one knows that I'm crying like that except you" Cindy said.

***

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