Box of grief

    "Hey, you're going?"
    Fin snapped from his daydream.  He slurped back the drool, inching away from the edge of his mouth and realized his neck was burning with pain.  He straightened himself up on the chair.  Heads on the desk, he looked sideways at his friend.
    "Go where?" he asked.  His eyes hurt and his head aches.  When was the last time he had a proper night?
    "Where?  Home.  Or have you gone senile already?  Haha, dude, you're still in secondary school and there's like 5 months left here you know, so you better don't go forgetting things," the other one said.  His eyes contracted to small lines when he smile and laugh.  His hair was bright red and people often thought it was dyed.  But truthfully, a friend from some country he won't ever get a chance to go would be one likely-to-cool friend.  At least that's he thought.
    A year ago, in the middle of June, a transfer student, no, more like a new student getting forced to go to school here had been brought in by the teacher.  His hair was flaming red, his face was a oblong, and all but perfected his outwordly physiques was a pair of hazelnut eyes the colour of the sky.  A very dark sky.  People swarmed all over him then, all the school found out that same hour, most likely, that a new student had enrolled and he looks really cool.  The student though thought that this was all an ordeal he had to deal with.  Particularly the part where he had to suit his own lifestyle to this place.  He came from a cold country and this place was hot as the bottom of a burning pot.  He didn't like it that much but he likes it when he can wear lighter clothes.
    Of course, Fin at that time was going through one of those emotional phases after a certain accident happened.  After all he's a ripe man, going through a very delicate process called puberty.  He started to realize there were far more girls in his class and all of them seemed to have very attractive properties.  It was all that he expected but they didn't explain the part where you feel lonely and sad for no reason at all.  He had friends, yes, and they were all probably going through the same thing.  Still, he thought that he's the only case where you look up at the sky at started to ask yourself some very hard questions.  For example: Who am I?
    Then this guy suddenly butted in.  Red hair and pretty eyes aside, he's a guy you don't want to mess with.  He has bigger body and taller than most guys here.  And he's athletic but never joined a club even until now. This guy saw him staring at nothing.  All of a sudden, he's there poking him in the face.  It all seemed like a blur after that.
    "Ahh!  Why do we have to go back?  It's too early, anyway," Fin said, refusing to move from his position. He had his face down straight on the desk and it was hard to breath.  So, he moved his head to look out the window.  It was evening, not quite late yet.  And it was hot.  Burning hot.
    "Oh come on.  So, you wanna go somewhere else?  The mall maybe?  Play some games or watch a movie?"  the other guy said.
    "Look at that outside.  Unless you have a car you can drive to the mall, I ain't going back until it's too late to stay here,"
    "Well, I could call up my driver."
    Silence.
    "Oi, Laz, you have driver?" Fin asked.  His face still facing away.
    "Yeah.  My parents thought it was too troublesome to wait for a bus or ride a bike, so they gave me a driver.  Although, I don't really use him that much except when I'm too lazy or I just want to give him something to do,"
    "Your parents hired you a driver?"
    "No.  More like, gave me a driver."
    Silence.
    "You know, Laz.  I still don't know what your parents do or how rich you are,"
    "Eh?  Why do you care, anyway?  Come on, I'll call up my driver and we can go hang out,"
    "Well, if it's on a car, I'll go."
    30 minutes later, the driver opened the back door to give the two boys entrance to the black shiny Mercedes Benz. There wasn't much student left at the time, but the few still waiting for their buses stared at the car and the two students going in and gaped like a fish out of water.  The driver slammed the door and got into the driver's seat.  Laz told him to drive to the mall and 5 minutes later, they were into heavy traffic in the middle of the city.
    It took quite a while before Fin realized that it was too quiet inside the car.  Still gaping, he desperately searched for a topic to converse with his friend.
    "Well, I heard you got a girlfriend."
    That was Laz.
    "Huh?  What girl?  No, more importantly, who said that?" Fin slide to the left and looked outside.  Buildings made out glass scratched the skies like claws.  All of them seemed too dominant and quiet but inside, he was sure a lot of people were still working.  It was a city made out of buildings like these and most of them are probably offices.  Fin looked down and saw a stall, selling what seemed to be candies.  The shopkeeper was sitting on a bench, looking tired.  He was wearing a hat, symbolized like a lolipop.  It wasn't ridiculous but he thought it wasn't funny either.
    "Everybody," Laz's voice seemed distances away.
    "Well, I don't, okay?  Still, if we're gonna talk about girls and such, might as well say we're gossiping,"
    "Gossips seemed to start everything, though.  I saw you with Hill the other day.  What were you guys talking about?"
    "Her?  Oh, she's just asking about the Archery Club.  You know, the one I ditched?  I wasn't good at it but she seemed desperate to pull me back into it.  Well, I'd say I humbly decline,"
    "That club?  I heard it was going down because there wasn't that much member to begin with,"
    "Yeah, that's probably why,"
    "Why'd you join it in the first place?"
    "Because I thought that there's not gonna be that much people in it.  Seemed it was famous once because of a pretty girl, but now that she's graduated, the club's finished,"
    "Oh."
    Quite settled in after that.  The whole thing was like a little spark, trying to ignite something bigger.  Well, it was worth the shot anyway.  Fin tried to searched for a topic again.  The car was moving slickly along the road, quiet and yet seemed to be fast.  The driver was good to drive with this speed with this much traffic around.  Maybe he was trained or something.  Or maybe he's just used to it.  Fin thought the latter was probably it.
    "I'm going back after 5 months."
    That was Laz too.
    "Back?  To your country?"
    "Yeah.  My family's here for just a year but my parents thought I better finished graduating here and then we go back and apply for a university, back home,"
    "Oh.  Good for you, then."
    So, that's why.  He's been like this for quite a while.  So, he's going back after finishing school, right?  Well, everybody will be forced into their own paths one way or the other.  No one can't really stay at one place forever and expects it to be the same.  Something's gotta change after a while.  The buildings seemed shorter now.  There were more restaurants and shops.  A couple was hand in hand, walking along the pavement.  They were smiling and seemed happy.  Fin watched them until they were out of sight.
    "Well, we have 5 months more, right?  After the exam, we'll go to the beach or something.  We can go hang out with the others.  Invite everybody,"
    "I don't know,"
    "Eh, don't worry.  It's not gonna be just you going away.  Everybody's going their ways after this.  So, it's not that big of a deal,"
    "Please don't say that."
    Man, this guy can really be emo sometimes.
    "Well, look.  We'll be in touch.  I got your number, your FB, twitter, everything.  We can Skype if you want,"
   "Yeah, probably."
   Like I said.  It's not like I like it this way but hey, I knew this would be coming.  Man....
   "Don't sweat it," Fin said.  He didn't want to see the other guy's face.  Probably at the edge of tears or something.
    They arrived at the mall after some time.  The driver let them off at the entrance and Laz said to be back after 2 hours.  What the hell are going to do for 2 hours?
    "Fun.  Come on, this time I'll beat you at Mars Invaders!" Laz exclaimed when the car was out of sight.  He was smiling then, happy as ever.
    "Oh really?  We'll see about that.  Oh and you're on everything,"
    "Eh??? I don't have that much money on me right now,"
    "Well, we have this machine called the ATM,"
    "Tch.  Pay for yourself,"
    "Hey, you dragged me here and you expect me to pay dinner?  I don't think so,"
    "Shut up."
    5 months.
    Not long.
    Too fast.
    Minus the exam and everything's gotta do with school, we're left with a couple of weeks, only.
    Man...
    And this guy had to remind me.