480 Hours

“What the hell are you doing, Dee?” I stop munching and turn my gaze away from a re-run of last night football match on TV to see Alice with a questioning look across her face. She stands just about ten feet away from me with her Blackberry in hand and an empty mug in another. Her brown hair is a bit messy—maybe because she’s been out too long and the wind just ruins her hair—and soon the questioning look on her face turns into a scowl.

“What do you think I’m doing, Al?” I roll my eyes at her before gulping down the last piece of spaghetti in my mouth. Once I’m already finished with my meal, I put the bowl down on the coffee table and lean on the back of the couch once again. Finishing a bowl of spaghetti—that’s actually a leftover—and watching a football match have become one of the good things that happen to me this week. It’s simply because Alice is finally out of my hair for a few good hours, Jack is off to play basketball with Benny while Papa is taking Mama for her regular checkup to the hospital. And I can’t just pass up this opportunity to go to waste. That until Alice is finally back again.

“How could you eat that?” Again, I roll my eyes at her, now fixing my gaze on the TV once again.

“I could because I wanted to,” I shrug my shoulder casually, “I know you’re just jealous because you can’t eat what you really want until the wedding.” Alice has been dieting for the wedding since five months ago. I don’t know how she does it, since she’s a big fan of food and loves eating as much as I do, but she manages to do it. She works out, eats healthy foods, and does other things to keep her body in shape so she’ll look good in her wedding day.

“Oh please,” now it’s her time to roll her eyes at me, “but seriously, Dee, you should stop eating that kind of food or you won’t fit in your dress.”

I sigh loudly, hearing her words. It’s not the first time she said that kind of things to me. This morning could be the hundredth time for these past five months and all I do is nothing but shrug her off and act like it doesn’t bother me. But this time is different. Her words actually bother me and I don’t like this nagging feeling I have once those words were out of her mouth.

“Can you please just stop? I know I’m fat but I don’t need you reminding me that every second.” I rise up from my seat and storm off to my room, losing my mood to watch the match and not leaving Alice in the living room alone.

Once I’m already in my room, I don’t exactly stay there. I walk out to the backyard through the clear window that’s big enough for me to walk through it. I sometimes use it as a door to the beach that’s my backyard when I feel like escaping from my family for a little while. When we first moved here last year, Papa planned to change the window into a smaller one so I couldn’t walk through it but I protested him, saying that it’s better this way. And to my surprise, he didn’t protest.

As always, the beach is pretty much deserted, seeing that it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning and there aren’t many people living around here. There are only a few citizens who are walking their pets or jogging and some tourists who already have their surfboard with them. I want so bad to tell the tourists that it’ll be hard to find any good waves to surf since it’s already September and the weather’s been unpredictable these couple of weeks. But I let them be since they probably won’t listen to me and do whatever they want anyway.

I walk along the shore to the rented beach house where my friends are staying in until a week after Alice’s wedding. That place has been my escape since last week. I miss my friends so much—since I haven’t properly seen them since July. Being separated from them because of university feels suck.

“Dee!” One of my friends’ voices pulls me back from my trance. A smile cracks on my face when I see Nano, one of my best friends, waving happily at me with a small smile on his face, “I thought you have plans with Alice.” He says when I already approach him.

“Nah,” I shrug my shoulders nonchalantly, eyeing the Frisbee that’s tucked under his arm, “How have you been?”

“I’m the one who should’ve asked you that, you know,” he chuckles, “I’ve been good, we’ve all been good. How about you though?” We make our way to the house, walking through the back fence.

“How about me?” I chuckles, “I think I’m fine, but I don’t know.” Nano just nods his head knowingly, not pushing me any further to talk. We pass the empty swimming pool and walk in to the house, making me to feel warm instantly, “Where are the others?”

Not a second I let those words out of my mouth, a loud chatter can be clearly heard from the other side of the villa. Nano just sighs before leading the way to—where I presume—the kitchen or dining room where all of my closest friends lounge around. Nano drops the Frisbee he’s holding on the couch in the living room before leading the way to the dining room.

A group of friends that I’ve hung out with since high school are sitting around the long, oval table in the dining room with a few empty bowls, a plate of pancakes, random mugs on the table. Jasmine and Yuri are happily munching away their breakfast that’s a stack of toast breads, Naira is texting away on her phone while Sasha is seemed to be in an argument with Ryan, the only guy in the room.

“Seriously, Ry, surfing isn’t fun! You wanna know what’s fun? Bungee jumping!” Sasha says, earning a firm nod from Naira who’s apparently still listening to the conversation.

“Surfing is a lot more fun, you know?” Ryan counters back, “Besides while Nano and I surf, you girls can sit back and watch and get a tan. That’s what girls always do, right?”

“But you and Nano don’t even know how to surf,” I speak up once I walk towards them with Nano by my side and soon all eyes are on me. Even the kids—that’s what our nickname for Jasmine and Yuri—are looking at me too, their eyes lighting up like kids on Christmas. Naira looks up from her phone and grins widely, “and you’ve clearly been watching too much chick-flick, Ry. We don’t need anymore tan, you know. Can’t you see? We’re definitely tan enough.”

“What the hell are you doing here, missy? I thought you have plans with Alice today! Well at least that’s what she told me yesterday.” By that time, Sasha is already walking towards me and opening up her arms to hug me. The next thing I know, three other pairs of arms are already around me too, hugging me from my left and right.

“I miss you guys so, so much.” I can start to feel my eyes watering when the girls still don’t let go. This reminds me so much of my, our high school days back then. Clearly, we weren’t together since day one of high school. Yes, we all stayed in the same class every time and it’s pretty safe to say that we’re all friends. We only talked to each other occasionally, only if it’s needed. But once our Indonesia’s Civics Education’s teacher put us together for a project in Year 11, we hit it off.

“Can you guys just let go? It’s too early to have a moment like this.” I say with a laugh, making them let go almost immediately. They retreat back to where they sat and Nano takes a sit next to Sasha before once Ryan comes up to me, holding up his hand for a high five.

“We can still learn how to surf, Dee.” Ryan says once we’re high-fived already, making me to roll my eyes at him.

“We all know neither you nor Nano would spare a time to learn how to surf.” Ryan and I walk towards the table and take a seat, me next to Sasha while he sits at the end of the table. I look around the table and realize how none of them is preoccupied with their own things anymore. They drop whatever they did before only to just focus their mind on talking with everyone, on being here.

“Yeah, you guys will never want to learn how to surf. You two don’t have the shape and look to be surfers.” Jasmine blurts out, earning a glare from Nano and Ryan immediately, “Hey, it’s true!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Jas,” Ryan rolls his eyes at Jasmine, “Anyway, what are you doing here, though? Not that I’m minded, I’m just surprised you can walk out of Alice’s web.” Amongst all my friends in high school that Alice knows of, they’re the only ones that are invited to her wedding. Maybe it’s because they were always there whenever Alice’s around.

“I just stormed off actually. I can’t handle her being a bitch again today.” Yuri winces at my choice of words. Being the youngest amongst all of us, she always is the one who doesn’t like to swear or even hear someone swearing.

“But it’s not even 10a.m yet.” Naira says, making me to shrug my shoulder, “She’s unbelievable.”

“When’s her wedding? It’s only a few days away, isn’t it?” Nano asks as he takes a sip of what I assume as his now cold tea.

“It’s only six days away and she’s been bitching about it since a month ago. I don’t know how the hell I still have my ears when she’s always around to be—“

“Language, please,” Yuri cuts my words before I can even finish, “It’s too early to swear around like a sailor.”

“Sorry,” I smile sheepishly, “But seriously, she’s being annoying,” I emphasize the last word, earning a proud smile from the doctor-to-be, “since a month ago. She complains all the time about this and that and I just don’t know what to do with her anymore. If she’s not my sister, maybe I already wring her neck or something.”

“Oh c’mon,” Sasha chuckles, “even if she’s not your sister you still wouldn’t do that.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I say after thinking about it for a few seconds, “I personally think you guys should experience being in the same room with Alice for a few hours.”

“No thanks,” Ryan replies almost immediately, “I’ve done that before and I should say that it’s not a very great thing to do. No offence, Dee.”

“None taken, bro.” I shrug casually.

“I don’t know how it’s going to be when she’s already married and moving in with Andy.” Ryan is living under the same roof with Andy in Jakarta since he graduated from high school. Once he got accepted in college, he moved in with his one and only older brother. And now with my sister about to marry his brother, that means he’s also going to be living with Alice. God knows how much he despises a moody girl that’s in shape of Alice.

“Oh my God, you two are going to be related. I can’t imagine.” Naira says and laughs, making me and Ryan to shoot her a look, “The in-laws!”

“Can we not talk about it, please?” Ryan groans inwardly, making me to roll my eyes at him. They know how Ryan and I are going to be each other’s pain in the ass since they think we’re a bit similar due to the constant bickers we always had back in high school. And now the thought of Ryan and I being related due to our sibling’s marriage is a bit amusing for them.

“Don’t be so bitter about it, Ry. You know you love me.” I battle my eyelashes at him and grins really wide just to annoy him.

“You two are unbelievable.” Nano says with a chuckle, shaking his head in disbelief.

Putting aside the bickering contest between me and Ryan, all of us continue to talk about each other’s life since the four of us are going to different campus (Ryan and Naira take the same major in the same campus). Nano tells us how stressful the campus life for him—with all the new atmosphere, some dreadful yet amusing friends he has in some of his class, the deadline of his projects. But most of all, he’s slowly enjoying it because he got to do what he’s wanted to do since day one.

Everyone is telling everyone about their life, the part of life we’ve missed since we’re not in the same school anymore—Nano about his design major, Ryan and Naira about their passion on being an architect, Yuri about her medical school, Jasmine about her business school and this attractive boy she met at the cafeteria of her campus a few weeks ago and Sasha about her breakup with Alex (the guy she dated since Year 10.

It feels really nice to have them here with me. It’s still a bit overwhelming to me how their presence can bring so much comfort and warmth to me and how they can put me at ease and calm me down. I used to think that it’s impossible for someone to be so attached with others, to be so close like a family where you can just tell them anything you never tell someone before, laugh with them like lunatics, talk with them for hours, and just being there with them without getting bored with each other’s presence because you just love each other so much. That until I was brought together to these six lunatics that are my best friends.

“You’re not listening to me.” Jasmine says, pulling me out of my trance suddenly. Five other pairs of eyes look at me almost immediately and I can only smile sheepishly, realizing that I can’t deny it. Clearly I haven’t been listening to Jasmine.

“What’d you have in mind? You seem so lost in your own thoughts before.” I turn to look at Naira once those words are out of her mouth. With that sentence, it’s already clear that I have to spare them about what I just thought.

“It’s nothing, really,” I started off, “It’s just about us, about how grateful I am to be blessed with God’s gifts that are in form of best friends like you guys. This might sound really cheesy but you guys have no idea how your presence here can put me at ease and calm me down. All of you know how things have been really hard for me these days and how stressful I have been with everything but now you’re all here with me and I’m okay again.”

Once I’ve finished my words, none of them say anything. The only sound that fills the room is the sound of wave crashing down from the beach outside. I look around and realize that they’re still taking their time to process my words. Jasmine and Yuri are staring at their mug and biting their lower lip and I just realize how both of them are holding back their tears. The same thing happens to Sasha who looks at anything but my eyes and blinks her eyes every few seconds.

I sigh loudly, “No tears, please. Like I said before it’s too early to have this moment.” I receive from everyone in the room, “Good. Now get off your seat and have a group hug.”

We all stand up from our seat and move to stand on the empty space near the table just so we can have a group hug, “Thank you so much for sticking with me, through the thick and thin. You guys are amazing.” I speak, still hugging my friends.

“I love you guys, okay?” I’m shocked to hear that coming out from Ryan. He’s never the sensitive one so it’s the first time for me and the others to hear him saying that.

It’s silent for a little while before Ryan speaks again, “Can we just let go? I’m starting to have tears in the corner of my eyes and I don’t like it.” We all laugh before pulling back from the first group hug we have since the graduation day last year.