Chapter Seven: What a small world.
“H-hey, name is Michael.” I said, as I held out my hand, shakily.
The man looked at me, then turned his head back, facing away from me. He didn’t even shake my hand or say hey. My hand faltered as it lowered, I looked away then back at him, still persistent, I am.
“So uh, since I told you my name,what’s-”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like talking to anyone right now.”
“Oh.”
I lowered my head, then chuckled slightly, bringing my head up.
“Yeah, I-I gotcha. Yeah- we don’t feel like talking to people sometimes. We just wanna be alone, y’know?”
He only gave me a ‘hm’ as a acknowledgement of my sentence. Maybe he was going through what the cowboy is going through, or similar.I just nodded then lowered my head, mouthing ‘okay.’
“Here’s your Sprite.”
I lift my head and turn it to the voice that spoke across from me. The Barwoman put down a cup of sprite, which had one of those tiny umbrellas in it.
“Thanks.” I said as I took the cup into my hand, and sip some of the sprite. Lemon-Lime was too good.
“Ya welcome.”
When she said that, she had this smirk on her face, like she saw something that was amusing. Her eyes darted towards the right, where the man that I tried to talk to, was sitting. I raised an eyebrow at her as she began to leave to go to a man that called her name. My eyes followed her until she was not behind the bar counter anymore.
“Sprite?”
I look over to the right to look at the man in the trench coat after he said that.
“Huh?”
“Sprite? Really?”
“Yeah…what’s wrong with Sprite?”
My eyebrow arched with a smirk plastered on my face. I didn’t see anything wrong with Sprite. It’s a fairly nice drink, a drink I like very much in fact.
The man leaned forward and smirked at me back.
“Sprite? In a bar?”
The man moved his hand to gesture at the glass of the Sprite on the bar counter that I was drinking, then towards the display of alcohol on the shelf. He then gestured his hand towards the people sitting in their chairs, to the right of us, to really emphasize something that I didn’t really get. I followed his gesture to the people sitting in their chairs, I looked at their bottles to see they were all filled with alcohol. Everyone was drinking some sort of alcohol, or liquor.
My eyes widen as I see what he was trying to show me. I let out a breath of air that sounded like a ‘haha’.
“I-...I’m not a drinker.”
The man looked down and chuckled, finding what I said amusingly ironic. Me, in a bar, and I’m not a drinker. It was quite humorous, I slightly chuckled at it with a small smirk on my face…it was weird, but at least I was somewhat sharing a moment with him…
The man then turned his body from facing me, to the alcohol shelf. He picked up his glass of Jack Daniel's and held it to his mouth, sipping it, savoring the taste. He glanced at me with the corner of his eyes, then moved his eyes back to his drink.
“Why are you here then?”
I looked at him. His eyes are still on his whiskey, his hands still gripping the glass after taking a sip of the drink. I then copied the movements he made; I turned my body to face the alcohol shelf. I glanced at him, my eyes turning right, to his direction. He glanced at me too, before taking another sip of his whiskey, waiting for an answer. I wrapped my left hand around the glass of Sprite and gripped it.
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“I’m just…looking for someone to talk to.”
My grip on the glass loosened so I can lift my hand up, still holding it but lightly. I stopped at the rim of the glass, then I began to trace the rim of the glass with my middle finger. The man glanced at me, then my glass for sprite before looking at his drink. The barwoman went back to behind the counter with more glass cups, putting them in the sink, washing them.
“And you think I’m the right candidate for that?”
I turn my head to him, my eyes only staring at the side of his head as he faces forward.
“I mean here we are, n-no one to talk to. Just sitting, and drinking.”
“I have my partner.”
I raised an eyebrow, what did he mean by ‘partner’? Is he a cop or something?
“Uhm, what do you mean by ‘partner’?” I said, slightly smiling, which was more forced.
“I’m a cop, detective to be specific.” The man said as he took a sip of whiskey, finishing it, then going to the bottle of Jack Daniels to pour out another glass of it, then stopping.
My eyes widen a bit, my hands shaking slightly. I need to calm down, he doesn’t know who I am, I’m fine. I just nodded.
“I-I’m guessing he’s your partner?” I looked at the other guy in the trench coat.
The man turned his head to me, looking at my eyes to see where I’m looking. He turned his eyes where I was looking, Then he turned back to his drink, sipping it, and nodding.
“Then why aren’t you talking to him?” My eyes glanced between the man and his partner.
“I think better when I’m alone.” He takes another sip of his whiskey, staring into either the ground, or the edge of the bar counter.
“Then why don’t-” I stop myself, I turn my eyes to his partner, watching as he’s talking to his friend’s, then I look at him, “Then why don’t you tell me what you're thinking? I-I can help.”
He turns his head, his eyes landing at me.
“I’m good at solving mysteries.” I pronounce.
He looks at me, still having difficulty thinking whether he should say whatever he needs to say to me or not. He sighs, before turning his head back forward to drink his whiskey.
“It’s a missing case- well, a murder and a missing case.” He remarks after sipping his whiskey, leaving some left.
I shift from left to right in my seat, my movements barely moving because of how small the stool is. I look at him, hesitantly asking a question,
“A-and what is the case about?” I look at him as my thumbs rapidly tap against the counter.
He glanced over to me, his eyes on my thumb that is rapidly tapping against the counter. My eyes follow his as I realize what I’m doing with my thumb. To hide it; I held onto my glass of Sprite, trying my best not to shake too much as I went to drink it.
He looked at my hand as I lifted it up, with the glass of Sprite, shakily. His eyes followed my hand as I brought the glass to my mouth. I tried my hardest not to glance at him, but I can see him looking at my hand in my peripheral vision. When I brought the glass to my mouth, he turned his eyes to my face, and answered my question,
“It’s about two highschool kids-”
That’s all I needed to know, and that’s when my Sprite went down the wrong pipe. The bar woman's head snapped to the coughing, she then turned her head back to the glass cups, smiling.
“Don’t inhale the Sprite now.”
He started patting my back as I coughed, saliva on my bottom lip, tiny tears falling down my eyes. I cleared my throat before coughing one more time, then wiped the saliva off my mouth with the sleeve of my dress shirt, then wiped my eyes with my other sleeve. I turned my head right and caught in my peripheral vision that people were looking at me, even the man's partner's. Everybody turned their heads back slowly, to talk with their friends, colleagues, siblings, or whoever. I turned my head to the man.
“You Cool?”
I nodded my head saying, “Yeah.”
I then turned around, and hopped off the stool, I turned my body to the man, the man turned around in his stool to me. but there was something I had to ignore, the man’s partner’s gaze, on what I think is me. I saw him looking in my right peripheral vision, but he was staring intently at me, like he was waiting to see what I would do. I ignored it though.
“I-I gotta go, it was good meeting you.”
I held out my hands, looking at my hands, then his face. He looked at my hand, then my face, with a…slight smile before standing up and shaking my hand.
“Good meeting you too…Michael?” He’d raise an eyebrow.
My eyes widened before it went back to normal, and a smile landed on my face.
“Michael. And yours is…” I’d trail off, waiting for an answer.
“Zad. But some people call me Kaizen.”
There it is. The cherry on top, Kaizen. My eyes widened, I blinked, hearing his voice, his raised voice on the phone. My hand trembles vigorously, I can’t hold it back…