RJ

Feb 5, 2014, Wednesday.

Jon's house is next to mine, but it still takes me a while to get from my house to his back gate. My phone has been buzzing crazily for the past half hour, and it is still going off even as I enter the back door and slip into the house slippers.

It took me longer than expected to make the remedial worksheets for Ms. Goh, so now I'm a lot later to my usual hangout with my friends, and judging by my hundred missed calls, Logan isn't taking that well.

"Lobang, you're fucking annoying lah," is the first thing I say when I slam open the door to Jon's room.

"Ay, RJ! Finally ah!" Logan exclaims. He is sitting cross-legged on the couch, one hand on an Xbox controller and the other on his phone, presumably calling me over and over again while he plays.

I throw my bag at him. It flies across the room in a straight pitch, but it does not faze the baseball player. He catches the bag without a flinch and gives me the widest, stupidest grin ever. "Wah, wah, wah, I angered the RJ liao. Scary, scary."

Jon is leaning on the other side of the couch and holding the other Xbox controller. He has changed into his favorite indoor hoodie, and he barely turns his head as he greets, "Yo. Why so late?"

Rolling my eyes, I settle into the small space between the two boys. "Just talking to Ms. Goh lor. Remember last year she asked me to help her teach Chem remedial? Yeah, I'm taking up the offer now. Just now I was trying to come up with practice questions and stuff for her. Took me a while though. I didn't know how hard it would be sia."

Jon's eyebrows furrow. "I thought you said you hate teaching."

"Just trying it out lor," I say with a shrug. "Maybe I'll like it."

"Oh yeah, RJ!" Logan jolts up in excitement. "You know just now when you left with Ms. Goh, the craziest thing happened! Chloe Lee asked Jon out leh!"

This time, it was my turn to frown. So Chloe did snitch to Jon like she threatened yesterday, and Jon must have covered it up with a lie. I did not expect her to actually follow through with her threats, and now dread is creeping up on me.

"Oh, is it true?" I give Jon a cautious glance.

His jaw muscle twitches. "No lah," he mutters. "She just asked me if I wanted to study with her, that's all."

"That's the same thing lor." Logan shrugs and slumps back on the couch. "Help a bro out leh, Jon. Intro me to her leh."

"Shut up lah, Lobang," I say. "Leave her al—"

Jon throws his controller on the table, cutting me off with a loud clunk. The room quietens.

"I'm getting snacks," he announces as he stands up and leaves.

I exchange a look with Logan. He stares back at me with concern, mouthing, What's wrong?

I know what's wrong, so I let out a sigh and stand up. "I'll go help him," I say before leaving as well.

Jon and I are silent as we make our way from his room to the kitchen, passing by a pool, a koi pond, and a gallery of art. He is avoiding eye contact, but his heavy strides are more than enough to tell me that he's fuming. When we reach the kitchen, he spins around and fixes me with a scowl.

"I don't like lying to my friends, but I had to. Chloe came to me and said she saw you in Tropic."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. Stupid girl and her stupid tattle tongue. I want to feel annoyed by her, but I can't seem to bring myself to. After all, I did say she could do this. "Oh, yeah, sorry lah. I'll be more careful next time when I go find Markus."

"No, she said she saw you there yesterday." Jon towers over me, and I have to lean back on the kitchen counter to maintain my icy glare. "But yesterday you said you were studying all night."

I was not lying about that, so I coolly flick my hair off my shoulders and say, "Yeah, I studied, but I also went there. For fun."

"Is this why you're taking up Ms. Goh's job offer? To get more money to spend there?"

"Since when do you fucking control the way I spend?"

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"Since a random classmate managed to spot you! You want to blow our cover, is that it?"

I stuff my hands into my pockets and avert my head. "I already said sorry lah. I'll be more careful in the future."

"This is also not just about being spotted lah," Jon continues as he starts to assemble a plate with an assortment of snacks from his pantry. "Why are you even going there so often? You like someone there, don't you?"

Chloe flashes across my mind, but I shake the image off. She is the reason I'm doing this, but it is just because I want to help.

"You better stop," Jon continues after my lack of response, "before they take all your money hor. I've been there, you know, right? Falling for someone at a place like that is not gonna be good."

"Yeah, I know." My voice lowers at the memory. Jon's ex was a cute polytechnic girl he met at another club, and she caused a storm in his family. It is part of the reason why his parents became stricter on the type of people he's allowed to date.

"Not all of them are like her though," I add.

The snack plate is done. Jon shrugs as he lifts it up. "Hey, that's what I thought when I got together with Jennie too. You never know. And I'm just warning you, it's gonna be messy if you end up falling too deep. I'm just worried for you lah."

"Yeah, I know."

"And don't fucking get spotted by a classmate again!"

"Yeah, I know."

"For real, I need you to keep up this pact, man. Don't fuck it up."

I let out one last sigh. Our family situations are similar, and Jon's parents are like mine, except a lot less cruel, so I understand his fear. "Yeah lah, yeah lah, I know lah. You also, don't you fucking dare tell my parents."

Jon gives me a wry smile. "Of course not lah, who do you think I am?"

I return the smile with a light punch on his shoulder.

With that, we walk back to Jon's room. Logan is video calling Audrey, chattering nervously, and he hangs up when we enter the room.

"Oh my god, you guys made up!" He cries in relief. "Wah, I was so worried for a moment."

"Wow." Jon snorts as he places the plate on the table. "We left for, like, one minute, and you already gossiping with Audrey."

"I was alone in the room mah! I was so bored leh."

"One minute," I repeat what Jon said with an eye roll. "You couldn't stay still for one minute."

"You guys left for more than one minute lor!" Logan argues. He sits up as we take back our places on the couch, and a cheeky smile climbs onto his face. "Oh, hey, by the way, just now Audrey was telling me something about Chloe Lee."

Instantly, my body tenses again. Chloe, again?

"What about her?" I demand. I can feel Jon casting a strange look at me but I don't care.

Logan, on the other hand, is delighted by my response. "Wait, wait, I call her again."

"Lobang!" Audrey's voice screams through the phone the moment Logan calls. "What happened? They really broke up ah?"

"No lah! Still together!"

"Oh, chey. Then you call me for what?"

Jon and I turn to each other, eyebrows raised. Despite our relationship being staged, it still feels weird to have a friend actively root for our 'breakup'.

While Audrey is the queen of gossip, Logan is the lover of drama. He is oblivious to our reactions and continues egging Audrey on. "Tell us about the thing you told me just now! About Chloe!"

Audrey laughs. There's a bit of noise on her side from traffic; she is probably walking home from the bus stop. "Oh, that? Aiya, it's nothing much lah, but you remember how on Thursday I had to leave school a bit earlier for my volleyball match? Yeah, so right, I actually had to go back to school to grab something, and then right, I saw Chloe at the bus stop. She was not in her school uniform, and was putting on lots of makeup and stuff leh! Eyeliner, foundation, everything, like the kind you wear to go to nightclubs."

A stone lands in my stomach. Shit, did Audrey find out about Chloe?

Logan jumps up. "Yo! Chloe in makeup? Did you take a photo?"

"Shut the fuck up, Lobang," I snap. "You don't go around taking photos of people."

"Sorry, sorry," he quickly says, "I got too excited."

Audrey lets out a giggle. "But anyway, that's it lor, I don't know where she went after that. I thought maybe she's going out to see her secret boyfriend or something, if not, why change out of school uniform and start putting on makeup, right? But then she asked Jon out leh, so I don't know anymore."

"I'm also confused sia. How come she never asks me out?" Logan whines.

"Gross lah, who would ask you out?"

"You blind ah? I'm damn good-looking, okay?"

Logan and Audrey go into their usual bickering. I am relieved that Chloe's job is not busted, but I still grind my teeth in frustration. Even though I am annoyed at her for snitching to Jon, she does not deserve to be talked about like this.

"Enough about Chloe, okay? You two are just making up fake shit," I say, my tone harsh.

"Yeah, Audrey," Jon chimes in as well. "You're thinking too much lah. What if she's just going out with her family or something? No big deal one lah."

"Cannot be lah. She doesn't have a whole family, she only has a mother."

What?

That information shocks me as much as everyone else in the room. Neither of us replies for a while until I reach over, press the end call button, grab Logan's phone, and toss it to the bed.

"Yo!" Logan stares at me, flabbergasted. "Why did you do that?"

"Audrey's being fucking annoying," I growl.

"Still don't have to throw my phone what!" Logan scrambles over to the bed to grab it.

"Chill lah, RJ," Jon says. "She's just having a little fun."

I fold my arms. "I don't find it fun."

Jon's expression has been strange ever since Audrey started talking, but his lips tug to a knowing smirk at my response. He tilts his head and raises his eyebrows as if to say, Why? You like her ah?

I roll my eyes and grab my bag. "Okay lah, no more bullshit. Let's do some homework. I want to finish the math problem set today. And then after that, the two of you better help test out the Chemistry questions I wrote."

"Ew, Chemistry?" Logan groans.

Jon collapses on the couch as well. "No, please, anything but Chemistry."

They can complain all they want but they will listen to me eventually. I will get them to listen, just like how I got Chloe to listen.

And tomorrow, I will find that girl in Tropic Falls and scold the hell out of her for being a fucking snitch.