He sighed. "I think it's time for my shindig. It's already six in the evening. Let's go!" He got up and headed straight to his closet, ignoring the two others as he stripped down right in front of them to change clothes.
"Your treat, okay?" Eir said as he also stood up.
"See? You guys get active when—Oh, my cellphone vibrated..." He checked who was video calling him. It was his cousin. “I'll answer this..." He walked out of his room and answered the call from his cousin.
"Meissy? What's up?" he asked immediately, smiling. He had no idea why she was calling him. She rarely, if ever, called. Maybe she needed something, or it was an emergency. "Meissy? Are you okay?”
"I am," she answered.
"Good to hear. Why are you calling then? And why is your camera off?"
"Could you please stop writing those thriller novels? The paranormal bullshit ones."
He smirked. "What on earth are you saying? You really called just to tell me that? Are you really my cousin?"
She gasped from the other end. "It’s not about being cousins. My visions have gotten worse since I read your book. I can’t shake off the nightmares. And my classmates who read your novels online said you have a sick, twisted mind."
He laughed. "I see. The problem isn't with me or my novels. You should stop reading them. And pray before you sleep. Your mom never failed to remind you of that. I can't stop writing. It's just a phase, Meissy."
He continued with a smirk, "Those people probably pirated the soft copies, I suppose. Just because my stories are brutal doesn’t mean I'm bad too. There's a line between me and my stories; the gruesome scenes resonate within the storyline itself, not with me," he added.
"Oh, I guess!"
"Don't pay attention to those classmates of yours. They can't even afford to buy a physical copy," he said gruffly.
Meissy suddenly went quiet, but after a moment, she spoke again. "Is Matteo in Manila? He's behind you!” She asked in a calm tone.
“Matteo?” he asked blankly. He glanced behind him. "There’s no one behind me. You’re sick, Meissy. Maybe you should see a doctor?" he suggested.
"Seriously, Matteo is behind you."
He laughed. “And now you want to shift the conversation to Matteo? You think I’ve forgotten... that you have a crush on Matteo?”
"No, I swear! He was right there!"
He slowly turned around again to look behind him. His heart pounded in his chest as he saw nothing but empty space. "I... I don't see anything. Are you messing with me?"
Even though he didn’t believe Meissy, he decided to shift the video call to his back camera and started screen recording. But before he could switch back to the front camera, Meissy had already hung up. He shook his head. He heard Xinc and Eir calling him from upstairs. He ignored them. He went downstairs, all the way to the first floor of the condominium. He tried to call Meissy again, but she didn’t pick up.
He took a deep breath. He didn’t want to think about what Meissy had said. He couldn’t stop writing. It was disappointing, though. His friends knew nothing about his novels, not even the titles of the books he had written. And now, his cousin was asking him to stop writing, even blaming her nightmares and her classmates' criticisms on his books. He wished he could hide behind his unknown pseudonym.
He took another deep breath and tried not to dwell on it. He turned around when he heard a familiar voice. It was Eir. He was talking to someone on his cellphone.
Eir had come downstairs too. He hadn’t noticed that earlier. But how had he gotten downstairs so quickly? From the third floor to the first floor? He had only been downstairs for about two minutes. It seemed impossible that Eir could have gotten to the first floor so quickly.
It didn’t bother him, though. "Eir!" he called. "Meeting someone? Or are you ready? Where’s Xinc? It would’ve been better if Xinc had come down too, so we could head straight to the Chinese restaurant." But Eir didn’t respond. He sniffed the air and detected the stench of cigarettes. Someone was smoking. He didn’t know where it was coming from, but he knew Eir didn’t smoke. Eir was a vape user.
"Just wait here for me and Xinc." But Eir still didn’t respond or even look at him. "I said, wait here for us. Don’t go wandering off. It’ll only take two minutes." He needed to go back to his room because he had left his ATM card there, and he also needed to tell Xinc that they were about to leave. He had no cash on him and needed to withdraw some money since two thousand pesos wasn’t enough to cover the bill for his friends.
"Whatever!" he muttered under his breath as he turned away. The surroundings were gradually getting darker since it was only a few minutes until six-thirty.
He gasped when he finally reached the third floor. When he entered his room, he saw Xinc still busy with his cellphone. But Xinc quickly looked up at him.
"Eir, Gael’s here!" Xinc called out loudly.
What? Gael’s eyes widened. Eir? In his room? But who was the Eir he had just spoken to on the ground floor? Are they pranking him? But it felt like cold water had been poured over him when Eir came out of the bathroom.
Eir was wearing the same clothes as the Eir he had talked to downstairs. It was clear to him that it was Eir earlier. Just from the voice, he knew it was Eir. How could this be? Something wasn’t right.
Am I hallucinating? He asked himself as his knees began to tremble.