"Oh!" She piped up, her eyes widening to the size of saucers,


    You''re back."


    I held her gaze unflinchingly, deliberately refraining from responding to her startled exmation as she likely anticipated. We remained locked in an unwavering stare for what felt like a few more seconds, and throughout that prolonged moment, try as I might, I couldn''t suppress the wayward thoughts racing through my mind at breakneck speed.


    Even as she continued to stare at me, her entire demeanor exuded a palpable sense of unease. Her palms were tightly curled around the torn page from Amie''s drawing book.


    I fixed her with a questioning gaze, my eyes darting back and forth between her face, which was etched with poorly concealed anxiety, and her balled fist, which seemed to tremble slightly under my s scrutiny. She appeared toprehend the unspoken inquiry in my expression because she abruptly let out a nervousugh that sounded more like a strangled hup. Raising her clenched fists in a gesture that was likely meant to appear casual but came across as forced.


    She blurted out the most transparent lie I''d heard in recent memory, "Oh this? It''s absolutely nothing."


    1 arched my eyebrows skeptically, the muscles in my forehead tightening as I regarded her with mounting suspicion.


    She widened her grin in response, the corners of her mouth stretching again as she reiterated, "It''s nothing?"


    I knew ra and this ra with the forced grin was not herself. There was definitely something about the torn pages that she clenched her fists around.


    Does it have anything to do with me? Did she tear it off because Amie drew me? But why uld she do that? This would not be the first time that Amie would draw me.


    Or perhaps, my eyes, on their own ord, narrowed even more as I nursed the possibility that she might have just been leading me on all this while. Maybe she really didn''t want me for her friend and she was now actively trying to erase me from their lives?


    I thought back to all the times that I had talked to her about my feelings for Ana; about the open hearted talk we had in the car just on our way here, had she just been seeing me as some fool all these while? Then I suddenly wondered if she had any influence in Ana''s resolve to remain single and not ept my proposal.


    Instead of pondering on questions whose answers keep eluding me, I decided to cut to the chase.


    "What''s that, ra? Why did you tear that page off?"


    Her forced smile slowly waned, her lips turned downward and she finally looked away. Her shoulders drooped with a sigh.


    "You don''t have to look at me like I just killed someone" she muttered, her voicecking the sarcasm that was alwaysced to it as she unfurled the crumpled piece and stretched her hand forward to show me.


    My brows furrowed as I squinted at the vivid painting in the paper. Slowly, I walked to her and took it from


    her.


    "My God," I whispered, dismayed as I stared at the front and back of the page with deep concern.


    In the drawing, on the front page, is an uneven sketch of a hospital bed and someone lying on top of it. If it had just been the pencil drawing, the meaning of the drawing could have been misinterpreted but the painting she did on them made them vivid and brought the drawings to life.


    There were huge gashes on the leg of the person she drew on the front side of the page while the back carried another painting of a person lying on a bed but with a harrowing expression on the person''s face and each of these people seemed to be crying and screaming.


    I dropped my hand to my side and nced at the sleeping girl.


    "She drew these?"


    ra exhaled deeply, obviously greatly concerned as she shook her head in the affirmative. "It''s definitely her. Her name is scribbled under the paintings as usual." She shrugged, "She must have seen them somewhere in the hospital, while running around, perhaps." Then she held my gaze, "I did what Ana would have done."


    "And you did right," I said softly as I crumpled the papers in my hand. I walked to the bin and tossed them in it, making a mental note to take the drawing of the bin if it was not emptied before I left and throw it where Ana or Amie would nevere across it.


    I walked back to ra. "Thank you, ra. I''m sorry, I got confused for a bit."N?velDrama.Org owns this text.


    "I understand," she smiled softly.


    She then turned back to face Amie and I followed her daze.