Five

She picked the paper and opened it, she immediately recognizes the handwriting as Orion's.

'You are beautiful without them.

Sneaked into your room to place this here, you threatened to cut off the legs of any male that enters your room. Well, I'm safe from that threat considering the fact that I would probably already be on the other side of the world by the time you see this.

Don't give mom and dad a hard time, April. Be good to them, or else....'

That was all that was written on the paper.

"They are my parents too, you know," April giggled.

She went to her desk and took apart her glass photo frame. She inserted the little piece of paper in front of her picture and put the frame back together, placing it on her desk. She observed her it and smiled.

She left the desk, going to continue what she was doing before she was distracted by Orion's note. She took out her red lipstick and paused when it's just a few centimeters away from her lips.

'You are beautiful without them.'

She remembered the first sentence Orion had written. She sheathed the lipstick and dropped it back in the bag.

While smiling, she applied her transparent lip balm, brushed her eyebrows, set her curly hair and looked at herself in the mirror, she loved the way she looked.

She picked her school bag, going out of her room with a giddy smile still plastered on her face.

*

A few months had passed and none of the Caddels heard from Orion. Mr and Mrs Caddel were worried while April and Iver were upset. He didn't reply to any of their texts, not even their parents.

"Did something happen to him?" Mrs Caddel wondered.

They were at the dining table, eating and couldn't help discussing about Orion.

"I told you he will forget about us," April said, stuffing her mouth.

She wasn't in a good mood. She heard her friend, Uriel, call another girl beautiful the previous day. He even went as far as to spend their entire break with her.

Her mood has been sullen since then, especially because the girl was indeed beautiful'.

She was very slim, has upturned eyes and straight, shiny red hair that reached her waist. April compared the girl to her who had moderate weight, doe eyes and curly black hair that reached a few inches below her shoulders.

It was quite dramatic of her to think that she is inferior to the lady in beauty when in reality, April's dimples itself is enough to defeat the lady in a beauty contest. But April couldn't help it because Uriel had seen the lady as beautiful.

April subtly moved her hand to her stomach, grabbing her flesh. She let go and exhaled in discontentment, dropping her cutlery in her plate of unfinished food.

Her parents just regarded the action as her being frustrated for not hearing from Orion.

"That's nonsense," Iver disagreed with her earlier statement.

"It's not. He has another family now, I'm telling you he already forgot about us," April repeated.

"Stop saying that, April," Mr Caddel said.

"Maybe he's still trying to adapt to his new environment or something," Iver chipped in.

April scoffed, not believing that at all.

*

More month went by. The Caddels are gathered at the dinner table yet again. It's Orion's birthday, he has been gone for almost a year now and no one heard from him, their messages weren't even delivered.

"You know, I thought he would be there for my graduation. Even if not physically, I at least thought I would be able to hear his words of congratulations," Iver expressed, his eyes stuck on his plate.

Iver would be graduating three months later.

"I told you he already forgot us," April shrugged

"Yeah, you are right," Iver agreed.

April's eyes snapped up towards Iver. She wasn't happy that he agreed with her. Iver and Iver has always been on the opposite side of the coin, never agreeing on anything. Him agreeing with her sentence doesn't sit well with her.

She was the one always being pessimistic and not believing in people while he's the opposite. So she hated seeing him being different now, it doesn't suit him. She wasn't satisfied to see that he was starting to give on Orion ever contacting them.

"I might be wrong though. Brother would never do that. He must be facing some difficulty or something," April spoke against her previous words.

"Wake up April. He found a family several times much better than ours, it makes sense that he doesn't want to associate with us anymore. He even had to give up university so I could have enough funds to go. Who would want that kind of family?" Iver said.

"Iver!" Mrs Caddel cautioned strictly.

"From now on, I don't want to hear anyone speaking about Orion at the dinner table since both of you have nothing positive to say about your brother." Mr Caddel said with authority, referring to April and Iver.

After dinner, April went into her room, picked her phone and texted Orion, same results as the previous months. She called and his line was out of service. She dropped the phone.

She moved to her desk and picked her photo frame, her eyes moving to the little piece of paper beneath her picture. Her hand gently and slowly moved over the words as she re-read them again, like she had done several times already.

She dropped the photo frame and exhaled audibly, her shoulders participating in the process, as they sagged in defeat.

*

It's the new year and everyone was in a festive mood. The Caddels spent the day happily as a family, all the while wishing Orion was there with them.

The festive period went by and they were looking forward to Iver's birthday which is the next day and his graduation ceremony which is only two weeks away.

It was the midnight and April was sleeping peacefully when she felt someone shaking her. She woke up and saw Iver beside her, looking very worried.

She quickly sat up, curious about why he looked like that.

"Iver, is everything alright?" April asked.

"April, don't you think it's strange that Orion didn't get into contact with us all this while?" Iver asked.

"Yeah. But Dad did say he's staying several countries away from here so there are lot of factors that could contribute to him not being able to contact us," April shrugged.

"That doesn't make sense," Iver said bluntly.

April was offended, she folded her hands against her chest and glared at him.

"Well, what makes sense then?" she asked.

"He might be dead."