Sun Upon Dark Clouds

38: Best Friend

Margo was lucky to have Noah as her best friend. They did not care even though they were sometimes often seen as a couple of opposite attraction; everyone likes Noah for his charming and kind personality while everyone dislikes Margo for her aloof and intimidating personality.

Instead of asking Margo about what happened in the shop and why did she beat all of those four men up, the purple-haired woman was touched to hear her friend ask her if she saw all right as the first question. As her childhood best friend, Noah knew almost everything about the purple-haired woman that he also knew whether she was okay or not. He would not be deserving to be called as Margo’s best friend if he was ignorant about her feelings, after all.

Noah called the police to take the four men away as he acted as a witness on what happened even though he only arrived when the men were already on the floor. The brunet believed the purple-haired woman as she told him the truth that she could not possibly keep from him, which was why the police felt sorry for what happened to Margo. Eventually, the four men were the only ones who got charged in the police station as the police were on Margo’s side who only acted for self-defense. Despite the large number of people who disliked her, the purple-haired woman was glad that police did not believe in the stereotype and only sought for justice.

Margo stood in front of the sink as she switched the faucet on and let her hands go in the running cold water. Noah offered to return the vinyl records that the men from earlier attempted to steal back to the shelves as he told her to wash off the blood stains on her hands. The purple-haired woman did not protest as she let her friend return the records back.

Her fists only had little blood stains from her rings, which was why it did not take a long time for her to wash off the stains from her skin. While she rubbed her hands with hand soap thoroughly under the running liquid, she could not help but feel anger at the men from earlier even though they were already taught the lesson that they deserved. Margo was just proud of herself for being able to cope with everything that was happening to her as she did her best to be strong and independent in the unfair world.

“Are you okay?” Margo lifted her head as she saw Noah’s reflection from the mirror. “You didn’t really answer my question earlier.”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Margo answered as she twisted the faucet handle to switch it off.

The brunet handed her a clean towel as she stepped out of the bathroom for her to wipe her hands. Noah stared intently at the purple-haired woman’s face as she wiped her hands when he noticed something terrible on her face. He held her chin as he gently lifted it for him to see the faint red hand mark on her cheek and her busted bottom lip. Seeing how shocked the taller man was, Margo shook her head as she lowered her head to continue wiping her hands even though they were already dry.

“Did those assholes do that to you?” Noah asked with a mixture of surprise and anger evident in his tone.

“Don’t worry. It didn’t even hurt,” Margo replied, almost in a mumble, as she walked toward the edge of her bed to sit on.

Basically, there was a staircase at the back of the record shop that led to upstairs where Margo basically lived. It was one of the reasons why the purple-haired woman just could not give up on her record shop even though she barely had any customers coming.

“Margo, look at me.”

The purple-haired woman lifted her head when she heard the serious tone of the brunet as he crouched down in front of her and stared at her. Behind those chestnut eyes were solemness, which does not appear often since he was always wearing a friendly and soft look on his face. Basically, if Noah starts to look and speak in a serious manner, Margo knew that he was being actually serious and that no jokes would stop him from being solemn. For some reason, the purple-haired woman felt a bit intimidated for a second before she stared back at him as told.

“What?” Margo asked.

“When will you be honest to yourself?” Noah asked with concern evident in his soft voice. “You can lie to yourself but you can’t lie to me, Margo. I know you are not all right.”

He was right. Noah knew Margo so well that he seemed to know more about Margo than her herself. The truth was that she did not know if she was okay. It felt as if it had been too normal to happen in a daily basis that she was not sure if she was really okay or if she just did not care about it anymore.

Seeing how the purple-haired woman went silent as she just looked down to her shoes made the brunet heave out a sigh as he held her back and gently pulled her to a hug. Margo automatically shut her eyes as she leaned her cheek on her best friend’s shoulder while he softly patted her back. Again, she was lucky to have Noah who would always stay by her side even though she could often be stubborn at most times.

***

The brunet decided to close his coffee shop early as he decided to stay at the record shop to have dinner with the purple-haired woman. He was basically supposed to have a quick chat with his friend with free coffee for her though he ended up having a long conversation with fried chicken and ice cream instead. The chestnut-eyed helped her in closing the shop as they stayed upstairs to eat after having their food delivered.

The bedroom was combined with a kitchen that had a small dining table for two at the corner since she was living alone anyway. Since the carpeted floor was more comfortable anyway, the both of them sat across each other in a cross-legged position on the floor as they put the bucket of fried chicken and bucket of mocha ice cream on the space in between them.

After putting one of Avril Lavigne’s album vinyl record on the record player in her bedroom, the purple-haired woman slumped down on the floor. The sound of electric guitar playing a famous melody began to play as the brunet nodded his head along the beat excitedly like the rhythm of the song was connected to his body. A chuckle left the purple-haired woman’s lips as she watched her best friend go back to his usual active self.

“I miss punk Avril,” Noah uttered as he took the lid of the bucket of chicken off.

“Everyone does,” Margo replied. “Music became less fun without Avril.”

The brunet nodded in agreement as he took a piece of chicken leg from the bucket and took a bite on it; the crunchy sound of his bite on the chicken filled the purple-haired woman’s appetite as she could not wait to take a bite too. After taking a piece of chicken leg, she hastily took a bite and winced in pain as she remembered that her bottom lip had a split on the corner.

“Slow down,” Noah said in concern.

“Right.”

The purple-haired woman nodded as she slowly leaned in to take a bite on her chicken; as much as she wanted to crush the crispy skin down with her teeth, she had no choice but to bite on it slowly for the chicken to not touch her wounded lip. Eventually, Margo got used to it as she continued to eat her chicken.

“You didn’t have to close your shop early just to have dinner with me,” Margo spoke as she refused to look at her best friend.

“Are you saying that I should just leave you alone?” Noah replied calmly as he focused on eating his chicken.

“Uh, yeah?”

The chestnut-eyed man took the bucket of ice cream and opened the lid, letting the coldness escape freely from the bucket. He put his chicken on piece of tissue paper as he took a spoon to scoop the ice cream. Margo cringed as she watched Noah spread the mocha flavored ice cream around her chicken as if she was spreading peanut butter on a slice of bread. That was not all though as he stood up and took the bottle of hot sauce that was on the wall shelf that was above the kitchen stove.

“Why do you put hot sauce in everything?” Margo asked as she watched him pour some hot sauce on his mocha ice cream coated fried chicken.

The brunet’s face lit up as he took a bite on it and gave his friend a thumbs up of approval on the new food combination that he just invented.

“Because it’s good.”

The purple-haired woman was not surprised anymore as she remembered that her best friend was Noah Farley, the same boy next door that everyone knew and liked who also owned a small coffee shop; and also, the same interesting man who loved combining every edible thing together. At that point, Margo thought that he could be a chef and a restaurant owner who could sell all of his weird food combinations.

Margo could only shake her head as she continued to eat her chicken while letting her body to relax with the help of Avril Lavigne’s songs that were playing in the background. She was the artist that Margo would always listen to whenever she needed comfort and relaxation, after all.

The two of them were already done eating all of the chicken as they leaned their backs on the side of the bed while eating ice cream in the same bucket and watching a funny American sitcom on the TV. They were close enough to share the same bucket and they never bothered about it. While they were busy watching, the memory of meeting her brother suddenly appeared in her head as Margo turned to take a glance on the brunet whose eyes were focused on the TV.

“I met my brother today,” Margo started as she returned her eyes on the TV though she could feel the older looking at her. “He’s still an ass.”

“Are you okay?” was the first question that Noah asked as he kept his eyes on the shorter woman.

“Seeing him made my blood boil,” Margo answered honestly. “But I was with Ghrae that time. I became okay afterward because she treated me to ice cream. She’s such a good observer and empath.”

“I didn’t know you guys were close already,” Noah said in surprise.

“I wouldn’t say we’re close yet,” A small smile appeared on Margo’s face as she looked at the ice cream while recalling their moments together earlier. “But I honestly would like to be friends with her.”

“I’m proud of you, Margo.”

Margo turned to look at him as he gave her a warm smile while his arm moved to wrap around her shoulders, pulling her to give her a side hug. A genuine smile appeared on the purple-haired woman’s face as she comfortably leaned her head on her best friend’s broad shoulder while they watched TV together, sharing laughter together.