NOVEL WEB Chapter 10: Confessions
"Ok, so did any of you get to look at the register and realize what my last name was?" Asked Abhi.
"I don't think the boys saw it but I got a good look, I think you put your mom's name as your last name right? Abhi Archana." Answered Dep.
"Yes, I go by Abhi Archana. But as you can tell, that's not exactly my actual name. I'll just come open and tell you guys the reasons behind having my mother's name as my last name because I think it's not wise of me to withhold this information about my last name, as there is no friendship without trust…"
The trio looked at each other with wide open eyes showcasing a sense of suspense, yet after hearing Abhi's last few words their eyes also carried a hint of guilt.
"... I have no last name. Ever since I can remember, my mom and I have never seen my dad. We do not affiliate with him or with his last name. Whatever my original last name might have been, it is completely irrelevant to me. I have no last name from my mother's family side either, because she was an orphan child herself, she has no last name of her own either. So I just use her name as my last name. I'm not ashamed of this name. In fact, I'm proud of it but avoid trying to announce it because it just leads to more questions that don't need to be answered." Said Abhi while gazing far into the sky, showcasing a calm and collected expression.
"Aww, dude, you could've just said you were uncomfortable with telling us. I swear we wouldn't have been so stubborn." Said Dep.
"Yeah, man, I'm sorry for all of us. We wouldn't have persisted so much if we knew the truth. It just felt like if you were making so many excuses, there must be some crazy secret behind it. If you would've just said you don't share your last name for personal reasons we wouldn't have dug deeper." Said Veer.
"It's all right; you don't need to apologize. But I will tell you this: I didn't make any excuses. Well, not the way you guys look at it." Said Abhi.
"Ok, bruh, we just got in balls deep about trusting each other and stuff and now you are saying this, come on cuh stop capping." Said Veer.
"Just give me a chance to tell my side." Said Abhi.
"Go ahead, I guess." Said, Kevin…
"So today morning, when I was coming to the school, I saw some weird-looking mushroom near an electricity pole. It's right there; you can even see the mushrooms." Said Abhi while pointing somewhere.
The trio turned around to see where Abhi was pointing, after noticing what he referenced Dep said:
"Oh yeah, there are 3 near the dog and the pole, but they don't have their caps, just the stems."
"Yeah, because I ate the caps." Said Abhi. With a neutral expression like he had not a care in the world. After hearing this revelation the trio said a single word all at once:
"HUH!".
"Yeah, they were looking pretty tasty. So I ate all 3 of them, even though I just wanted to try one. After that, for like half of the day, nothing much happened, but since the break started, I was starting to feel dizzy, like even people's faces looked mashed up…"
"No way this dude is real." Said Veer without interrupting Abhi
"... And when I was sitting to eat with you all, I had to leave multiple times, not cause I didn't want to talk about my last name, but because I was about to bomb the whole goddamn bathroom…" Said Abhi, still with a straight face.
"Nahh.." The whole trio started loudly laughing at Abhi's explanation. They were leaning on each other's shoulders and giggling their hearts out after realizing the silly truth behind the 'last name mystery'.
"I was feeling weak after that 'event', so I went to lie down and eat the rest of my food in the classroom but woke up to the noise of you guys' shenanigans near the teacher's cabinet. I was too embarrassed to tell you all about this before. Now though, Guess I just spilled the beans ha ha." Said Abhi, finally letting out a chuckle.
"Brother speedrunning trust and friendship." Said Veer while still softly laughing.
"Ha ha, it do be like that sometimes." Said Abhi in a joking manner.
Suddenly a loud stylized honk is heard from a distance.
"Whoops seems like my bus is here, gotta go."
"Hey man why don't you stay a bit longer, we could hang out at my house if you're down." Said Kevin while smiling at Abhi.
"Aw man thanks for the invite but as I told you I have a job, and I gotta catch too pretty infrequent busses to get to my job in time. So gonna have to decline this time but maybe some other time right?". Replied Abhi.
"Sure, though one question, I don't recall a route needing to catch two busses in all of High City. Is there a new route opened up or something? My dad always drills those routes into me so surprised I don't know about it." Said Kevin.
"No no, my house is down… down at Low City so my journey is quite long."
"Oh damn, didn't know you weren't from high city. You are actually the first student I heard of, who's from the Low City." Said Veer with a surprised expression.
"Guess I got lucky, well the bus is near gotta go… see ya". Said Abhi while jogging towards the bus and waving the trio goodbye.
"Bye Bye!" The trio waved back at Abhi.
"Explains a lot, doesn't it." Said Kevin.
"You mean him being from Low City right?" Asked Veer.
"Yup, I knew he felt a bit different. Glad to have another person in our class who isn't just another pompous snob like everyone else in High City." Said Kevin.
"Though he is still such a goofball ha ha." Said Dep while grimacing
"Ha ha so true. His confessions honestly made me feel like he is just a genuine dude too." Said Veer with a smile
"Same hehe." Replied Dep.
Unlike the other two, Kevin wasn't so cheerful. He seemed to be rubbing his chin looking at the distance like he is in deep thought. Dep noticing this said:
"Yo! Why so serious? What are you thinking about? Do you wanna eat those mushrooms too hehe?" Asked Dep while grimacing.
"No!"
"So what's up then?" Asked Veer.
"See now, I think Abhi was a chill guy. Bro was Funny and maybe even seemed trustworthy. But one thing keeps bugging me." Answered Kevin.
"What is it?" Asked Dep.
"In our whole day of conversation, from the break period to now. From us trying to use him as a lead, to confessing about trying to research his last name, to him even catching us in the act red-handed, and then at the end all of us even confessing our secrets to each other…"
"What are you getting at?" interrupted Veer.
"Even in the last confession where all of us were trying to be open, we still never told Abhi the full truth about ourselves. But just like how WE hid some things from Abhi, HE hid some things from us too. We asked him about another thing far more than we asked him about his last name." Kevin Continued.
Veer and Dep squint their eyes at Kevin and listen to him even more carefully.
"Even though asking about it far more and even trying to bring it back up in our last conversation… Abhi did not say a single word about Rakvill or the Incident 99…"
...….