Chapter Text
“Oh yeah sure I can open that bottle for you.”
Isack squeezed the curves of the plastic bottle cap and twisted it open, hearing the carbonated drink in it fizzle along with the small cheers from his surrounding friends. A small smile crossed his face, showing his dimples cracking into his cheeks. The sunset crossed the line of the hills far away, shining its golden orange rays in the alleyways, showcasing graffiti on the cobblestone walls. Isack hovered his hand over his brows, squinting his eyes to catch a glimpse of the horizon. The empty sidewalks and roads made their laughter about the most random things so much louder. Everything felt so much louder. It scared Isack. The boisterous laughter. One day he knew it was going to disappear and he’d be alone in his room with no one remembering his name or face. One day these moments would be memories he would miss and wish he could go back to. Kimi ran in front of the group, dragging along Oliver with him and excitedly joking about things Isack couldn’t fathom from how far back he was. Gabriel continued walking with him, glancing at the insides of all the closed stores. The asphalt dragged along the soles of Isack’s shoes, shouting its mere cries whilst the two made it some form of aesthetic.
“School’s about to start again.” Gabriel smiled at his reflection, his eyes darting to Isack’s neutral expression.
Yeah no shit it was about to start again. He could practically hear the school bell ringing in his head. He was worried his parents would scold him and rant about how late he was but who cared at this point. Kimi turned back to look at the two friends he left behind and shouted to them, “Hey! Wanna go to the beach?” Neither Isack nor Gabriel were in clothing suitable for the sand that’s going to be stuck in their Converses or going to survive the ocean water but it sounded fun and it would be a wild way to end the summer break. “Fuck no,” Gabriel shook his head, his smile saying otherwise, “my father would shout into my ears until they didn’t exist anymore.” Oliver swirled his pepsi bottle around, ring of the bottle on his lip and took a fast sip out of the drink. Kimi gave a smug expression to Isack. Ah fuck it. Isack smacked Gabriel’s back and ran to both Kimi and Oliver. He looked back to Gabriel who rubbed the part Isack slapped and gestured to the Brazilian, inviting him. It took Oliver grabbing his wrist and dragging him to join them. Actually, Gabriel had his feet planted on the ground and it took Oliver grabbing his forearm with both of his hands pulling him like he was playing tug-of-war. Only after five seconds did Gabriel give up and decide to follow them.
It was a relatively small beach but that meant it felt like it was theirs to own. Kimi immediately ran to the water, falling back first into the water. Oliver instantly ran to the Italian only to be splashed by Kimi’s leg sweeping the water up to the Brit. “Fuck you.” Oliver laughed, scooping up some water and splashing it on Kimi as well. Gabriel didn’t join in on the fun, he stepped back, looking at the three of them having fun, lying on a hammock tied meticulously on two palm trees by some stairs leading to the sandy oasis itself. Isack was the first to notice the Brazilian spectating and walked up to him, holding his Converses with folded-up socks in them snug in between his fingers. He leaned against the trunk of one of the palm trees, his eyes following the sway of the hammock. Gabriel’s eyes reflected the ending segment of the everyday sunset, his palms holding the back of his head with his legs crossed. Isack watched the sunset end in Gabriel’s eyes, hoping the Brazilian would say something like “Let’s Go” or some equivalent but he didn’t say anything. Just the sound of string stretching from the swaying hammock was what filled the silence between the two.
“Isack!” Kimi called out to him, “We’re going to get some skewers from this Turkish shack that’s still open. Want some?”
Isack turned his head to the extroverted duo of Oliver and Kimi, already talking about how hungry the both of them are. Kimi was still waiting for Isack’s response, also asking Gabriel if he wanted some. Isack turned his head back to the Brazilian on the hammock, nodding his head. Gabriel tilted his head to Isack, a corner of his lip lifted before looking back at the horizon. Kimi waved Gabriel and Isack goodbye followed by Oliver who had seemed to have forgotten that he was following Kimi to the skewer shack. Isack walked around the palm tree and sat down on the hammock, eyes fixed on the final bit of sun with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Gabriel frantically grabbed onto the fabric of the hammock as it tilted to Isack. “Why the fuck–” Gabriel asked, shifting his body to accommodate for the extra weight onboard. “Got tired of standing.” Isack replied, his head slightly turned to Gabriel for a moment. The sound of waves crashing on the sandbed made Isack’s mind drift off somewhere. Was his life really going to be a repeat of all this until he got his degree? Stress and pressure then a break of no stress or pressure. This type of madness would definitely screw Isack over and if this is the life he was going to be promised, he didn’t want it.
He shuffled his feet against the sand, dropping his Converses onto the hammock as well. “Imagine all of us just died today or something.” Isack randomly stated, “It would be a wild wild way to literally end the summer break.”
“Now why the fuck did you say that?” Gabriel asked, sitting up from his hammock.
“Just a…thought.” Isack shrugged his shoulders, lying his back on the green hammock.
Isack pushed the hammock slightly back and forth with his legs, swaying the two on the hammock. Gabriel pulled back his legs and crossed them, turning his body towards the sea. “Do you miss home?” Gabriel questioned Isack, struggling to form up the words. Isack was about to instinctively say something insensitive about his family moving to Britain and never going back to France without addressing the elephant in the room but he chose to stay silent for a moment. “...yeah, I do miss France.” Isack muttered just loud enough for Gabriel to hear. Gabriel didn’t reply at all contrary to what Isack was expecting. Usually Gabriel would say something about his family back in Brazil because Gabriel was a scholarship admission into their international high school and had a dorm room here but he didn’t even mention once about the food in Brazil. Not a single thing about South America, heck not even football which astonished Isack. Sad to say neither Oliver nor Kimi noticed or they did but didn’t voice it out.
Why?
“I just realised Oliver didn’t ask us for what skewer we wanted.” Gabriel sighed, chuckling to himself after saying that.
“Oh right! I didn’t even notice either!” Isack slapped his face, laughing along with Gabriel.
“I’ll just call them.” Gabriel told Isack, fishing out his phone and dialing presumably Oliver’s phone number.
The phone’s ring repeated for a brief moment, the only noise filling the silence besides the waves and the swaying hammock, only for Oliver not to answer the phone. Gabriel shoved his phone quickly in his pocket and gave Isack an awkward smile and lifted two of his fingers up like he was posing for a photo he didn’t want to be in. Isack slowly stood up from the hammock and grabbed his Converses. He pulled Gabriel to the edge of the hammock with Gabriel resisting slightly. “Then let’s go find them.” Isack chirped, making sure Gabriel’s feet touch the sandy ground.
There was barely any sunlight from the sun ending its shift and if you looked up in the sky, you could see the moon clocking in already. It’s as if the moonlight is saying hi to the sun as it’s packing up its things and ready to take a break. Gabriel and Isack walked side by side, occasionally pointing out something they hadn’t really noticed before like some new graffiti artwork. The flow of wet paint on the brick walls gave it some form of freshness to the town. Like it brought some vibrancy to the ghost town as the four would like to call it. Isack actually tried graffiting once and it didn’t work as well as Kimi’s attempt. He really was good at everything and he was a year younger than all of them. Gabriel was the other guy in the friend group who had equal amounts of talent, especially when it comes to the sciences and technology.
“I heard the cheese in France is nice.” Gabriel randomly commented, his head looking at his footsteps in the sand.
Isack had a laugh under his breath. He licked his lips and dug his feet deeper into the sand. “It is.” Isack nodded, “I miss it a lot.”
Gabriel whipped out his phone, tapping it slightly aggressively and showed it to Isack. “The shack’s a short distance away. If we’re lucky we can catch up to Kimi and Ollie.” Isack already started running or jogging rather as soon as his eyes laid on the lapis blue highlights of the route. Gabriel slotted his phone back in his pocket, rolling his eyes and running to Isack. “Race you there!” Gabriel shouted as he ran past Isack, turning a sharp corner to a little booth in the middle of the streets. Isack immediately picked up pace, ignoring the stitches he was feeling in his stomach. Okay maybe not ignoring the stitches with how tightly Isack was using his right arm to hug his abdomen, wincing after every leap he took while running. He didn’t care he didn’t have his Converses on. He didn’t care for how much his soles were hurting or how damaged they were. At that exact moment, he didn’t care if he won the race he and Gabriel impulsively decided to have. At that exact moment, he just wanted to give a little surprise to his friends.
Just a little ten more metres and all his weight went to his back leg, jumping onto Oliver who was looking at his phone. Isack wrapped his arms around Oliver’s neck, pulling him down slightly. “Ow what the fuck.” Oliver groaned, looking back at the childlike expression on Isack’s face. “You weren’t going to abandon me and Gabriel at the beach to go–” Isack laughed but cut off his own sentence halfway through when he noticed the murderous intent in Oliver’s eyes. Isack awkwardly chuckled, running to Gabriel to drag him back into the friend group. “...to go without asking us what skewers we want.” Isack continued, slapping Gabriel’s back with force he didn’t intend to use. After Gabriel processed the pain in his upper back, he nodded with Isack. “Knowing Kimi, you guys were going to get us…cow testicles as skewers if we didn’t run up here after looking through Google Maps.” Gabriel tried explaining their point, sounding awfully disgusted when he said cow testicles. Isack turned to look at Gabriel with a puzzled expression he tried to make out on his face. Oliver tried to look polite but Kimi was showing him the most unfunny videos Isack has laid his eyes on. “Hold on, are we going to address the elephant in the room or not.” Isack asked the group, the chef glancing up to Isack for a moment before realising he wasn’t part of the addressers or the addressee.
“Address what?” Gabriel nervously chuckled, crossing his arms.
Isack disappointingly looked at Gabriel before wrapping his arm around the back of the Brazilian’s and squeezing it tightly. Oliver shouted for Isack to let go, with him even attempting to pull his arm off Gabriel. Gabriel was choking slightly even. “Say it!” Isack muttered before repeating it again even louder which made Gabriel shudder. “He can’t fucking say shit with you putting him in a headlock!” Oliver yelled back. Isack rolled his eyes, letting go of Gabriel and pushing him forward. “What was that for?” Gabriel asked Isack, rubbing the back of his neck. Isack lifted his leg, wearing back his Converses while looking at the skewers being handed to Kimi. “Ruining my appetite.” Isack spat.
The moonlight was already taking over for the sun for the night shift, it showing itself more than usual. “A supermoon.” Kimi muttered, pointing to the moon hovering over the ocean waves and islands where little people reside. “A werewolf’s dream.” Oliver joked, laughing awkwardly at his own joke. Isack interjected, “Or nightmare.” after hearing no one say anything to break a little of the tension. Kimi passed around the skewers quietly with Isack splitting his share of skewers between the three of them which was relatively quite easy considering Kimi bought everyone three each. Gabriel handed one of his back to Isack, suggesting for a toast from him. Isack pointed to himself in shock before raising his skewer in the air. Kimi was already cheekily smiling when he saw the stick being raised. “To…graduating from this god awful school.” Isack proclaimed. “Amen to that!” Gabriel agreed at the same time as Oliver, joining all the skewers together. None of them liked the school they all go to so it isn’t a surprise that absolutely no one disagreed. Isack reached for his left pocket and tapped it around for a while. Even tapping his back left pocket. “Shit.” He muttered. Everyone around immediately looked concerned at that jaw-dropping expression on Isack’s face. Kimi shrugged his shoulders and asked what was going on. “I think I left my phone back at the hammock. Meet you guys back here?” Isack explained, already running back to the beach. The three waved Isack a goodbye with Gabriel staring intensely at his skewer. “Surely Isack wouldn’t mind if I ate one skewer right?” Gabriel cheekily asked the two in front of him. Oliver and Kimi laughed along with Kimi already pulling off the meat from one of his skewers.
Isack ran extremely frantically, following the bits of sand on the road and his and Gabriel’s footprints in the sand back to the hammock. Hopefully Kimi’s and Oliver’s won’t miss up his perception of the path. Either way, it wasn’t far so if Isack’s memories served him right, he should be able to get to the hammock and back to the shack in record time. He passed by the closed surf store and the kayak rental place, eyes focusing on the two palm trees and that green fabric. And when he did finally see it, he couldn’t really see his phone. But to be fair, the palm tree was blocking most of the hammock, the only hammock Isack could see was the parts that were swaying with the wind. He halted to a stop, scavenging the sand around the hammock and on the hammock itself for his cellular device. And when he accidentally touched his right pocket, he felt some weight there. His hand went into the pocket, feeling for a cold screen and out popped his phone. Isack’s face was just pure realisation at first before realising he had to go back and tell his friends about how stupid he looked and sounded when he thought he lost his phone.
Like the minutes before, he ran following the footsteps they made across the sand, the only footsteps on the sand at this small beach. A very underrated beach in fact. He would definitely come back here if he had the chance. He could already see his friends eating on their second skewer, definitely knowing Isack would complain and nag about the photo they were supposed to take but couldn’t because they ate the skewers. He shouted joyfully to them, waving his phone in the air. Kimi and Oliver waved back to him with empty skewer sticks in their hands before they were put into sacks by the skewer chef with potato sacks. Gabriel was also put into a potato sack by another guy Isack had not seen before. Isack’s face dropped immediately. He watched the chef and the other guy tie the rope around the sack and toss the potato sacks over their shoulders. One of them noticed Isack at the corner of the street and began running. Isack wanted to chase them but seeing as one of them was a chef and probably knew how to use a knife very well, he decided not to like the defenseless teenage boy he was and called the police. He anxiously dialed the three numbers he never thought he would dial in his lifetime and put his phone to his ear, hoping they would answer quickly instead of ignoring them like how Oliver did with Gabriel. He paced on the spot, glancing at his watch every two seconds for the time.
“Hello, emergency services he–”
“Hi, my friends just got kidnapped by some Turkish skewer chefs and–” Isack stammered, hearing the sputtering of a van and seeing it driving off into the roundabout about a distance away.
“Where, love?” The lady receiving the call asked Isack, sounding extremely confused.
“Doesn’t matter, they’re on the run and they’re in a red van with an engine that keeps sputtering.” Isack replied, sounding like a scared child. No. He was scared. Scared that he couldn’t do anything and that he might not see his friends ever again. And had he known his phone was in his right pocket, he would’ve been able to do something.
“Sweetheart, we need to know your whereabouts exactly because if they had just fled, we can narrow down where your friends are before it’s too late.” The woman explained calmly, typing something on a very noisy keyboard. “Breathe.” The lady reminded Isack and he took a deep breath, hand on his chest, while looking at the black asphalt on the ground. It was a matter of life and death for three people, those three people being his friends.
“I last saw my friends at the roundabout by the beach near Commonwealth International High School.” Isack sighed, not a very hopeful one.
“Red van with sputtering engine last seen there, correct?” The lady clarified with Isack, again typing on that very noisy keyboard. Isack nodded before slapping himself in the face and replied with a verbal yes.
“Thank you darling, we’ll contact you soon and your name is?” The lady thanked Isack.
“Isack. Isack Hadjar.”
“We’ll contact your local police station if your friends are doing well, okay, Isack? It might take a while before you’re able to see your friends again.” The lady informed Isack and reassured him slightly.
“Okay. Thank you. Bye.” Isack muttered.
“Bye, darling. Take care of yourself.” The lady said behind the phone before disconnecting from the line.
Isack immediately reconnected on another line, this time calling his parents. He began walking slowly on the road. He expected anything at this point from his parents but he expected a lecture about not staying past the curfew for yada yada but Isack just saying what happened to his friends is probably going to prove their point. Ahhhhh there was no running away from a ‘life lesson’ from his parents, was there? He was already panting, gluing his phone to his ear and every ring without answer from his parents made Isack expect the worst.
Eventually, they did pick up.
“Isack, I’m not picking you up if that’s what you’re calling me for.” His mother picked up the phone, sounding already in a very bad mood and almost whispering into the phone.
“No…I’m walking home.” Isack told his mother, starting to pick up his pace. His shoes dragged against the concrete unwillingly. His mother would definitely scold him about how badly damaged the shoes were.
“Are you calling asking if you could stay at Oliver’s place?” His mother asked again.
“Well…there wouldn’t be any point now.” Isack sighed while he was starting to run.
“Is it because his father didn’t all–”
“They got kidnapped right in front of me. All of my friends. Kimi, Ollie and Gabi. All of them. I’m just…calling because I’m a kid that needs support because I might not see my friends again.” Isack couldn’t help but blurt all that out to his mother, causing a long silence between the two. He could see his mother trying to process that information as he turned a corner. One more corner before it was the block where his apartment was.
“I’m almost home.” Isack stated, running even quicker. He could feel the tears starting to form in his eyes.
He’s cursed them. He shouldn’t have mentioned that inside thought he randomly thought. Inside thoughts should remain inside. He should have asked all of them to follow him to help find his phone. The beach was small but big for a phone from the early 2010s. Should he have not found his phone in his pocket would he have thought his friends just went home and not been kidnapped. Actually, he was somewhat glad he found his phone early. He could save their lives right there and then when he called Emergency Services.
“Take a warm shower when you reach home, okay?” His mother instructed him, definitely for his greater good. He nodded his head again but this time didn’t slap his face. He paced up the rusting metal stairs, his nose starting to fill with snot.
“...sorry I broke curfew, I should’ve gone home early.”
“Not the time to apologise to me, Isack.” His mother scolded him, “Know that sleeping tonight will be the hardest thing you will do for a very long while. Even though you want to stay up to probably check on if your friends are doing alright, don’t. Go to sleep.”
Isack had already reached the door by then. He ended the call and unlocked the door with the keys in his back right pocket. His mother was sitting by the dining table, phone by her ear. Her head turned to Isack, already offering open arms. Isack instantly ran to her, hugging her tightly and crying loudly in her arms. His father came out of the shower in a bathrobe, whistling a familiar tune only to be met with the sight of Isack crying his heart out.
“Wha–”
“Don’t ask. I’ll explain when he’s asleep.”
Isack closed his bathroom door, hanging the towel across his neck on the hooks behind the door. He lifted his arms, pulling the bottom of his shirt above him and hanging it on the hook right beside his towel. He pulled down his pants and undergarments, kicking it in one corner, not even bothering to pick it up. Dread followed Isack wherever he went, which was clearly killing his overall mood. Regret was a sidekick of Isack’s dread, making him feel even worse than how he was earlier. He flicked open the tap and lifted the knob, letting the rain shower head pour water above his head, giving some form of rhythmic pitter patter for him to fall back on. The heat caught up to the water eventually. His parents could barely pay for hot water but his mother surely could make an exception today.
Maybe Isack should’ve brought some food of his own or suggested his friends go home early to prepare for school the next day. What was he supposed to bring? Oh right there was math homework he was supposed to complete. Normally, he would ask Gabriel for answers and occasionally Oliver when Gabriel was in a ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode. Oliver was as intelligent as Gabriel and most would say he would probably be more successful than the Brazilian in the future but it was just that Gabriel had currently more academic success than the both of them combined.
Isack lathered his hair with his dad’s shampoo, hoping he wouldn’t find out from that old spice smell it had.
Kimi was a prodigy. Someone who also didn’t fit in with the rest of his peers. Only when Oliver stumbled upon him outside of the school gates waiting for his parents to pick him up that they became friends. Isack didn’t know the true story but what he did know was that only after a few months of including Kimi into their friend group that Oliver started falling for him. He told Gabriel and Isack, hoping they wouldn’t be so obvious about it but with the way Isack almost exposed Oliver at that shack earlier that day and how Kimi was just dragging Oliver everywhere, it might not be the case. All he hoped for Oliver was for him to confess before it’s too late. Kimi looked like he liked Oliver too but for a while, he’d never know.
Fuck these kidnappers, he would never see the continuation of this love story. If it was a love story that is. Kimi could just trust Oliver more than the two of them and he’d understood why. Oliver was a lot more affectionate when it came to Kimi for obvious reasons and only amongst them he should show his extroverted side more. He was rather shy. Maybe that’s why Kimi liked him. Who knows? Ahhhh fuck these kidnappers.
He turned on the tap again, watching the lather on his head fall to the tiles below him. His father always encouraged him to wear some form of footwear when in the bathroom solely because of the fact that the tiles may cut him. But today he didn’t. After all, he had sandy feet to wash. Time to lather his body. He was a little surprised he wasn’t smacked to death when he put Gabriel in a headlock. Usually they would do that playfully but not today. It was as if they knew they were about to get kidnapped.
Nah. Maybe just not feeling it.
He showered slightly longer than usual, usually he’d get a big scolding if he did but just for today, with his mother knowing what happened, it was as if he was on a free vacation. He dressed back his clothes and dried his hair with his towel, ruffling his curls with that rough ass towel. His mother watched come out of the bathroom with worried and concerned eyes. “Go to sleep.” She muttered, “Remember what I have told you.” Isack nodded and set his towel on the drying rack by the patio they had. He dropped onto his bed with too many thoughts in his head. All the what ifs.
What if he noticed his phone earlier and caught them in the act before his friends were kidnapped?
What if that day he just didn’t bring his phone along at all?
What if they had gone to the beach and the shack in the afternoon right after their badminton match? Would they have just enjoyed some skewers and let it be that?
His mother was right. It was hard to sleep.
He did feel desperate to run back to the local police station and stay there till they had any form of information about them but all he could do was wait. He should do something that allows him to sleep fast. Maybe drink some warm milk. Chamomile tea. No wait. It sounded stupid but maybe he should focus on doing some work. Win-win scenario. He gets some work done and usually when he does do homework, he ends up sleeping halfway through. Such a perfect plan. He needs to pat himself on the back for that. He got up from bed and sat on his plastic stool, tapping a probably used pen on the table with all his homework spread there. He chose one at random and it happened to be math. Trigonometry was an ass of a topic. Nonetheless, he started on the questions.
He tapped on his nearby calculator and wrote down answers and the answers were making sense. Big equations ended on a whole number or a number with less than three decimal places. All looked good. However, he didn’t feel sleepy. He set aside his math homework and picked out physics. Sound waves were a hassle too. One look at the question and he knew he was bound to fall asleep just looking at it. And so he did. After five minutes of just staring and trying to figure out how to answer the 2 mark blanks, he set his head down on the table and drifted to sleep.
Mission accomplished.
The next day, he woke up and the first thing he did was check the group chat. All the messages were from the day before that he didn’t mark as read. Some photos were absolutely trolling Isack because they thought he had lost his phone so they were just sending him pictures of them eating skewers.
Then nothing else.
It was hollow. Gabriel lived right in the dormitories of school so he was typically either the first to wake up because they served breakfast really early or late, around five minutes before class started. Oliver was next to wake up and he’d usually send some obnoxious photo of one of the three to the group chat with the caption “Good morning” every week. Isack never knew how he got those photos but he trusted Oliver it was from trusted sources. Kimi would just say hi and not respond till after school. He’d read the messages but not reply.
Like the nerd he was.
He picked up his bag after giving his teeth a good scrubbing and stuffed whatever class materials he thought he needed to bring into that second-hand bag and put his arm through the strap.
If one person were to ask where’s Oliver, Gabriel or Kimi, he’d never talk to them for the entire week.