Chapter 36 (1/2)
”No.”
The brief and simple answer came from Jeremy's beloved brother Khalil's mouth when Jeremy requested him to come to the Drama Club's meeting that evening.
”C'mon, why not?” if possible, Jeremy didn't want to sound like a whining kid, but that was how it came out. Nothing he could do about.
”I've given you the script, right? That's enough!”
”But if you come, the crew and actors would be more thrilled…”
”Is this your club or mine?”
”You're the founder, right? It's your club too!”
Khalil lit a cigarette. It looks like the stress dealing with this kid could only be relieved with nicotine. Jeremy waited for the first blow of carbon monoxide before receiving a reply.
”Until when do you want to be in another's shadow?”
Jeremy was silent. Hate! Why is the sentence so cool? Note it down…
”I gave you the script because of desperation. Because there are other agendas. If not, I wouldn't want to meddle in your club's business,” said Khalil.
Seeing Jeremy look as if he was on the verge of snapping, Khalil sighed. Can't this kid read between the lines?
”It's not that I'm annoyed with you or anything. But this is your club's business. You should handle it yourself, not other people. Not even me.”
Jeremy smiled slightly. For better or worse, Khalil pitied the kid a little. It's not easy going through school life when you're different from others. That's the problem with the school system - in reality, n.o.body appreciates uniqueness. Why must everyone wear a uniform? Why must every male student have short hair and female students aren't allowed to shave their head? So that everyone looks the same. So that everyone was controlled the same way. Anyone who was different would be criticized, isolated, beaten.
”If you want me to sit in, sure. But I'll just watch from afar,” Khalil relented.
This made Jeremy grin without him knowing that stepping into the auditorium was something greatly traumatic to Khalil.
Khalil sat in the middle of the auditorium that evening, just like the old times - he was the first person to arrive. It became a habit for him to arrive at the location at latest five minutes before the set time.
The first person to arrive after Khalil wasn't Jeremy. Instead, it was a girl whose cuteness level was enough for her to make a gwiyomi video on YouTube and would at least get a hundred 'Likes'.
The girl saw Khalil's figure and walked towards him with a huge smile. What now? I'm in no mood to chat, thought Khalil.
The girl sat next to Khalil. ”You are… Khalil Abdullah, right? You're the one who wrote our script?”
Khalil simply nodded.
”Jeremy said that you… are a film director and scriptwriter. Is that true?”
Khalil even felt like laughing. The irony of the entertainment world: a director or script writer would first need to be identified. Who people would definitely recognise are the actors. There was that one time when Khalil discovered about an informative entertainment website (or so it says) that displayed his biodata - but the picture was of someone else's. It's clear they didn't do any research… bulls.h.i.+t informative!
But again, Khalil simply nodded. The girl was seen inching closer to him. Hmphhh…