Several hours had passed in what seemed like seconds as Maribel slowly wakes to the sound of her phone ringing. She groans as she tries to go back to sleep, relieved as the ringing stopped. But the peace didn't last for long as the ringing began once again, just before she was able to fall asleep. Without opening her eyes, she reached and groped the bedside cabinet in search of her phone to bring the loud contraption to her. Maribel answered without looking at the caller ID, hoping the call wouldn't last long enough for her annoyance to rise.
"Hello?"
She could hear shuffling in the background, followed by draws slamming before a voice replied.
"Ah, Merry. You're awake. I didn't think you'd answer as you weren't picking up. Is that music I hear in the background?"
Being in her half awake state, Maribel took a second to recognize the voice, yawning before speaking into the phone.
"Renko? Yeah, sorry. Something to help me sleep."
She felt around for her music player, a few tries before managing to turn it off. rubbing her eyes to get sleep out of them and trying not to fall asleep halfway through the conversation.
"Geez, sounds like I've woken you up. I'm so sorry, but I needed to call you now otherwise I wouldn't get a chance."
"Huh, I guess it's payback for last night. So, what's so important to call me early in the morning?"
Renko huffed to that, but Maribel didn't seem to pick up the annoyance as she yawned once more.
"You can call it that if you want. Anyway I wanted to ask you when your classes start."
"Ok? Give me a sec, Renko."
Maribel pushed herself out of her bed and walked to her desk where her timetable was. Even though Renko was quiet on the other end, Maribel could still hear shuffling and the occasional mumble as another drawer was slammed shut. Maribel choose to ignore it for now as she scanned her timetable.
"They don't start until half one. May I ask why?"
More shuffling.
"Well, I was wondering since I finish at quarter to twelve, do you want to have lunch together at the Satellite Cafe? Or breakfast in your case and where the hell is it?!"
Maribel chuckled at Renko's outburst. A lilt in her question, piping her curiosity to what the brunette was doing on the other end of the line.
"May I ask what you've lost?"
"My hat, I can't find it anywhere. At this rate I'll be late!"
Maribel frowned. When has Renko ever lose her hat? At most times, the blonde thought the thing was glued to her head as it never seemed to leave the brown hair it resides on, even inquiring about it when they first met. But regardless, that hat must be important to her to be late over it.
"Can't you go without it?"
"Merry, you know I can't. Renko Usami is not herself without the fedora to complete the look."
Maribel rolled her eyes at the statement, knowing that her friend won't go anywhere without it and that the said statement is somewhat true, despite giving off the clique third person narrative.
"Did you look under your bed? Somehow managed to kick it under perhaps?"
She heard grumbles of disbelief before a shout of joy, causing her to smirk.
"Aha! Found you! I can tell you're smirking through the phone, anyway you up for that lunch?"
Maribel hummed in response.
"Great! I gotta go or I'll be late, I'll meet you then Merry at 12. Love you!"
Sounds of shuffling was heard as a loud crash that was followed by Renko swearing before the call was cut, causing Maribel to chuckle as she placed her phone back onto the bed side table. She stretched before climbing back into bed, hoping to get some more sleep.
'She said to meet at twelve, it's already ten past. So where the hell is she?'
Maribel yawned as she scanned the area to try to spot Renko. Although sparsely crowded, Maribel couldn't seem to find her friend. Sighing, she took her phone and began scrolling through the phone numbers. her finger hovered over the call button, but hesitated as she looked inside quickly in case Renko was in fact sitting in there waiting. No such luck. She sighed again before beginning to call her, but she never managed to as someone had ran into her, giving her a bear hug. Maribel instantly recognized who it was.
"Hello Renko."
"Damn, I thought I got you."
Maribel sighed once more before putting her phone away. She felt Renko wrap her arms around her waist as her head leaned on Maribel's shoulder. Giving Maribel the opportunity to flick Renko on the nose. who recoiled slightly at the action, but didn't let go of her embrace.
"Ow! Why'd you do that for?"
"You told me that we'd be meeting at twelve exactly. You're ten minutes late!"
Renko chuckled nervously as she let go of Maribel. She turned around to see Renko sharply looking away as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
"Yeah, I did. Erm, my physics class overran unexpectedly. I rushed out the door as fast as I could to make it in time, obviously I wasn't."
"You didn't knock anything over in your mad rush did you? Like this morning I heard in the call?"
Renko folded her arms. She began to answer but instead decided to drop it as she shook her head and dragged Maribel inside. Taking a seat in the back so they wouldn't be interrupted as much.
"Ah, It's been awhile since we did this!"
Renko practically threw herself into the booth, causing Maribel to chuckle as she followed suit, but not as dramatically as Renko. She allowed herself to relax, sighing in relief as she rests her head on the seat.
"Don't fall asleep here, I don't want to drag you to your class~"
Maribel scoffed in response.
"As if I would. I'm more curious to why you asked me to eat lunch with you."
Renko only smiled as she placed in her's and Maribel's orders in the small touch screen.
"Why? Can't I treat my dear friend to lunch?"
"That's the thing Renko, It's usually me who does that or at least both of us agree to it. As you're usually late."
Renko shrugged as she leaned back. A look of annoyance flashed across her face, then to mild surprise as the brunette instantly remembered something.
"Well, apart from just taking you to lunch, there was something I wanted to tell you about."
Maribel feigned a look of surprise, a grin making it way on her face.
"Oh? So there was an ulterior motive after all?"
"Hey, I wouldn't have the chance regardless!"
Maribel chuckled as she shook her head.
"So, what is this grand thing you want to tell me?"
"I was rummaging around my stuff yesterday, thinking I needed to do a bit of spring cleaning."
"Erm, I hate to tell you this, but it's the middle of November."
Renko glared at Maribel as their order had arrived. She only shrugged in response. the brunette sighed as she continued their conversation as they began to eat.
"Anyway, I found this box in my wardrobe. I think it was from my aunt, I vaguely remember her giving it to me the day I was moving into the apartment."
"Is this the strange aunt you kept telling me about? The one with the glasses on your mum's side?"
Renko nodded enthusiastically.
"Yep, the same crazy lady. Gods knows what goes on in that head of hers. She gave me that box hoping it would do me some good, whatever that meant. I just put it away without opening it and completely forgot about it until yesterday."
"And you're telling me this...why?"
Renko reached into her pocket and pulled out a photo, handing it to Maribel for her to look at.
"Because if this."
AN: I noticed that in chapter one the diary entry is dated to be in November and I put October in this chapter by mistake. Not a major detail but something that would bug me if I didn't correct it so sorry for re-uploading this ^^;