Chapter 62: Broken 1

QIn the Suburbs of Carlton city, some miles away from Chelan's college, the clinking of glasses was so loud that the creaking of the metal doors became almost unnoticed. Charles walked into Carl's apartment, surprised to see him in the state he was in. His eyes immediately came to Raymond who stood by his side of Carl, trying to cheer him up and holding a bottle of wine away from him.
Carl was sitting on the floor, with his head resting on the Couch, drinking so much alcohol as he wallowed in his pain. While Raymond was trying to talk him out of the sulking he was in, he occasionally tried to drag off the glass from Carl's hand. But he could not just win the battle with a man that was emotionally drunk even though he was physically sane.
Raymond had called him not quite long, telling him that he heard Alyssa say that Carl left college in anger, and she only found out because she was at Luciana's house with them. So he rushed over to his hours after the endless call he gave Carl which got no replies.
Arriving at Carl's place, he saw him in a terrible situation, like he had been drinking for a long time, so Raymond called Charles immediately.
"Carl," Charles called out, as he crouched to Carl's level, successfully taking the glass away from him as he was gradually getting weak
He sat by his side of Carl and turned his face to him, only to see the expression of hurt drawn firmly on Carl's face.
"What is the matter?" Charles asked no one in particular, with his eyes still fixed on Carl.
"I have no idea, Alyssa only mentioned to me about him and Luciana having a conversation, which still was not clear to me, you know she wasn't there," Raymond explained to Charles.
Charles's brows furrowed in deep thoughts, seeing the state in which Carl was. He looked so bad and as though he was a teenager that was dealt with for a sin he had not committed. Could it be that he and Luciana had a conversation that led to some arguments?
Well, Charles realized that there was no way he could know unless he asks, so, he rose to his feet and walked out of where Carl was, while he dialed Jessie's number with his phone that he brought out from his pockets.
He waited for the call to go through at the first ring, and after successfully doing it for some seconds, it went through but Jessie still did not pick up.
Charles was not used to Jessie not picking up his call immediately after he dialed her number, so it got him worried. He decided to try again and after two successful tries,
"Hello," she greeted, her voice sounding weary through the phone.
"Hey dear, can I talk to Luciana?" Charles asked Jessie over the phone.
From where Jessie stood making the call, she could see Luciana in a very bad state. Luciana found it difficult to sleep, because of the issue she had with Carl and on that same day, Alyssa decided to visit.
Jessie did her best to prepare food for Luciana, while Alyssa stayed with Luciana in the room. It went light that till Alyssa started sobbing lightly, and Jessie had to go join Alyssa to stay with Luciana upon Alyssa's request.
With the rush of things, she did not notice when Charles called her and only grabbed her phone to see some missed calls and an incoming call from Charles.
"Luciana...," Jessie stuttered in reply as a "hello" from Charles called her out of the deep silence she left in the Call.
"Luciana, you can't talk with her now," Jessie replied. The way Luciana was at that moment, was not suitable for her to make a call, so Jessie decided to pass that request.
"And why is that?"
"Right now, she is not in a good mood and will want to be left alone," Jessie explained to Charles, sad that she had to make up some lies, even though it was not exactly what Luciana wanted.
Charles pushed his hands into his hair that was ruffled, confused as to what to do. Frustration was clear on his face, and so far the call he was making with Jessie, did not seem like it was helping any matters.
"Are you still there?" Jessie inquired.
She had not gotten any response from Charles, since her last statement. The only thing she heard over the phone was the sounds of deep sighs that reverberated in the atmosphere and nothing else. Asides from it, it was just deep silence and she began to wonder where he was at.
"Yes, I am," Charles voiced out, with a deep sigh accompanying his voice.
"So you are saying that you have no idea what happened between Carl and Luciana?"
"You never asked me if I have any idea," Jessie queried and Charles realized that she was right, "I do," she stated.
"Luciana did not tell me much, she only told me about Cassandra walking up to Carl to tell him about the feelings she had for him, and Carl explained it to her. Well, she thinks the problem could be that she gave a reply which was not so good to him, I don't know the details of the reply, I just told you all I know," Jessie said to Charles, who listened patiently over the phone.
She intentionally hid some information about the Conversation, as she did not want to unknowingly spill out Luciana's reasons for giving such answers.
"So that is all that happened?"
"With what I know, I think that is all," Jessie said, and Charles hung up after replying "okay."
Charles went back to the room Carl was in, confused. What exactly must have happened between Luciana and him that he felt that terrible? He walked over to where Raymond was and whispered the words, "I want to talk to you" in his ears, leaving Carl to sulk alone.
Raymond raised his brows to Charles, still not certain about why he was called. Charles gave him a reassuring smile that there was no problem, and he followed Charles.
"I think he had a breakup with Luciana, don't you think so?" Charles spoke out to Raymond immediately they stepped out of Carl's hearing. He felt Carl was in a bad mood and talking about his sadness in front of him was not going to help matters.
"I also think so too, for goodness sake, I have never seen him this way," Raymond supported, nodding his head softly with his hands raised to his chin.
He had known Carl since they got into Chelan college. Carl was not the person to feel weak in certain situations, and the break-up part was one he had never imagined. Never will he have believed that the so famous Carl Zucando, will be wrapped up in a glass of alcohol, sober, mourning for a relationship hurt.
"Jessie told me that Luciana is not feeling any better either, she did not give me the details of what may have gone wrong," Charles's face wrinkled in confusion as he spoke.
"Hmm," Raymond sighed then said, "we should talk to Carl then. Don't you think so? Not like we have any better option," he suggested and Charles kept on nodding his head vigorously to his request.
Charles kept on nodding his head like he was in deep thoughts, which caused Raymond to laugh and called his attention back to what they were doing. They went inside, and together, they met Carl drowning in another bottle of alcohol with his face coloring red. The difference this time, his facial color was not one of an innocent girl blushing for her crush. It felt like he was going through so much pain, that even his blood vessels could relate, that was why it was colored.
Charles moved to where he was, and sternly took the glass of wine from Carl, then asked Raymond for a glass of water.
Raymond hurried over to them with a glass of water he got from the jug placed on the dining table, carrying it to them like it was some trophy, with all the care he had, used on it. Charles reached out to his hands, took the water, and made Carl drink.
Carl had drunk so much, even though he was not drunk, Charles's intention was just to give him something to dissolve the toxicity and effect of the alcohol he had consumed.
His little mind also felt that the water would help neutralize the alcohol and make Carl less sober. So he requested for the glass of water.
After Carl unwillingly consumed the water that had been given to him, Charles and Raymond raised him to the seat, staying beside him.
They took a few minutes staring at nothing, just keeping to themselves, before Raymond spoke up.
"Girlfriends are wicked, you know? All they do is break hearts, not even caring about the pain they put you through. They just do what they want to do with you, thinking they are the only ones with emotions. They can be terrible sometimes," he shook his head while talking like he was sad and in so much pain, then Raymond exhaled deeply.
"That is just what they do," Charles joined, "they make you fall so much for them, breaking every single boundary you created, then disappear, ha! it's terrible," Charles huffed.
All along the conversation, Carl had been looking at them, not wanting to say a word. He felt terrible inside, and every single one of their words related so much to how he felt. "Have their girlfriends hurt them too?" He asked himself.