Best Wishes

Little Nathan watched as his drunk father walked passed by him with his shirt stained with blood. His mother's blood of course! He has witnessed those scenes quite a number of times and it heightened his fear and hatred for his father. However, he could not stand up to that man in any way. He rushed to his mother's side when his drunk father left the room. Nathan hugged his mother who was crying and shaking uncontrollably on the floor from behind.

"Mummy, don't cry" he whispered in to her ears with his trembling tiny voice. His mother turned towards him, hugged him, wiped her tears and asked;

"Nathan, will you leave with me?"

"Where are you going, mummy?" little Nathan asked.

"To a place where daddy won't find us" his mother replied.

"I will go with you, mummy" he replied and wiped a tear from his mother's face.

"Go and pack your favorite toys. We are leaving tonight"

Nathan rushed to his room to pack his favorite toys only to hear a loud scream from his mother's room.

******

15 years later

"Nathan!" Elaine shouted running towards Nathan.

Nathan stopped to look in her direction. Elaine has been his friend for as long as he can remember. He watched her running towards him.

"Hey! Slow down" Nathan joked when Elaine caught him in a tight bear hug.

"I really missed you" Elaine said and gave him a peck.

"Where are the others?" Nathan asked ignoring Elaine's previous comment.

"I was about to ask you the same question" Elaine said.

"I don't know if they're both in. But Jeremy's car is packed there" Nathan replied pointing at the blue jeep among the parked cars at the parking lots.

"Yeah! That's his car. He must be around. I can't spot Israel's bike. Can you?" Elaine asked.

"I can't either" Nathan replied as they both tried to spot Israel's bike.

"Hey! How was your holidays? My internship was quite boring. I had to run errands throughout the internship period. Quite annoying!" Elaine complained.

"Well, mine wasn't boring but hectic. I had more than enough work to do. I was almost always busy. I thought you were having a hectic time like myself because I couldn't reach you via phone." said Nathan.

"Busy? Of course! Busily running errands!" Elaine chuckled.

"Let's find Jeremy!" a familiar voice said from behind.

"Sure!" replied Elaine as they both turned to look in the direction of Israel who was approaching them. Elaine hugged Israel when he got to them.

"Israel, I missed you" Elaine said.

"I missed you too" Israel replied.

"Nathan, I missed you as well" Israel said and hugged Nathan too.

They walked towards to the lecture hall. They spotted Jeremy at the far end of the class and walked to him. Immediately they sat beside him, the lecturer walked in. Elaine hugged Jeremy who struggled to pull himself away from her.

Nathan, Elaine, Israel and Jeremy, popularly known as JEIN among their peers, have been friends right from primary school. The three gentlemen treated the only lady among them like their younger sister even though she was only a few months younger than them.

"Hello, class! My name is Dr Phils. I am your new human physiology lecturer" said the new lecturer and he began to teach.

"It feels good to be back! I missed you all" Jeremy said after the lecture.

"Me too" Elaine cut in.

All four chatted happily and discussed their internship and other issues. Suddenly, Jeremy stopped talking and watched Nathan quietly as he chatted happily with Israel.

"Nathan, you don't have to act tough in our presence. You know right?" Jeremy bursted out.

"Yeah, I agree. You don't have to act all tough in our presence. We've heard the news" Elaine said looking sadly at Nathan.

"You can cry if you want to" Israel added.

"I'm fine. I will be okay so long as I have you guys with me" Nathan replied and forced a smile. "I have to leave, guys. I have a whole lot of tasks to perform at home" Nathan continued.

"Ok, enjoy the rest of the day" Elaine, Israel and Jeremy replied in a chorus.

Nathan left them knowing very well that was his last time with his friends. He had applied for a change in college and after a series of guidance and counseling offered by his college, he finally decided on the college he wanted.

"I always feel sad for him" said Elaine after Nathan had left them.

"If only he could open up a little" Jeremy said.

"There's nothing we can do since he doesn't trust us enough to open up" Israel said.

"I don't think it's got to do with trust. He just doesn't want to burden us with his problems" Jeremy tried to reason with them.

"I agree" seconded Elaine.

Just as they were talking, Derek, one of their course mates approached them with three envelopes.

"These are for you three" Derek said. "I think it's from Nathan" Derek continued.

"Nathan just left. He could have given them to us personally" Elaine snapped.

"Yeah, I think so" supported Israel.

"I think you guys don't know what's going on" Derek said.

"What's going on?" Jeremy probed.

"Nathan has changed college!" Derek replied.

"What?!"