Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Romance

Hi guys! A massive thank you for over 100 reads on chapter 1 alone! And the lovely comments! I greatly appreciate it! I'll do my best to keep improving my writing for your better enjoyment! Enough talking, let's carry on with the chapter!
 Chapter 14
          Standing in front of the principal’s office door, Chris grew nervous. He felt as though he was sending himself to detention.           He immediately discarded that thought when he noticed Bea, who was standing besides him, staring at him. 
          “Are you fine with going in?” Chris asked her. 
          “What do you mean?” Bea questioned. 
          Pointing at the door, he mentioned, “I heard that you were asked by John to participate in an event.” 
          “I’m fine.” Bea assured him. 
          Chris eyed her out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t seem nervous or even a tiny bit frayed by the thought of entering the principal’s office.           Chris corrected himself, of cause she wouldn’t be afraid to enter the principal’s office, she is a model student. Unlike himself, she has a clean track record.
          Chris wanted to slap himself. He reminded himself of the one and only objective and that is to find Eric. Now’s not the time to chicken out! There isn't any other way but to see John. 
          Upon inhaling a big breath and releasing it silently, Chris clenched his fist and knocked on the wooden door twice. 
          Within seconds, a reply came from within the room granting them permission to enter.
          “Come in.”
          Chris pushed open the door to reveal a very concentrated John, sitting at his desk, staring at the laptop screen intensely. He peeled his eyes off the screen and looked up at his fellow students.
          “Is there anything I can help you with?” John asked. 
          Chris noticed a hint of excitement in John's voice, although he was doing his best to conceal it by acting neutral.           
          Wasting no time, Chris stated his case, “A friend of mine is missing, he isn’t at the dorms and I can’t seem to get through his cell.”
          Chris used the terminology 'mine' because he was still very confused as to whether Bea and Eric knew each other. 
          Without giving Chris a breath to breath, Bea carried on, “We would like to contact his family as to whether they know anything about this.” The urgency and determination in her voice evident. 
          It caught Chris slightly off guard. Even John was looking at her in surprise.
          Still looking at Bea, John opened his mouth wanting to say something, instead he closed them and simply shook his head.
          Frowning, he then looked over to Chris. This time, he placed his right elbow on the table, and upon bringing his hand to his face and rubbing his closed eyes with his thumb and middle finger, he asked tiredly,  “Have it even occurred to the both of you that this friend of yours might be asleep at his home as of right now? As we speak?”           
          “His dorm mate told me that he sneaked out in the middle of the night and hasn’t been back yet.” Chris explained.
          “I understand your worry for your friend but I can’t just easily give out your friend’s family contact just like that.” Growing impatient, John closed his laptop and got up from his seat.          
          “Does it not strike you odd that a student would sneak out in the middle of the night and not be back by dawn? What if something had happened to him?” Chris asked.
          John wasn't buying their concern, he needed to say something to change his mind. At this rate, they'll get nothing out of John.
          Walking over to Chris and Bea, John said, “I understand your concern but your friend probably just sneaked out to have fun and just haven't returned." He was growing frustrated, he was in the middle of completing a very important report in courtesy of his father to one of the shareholders before he was royally interrupted by the two of them. 
          “Eric isn’t someone like that!” Bea blurted out. Her sudden proclaim startled both Chris and John. Particularly John, he almost tripped when he heard the name. 
          “I’m sorry...... Eric? Your friend’s name is Eric?” John stammered, he complexion suddenly paled. 
          “Yes. And he hasn’t been picking up his phone either.” Chris chirped in.           
          John’s face grew paler, it was like his very life has been sucked out of his body. 
          “You said he isn’t at his dorm and he hasn’t been back since last night?” John asked.
          “Yes.” Chris didn’t understand the sudden change of demeanor from John. Just earlier, the man was uncaring to the issue and ready to just brush off their problem but the moment he heard that their person of concern is Eric, he is all of a sudden interested.
          Seeing that John has changed his mind, Bea spoke up, “So could you..…?” 
          Walking back to his seat, with both hands on his waist, John cut her words short, “I’ll contact his family, the two of you can leave this to me.”
          “But…” Bea started to protest.          
          Magnifying his voice to show how serious he was, he said, “I will handle this situation, the two of you......" He paused and pointed towards Chris and Bea. "...... Should go back to your respective classes.” 
          Bea wanted to say something but Chris pulled her arm lightly, signalling to her that they had better leave.          She frown at Chris but she knew that that was the best decision. Hence, very reluctantly, she followed him.
          “When was the last you guys saw of Eric?” John asked before Chris opened the door. 
          Looking at Bea, Chris answered, "2:30 in the afternoon, that was around the time we parted.”
          “Can we trust that John will do something?” Closing the door behind her, Bea asked the moment they exited the room. 
          Chris thought for a moment before looking up at her, saying, “I’m sure he has his own ways but if he thinks I’m just going to go back to class and pretend that nothing’s wrong, he’s very wrong.”
                       XXXXXXXX 
          John got up to lock the door the moment Chris and Bea left. He needed time to process the information he had just received, rather, he needed time to compose himself. 
          It beckoned the question. How did it even come to the current situation?           When Chris entered the room followed closely behind by Bea, he had assumed that the boy had successfully managed to convince the girl to participate in the event and that they were here to provide him with the good news, instead he was faced with an entirely different issue. 
          Students skip school day in, day out, it’s no surprise and nothing to be alarmed about. But the moment he heard that the student that supposedly 'skipped' class was Eric......his younger brother, John panicked.
          Eric, has never once in his entire life skipped school, not to mention, sneaked out in the middle of the night.             He should have known something was wrong the moment he found Eric on the ground in the hallway, yesterday. 
          John couldn't help but blame himself that he could have in one way or another prevented this......And just after he had promised Oliver that he would protect Eric. 
          Using the office phone, John first's attempt was to dial Eric’s number. To his bitter disappointment, every call went directly to the voice mail. He then called the dorm attendant and after verifying Chris and Bea's statement, very reluctantly, called his father. 
          The wait for the call to be picked up was probably the most stressful seconds John ever had to go through in his entire life. The stress was way worst than the day of his master's results. 
          After what felt like an eternity, the call was finally answered, by Richard.           
          “Richard, I need to speak with father.” John requested the moment he heard the voice from the other side. 
          “Of cause young master John. Please hold on for a moment.”
          Put on hold, John waited. 
          A few seconds later, Richard came back to the phone. "Your father asks what is the concern?” 
          Tapping his fingers on the table impatiently, John pleaded, “I need to speak to him urgently. Tell him it’s important.”
          Put on hold, John waited, again.          
          “Your father wants you to pass your message on to me.” 
          Richard again.
          Gravely annoyed, John asked, “Is Eric at the house?” 
          “Young master Eric arrived about an hour ago.” Richard answered and John felt like a massive burden was lifted off his shoulders. 
          “Thank God......” He said, smiling.           
          John was put on hold again, and when Richard came back, he said, “Young master John, your father asks of me to inform you that you are not to fail him. The next time you call it had better be something he wants to hear.”           
          John didn’t pay much heed to what Richard said next. He was so relief to hear that Eric is safe, he leaned back in his chair and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
          “I’m coming to get Eric now. Tell him to stay there.” John ordered before putting the phone down.          He then got up from the seat, put on his coat and upon grabbing his wallet and car keys from the drawer, dashed for the door.
          In a hurry, he almost bumped into both Chris and Bea when he exited the room. Apparently they had both been  waiting outside the office all this while. 
          “Didn't I tell the both of you to return to your classes?” John asked, frowning at the disobedience. 
          Were the two of them seriously waiting outside the door the whole time? 
           “Did you speak to Eric’s parents?” Chris avoided John's question and asked.  
          Closing his office door behind him, John said, “He’s currently at his family's. Rest assure that he is in safe hands.” 
          These kids really don’t know when to give up, do they? 
          John was suddenly held back, he couldn't move. He looked back to see a hand holding the back of his coat.
          He looked up at Bea, who was gripping onto his coat, tightly, preventing him from moving forward.          
          “......Are you going to find Eric?” She asked.
          How did she know?! John looked at Bea in astonishment. He was pretty sure his office was soundproofed walls and door, and even if she were eavesdropping, she couldn’t have possible overheard his conversation. 
          The only other possible reason was that she purely guessed. If that's true, it was one hell of a coincidence! 
          Doing his best to not let surprise show on his face, John placed both his hands on the hand Bea had on his coat, looking straight into her eyes and said, “I can assure you that he’ll be back by tomorrow, I give you my word.” 
          With that, Bea very unwillingly, let go of his coat.
          Freed, without wasting another second, John jogged away, leaving the two students behind. He jumped into his car, started the engine and sped off in the direction of his father’s house.                     
                   XXXXXXXXXX 
          Following behind Bea into the library, Chris asked, “Are you still going to say that you don’t know Eric?"
          By her worried demeanor, Chris could immediately tell that she had lied.
          Bea turned to look at Chris. 
          “He  is always 2nd place in the entire school, even if I did try to ignore him, it’ll be hard to not have at least heard of him.” She said as they walked back to where Chris last found her in between the shelves.
          Bea didn’t take long to choose a book, she simply grabbed one from one of the shelves, flipped it to the first page and sat back down on the floor, resuming to ignoring Chris's presence.          
          Pretending to browse the shelves, Chris asked, eyeing her out of the corner of his eyes, “......Still, you wouldn’t be that worried about a mere 2nd place student right?” 
           No matter how much he had wanted to shut himself up and believe in her words when she said that they indeed did not know each other, he couldn't help himself from asking still. 
          Chris could hear a sigh escape from the girl's mouth, followed by the sudden snap of a book closing.
          “Do you want to know the relationship Eric and I had that badly?” Bea asked out of frustration. 
          She hit the bulls-eye, suddenly Chris dared not look her in the eye. He was lucky he was standing up and staring at the books on the shelves rather than having to look at Bea in the eye.
           Chris peeled his eyes away from the books and forced himself to look at Bea. He turned his head downwards towards his right to where she was sitting and their eyes met. She was staring right up at him, waiting for his answer.          
          He swallowed to clear his dry throat and with determination, replied, “I do want to know.” Chris could have swore he heard his voice cracked but he couldn't bring himself to bother. 
          “......Fine, I’ll tell you.” Bea said eventually. 
          Chris suddenly felt scared. He felt his heart raced in anticipation. Bea was no longer looking at him, she was staring ahead, recalling a distant memory.
          Chris found himself holding his breath.  
          After taking a deep breath, she looked up at him and spoke, “Eric and I, we……” 
All Rights Reserved © Anne Teng

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I honestly enjoy writing scenes surrounding Chris and Bea! Prepare to see more uneasiness from John in the upcoming chapters!
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