Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Romance

                       Chapter 13 
          Hugging a stack of assignments against her chest, Catherine walked through the school gates among students. 
          She could hear the chirping of fellow sparrows that love to sing on top of the school roof. The cool and chilling weather brightened her mood and relaxed her from the morning train rush hour stress.
          She would have stretched her arms if they were not occupied, all she could do was breath in the freshness of the morning air, already looking forward to having coffee and drinking in the scerenic morning from the office window. 
          Several students greeted her as they walked pass her. She was greeted by Chris as well. He waved as he walked ahead of her and headed straight to the classrooms. Catherine didn’t think much into it at first and smiled back.           Upon realisation, she stopped dead in her tracks. She raised the watch she wore on her right wrist up to her face. 
         Here eyes widened in disbelief, Chris was an hour early for class?! This has never happened before!          Catherine was so surprised she almost dropped the study materials. 
          Suddenly, a pair of hands appeared out of nowhere and scooped the papers out of her arms and into his.          
          Shocked, she looked up at John, who was looking at her interestingly. 
          He had a long outer coat on and was wearing only one strap of his backpack over his shoulder. In one hand a set of car keys, the other her student’s papers he had just stolen.
          Adjusting the papers in his hands, John asked, “What are you doing spacing out in the middle of the hallways?”
         Catherine reached out her hands and retrieved her papers back from John, saying, “I was just surprised that Chris is actually early for once.” 
          With her words, John looked ahead, a smile crept across his face as he noticed Chris about to walk up the stairs.
                     XXXXXXXXXX 
          A twitch of annoyance crept up Chris' spine, he felt as though a thousand eyes were on him and with every step he inched closer to his classroom, the more eyes landed on him. 
          He is aware that he has never actually done this before but what’s so weird about coming to school early? He wanted to scream at those that stared. Have they never seen an early comer before?! 
          He wanted to talk things out with Eric. He couldn't possibly leave things as it was. Heck! They aren’t just classmates, they are seatmates! Just imagine the awkwardness if they were to not resolve their conflict. 
          Chris peered into the classroom through the open door. His eyes landed automatically on Eric’s seat. 
          Surprisingly, the seat was empty.            Chris scanned the entire classroom as he walked up to his seat. He sat down and looked at the empty seat on his right.
          He felt anxious waiting for Eric. It definitely wasn't a pleasant feeling.
          Did Eric always feel this way whenever he comes late? Suddenly, Chris began to understand why Eric was always mad at him for turning up late. He probably wasn't the best of a friend towards Eric. 
          Chris waited until the teacher entered the classroom before messaging Eric.
          ‘Are you coming to school?’ 
          A reply came several minutes later.
          ‘Something’s up. Can’t make it today.’ 
          Eric can’t make it? That was definitely a first, Eric wouldn’t miss a day of school for anything. Chris remembered Eric fell sick once, yet he insisted on attending classes, nevertheless. 
          ‘What happened?’ Chris messaged. 
          ‘I’m fine. Don’t worry.’ Eric replied.          
          And that was the last Chris heard from Eric. Their conversation was short and left Chris in a dilemma. For once he is early but Eric just had to be absent. 
          His friend's absence bothered Chris way more than he had expected. He kept looking up at the door every time someone entered the room. Only to be let down every single time.           Chris couldn’t even pay attention to the teacher for more than a minute. He was too busy worrying about Eric's absence and how that affected the apology speech he had previously prepared.
          Every cell in his body was stressing out. He just couldn’t sit still. The main reason he even turned up to class was to see Eric, not to listen to Mr Higgs's horrendously boring lectures.
          The moment first period ended, Chris grabbed his bag and exited the class, planning to visit Eric at his dorm. 
          Just like Chris, Eric lives in the school dorms as well, although not in the same infrastructure. Chris’s dorm was the newer building, located further from the school, Eric’s building was the older building interlinked with the school's building. 
          En route to Eric’s dorm, Chris inevitably had to pass the library. He let himself be sidetracked and decided to enter the library. He had a feeling he would find a certain someone there.          
          Looking around, he walked all the way to the end of the library before noticing Bea sitting, cross legged on the ground at the far end of the shelves, an opened book nestled on her legs. Her eyes fixed attentively on the book. Using one hand to flip pages, the other holding onto a half finished plastic packaged bun.
          “What’s the school’s number 1 doing at the library in this hour?” Chris asked as he squatted in front of her.           
          Chris’s sudden appearance almost made Bea cry out. She would have had to kiss her meal goodbye as she would have most definitely dropped her bun if not for Chris, who managed to help her steady it by holding onto it. 
          She stared wide-eyed at him, she had not expected to see him just a day after their first meeting, especially not in the library. Conflicted, she placed a finger over her lips to motion Chris to be quiet. 
          Letting go of her meal, he smiled and took a seat on the floor next to her on her right.
           “Why are you seating down?!” Bea practically jumped. 
          Chris watched as she distanced herself from him, again. She started dragging herself across the floor to her left. She backed up until her left shoulder bumped into the wall. She looked at the wall in surprise as if she had not expected a wall to be there.         
          The distance she had managed to create between them was not great. Initially, there wasn’t any leg room but with the gap she created, an extra person could squeeze between them, at the most. 
          “I distinctively remember telling you not to associate yourself with me.” Bea coldly spat at him.
          Someone walked passed the shelves and Chris looked up, saying, “I just wanted to be your friend.”
          She just doesn’t get it, does she? Any normal person would have gotten it by then, she just had to make him say it out loud. 
          Bea stared at him dumbfounded.           
          Being stared at uncomfortably was definitely not one of his hobbies. “Do you skip classes often?” Chris asked, breaking the distasteful silence.
          Realising that she had probably been staring a bit too long, Bea tore her gaze. Looking at the book on her legs but not reading it, she answered, “Very. Just as long as I manage to maintain my grades and stay on the top, the teachers don’t say anything.” 
          Surprised, Chris asked, “Do you not have to take classes?” This is the first time he heard of a top scholar not having to take lessons. Does she have a private tutor? 
          “I prefer to self-study.” Bea nonchalantly answered. 
          “Everyone calls you a genius.”          
          Slightly annoyed, she replied, “I need to study too…… I’m not a genius.” She then proceeded to munch on her snack and read her book, ignoring Chris. 
          Chris observed her reading. He noticed that she reads really fast, her eyes darting from left to right. The time a normal person would require to finish a page, she would have already finished 3 whole pages. 
          “Do you skip classes too?” Bea asked after finishing her bun. Crumpling the package wrapper in her hands and placing it on the ground next to her. 
          Just then, Chris remembered his initial plan to look for Eric.           “A friend of mine didn't come to class today, so I decided to pay him a visit.” He explained as he stood up.
          Looking up, Bea asked, “What’s so weird about missing a day of class?” 
          “Well……He rarely never comes. So, I figured he might be unwell.” He paused before continuing, “……Plus, I kind of feel responsible for it.”
           Chris wondered if Eric might not be feeling well because of the fight they had yesterday. The punch he delivered was strong but it shouldn't have caused him any major injuries. Either way, he just had to make sure. 
          “A friend?” Bea closed the book and stood up. She turned to put the book back into the shelf behind her. 
          “Yeah…... My best friend, Eric.” He replied casually, turning around, already prepared to leave. 
          Suddenly, Chris heard the thud of a book that hit the carpet floor. He turned to see the book Bea was reading just earlier had fallen on the ground, next to the crumpled package wrapper. Her hand still outstretched towards the shelf. A look of a mixture of surprised and puzzlement plastered on her face.          
          “What’s wrong?” Chris picked up the book and held it out for Bea.           
          Avoiding eye-contact, Bea took the book from Chris. Clumsily, she turned to put the book back into the shelf.
          “My hand slipped.” She hastily replied. 
         'Yeah, right.' was what Chris had wanted to say if he wasn't suddenly reminded that Bea had the same reaction as Eric when he last asked Eric about Bea. They both had the same surprised and nervous look. 
          Chris had brushed off his initial suspicion with the assumption that Eric knows who Bea is because she is first in the school but for Bea to know Eric as well, is too much of a coincidence.           
          “Do you know Eric?” Chris asked.          
          Looking straight into Chris’s eyes, she calmly replied, “I know of no such person.” 
          She had the same tone which made it hard for Chris to tell if she was lying or not.          This frustrated Chris way more than he had expected himself to be. Everything surrounding this girl was a mystery. Sure he was frustrated that she was definitely hiding many things from him but he was growing more interested with the mystery of a person she was every time. 
          With her arms crossed, she looked to her side, refusing to look at Chris.
          Chris sighed and ruffled the back of his hair. “I’m going to check up on him.” 
          Just when he thought that they were growing closer, they just keep falling apart. Each time, further than the other.
          Bea looked up and their eyes met. For a fleeting moment, Chris thought he saw a glint of sadness in her eyes.          He was just about to say something when Bea sternly said, “Then you should go quickly.” 
         Chris watched as she grabbed a different book from the shelf and sat down on the ground once again. 
          Did he say something wrong? Chris wanted to ask but he swallowed his words.           Chris walked up to her and he thought that he would be yelled at, instead he was completely ignored. He would have hated to be yelled at but being ignored hurt more.
          Bea repressed the urge to yell at the boy who she had just asked to leave but for some reason is doing the exact opposite. 
          "What are you......?" Bea turned to see Chris walking away. She noticed that the plastic wrapper on the floor had dissapeared. 
          Sensing the girl's gaze, Chris held the wrapper up in one hand, without turning around, he said, "I'll trash this for you."    
                     XXXXXXXXX 
         Chris has hung out at Eric’s dorm room many times, he even slept there twice, hence he had no problem with directions.
          When he arrived, the dorm was deserted quiet as everyone was in classes.          Chris knocked on the door. He grew excited when the door opened, but it wasn’t Eric, it was his roommate, Dominic.
           “Chris? what brings you here?” The boy had clearly just woken up. His hair was unkempt. He kept sniffling and his face was flushed.
          “Are you okay?” Chris asked out of concerned. 
          Sneezing, he replied drowsily, “I’m.…..fine……” 
          Stretching his head pass Dominic to look into the room, Chris asked, “Is Eric in?” 
          “Didn’t he tell you? He’s not in.”  
          Conflicted, Chris asked, “What do you mean?” Was he supposed to know something? 
           “He sneaked out in the middle of the night. I would have missed him if I had not been tossing and turning in my bed. I couldn’t sleep a wink last night because of this damn flu.” 
          “Did he tell you where he went?”           
          “I’m usually the only one that sneaks out but for him to not be back by dawn is suspicious......” Dominic went into deep thought. Suddenly, he grabbed Chris by the shoulders and in a panicked and unsettled tone asked, “……Could he be trying to avoid me because of my cold?!” 
          Chris wanted to roll his eyes at Dominic, instead he asked, “Have you tried contacting him?”
          Dominic replied, “I haven’t……” He paused, sensing something wrong, he asked, “……is something wrong?”
          Not wanting to worry Dominic, Chris said, “I'm sure he's probably just loitering around somewhere.” Except Chris knew that Eric wasn’t that kind of person. 
          After assuring Dominic that there is nothing to be worried about, Chris wiped out his cell and dialled Eric’s number, but no matter how many times he tried, the calls were directed directly to the voice box. 
          Why isn’t he picking up his phone?! 
          Chris had a very bad feeling of uneasiness chugging in his mind.  Something was not right. It didn’t make any sense for Eric to be gone for so long, enough to not come back for school, now that he knows that Eric has been gone since the night. 
          Chris started running as he thought of what Dominic was telling him when he helped his sick friend into bed.
          “I was sick in bed yesterday, around 3 in the afternoon I heard him on the phone with someone outside. My hearing wasn’t in top condition, but I could definitely tell he was shouting.”           
           Chris noted that 3 was around the time when Chris found Bea in the supermarket. 
          On his way back to nowhere in particular, he was surprised to find Bea standing outside the library. She kept looking around, waiting for someone.          The moment Bea saw Chris, she ran over. 
          “What happened? Why are you in such a hurry?” she asked, concerned.          
          “Eric isn’t at his dorm and he isn’t picking up my calls either.” He told her.           
          Shocked, she suddenly grabbed onto both of Chris’s wrists. “Do you think that something happened to him?”
          Chris stared at her hands grabbing onto his. He grew frustrated. Did she think he was going to run away without answering?
          “I don’t know, but I plan to find out.” Chris said. 
          Letting go of his hands, she asked, “How do you plan to do so?”           
          Chris started walking, not expecting Bea to follow suit. 
          At the very least, he needed to know if Eric is safe. “I think the first thing we’ve to do is contact his family.”            
          “……Except you don’t know anything about his family……” Bea uttered.
          Chris stopped dead in his tracks. He looked back at her questioningly. How does she know that he knows close to nothing about Eric’s family? Eric never talks about his family. The topic was only brought up once and even then, Eric entirely avoided the conversation. 
          “I’m going to raise my concern to John, I’m sure he’ll help us out.” He nor she had Eric’s personal information, but Chris figured that the school must at least have Eric’s family contacts and address.
           If anything, Chris definitely didn't see the 'I’m coming too' that Bea uttered under her breath. 

All Rights Reserved © 2018 by Anne Teng
Hi guys! I'm finally back with Chapter 13! If you managed to read this far, comment down below for me to know, you are amazing! 
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