Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Romance

Chapter 31
Chris dragged his legs up the slope leading to the school, initially he had not wanted to attend classes to just lie in bed and stare at the fan rotating painfully slowly or the ceiling, but a part of him didn't want to just lie around and do absolutely nothing. So, he got up from the bed, grabbed his beg, and headed for the door. Lying down on the bed, he didn’t feel tired whatsoever but the moment he walked out of the door, and the outside air hitting him, it was like the sleep bug decided to land on him, Chris felt drained off his energy.
Chris hadn’t expect that seeing his father with another family would cause him that much grief. He didn’t sleep a wink that night. He tried but he couldn’t wrap his head around everything that he had encountered. Absolutely nothing good happened to him yesterday, although he was grateful for his impeccable self control that he didn’t lose it entirely and raise his hand at Greg. He was so close, so close to  flipping the entire table in a cafe filled with unsuspecting adults and their children. 
Chris had been reciving calls from Greg ever since their bitter part. He eventually resorted to silencing his phone and blocking the number. He planed to never see that person ever again. He has mad up his mind yesterday. He didn’t need the person that left him and his mother for another family. 
“Chris, wait up!” A familiar voice calling out to him pulled him back to reality. 
He turned to see Dominic and Eric both jogging up to him, joining him in seconds. 
“You’re awful early today.” Dominic who caught up first stated more so than ask. 
If Eric was tired beforehand, he wasn't anymore when he saw Chris. 
Wided eye, concern lacing his features, he asked, "Are you okay? You don't look so good." 
Only then did it hit Chris how out of character he must look today, he had left his dorm not bothering to wash up, his hair must be in a mess and he just realised that he had buttoned his shirt wrongly. 
“Hey, do you want to skip classes today?” Chris asked, fixing his attire, looking at Eric in particular. 
Eric looked at him weirdly as though Chris had contracted a weird disease of sorts. 
“I’ll skip!” Dominic raised his hand in enthusium but Chris completely disregarded him. If there's anyone that needs classes more than anyone, it would Dominic. 
“I was just kidding! Why did you have to look at me in such a distasteful way?” Chris laughed his slight dissapointment away. 
“I can’t skip…... If I miss one class, I’ll fall behind.” Eric very depressingly said.
“You say one thing but your face tells another.” Chris pointed out, but he wouldn't hold Eric against it, they both know why Eric is studying like a mad man. 
Eric let out a sigh. “Let’s not talk about me. How is your mum?”
Chris’s smile broke the moment his mum was mentioned. “She’s fine.” he replied a little too stiffly. 
“Has there been any progress?” Eric asked.
“Her situation is in stable condition.” 
“Hey, don’t let it get to you.” Eric had a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Have you had breakfast?”
Chris felt a sting run through his veins. And he suddenly felt like crying. He held it in. He only just realised he hadn't had food in his system for a whole day. 
But…… would food be able to get rid of this sinking feeling of drowning? Where no matter how much you feel like screaming out, you just can’t.
                      XXXXXXXXX
If there's anything that Eric likes more than listening to music, it was numbers. Hence, he had no problem practising maths questions. However, at this point, Eric concluded that if he were to see another maths problem he would rip his brain out. 
He dropped his pen and pulled off his headphones, allowing the device to rest on his shoulders while he stretched his stiffed neck, trying to loosen the muscle.
He heard movement of feet shuffling from behind him. He turned in his wheeled chair to see Chris waking up. That boy has fallen asleep for more than hour. Eric was impressed that Chris could even fall asleep in such a position. He was sitting on the floor, his head leaning against the stand of Eric and Dominic’s bunk bed when he fell asleep.
“Where’s Dominic?” Chris asked sheepishly when he couldn't find Dominic in the room. His voice hoarse from just waking up. 
“He’s out with his girlfriend.”  Eric answered as he took off his headphones and placed them on the table. 
“How long was I asleep?” Chris asked, trying to rub out the sleep from his eyes. 
“You must have been really tired. Dominic was talking about his love problems when you so suddenly fell asleep. You missed out on his juicy tale, Haha!” Eric said, not exactly answering Chris's question. 
Chris stared blankly at Eric. 
“We tried to wake you but you were completely knocked out. I even tried putting my headphones on you but you wouldn’t budge. If not for your chest rising and falling, I would have actually thought you were dead.” Eric went on, his tone a little flabbergasted as he cleared his table, filing his notes. 
“I’m going out for dinner. Would you like…...” Eric pushed his chair backwards, about to stand up when Chris shot up from the ground so suddenly, his sudden movements surprising Eric.
“I’m sorry, I have a place to go to.” Chris searched the ground before he located his beg, grabbed it and dashed out of the door. 
"...... Okay?" Eric scratched the back of his head in confusion. Guess he'll having dinner alone, again.
                     XXXXXXXXXX
Chris was on his way with Eric and Dominic to their dorm, when they passed the library, he thought about entering to look for Bea when Dominic suddenly started talking about his day. Now, Chris couldn't possibly ditch his friend just when said friend was literally about to burst into tears for not being able to beat that one level in piano tiles. 
Even after entering the room, Dominic wouldn't shut up and Chris had no idea when but at one point he felt his eyelids growing heavy, soon enough he ended up falling asleep leaning against Eric’s bed.
This leads him to his current situation, Chris was descending the stairs in a hurry. He pulled out his phone from his beg, it was already 6. There were notifications and missed calls from Bea. He had overslept and completely forgot that he had a job to go to. He had already missed a day yesterday, he could only wonder how Mrs. Helda would think of him. 
When Chris reached the store, he was out of breath and still very much late. He was about to enter the house when he froze at the sound of laughter leaking out of the open door. From the outside, Chris could see Bea inside, reading to the children while others were just running around, playing among themselves. 
How foreign their happiness was to him. Everyone inside the house is smiling and laughing as though there is no care in the world. The children each had a family to return to at the end of the day. 
Chris felt a strange desire spur in him as he walked to the door. He wanted to be apart of that world, his best days were spent here, even if deep down he knows that it is merely temporary. 
Chris entered the store and suddenly, a book was flying right in his direction. Scooting over to his right, Chris swiftly dodged it, causing it to fly out of the door, landing on the ground. 
Chris walked back out the door to pick up the book. He swiped the dusk off the book before walking back into the house, he scanned the room, finally spotting Alex at the very back of the room, his small figure pressed up against the wall. The boy didn't look a bit happy, a pout evident on his face. Chris bend down to Alex’s height and without so much as a heads up, picked the boy up and placed him atop his shoulder. 
Alex looked down at Chris in surprise, his small hands landing on Chris's head, fisting his hair, Alex asked, “What are you doing?” 
Chris's hands reached into his pocket to fish out a sweet and offered it to Alex’s. “I missed you.” Chris said, not caring if he sounded like a snap. 
“No you don't. You like Bea.” Alex protested. Face lighting up when he saw the sweet. Alex snatched it from Chris's hand. 
Chris merely laughed. Sure, the boy had been hurling books at him since day one but he still liked Alex as though he was his little brother. 
Getting down on one knee, he let Eric down. The boy unwrapped the sweet and popped it into his mouth. Without much of a thank you the boy just ran to his group of friends. 
Chris was standing up when Mrs. Helda walked up to him. 
“I’m sure you have a good excuse for not turning up yesterday?” She asked, hands on her hips, right eyebrow raised waiting for an explanation. 
Chris put out his hand to Helda. She looked at the sweet in his hand to the smirk on his face, before scolding, “You’re 1000 years too early to be bribing me with sweets.” 
She wasn't a little bit intimidating, Chris had to hold in a laugh, especially when Mrs. Helda took the sweet anyway.
Mrs. Helda walked back into her office muttering words. Finally left to his own devices, he walked up to Bea, who was sitting cross legged on the ground, crouching down by her side. 
“Thanks to you I’ve settled the doubt in my mind.” Chris told her.
Expectedly, Bea had little to no clue on what he was talking about. She looked at him questioningly.
“I’m sorry I didn’t turn up yesterday.” Chris apologised while Bea exchanged him a look of understanding. 
“Alex waited the whole day for you yesterday and he was pretty sad when you didn’t turn up.” Bea softly told him.
“He did?” Chris looked over to where the boy was at. He was moving his hands around, mouth moving as he seemingly narrate a story to the younger boy that was looking up at him in awe. Suddenly, Chris was really glad he came. 
“He went on about sweets and the promise you made with him. What promise did you make?” Bea asked. 
Chris visibly stiffened at her question. He ended up laughing it off.
“What if I were to not come back here?” Chris asked when he escorted Eric out the door. 
Without a second thought, Alex replied flatly. “I will expose you.”
That made Chris laughed. Boy oh boy, Chris wouldn’t want to be on this boy's bad side.  
Chris deliberately shouted loud enough that Mrs. Helda who was in the kitchen could hear. “Heard that? Alex said that you can’t fire me!” 
“I’ll fire you whenever I want to!” Mrs. Helda shouted back from the kitchen. 
Chris and Bea exchanged looks and laughed while Eric merely looked at them uninterested. 
                       XXXXXXXXXX
After spending time with the children at the store, Chris felt so much better. The sinking feeling he had earlier had vanished. 
“How is the story coming?” Chris asked Bea as they were tidying up the store.
“I have only ever drawn a few sketches. And they don't exactly collerate with each other. So, I’m just at a lost.” Bea told Chris as she picked up books from the ground. Bea tried to reach the top shelve but she couldn’t reach. Chris saw and went over to help her by grabbing the book from her hand and putting it back into the sheve.
“You’re pretty short.” Chris teased her.
“I’m almost Five foot.” Bea defended herself, crossing her arms in her defence. 
Chris found her pouting face cute. His hand automaticaly reached for Bea’s cheek and pulled it. Bea turned to look at Chris in surprise. 
Chris noticed how soft her skin was to the touch. He didn’t want to let go. In fact, he wanted to touch more.
“If you continue to do so, my cheeks will become saggy.” Bea said. 
Chris refused to let go, only letting go when Mrs. Helda walked up to them. “Thank you both for your great work today. I’ll be closing the store soon.” 
Chris and Bea bid their boss farewell and left. 
Chris walked Bea back to her apartment. They made small talk but Chris wasn't satisfied, was he going to leave it like that? He wanted to spend more time with her. He hadn't even realised that he was falling behind, so caught up in his thoughts. 
Chris rushed up to her side. Undetermined what to do or say, wishing how time would slow down, he was definitely acting out of character because Bea had stopped in her tracks, looking at Chris worryingly, she asked, “Is something wrong?” 
Chris hadn't expect Bea to ask, he blanked out for a few seconds before recollecting himself, asking the first thing that came to his mind, “What do you like to do in your free time?” 
“I used to go to the movies with my parents.” 
“Would you want to go the movies?” Chris asked, shying away from her gaze. 
There was a brief moment of silence and Chris thought for sure that she was going to turn him down when he heard Bea reply, "Sure.”   



All Rights Reserved @ 2018 by Anne Teng 
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