Losing Game

Chapter 4 - Searching

The butterflies in Zee's stomach slowly turned into knots as he got closer to the international school. He had finally found the person he was looking for, well more of Max finding them. With every step, he started to recall what happened after he came home from a long day at the cafe last night. He had entered the apartment to see Max sitting on the couch watching television while Tommy was in a very messy kitchen. All their cups, plates, bowls, cooking pans and utensils were out on the counters. Not wanting to interrupt whatever this punishment was, Zee had gone to sit with Max on the couch. It took Max a couple of minutes before he spoke on the elephant in the room.

"Our good friend Tommy is making the kitchen pretty after abandoning me on our hunt" he said as his voice raised a bit on the ending remark.

"It wasn't my fault I had to use the res-"

"You could have held it for ten more minutes" he spat back

As much as Zee finds the whole situation funny, he did want the conversion to move to another subject: the photo. He just didn't know how to bring it up.

"I can feel you staring at me, so thank you for thinking I'm cute" Max said with a wink

"Think whatever you want, but uhh...the...photo?"

In an instant Max changed from his normal self to serious. "I thought you'd never ask. Okay so after Mr. Wrong Timing came back from the restroom, we went to go look for P'Mint to get any information about P'Mild -"

"P'Mild?" Zee asked

"Yes, the other guy in the photo. Anyways, she had to go back to work but she did send a friend of his our way after my begging. If you don't see me next week after classes, just know I am volunteering at the clinic. I showed the senior the photo and he said our mystery person is a friend of P'Mild's little sister, Orn Patchanan. He's never met him but has always seen him with Orn and their friends. Even though he didn't know his name, he does know that this person attends the International School."

Zee took a moment to digest the information just given to him. "The international school" he whispered to himself.

"As much as I would love to help you find this person, I've already been caught by my professors and Tommy's are starting to catch on. I think you're on our own for this"

"I think I can handle it"

"If I'm allowed to speak -" both Zee and Max turned around to see Tommy holding a spatula in his hand, waiting for one of their approvals. Zee was the one to shake his head.

"We mainly stayed in the hallways waiting for classes to end or in the lounge areas. We never saw him there so maybe you could look in the areas we didn't get to first like the canteen or their huge library."

That night it was Zee who was tossing and turning in his bed. His thoughts kept him awake so the only other thing he could do was stare at the ceiling of his room. Would he finally get to meet this person tomorrow? What would he say to him if he does find him? Is it okay to just say hi? Should he mention that they already ran into each other before? By the time sleep finally took over him, it was three in the morning.

Usually the sound of his annoying alarm would make him hit the snooze button, but today was different. His eyes opened with no problem, like they have slept for hours but in reality he got four hours of sleep. He walked out of his room and noticed Max's shoes were already gone but Tommy's still there. Zee rushed to the bathroom just in case he would wake up anytime soon and try to hog it. Zee couldn't count how many times he and Max would be waiting outside the bathroom door while Tommy took his sweet time. After finishing his shower and wrapping a towel around his waist, he opened the door to find a sleepy Tommy with his back against the wall.