Tʜᴇ ልςαdεmψ

The Place of Happiness

Liam and May sat perched in the window seat of the warm, diverse library of The Academy. May sipped on a warm black coffee as Liam copied May's notes from their lecture, glancing up at her every once and a while.

"Did you get the part on 'Modern Language Association' yet? We're running short on time, Liam."

Shivers always got sent down his spine when his name was mentioned in her soft voice, even after they were a couple.

Liam sighed. "No, I haven't.", he said as he began to rush his writing, making it look carefree and sloppy.

"You should've paid Professor Jones at least half of an ounce of attention. Because if you had, we wouldn't be rushing to get your notes finished," May told him.

"I was too busy staring at you, darling," Liam replied along with a wink.

May rolled her eyes and playfully slapped his arm. "You're ridiculous."

"But I'm also truthful," he joked.

Liam loved seeing May happy like this. It always put him in a Place of Happiness. It had been a long time since he had seen her like this, possibly before they even arrived at The Academy. Liam finally pinpointed exactly where May lost her happy spark. It was when they encountered the lizard-like people. Liam's smile faded. He remembered how it was entirely his own fault. If he wasn't so scared of the dark tunnel and went in first, he would've been the victim. He made her lose her happiness. He threw her away himself, heartlessly slamming the lid to the metaphorical trash can shut. It was entirely his fault that she had the trauma she had. It was his fault that those lizard-people got her, it was his fault that she was punished, it was his fault that Nathan is dead, therefore the bombs were also his fault. He ruined May.

May's smile faded, as well. "Liam, what is wrong?", she asked with concern.

Liam ignored her question.

"Let's get back to class, I'm sure our lunch break is almost over," Liam told her with haste.

May let out her signature exasperated sigh. She began to neatly place her belongings into her black messenger bag.

"Liam-", he cut her off.

"May, I'm dangerous for you."

"You are not!"

"I am! I made you go into that tunnel first, I got you punished, I killed Nathan, which caused those bombs that also caused you to get hurt," Liam choked back a knot in his throat. He could feel the tears prickling at the back of his dark brown eyes like pine needles.

"None of it was your fault. And besides, the past is in the past. You had no bad intentions.", she wiped a tear slowly rolling down Liam's cheek away with her thumb. Liam felt her cold metal ring press against his face to wipe the tear away.

He sighed. "You're too good for me," he mentioned with exhaustion.

"No, we just match each other nicely."

Liam allowed himself to give her the slightest smile.

He watched May leave the library in a trance before he realized that he had to go to the same place as she. So he rushed after her.

May smirked. "Finally catch up?"

"Oh yes, Volkov. You're very athletic. Therefore, very difficult to keep up with," he joked. Athletics were always May's difficulty, and Liam knew that.

May replied with a joking elbow into Liam's side.

"I can kind of run!", she said in defense.

"May, I was joking," Liam empathized.

May shot him a loving smile and walked into their next class; History of The Academy.

Liam moped in behind her. History was never his thing along with Algebra. And for some odd reason, learning the history of the school gave him shivers down his spine...

"Is everyone here?", Professor Illion asked.

The five students who were in the class looked at the twenty-seven empty seats that surrounded them and gave the smiling professor a confused glance.

Professor Illion chuckled. "I should only have you five for class today, don't worry about your classmates, they just have a...", he hesitated, thinking, "a free period."

May slightly tilted her head in confusion.

"As I mentioned previously, don't worry about them, Miss Volkov."

May positioned her head to be looking straight ahead and nodded. She still felt off, though. That many kids got out of class? No way.

Liam felt the typical shiver run down his spine.

"Now, class. Today we will be starting off with the construction of the school, as we have not reached that yet," Professor Illion looked up at the students from under his usual bucket hat.

Liam spaced out as Professor Illion seemed to take hours to complete one sentence. But one sentence- or half of one- in particular caught his ears. He snapped back into reality as it was said.

"-although, that tunnel was hidden from any eyes in 1834, even I don't know where it is located. But, it could've been destroyed along with the school during its deconstruction."

Liam sat in his thoughts for the rest of class, blocking out everything that Professor Illion would say. What tunnel? Was he talking about an abandoned part of the school? Could he be talking about the tunnel that he and May went through only to find murderous lizard-people? Why was it there? Did his brain construct the sentence that Professor Illion spoke and is imagining this entire thing? He also wondered, along with May, about the missing kids.

The long bell finally rung, indicating that class was over.

Liam rushed out of class with May trailing right behind him.

"Liam, you really need to pay-" he cut her off.

"May, we have to go back to the library. We must check the bookshelf with the Algebra books."

׺°"˜'"°ºº°"˜'"°º×

Hello loves! Guess who's back! I'm very sorry for my empty promises of updates. I finished my dance season, but right after I fell into a depressed and an anxiety spike. However, my school year ended today and I'm all done with dance, so updates should become regular again! I hope to see you in the next chapter! Happy reading~!

-averslxo

׺°"˜'"°ºº°"˜'"°º×