Thin Ice (M/M Transmigration)

Chapter 15

In the aftermath of what was unequivocally the hardest exam that he had ever taken at this school, Cale collapsed bonelessly on his bed. His body bounced once on the mattress before he laid still, his tired eyes slipping shut. He was up until almost four in the morning for last minute cramming, and then woke up again at six thirty only to cram more knowledge in his head. It was an understatement to say that he was exhausted.

He had a headache. It pounded at the back of his head, furiously. From prior experience, he knew that sleeping wouldn't fix it; he needed to actually go take medicine. The problem was that sitting up and leaving the bed was so much effort. And no matter how intensely he thought about it, his legs just wouldn't move.

He sighed.

The breath hit his bangs and made the strands of hair in front of his eyes flutter. Quietly, he looked at them. He sighed again. Once more, they fluttered in the tiny breeze.

His eyes closed again and he wondered what he was supposed to do now. Three out of five important exams were over and done with, and there were only two left. Once he passed them, he would finally be able to slow down his studying, get some proper sleep, and rest his brain.

Rolling over on the bed so he faced the ceiling, he opened his eyes again. He stared straight up at it, his pale eyes hazy and unfocused. His eyelashes trembled from the effort he expended to keep his eyes open.

Cale was tired. So tired that he was surprised he hadn't fallen asleep already. But he was also immensely happy and relieved.

A smile spread on his lips, his eyes glittering with delight. Two months into the spring semester and over half of the hardest exams of his life had been completed. Finished. He didn't have to think about it any more. Better yet, they had such big influence over his final grades in the relevant classes that he could actually be fairly certain of his end grade.

Cale was going to graduate. This summer, he would be leaving this all behind; this dangerous school with its dangerous people and plotlines. He would leave and never come back.

He rolled over on the bed again. Facing the wall, his finger traced a nonsensical pattern on it over the rough paint. It scratched against the skin on the tip of his finger, the sensation funny enough that it only made his smile grow. His eyes followed the trail his finger was laying out, eagerly watching as a figure slowly formed.

He was glad that he had passed two exams so far, and he had confidence that he would pass this one as well. His stomach fluttered with happiness. But he also wasn't sure what to do now, when he was finally reaching the point he had been relentlessly working toward.

He'd never actually planned what he was going to do once he left Glaiz Gria. Sure, he had had half-formed ideas; moving to a countryside where nothing exciting ever happened, getting a job at a library, maybe opening a bookshop someday far into the future. But he'd not actually thought that he would reach this point and he hadn't wanted to think about it either. Thinking about it would mean acknowledging the fact that he was never going to go back home.

He was stuck here.

Forever.

But he couldn't let that stop him from living the life he wanted to. So, he needed to plan. He needed to decide what he was going to do after this. Where he would go. How he would make money. Figure out if he needed to learn a new language.

That headache was still pounding away, but it was easy to ignore it when he was distracted. His hands returned to the bed as his mind churned.

At some point, he fell asleep.

Cale woke back up to the sound of knocking; it was becoming a familiar situation. Often, he was awoken by knocks on his door. He turned over on the bed to face the room at large and frowned, his hand rubbing his eyes. The headache was still there and as he had expected, sleeping hadn't helped. It had only become harder to ignore.