Imperfect Life: Arc 7

Chapter 13

The next day after school, Emma was sitting with Tomas in his living room on the couch. Emma had some tea to drink that Tomas' dad had made for her while Tomas had some flavored water instead.

"At least math is going well for me this year." Tomas said, continuing his conversation with Emma.

"The extra hours of studying you have been putting in have helped a lot." Emma replied.

"Yeah. That's pretty much all I do now, though. Practice for games or practice for school." Tomas commented, sounding a tad annoyed, though not bothered.

"That is not all you do." Emma said in her own playful way.

"Okay, sure. I hang out with you a lot of the time, granted. Of course, there's always Crys and Brandon, but..." Tomas trailed off.

"What about them?" Emma asked.

Tomas thought for a second. "I don't know." He said. "Brandon is still, well, Brandon, but Crys... I don't know. Something seems off about her lately."

"She is being harassed by the popular kids again." Emma replied.

"Yes, but there's something else. She seems more worried than usual. More anxious."

"I doubt it is anything too serious." Emma said.

"Are you sure? After all, it isn't like she keeps things from us." Tomas said with a tinge of frustration.

"Tomas, she had said in the past that she only keeps things from us for our safety. If there is something serious happening and she is not telling us about it, consider that she may be doing so in order to keep us from being involved."

Tomas gave a disgruntled sigh. "I understand that, but it isn't fair." He said.

Emma shrugged. "You cannot change her. I suggest that you just accept that that is who she is."

"Okay, all that aside, haven't you noticed her being more antsy at lunch, lately? And half the time she comes in looking exhausted." Tomas shifted the subject.

"You know she suffers from nightmares." Emma said. "However, I think that her actions are simply a combination of the stress of dealing with the bullies as well as poor sleep."

"Tch. Like always then, I guess." Tomas said.

"It would be nice to get together with her and Brandon, though. Perhaps the four of us could go out somewhere this weekend?" Emma suggested.

"I think that would be fun." Tomas said. He paused for a moment. "I'm worried about Crys." He said, sounding worried.

"You know she has not been herself since Brandon had disappeared." Emma said, trying her best to comfort her boyfriend.

"Yes, but she just seems so... extra worried. Much more than usual. Beyond being picked on in school. I think something's wrong." Tomas explained.

"So, how about we ask Brandon and see if he could explain?"

"That's a good idea." Tomas replied. He picked up his phone from the coffee table in front of him and called up Brandon. "Hi, Brandon." Tomas said once Brandon picked up.

"What's up?" Brandon asked. Emma could hear the conversation since Tomas put the call on speaker.

"Look, we have a question. You wouldn't happen to be near Crys, would you?" Tomas asked.

"Not at the moment, but I could grab her if you'd like." Brandon offered.

"No, we just don't want her to overhear."

"Oh." Brandon said, realizing this was a more serious matter. "What is it?"

"I've been noticing Crys acting a lot more worried than usual, even by school standards. Is something going on that she's not telling us?" Tomas asked frankly.

Brandon took a second to pause and think. "Uh..." He said as he thought. "Well, she hasn't been sleeping well recently." He explained, sticking to the truth in a way that wouldn't reveal anything about Seinhou. "She's been having some really bad nightmares. She'll have some nights where she wakes up in the middle of the night and it's pretty bad. I mean, she's also got the usual uh, night stuff going on, too, but it's nothing too crazy out there."

"I remember the news report." Tomas said.

Emma was keeping quiet to listen.

"Yeah, so she's just been going through a lot, lately." Brandon said.

"Any larger issues like we've had to deal with in the past?" Tomas asked.

"Nothing like that." Brandon said casually. "Right now it's more... personal." He sounded a bit worried.

"Personal as in revenge? Vendetta? Anything of the sort?" Tomas asked, a little more flat in tone, almost accusingly.

"Not really." Brandon reaffirmed, a little uncertain. He didn't want to lie. "It's just a personal issue she's having right now."

"I'm assuming she's already told you all about it." Tomas accused.

"Tomas." Emma spoke up, giving her boyfriend a glare that told him he went too far.

"I'm sorry." Tomas quickly threw on.

"No, it's fine." Brandon replied. "I know you don't like being left out. The only reason I know anything is because she's living in my house. That, and I'm pretty much all she's got for emotional support. She tells me nearly everything."

Tomas felt slightly offended that Crys didn't consider him good enough to help her out like that, but he also knew that he definitely wouldn't be of any help anyways, so it didn't hurt too much.

Emma nodded her head a little. She already figured that was the case.

"Alright, I can accept that." Tomas said, slightly begrudgingly.

"Anyways, I wouldn't worry about it much. We're trying to figure it out as we go along." Brandon added on. "And, if it makes you feel any better, if any of it winds up involving you both, then believe me, we'll let you know."

"Thanks." Tomas said.

"Yeah." Brandon replied.

"That was all. Just had to know." Tomas added on.

"Alright, cool, well, I guess I'll see y'all tomorrow." Brandon said. "Bye."
"Goodbye." Tomas said as he hung up. He took a few seconds to ponder, then looked over at Emma.

"I would say that went over quite well." Emma said, almost jokingly.

"Well, at least we know what's going on again." Tomas said.

"I would not worry about it too much." Emma tacked on.

"I won't." Tomas said. "I'm just hoping that it isn't anything bad."

"I agree." Emma agreed.

"Well, anyway. What was that experiment you wanted me to help you with?" Tomas changed the subject.

Emma then went on to talk about a reaction she wanted to create and how Tomas would help her in the lab. Their day continued on peacefully.