Imperfect Life: Arc 7

Chapter 18

Brandon woke up the next morning. He had slept peacefully throughout the night, but now his alarm was screeching at him to wake up even faster. He got up out of bed and started getting ready for school. Once he got downstairs to eat breakfast, he noticed Crys wasn't around. He figured she was still getting ready, so he quickly ate something and got his shoes on so he and Crys could start their walk to school. There was only one problem. Crys was still nowhere to be seen. Confused, Brandon went upstairs and went over to Crys' room. He peeked through the doorway only to find Crys still asleep in bed. He walked over to her.

"Crys?" Brandon said. He nudged her shoulder.

"What?" Crys murmured, sounding very annoyed.

"Come on, we need to get going for school." Brandon said.

"I want to sleep in!" Crys said, a tad aggressive.

"Crys, come on!" Brandon said, getting annoyed. "We're going to be late!"

Crys gave a frustrated groan.

"Crys!" Brandon exclaimed.

"Fine!" Crys snapped back, kicking off her covers. She got up and pushed Brandon gently to the side as she grumbled under her breath.

Brandon shook his head and left to go and wait by the front door.

A few minutes later, Crys met Brandon by the door and the two of them headed off to school for the day.

The walk to school was relatively quiet. Neither friend said much of anything. It was like there was a tension between them. Something just didn't feel quite right.

Brandon took a few glances at Crys on occasion. She had her head slightly tilted with a cross between a vacant expression and a mildly annoyed one on her face. She was walking a little more aggressively, too. It threw him off a bit to see Crys like this. It wasn't the usual way she acted when something was wrong.

"Are you okay?" Brandon asked out of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" Crys asked back, sounding ever so slightly off. It was like she was bothered to be asked in the first place.

"I don't know, you just seem a bit... off." Brandon said.

Crys shrugged. "Well, other than that maniac Seinhou showing up again last night, I'm fine." She said with an edge to her tone.

"What'd he do this time?" Brandon asked.

"How should I know!" Crys snapped. "It's not like he ever tells me anything!"

Brandon went quiet. He didn't understand why Crys was so on edge today, and her snapping at him just made everything more tense.

"Stupid gun, yeah, sure, I'm a mistake. Gee, great... Love to know how you thought that one up. Maybe if you weren't taking the time to insult me every five seconds you could actually figure things out and..." Crys muttered angrily to herself quietly.

Brandon tuned out Crys' murmurings. He figured it was probably best to let her be and have time to just cool down... at least, he hoped that was what he should do.

Crys kept murmuring to herself for most of the walk to school. She just didn't care.

Once at school, Crys and Brandon made their way through the hallways and to their first class of the day. As the teacher taught, Crys was paying absolutely no attention whatsoever, just sitting back in her chair and zoning out. When class was done, everyone moved on to their next class, and then the next. The entire time, Crys was paying no attention to what was going on, not caring in the slightest. Now in the cafeteria for lunch, Crys and Brandon joined with Tomas and Emma as per usual.