Beyond The Crash

CHAPTER 18 | [A NEW FELLOW]

The noise of what he was watching snapped them both out of whatever trance they were in. He removed his earpods as he turned to her again.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare," he apologised.

Lilley flinched at the sound of his voice. His voice suited him quite well; in fact, too well. It was a bit low but playful and had a flirty tone to it.
So deceiving... she gulped.

"No, no, I'm- uh I mean- no," he tilted his head a bit, a grin forming on his lips while she tried her best to regain her composure.
I mean, I guess it's normal. Just look at him! She exhaled slowly. "I mean, I'm sorry too,"

She thought his features and Atticus were way too similar in most aspects except some few details, and the voice is one of them. So far from hearing Atticus, one line words, she figured they didn't sound the same, but somehow, their pronunciation sounded similar, if that made any sense.
Could they be twins? She thought. It'll make the most sense if they were.

He chuckled, drawing her attention back to him again. "What's-"

"Here's your uniform," Mrs. Julia said as she walked back in with a new dry, cleaned uniform, cutting him off.

"Thank you," he collected it from her hand.

"Why didn't you come on the first day?" Mrs. Julia inquired.

"I came back from my trip that day," he answered back politely.

"Well, I don't think you missed much," she sat back behind her desk. "You may go."

"Sure," He stood up and glanced at Lilley, who was trying not to look at him, to which he grinned. "Hope we meet again," he said as he tapped her chair.

"William, go," Mrs. Julia said with a sigh, but the firmness in her tone was received.

"Okay, okay," he chuckled. "I didn't even do anything."

Lilley glanced back and saw him looking at her. He winked before swiftly exiting the office.
She could already feel her cheek flushed.
"Word of advice," Mrs. Julia started, drawing back Lilley's attention. "Don't get to involve with him. Be careful around his friends also. They have their own fair share of troubles."

Lilley nodded, though not really understanding why Mrs. Julia was telling her all this. He seemed like a nice enough person. But then she reasoned that there must be some sort of reason behind that.
It's not like we'll run into each other a lot, she thought.

Thereafter, a knock was heard on the door. Julia relaxed back on her chair as she invited them in. As Lilley turned, she saw a total of five students and was confused.
Why were they here?

"These are some of the students from the photography club," Julia started. "As I mentioned yesterday, their doing a workshop program, which was why you probably heard a lot of camera sounds," her eyes moved to the group of student. "Though, I was informed you'd be doing the workshop more quietly," the sternness in her voice was well received as few looked nervous.

"We were quiet," one of them said, surety in his voice.

"That's beyond the matter right now," Julia massaged her temples as she eyed each of them again. "Where's your club leader?"

They kept quiet for a while before one of the three girls spoke up, "Um, he's not around. He normally doesn't come this early to school," she informed.

"I thought he'd change this behaviour," Julia shook her head, an obvious look of disappointment in her eyes. "Did you not inform him about this?"

"We did," the girl answered. "But um... he texted that he would be a bit late and told us to apologise in advance."

"Apologise?" Lilley tilted her head a bit in confusion.