Avoided

Chapter Eight: The Storm Arises

His eyes didn't even close for a minute during his first night as he lay upon his bed rubbing the fatigue away. Surely all the nights wouldn't be like this, but until he figure out the uneasy thought that haunted him, the sooner he will be able to take more than just a mere cat nap in the middle of the country's slumber.

  Leon hadn't bothered setting his alarm up, predicting his lack of sleep before he had gone to bed, not sleep, but to bed. Grabbing the hem of the cotton sheet, he pulled it up over his face, as if he were a dead body about to have an autopsy on what caused him to plunge into the arms of Death. If being lethargic could kill someone, then he must already be long past dead.

  Within the darkness of the blanket and the protection from the light of the new sun, Leon took in a deep breath and blew in an exhale against the surface, waiting, and praying that Yong Soo and maybe Emil would wake up soon. He couldn't handle just lying here. He had been doing that for the entire night.

 
"I just want to get this day over with," Leon whispered into the sheet. "but I can't without those two." With his forefinger he pushed the top of the sheet down till it was right under his defined nose and turned his head to observe the sleepers among the quiet space of dawn. His brother, motionless and clearly deep in slumber, didn't as so much toss or turn, creasing the sheets or snoring softly into the comfort of his pillow. Leon sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyelids and reaching his hands up to the ceiling and landing them back down beside him. He touched his soles down to the coldness of the polished wood, and arose, turning around to pull and tuck the sheets and blanket into the frame of the bed, rubbing his hand across any creases that happened to come up during the entire morning routine.

  Stalking over towards his bag, he slowly unzipped until the zipper was in the middle and reached in, groping for his uniform the head master had given him the day of his late arrival with his brother. Clasping his required clothing, he pulled it from the bag, not bothering to back flash on the zipping and stood once more to walk over to the door, grabbing his room key which lay upon the nightstand as he made his way out of the open space. Tenderly, he closed the door, letting the lock click into place as soft as a feather. The only thing left to do now is to get changed and ready for whatever lies ahead.

  Hoping and jinxing, he crept down the hall, seeing his reflection in the marble of the floor, approaching the male restroom on the left and the female restroom to the right. Making his way over, he pulled the entry way open, stepped inside, and closed the door gently behind him.

..........

  Time seemed to have froze as Leon had gotten prepared physically for the brutal day of learning he had in his very near future. The bathroom, like many other locations in the school yard, had been unsettling empty with the silence of cell phones and chatter, but not the wonders penetrating in Leon's mind. There was not a single doubt that he saw her last night. It had to be her, it just had to be.

No one has the chirp of her voice, the same rhythm in which her dark hair falls, the same joy she has when she sees her grandfather. Leon couldn't doubt himself in what he saw, and when he saw her climbing up the stairs behind him, glancing back with the corner of his eye, she must've recognized him too, for her glare created bullet holes in his back, painful and life-threatening.

There was still a sense of clarity in those eyes she had bore into him, a kind of despair, in which his heart ached the same way. Perhaps she hadn't gotten over him either.

 Walking down the hall, he let his shoes echo up and down, left to right, not caring if he awoke anyone. In a few minutes, people were going to start flooding the halls, heading downstairs to breakfast. Coming to a stop at his door, he reached into his breast pocket with the patch and pulled out the golden key, sticking it into the lock and turning it, opening the door with ease.