Teen Romance Fantasy

Act 18 (Ch)

"Christian! Eric and Kadir came over to visit!" I had been peacefully laying in bed, enjoying the silence until my sister May had to rip open the door and come in like a giant dinosaur.

"He's been like this for a week now. If you get annoyed with him, I'll be in my room."

"Sure May, thanks but I think we got this." Kadir smiled, after which May simply shrugged. Just like she had announced, she left us alone. Eric closed the door behind them before he sat down on the floor in front of me. His long legs barely fit in my room. He made some space by putting my tower of comic books on my chair. Kadir on the other hand made himself comfortable by laying against the door. He made sure at least a hundred times that he was not accidentally destroying my posters of Frédéric Chopin, the (in my opinion) greatest pianist of all time.

 Neither Kadir nor Eric said anything until I turned around and got up to face them. I was still in my plain grey PJs but it didn't seem to bother them much.

Eric tried to hand me a lunchbox that he probably filled with the tastiest of goods and asked if I had eaten breakfast yet. I shook my head but I didn't take the lunchbox. Just the thought of food was already making me nauseous.

"Sorry for barging in on you. You didn't come to school, so we got worried."

"Eric got worried." Kadir added. Eric looked at Kadir in disbelieve but Kadir pretended to not notice, despite smiling a little. Really, Eric was too overprotective of me. Still, that was something I loved about him, even if it got on my nerves.

"I didn't know that it was weird for me to miss school."

"True but missing exams isn't something you usually do. Last time it happened, you..." suddenly Kadir became quiet. He had realised where this conversation was going and honestly, it really didn't help.

I sighed. Was this really happening right now? I actually wasn't in the mood to talk at all. My head was getting heavier every second. I was basically just waiting for it to fall off. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about all those noises that were keeping me up the entire night.

Once I looked into Eric's familiar green eyes, I realised how important it was for me to open up. His eyes were baggy. He probably didn't sleep much either because of me. I was surprised that Tyson hadn't told them anything yet. I guess he realised after all that what he did was wrong or he didn't want to start a war.

"They were hurting her..."

"Who? The freak?" Kadir asked.

"Sarah is not a freak!"

"Sorry. I forgot that you guys are friends." Great Kadir. That was really unnecessary.

"I wanted to do something but I was frozen. In that moment I saw myself in Sarah. I held my breath the entire time until I almost collapsed. Right, how is Sarah? Was she at school yet? Louis slammed her head into that table like a maniac!"

Both Eric and Kadir looked at each other in silence for a second, as though they didn't know how to answer me. With every second that passed, the silence became more uncomfortable. My hands were trembling uncontrollably. Why weren't they answering me? Don't tell me something happened to Sarah. It had already happened once. History couldn't simply repeat itself just yet.

"The fr- I mean Sarah is fine. She didn't get hurt at all." Kadir explained rather confused.

"That's impossible! I saw it with my own eyes..."

"Christian, Sarah is just fine. You're the one that seems to be more hurt." 

"I..." I didn't know what to say. I mean, it was great that Sarah wasn't hurt but it just seemed so unnatural. There was no way I could have simply imagined it. Did Louis... No way! As if he would do that. Louis wasn't this kind of a nice person. Besides, he hated Sarah with all his guts.

"Anyways, it's good to know that you're doing better than we imagined. Nikola also asked me how you're doing. Better you call him later and about Sarah..."

"What about her?" My eyes widened the moment Eric said her name in such a pure and genuine way. At least he wasn't judging her.

"You better come to school on Monday and talk to her yourself. You'll see, she's doing just fine. Maybe a little under the weather but that's it."

"That was the plan."

"Good." Eric smiled. I smiled. Kadir didn't smile. Instead he got curious about my keyboard. He didn't touch it but he did dance around it weirdly.

"You want to play?" I asked confused. As if he had just committed a crime, he suddenly turned around and pretended that he didn't know what I meant. However, he didn't keep his silly act up for long. His shoulders relaxed a little and he admitted that he didn't want to be judged by me.

"I'm not that good myself." I admitted embarrassedly.

"What's your definition of the word 'good'? Honestly, I'd never stand a chance against you in a contest."

"You know I don't like stuff like this. Everyone looks at you like you're some kind of a price they can win."

"So? They aren't judging you. They look up to you. You're more talented than you might think you are."

"Kadir!" Silence. Both Kadir and I were startled, when Eric suddenly raised his voice. He was usually so calm and collected that you wouldn't expect that he could actually get angry or mad sometimes as well.

"I think it's enough Kadir. We should get going. What do you say Christian, a round of Seeker tonight? You missed out on the training sessions the entire week. We want to win the junior tournament in Seeker, don't we?"

"Of course. We'll win and make it to the top."

I was kind of glad, when they left. Still, I couldn't fall asleep anymore and it was way too quiet. My mother was at work and my sister May was too busy doing her nails that she didn't want to see me. The moment I tried to enter her room, she chucked a pink pillow at my face, so I was left to myself.

I wondered, what was Sarah doing in that moment? How did she manage to go to school every day despite what they were doing to her? Wasn't she traumatised by the day to day torture that school brought with it?

She was either too strong for her own good or too weak to admit it. Whatever the case, I felt as though I was slowly seeing her stray away from me and honestly that thought scared me. I wanted her to stay by my side and to be happy.