In Our Heads

Chapter 30

*****

The parking lot was empty and quiet apart from the occasional gush of wind. It was quite dark as the sun was just beginning to rise, but the dim light was calming to Cassian who sat in the silent car still gripping the steering wheel like he had been when he drove away from the house.

He unclenched his fingers and slid his hands down the wheel until they met at the bottom before chuckling with disbelief.

He must have lost his mind.

His parents were going to be furious when he arrived home. School had not even started yet and he was already dreading heading home. Hopefully, they had meetings and would not return until late at night.

He should have just kept quiet and agreed like always. Why did this one thing make him lose his head?

Shutting his eyes tightly, he leaned his head back against the seat. Maybe they would have calmed down after a few hours of work. He was not sure how his parents' anger worked, not having dealt with that side of them to this extent before. They barely ever had reasons to be upset with him.

He dropped his hand from the steering wheel and reached into his pocket for his phone but realised that it had been left on the dining table when he made his quick exit. Great.

He sighed looking towards the entrance doors, wondering whether to head into the school figuring that some studying would be a good distraction from everything, but shook the thought away. He was tired and doubted he would be able to keep his eyes open in a silent library. So instead, he decided to take a nap in the car and leaned the seat back slightly before shutting his eyes again.

It was pretty easy drifting off as he listened to the calming sound of the wind blowing outside and was caught off-guard when there was a sudden, loud tapping from beside him, jerking awake as he turned to the window before relaxing as he noticed who it was.

Lance.

How long had he been asleep? It did not feel like that much time had gone by, but Lance usually arrived at school just before the bell rang. Reaching for the keys, Cassian rolled the window down and Lance's brows rose.

"Did you get kicked out?"

"Kicked... No... Why would I get kicked out?"

"I don't know. I was prepared to be shocked by your answer."

Cassian chuckled.

"What are you doing here?"

The question made him glance at his watch before looking back at Lance. It had only been about seven minutes since he had tried to fall asleep.

"Needed to get away. You?"

"Same. My father's girlfriend called. So, Mom went ballistic, as can be expected, and I just left when they began shouting." Lance's straight face did not show it even though he was clearly bothered by what he was saying, causing Cassian to frown. "Anyway," Lance's face brightened. "We heading inside?"

"It's cold."

He did not want to leave his car even though he loved cold weather.

"It really is. Why are you making me stand out here? Let's go."

Cassian laughed, turning to grab his bag from the passenger seat before climbing out of the car.

"What happened?"

"I..."

It seemed stupid to admit that the reason he needed to leave his house was because of a fight about soccer. He did not need to finish his sentence though, because both their heads turned when they heard a car drive in through the front gate.