In Our Heads

Chapter 31

*****

The wind outside blew loudly, creating rustling from the backyard as Cassian wrote.

It was just past five, so he had about an hour before his tutor arrived, but it was already quite dark outside, given that it had been very cloudy all day. It did not look like it would be raining though.

He kept getting distracted by his thoughts and every few seconds he would have to re-read a line in his textbook because he had drifted off somewhere along the way, eventually he let out a sigh as he dropped his pen and looked over at the windows.

The curtains were drawn so he could see outside. It was amusing that he seemed more distracted without his phone nearby despite it having been a few days since he saw or used it. He had attended the meeting with his father earlier and it turned out to be like all the others, informative and interesting though not immediately useful to him.

It did not seem like a meeting he needed to attend, but he had skipped his game for it anyway. Still angry about that and their not listening to a word he said, he had not said much to his parents in the past week and opted to eat in his room, they let it be citing that he would 'get over it soon'.

They were probably right; he had no choice and would eventually have to start acting normally around them.

Today was not that day though. His annoyance about not having his phone had been building up all week as it was incredibly hard to communicate with his friends and Theodore without it. He did not have enough time at school to talk to anyone and did not think he was the best company in the morning, given that he was always tired.

Those sleeping pills did not seem to be working, even when taking more than one, he ended up tossing and turning all night.

Pushing away from his desk, he rolled his chair over to the balcony doors before leaning back as he watched the movement around the yard. It looked nice outside and he wanted to take a walk, not in the yard... but he was not allowed outside of the yard. His parents were not home though, still they always figured out when he had left.

He sighed as he stood up.

What was the worst they could do?

Ground him longer, threaten to home-school him – they had actually done that recently – but with the constant emphasis on networking, would they really do that? Did he want to find out...?

He pushed the doors open, shivering as the wind hit him, and turned to grab the sweater on his bed. He needed some air. He had the lesson too, but it was not very helpful. A waste of time in his opinion, probably his teacher's as well. Still, he figured he would be back in time for the lesson.

That thought settled it, and he slid his shoes on before walking onto the balcony. He did not want to go through the front door because of the cameras, but knew a corner of his balcony went unseen and hoisted himself over the railing before sliding down the pillar and then making his way towards the front yard. Once again, he asked the guards at the front gate to pretend they had not seen him leave and then walked out of the yard, keeping close to the walls to avoid the last couple of cameras before doing a little hop onto the pavement.

He did not feel like running and kept walking slowly for a while before looking up as he wondered what time. It made him realise he had not brought a watch. However, he did not see that as bad, considering that they were all very expensive and he had almost been robbed the last time he took a run.

He smiled despite thinking about how terrifying that had been. Would they have become friends if Theodore had not helped him then? Probably. Cassian knew he could be very persistent when making friends, he was positive he would have gotten Theodore to warm up eventually.