Leuthold Preparatory | ✓

Chapter Nineteen

Toast

With surprise, Noah's eyes flew open to the bright light that encased them. The night had turned to day; he last remembered the trees whipping by him and now he squinted at the bright light. The car was no longer moving, he laid back in his seat, turned and faced the door. His heart raced but it felt good, as though he had just run a marathon and won gold.

"Awake over there?" Hannil's voice came from the driver's seat.

Noah turned and saw Hannil staring at a map, a pen cap between his teeth, a set of unfamiliar glasses that reminded Noah of his mother's reading glasses that she insisted she did not actually need. Hannil wore a dark green jacket and a grey t-shirt, Noah noticed his jeans when he sat the seat upright.

It was a charming scene to sit up to. A bustling white-brick and red-roofed city with a lake that disappeared on either side carried boats lazily in the distance, and mountains far beyond the lake met his tired eyes. A pier sat nearby and there were the sounds of joyous children and playful tourists coming in through Hannil's open window. It was such a nice scene that it startled Noah into silence for a long minute.

"Where are we?" He asked finally.

"Lausanne," Hannil replied with the cap still between his teeth.

"Where is that?"

"Not great with geography, are you?" Hannil snickered before he took the cap from his teeth and turned to him. "We're still in Switzerland. A few hours from Leuthold."

"Only a few hours?" He fretted. 

"It's not that big of a country," Hannil replied as his attention went back to the map. "You fell asleep, I spent all night driving and becoming resourceful."

"Where are your clothes?"

"In a trash can a town over," Hannil replied before he shrugged, "I tried to wake you but you wouldn't wake so I went and bought us new clothes. Our uniforms are too," he rolled his hand, "conspicuous."

Noah felt a chuckle come from his throat. "I feel like this is too easy for you."

"You're the one that slept for ten hours! I've been up all damn night!" He looked back at him, "You should change too. Back there," he gestured his hand back as his attention went back to the map.

"Right," Noah nodded and followed Hannil's gesture to the backseat where a paper bag sat.

Noah quietly got out of the car and took the bag with him and followed Hannil to a nearby public bathroom where Hannil kept scribbling things on the map, his eyes pinned to it through his lime green, cat-eye glasses.

"They're nice," Noah told him.

Hannil stared at him for a long moment. "We didn't go back to the dorm." He sighed, "I couldn't get my actual glasses." 

"Sorry."

"You're not at fault."

Noah had been putting on white tennis shoes when Hannil spoke, he looked back up at him and sighed heavily. He craned his neck from side to side, unable to shake the feeling of guilt in his mind and the sinking feeling in body. He decided not to voice it, merely adding it to his guilt.

Hannil had gotten him clothes that were a bit too big and that Noah had to roll up at his ankles and wrist, his belt barely held his pants on his hips. Hannil made a comment about how it didn't much matter how they looked as they left the bathroom, not failing to mention that it was hardly noticeable that they were too big. 

"So long as we don't stand out," Hannil said.

"Stand out?" Noah asked.

"No criminal that has any brain to them is going to stand out," Hannil explained with a shrug as he continued down the strip by the river.