Minds in a Knot (Updating)

II, Echo

Alvin blew the dust off of the surface of his table, which had drawings of logos and fancy looking italic writings scattered here and there. Izzy had the urge to check those words out, but he was too busy forcing his brain cells into thinking what had actually happened. He figured his facial expressions made him looked as if he was frightened, so he decided to start a conversation.

He peeked Alvin, who was wiping his table with what looked like baby wipes. Alvin had his hair combed just enough to make it not look so tedious. He wore a green tie, like every other boy in school, smartly tucked in uniform with an attractive looking belt. His hazel brown eyes fits perfectly with his not-so-average-but-sweet-looking face. His facial structure is quite intriguing, especially his lips, under his long, stiff nose. He has that typical male protagonist look - the ones you see in Animes, with their eyes large and round and with an irresistibly dorky smile. But Alvin, indeed, had a distinct appearance. The wet wipes gave out a nice scent. Like a mixture of berries of different colours and flowers of different shapes, Izzy assumed. Izzy was allergic to most of the flowers he had encountered in his life, though, so he had probably just Google-ed the images but never had the chance to sniff them.

"So, Alvin, did you have a good night's sleep? ready to face the apocalypse? What do you have on your first period today?"

"Woah, slow down there. Which question shall I answer first?" Alvin laughed. "Good morning, Izzy. Haven't seen you in like, what, 5 weeks?"

"Yeah." His voice was dull. Izzy had suddenly felt uncomfortable. He felt like his ears had a built in voice cancellation device because he could've sworn he had gone deaf for second.

Are you in a bad mood, Izzy? What's wrong?

"Are you in a bad mood, Izzy? What's the matter?" Alvin asked, suddenly looking concerned.

"I heard you the first time Alvin, I'm fine, don't worry. Just exhausted. Woke up a couple of times last night. Nightmares had been messing with me."

"What? I only asked you once. Oh, I see. That's unfortunate. Why not try having happy thought before you try and keep your eyes shut?"

"..."

"Izzy?" Alvin waved his hand in front of Izzy's face to keep Izzy's mind from wandering too far.

The second bell of the day rang loud enough to legitimately wake anyone up from an eternal sleep.

"I'm sorry. I just....see you in Physics." Izzy stormed off before anyone stood up and looked straight ahead. He walked briskly, avoiding any possible eye contacts and gave only a one cornered, insincere smile to whoever greeted him as he passed them by, one after another.

This isn't right. What the hell is happening. I've gotta keep my mind occupied. This is creeping the living daylights out of me. Am I dreaming? Izzy pinched himself. Ow. Bad idea. I'm fully conscious and awake. Did that really happen, though? I hope I'm just drowsy. Yeah. Drowsy. I guess I am.

"Izzy!" someone called from the sea of faces. Izzy couldn't locate where it was coming from. "Wait for me!" the voice drew closer. Izzy turned around to see Fedora catching up behind him, slithering her slender figure through the bodies that swarmed the walkway. Izzy paused and decided to wait. He felt strange. In a bad way. The type of feeling you get when you realized you have 5 missed calls from your Mom after hiding something you've got in trouble for. Izzy's pulse was drumming faster than he had ever experienced. Adrenaline. Izzy realized. "Izzy..?" Fedora questioningly asked as she stared, concerned, at Izzy's face.

Izzy snapped out and came back to his senses. "Oh, hello . Sorry I couldn't really hear your voice. You called my name softly despite all the noise." Fedora looked flustered and then blushed. She was a shy girl who had an inimitable smile. Fedora lowers her gaze as a habit, and had problems with people hearing her voice when she speaks. Her silky black hair was tied back into a ponytail, with the front covering her forehead in an ascending length from left to right, and clipped neatly at the end. She had to tilt her head up to talk to Izzy, but she was never really good with the whole eye contact thing. You could almost sense her sincerity in everything she does. Her pale white skin goes well with her gorgeously black iris. Her stance had insecurities and lack of confidence written all over it. But she was undeniably adorable. More to the adorable side rather than the elegant side.