Just Kissing

22.

Song: Bitter - Citizen Soldier

........................................

Hailey

Mondays weren't my favourite day. At all. But after this exhausting weekend more than ever I would have done almost anything to add another day to recover. I promised myself I wouldn't let Taylor fool me again into helping her babysit. Four-year-olds could be really hyperactive, and if you added the sugar rush to it you got a killer mix.

Killer for us, of course, the parents were pleased with how happy they exited the party.

Never again.

That plus the new article they want this week and the constant stress since my father failed to call us this Saturday got me crawling through the hallways like a zombie. Not even the concealer was able to fully cover the dark bags under my eyes. He was on a mission, they wouldn't even tell us where. But every two, three weeks at most he video call us. This week he hadn't.

Not Saturday.

Nor Sunday.

Nor today.

What if something bad had happened? They hadn't advised us about anything going wrong but neither about it going well. What if he was hurt? Unconscious somewhere? Captured by some militant group that would-

No, I pressed my lids forcefully closing my locker. The hallway and students around me felt like a buzz and the air was heavy. Don't go there.

God knows where they'd sent him. Maybe they don't have good coverage, or he was busy. It needn't to be because something bad. It also wasn't the first time he delayed contacting for whatever reasons. Occupational hazards. But usually there was Matt to be a moral support.

Now I had to be the strong one for the twins and I wasn't a strong person. Everything in me wanted to cry, but I couldn't and my heart clenched more and more through the weekend with the unleashed tears that only built more the stress.

I erased all my thoughts on it as I stepped into the classroom and focused on Kevin, who raised his head as soon as I dropped my things on the desk beside him. "Hi," he smiled hesitantly. "You know, I've been told I'm not supposed to ask, but are you okay?"

"Why?" I fell on the chair with a sigh. "Don't the dark bags under my eyes said enough?"

"They say you haven't slept well." he pursed his lips. "Do you know that professionals say you need to sleep eight hour minimum? It lowers your body pressure and puts you in a better mood."

"Uh," I groaned leaning my head on my arms over the table. "Now you sound like my mother."

"Wise women, she is." Kev smiled, tapping with his pen on the perfectly neat and prepared notebook. Had I mentioned the teacher wasn't even here? Most of the students were still yet to arrive, sprawled across the place, but there he was. The perfect student. No wonder why my mother and any adult liked him so much. Tay's parents were on cloud nine with him.