12:24 PM
—
"Alright. Fuck it."
Roen held two drinks, a strawberry and a chocolate milkshake, before leaping through the gap atop the wall between the cafeteria and the hall. A gap most students ignored.
Sounds weird?
Not to them.
12:25 PM
—
A bell rang, echoing through the corridors of Lumina High, an school on a distinct island on the planet Carsia.
The warning bell blended with stomping footsteps screeching across the tiles and overlapping chatter.
To anyone else, the students might have looked almost human.
A greenish undertone tinged their brown skin, fingers that could web and unweb at will and legs coiled, ready to launch them to impressive heights.
Frog-like, if one paid attention.
In front of a classroom, somewhere in the crowd, Elias stood halfway through the doorway, waiting for someone.
He wore round-rimmed glasses. Average height, but broad enough to make him stand out.
An open book rested in his hands and the headphones he wore seemed to cancel out the surrounding noise.
Life Beyond Carsia.
Who knew what those pages held? Whatever it was, it had him hooked.
Until…
Something flickered in his peripheral vision, too fast.
He tried to react in time but before he could move, the student bumped into him, nearly making him drop his book.
Elias tightened his grip on the book, checking its cover before exhaling.
"Phew. That was close," he thought, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Blocking the classroom entrance… really?" the boy said.
"Elias Hyalin, are you blind?" he continued.
Elias froze. The voice was familiar. Gavil rarely sounded patient.
"Are you deaf too now? Shouldn't you at least apologise?" Gavil went on.
Elias had been right.
"Ah, yes, I really didn't mean to—I'm so s—" he attempted to apologise while regaining his composure, but was suddenly cut off by a foot that came swinging into Gavil's face. Gavil stumbled back, hand flying to his face.
It was common enough that no one looked twice.
Only one person he knew would do something like that.
It could be no other than his seating partner, Roen, or should I call him his best friend? Well, at least that's what Elias thought of him.
Either way, that was him, the same boy from earlier.
"You're blocking my way, you pest," said Roen in his not-so-unusual, mean tone.
Elias seemed startled by his remarks but not surprised, for sure.
"Not again," he thought, for this wasn't the first time that Roen had acted this way.
Before Elias could utter a word, Roen tossed the strawberry milkshake towards Elias.
Confused, Elias stood. He couldn't remember telling Roen about what he liked.
"Drink that; we'll be late," said Roen as he made his way into the classroom.
Elias, recalling the warning bell he heard a while ago, rushed to follow behind Roen.
"Maybe we'll save the lecture for later," he murmured.
12:40 pm
—
Roen sat by the window at the back of the class, staring out at the ocean.
Elias sat next to him, scratching a pen across his notebook. He seemed to be solving a math problem, the same as the one written on the board.
"What's his problem?" Roen asked.
Elias looks up and notices him staring at Gavil, who was sitting across the classroom.
Roen and Gavil seemed to be… having a staring competition? What even—
"He keeps staring at me," Roen added.
Yeah, he could see that. And like you weren't doing the same.
"What's his 'problem'? You literally kicked him in the face," Elias said in a low voice.
Roen replied, "It wasn't that hard."
Sure…
Elias sighed, and as he was about to go back to what he was doing, he had a thought.
Perhaps… to distract Roen, Elias could tell him about last night.
Elias hesitated before speaking again.
Elias fidgeted his fingers, nervous, for he didn't know if Roen would even believe him.
But who else could he talk to? No one.
After a while of debating, Elias finally opened his mouth.
Elias began, "Um… Roen?"
Roen responded, "Hm?"
"Do you… believe in skinwalkers?" Elias questioned.
Roen blinked at him, for that question was so uncalled for, and asked, "...What?".
Elias prepared and began his response, laughing awkwardly, telling Roen more about what skin walkers are.
Roen cut him mid-sentence, saying, "Lia, I know what skin walkers are."
With a brief pause, he continued, "But why are you suddenly asking me that?"
There it was. The question he didn't know how to answer.
"Oh it's because- uh…" Elias uttered, trying to figure out what to say but before he could say something further, something sparked at the back of Roen's head.
Roen paused. And mentioned "You saw one."
Oh the expression.
The expression on Elias's face that'd give everything away.
He certainly saw something but had no way to explain it.
"Lia, tell me. Did you see one?" Roen asked again.
Once again, Elias gathered courage and spoke up, "Yes."
Sweating profusely, Elias couldn't help but wonder whether Roen thinks he has gone insane.
Before the conversation could continue any further, a piece of chalk flew through as if it almost missed Roen.
Miss Rysel, who else would it be but the teacher, with a chalk. "Both of you at the back.
If you wanna talk, stand outside my classroom," she stated.
"Got it, Ma'am!" Roen responded, giving her a smile.
She finally had the attention of Elias, who was busy staring at the hole in the wall, made by the flying chalk, all scared.
12:45 pm
—
Elias checked his wristwatch.
He thought, "We still have 25 minutes to go, of course we don't want to."
Or, did they?
Roen stood up, held Elias by his arm and strode out of the classroom, dragging Elias by.
"Are you STUPID??" muttered Elias under his breath.
Elias and Roen stood outside the classroom, leaning against the wall behind them.
Elias sighed. He had had enough; he couldn't overlook it anymore.
He spoke up, "Roen, listen. Being your friend, it's my responsibility to correct your wrongdoings," and he continued, "You need to start behaving at school. What would your parents think seeing you act like this?"
So, he can speak.
Roen shook his head, sighing with losing patience, "I told you." he began.
"First of all,"
Elias stood there, knowing well, the words Roen is about to repeat.
Roen continued, "... stop calling me your friend. Just because I talk to you, doesn't make us friends."
Roen said all that but to Elias, Roen's actions said otherwise. Elias simply… awkwardly smiled at him.
However, this time Roen had more to say. "Second of all," he said further.
"I don't have any parents." Taken aback, Elias didn't know what to say for the first time.
"And I don't have anyone out there who cares about what I do here. So don't bother 'correcting' me either."
Elias opened his mouth only to utter the words "I'm sorry."
Roen asked him to not be, saying, "They're alive. I just don't like to call them my parents."
Elias relaxed up, sighing with relief. "I see," he said. "But yeah, they don't care enough either," Roen continued.
Silence bewitched the air, but not for long as Elias spoke again, "You said you don't like talking about your personal life. I'm sorry. For that."
"Oh. I don't mind it." said Roen.
"It's not that anyone else would befriend a loser like you," he continued.
"Hey." Elias reacted, not knowing whether he was offended or relieved knowing Roen trusts him, for the time being at least.
"Tbh, it would be nice if you could make more friends in the future." Roen said, looking down like he was deeply pondering over something.
"But for now all you have is me," he continued.
"Would you rat out on your only friend?" Roen looked back up at Elias, mocking the sad look.
"…But you just said we aren't friends." Elias said, staring hard.
Roen quickly shifted expression to poker face, like he was just caught in a lie.
"…"
"That."
"Yeah, we aren't," said Roen.
Elias sighed, wishing that he would give up already.
The topic brought up by Roen, sparked curiosity in Elias. His head was full of questions. Though he dared not ask any. Roen's trust was more than enough for Elias to carry for now.
That was a first.
Elias stood there, unknowingly, smiled to himself.
"What's wrong with this fucker?" Roen wondered.
"Anyway, the thing you were talking about earlier. Skinwalkers, was it?" Roen said, assuming a serious stance.
"I was kidding." said Elias, trying to close the topic again.
"Wh-" Roen bared a confused expression on his face.
"The tension between you and Gavil was getting too much, I was just trying to distract you." Elias explained.
Relieved, Roen loosened up again.
"Uh so… Why are we out here again?" he asked.
"IT'S BECAUSE YOU DRAGGED US OUT," Elias answered, just a bit aggressively.
"I WOULDN'T HAVE IF YOU WEREN'T THIS TERRIBLE AT MAKING JOKES #-₹(#!#(!!!" Roen responded, yeah just as aggressively.
"I guess standing outside isn't enough for you both." Miss Rysel said as she appeared.
"Would. You. Mind."
"Quieting down?"
Roen and Elias nodded.
"Unless you'd prefer the principal's chambers instead."
Elias and Roen both shook their heads.
"Good," said Ms. Rysel as she headed back to the classroom.
02:00 pm
—
Elias stood near the school gate lost in thoughts, while Roen walked up to him and went "Earth to Elias, hello?"
Startled, Elias screamed "Gosh! Stop scaring me."
"I've called out to you five times by now, wdym?" Roen questioned.
"Ah... my bad. I guess I've been a bit tired today." Elias said.
"Did he not sleep enough?" Roen wondered.
"See you tomorrow then." Roen said, waving at Elias.
"Yeah," said Elias before walking out of the school gate and disappearing into thin air.
02:05 pm
—
Roen remained where he was, staring at the space Elias had occupied seconds earlier.
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang up behind his ears.
"Made a new friend?" she asked.
—