Dylan zoomed past the corridor passing classrooms at the speed of light to reach his own, being behind my fifteen minutes, he couldn’t risk being any more late than he already is. His bag strap threatening to slip off from his shoulder at any moment, also caught on for its dear life.
All the while, he couldn’t simply brush aside everything that happened that very morning.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Kyra chanted as she stood next to Dylan as they both spied at their respective siblings in the front yard of the house.
“Kid, do you mind?! I can’t hear a word of what they are saying.” Dylan shushed the little girl who was clearly failing to grasp the severity of the situation.
Kyra couldn’t care less but there was a sudden movement outside. “What? Why are they screaming at eachother…? Why is she sad?! Where is he going..?!” She banged the glass window at the sight of such blasphemy.
“Huh?” Even Dylan looked over in bewilderment. “Oh no…”
“OH, NO! NO! NO!” He clasped his head in horror.
“What is going on? I feel like I missed a major part of the story.”
“… Well..? How do I put it?” He continued, “they just had their first argument, and I have no clue how both of them are going to take it, and I won’t be hearing the end of this from both parties.”
“Sigh… This is bad. Only when things were going smoothly…”
Dylan, without another word rushes to the front door to calm the storm that was brewing right in front of the door step.
Kyra jumps out of her chair and immediately stops him, “I want to help too! I'm as invested in this relationship as you are..!”
Dylan stood there blankly staring at her hopeful face as he gripped the handle harder. Thankfully, somebody else was also in there watching the show.
“Kyra, you can certainly help. That is, help clean the dishes of course.” Her mother finally decided to meddle.
“What?! Mum, no! Not when things are getting juicy!!” Before she could fully harness a tantrum, she realised with extreme severity about what she had just said. “Wait… Mum, it’s not what you think, forget I said anything!”
“Sigh… Honey, it was painfully obvious for a while now. He finally started talking to me again and tells me little bits of his life with such joy like he once used to. He’s finally become himself because he found the right people…” She glanced at Dylan with a heavy smile, “and it couldn’t make me happier.”
“Go now, your sister needs you.” She gently instructed him and he swiftly took off with a smile.
The little girl stood shocked from what she had heard. The image that she held of her parents started to break away to finally reveal the benevolent nature of her mother.
“So, you knew this whole time?”
“Of course.”
“So, you won’t tell big sis Demi to stay away..?” Those heavy eyes suggested that if it did happen, it would affect her almost as much as it would Lin.
“What do you take me for, Kyra? They are good kids, they deserve the world… and right now, the problem they have, they must solve it themselves. The rest of us should try our best to offer comfort.”
Even though Kyra was able to witness her mother in a new light, she could never forget everything that has happened already that led to this progressive change in their character.
“I told her I would find him and have a talk, but I couldn’t even find him. I hope he’s okay…” Dylan remembered the look on Demi’s face before he left to go search for Lin. “I hope they are both doing okay..!”
He finally reached his destination and it was only a few metres away, until he stumbled across an obnoxious face striding their way to the same classroom as him.
“Oh, for god’s sake! Not only do I have to be chewed out by Charles but I have to deal with the likes of her as well..?”
The supposed person who was being trash talked came to notice a panting and sweaty creature behind her and stopped to acknowledge them.
“Oh, my! If it isn’t Dylan?”
“Elise…” He uttered, disgruntled. The infuriating person in front of Dylan went by the name Elise, and she is no ordinary foe. The dark, luscious strands of straight hair reaching her torso did not belong to a well-mannered individual. This was the person that managed to break the strong will of his sister.
“Why… are you the first person I see on this already exhaustive morning?” He turned away, refusing to even make eye contact with someone so unworthy of his attention.
She crossed her arms and giggled. “It’s not like I wanted to see your ugly face either.”
“You have no right to say that plastic face.”
“PLASTIC?! How dare you?!”
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“Am I wrong, wannabe Barbie?” He leaned forward pulling a devious smirk.
“One more word out of your foul mouth your face will end up so disfigured you’ll be the one needing plastic surgery!” She was also ready to dig her claws and stoop even lower into this pointless argument that seems to occur quite often every-time these two come face to face.
They managed to attract quite the audience in the time they argued in front of their class. One of the students seated close to the glass panel slid the window open and said, “Take it as a compliment, he called you Barbie!”
Dylan immediately turned to shut him up, “Coltan, what the fuc–?!!”
Just as his eyes left Coltan’s, his vision began to shake upon witnessing the ominous aura being radiated by his Maths teacher, Mr Charles. He did nothing more than fix his glasses and that was all that was needed to stop the fight.
“HART..!!”
“Eep-” He covered his ears and shut his eyes.
“STAND OUTSIDE FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS, BOTH OF YOU!”
They did as they were told. Dylan was all bent out of shape from running but Elise seemed completely fine and chill about the punishment.
“Oh? By the way, we are on the same team for the English project.” She casually started up a conversation.
“Wow! And I’m guessing you’ll be ditching us as usual?”
“Guess there wasn’t much for me to say.”
“With your shitty reputation, how are you still in the student council?”
“Reputation doesn’t equal competence. In this world you can only succeed with the results but not the steps to obtaining them…”
“That would have sounded poetic if it wasn’t from your lying, thieving, conniving mouth!”
“Nobody has ever said that besides you. Makes me wonder how much whatever you said just now resembles yourself.”
His nerves almost popped out upon hearing those words, “You know what you did!! You really need me to tell you how much you hurt Demi?! Do you have no damn conscience?!”
He aggressively signalled to his head so the message would get through her thick skull.
“I see no scars.” She didn’t even flinch at those words.
“YOU..!!” Dylan was about to erupt with an overstimulation of emotions building up inside him.
The classroom door burst open and Mr Charles stepped out to give them the opportunity to step foot into the office for troublemakers.
“TO THE VICE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE!!”
The two shuffled their way to the office with their heads down. All the while Dylan kept grumbling under his breath, probably something along the lines of killing and disposing of Elise's body, which Elise really couldn’t care less about.
They returned during the second period, and Dylan finally got to see Emily and Coltan, who were waiting for the two so they could head to the library. Apparently it was the library period and they all went together to work on their English project.
“Are you okay?” Emily quietly creeped up behind Dylan and asked him softly.
“I’m… fine.” He was not.
“Good. Keep that up for a little longer and don’t get yourself into more trouble. Sit tight, I’ll deal with her for now.”
“Thanks…” He almost shed a tear as he recognised how dear Emily is to him for saving him from any situation imaginable.
“That was sincere, but you better turn down your anger issues. This beef you have with Elise needs to stop!”
“I try, but just looking at her makes my blood boil! After everything she has done, she walks around like she’s the devil’s incarnate..!”
“Please.”
“O-Okay…”
Demi’s hair flopped around as she went back and forth in circles around classroom 1. She was looking for someone but they didn’t really show but regardless she wasn’t ready to give up. She was filled with fury and sadness combined with hesitation and nervousness, she was a mess.
“Why did he leave..?! Why did he refuse to listen to me? Was I too pushy? The least he could do is tell me, why is he walking on eggshells with me of all people?”
She glanced back once again at the chaotic classroom hoping to find him in the crowd somewhere.
“Did he not come to school..?”
“Demi!” A blaring voice came from behind, she turned in hopes that it would be him.
It was Dylan. “Hey, Demi..!”
“He isn’t here…”
“Lin? Lin isn’t here..?” He peeped his head into the classroom and soon confirmed the fact. “Don’t tell me he never came to school today?”
Demi without a second to spare immediately began pouring everything that has been rattling inside her mind.
“Dylan! Why wouldn’t he listen to me?! He didn’t even want help from us. Why is he trying to solve this on his own? With him being unable to tell his parents, what the hell is he going to do on his own?!”
Heads began to turn as Demi vented her predicament. Dylan grew flustered and started to calm her down.
“Woah! Calm down, Demi! Do you not trust Lin anymore?”
“Of course I trust him but this is plain ridiculous! He already predicted that this would happen, that Gabbie merely ran away but didn’t even stop to think that it could’ve been a potential kidnapping..!”
“Chill, man! It’s Lin, we are talking about. Give him some time he would immediately come back and apologise in no time. We still have to do what’s right, which is to find Gabbie.”
“Yeah, Gabbie is important…” She continued with a menacing voice, “I’ll deal with Lin afterwards…”
“Yikes! I pray for you Lin, she’s really mad this time…”
As they continued to talk, a sweet voice was heard behind them.
“Hey~! Demi, long time no see?” But she held a cocky expression behind that sweet voice.
Demi didn’t even bat an eye, whilst Dylan remained with visible disgust on his face.
“What is it? Still running after lover-boy?”
“Will you ever shut up?! I can’t stand to even look at you anymore!” That was the last straw for Dylan, he began spewing everything out of his mind at Elise.
“Now you’re the one that can’t stand the truth! Like sister, like brother!” Elise barked back.
They exchanged more pointless comebacks that nobody wanted to hear and some of them needed censorship as well. Demi watched with a dead expression on her face. She stopped having any contact with Elise since the incident from last year and right now she didn’t feel the need to get involved but Dylan refuses to back out of this bickering because of Demi, even though she doesn’t really give a damn about trash like Elise.
Demi grabs a hold of Dylan’s arms and dragged him away from Elise whilst they were still in a heated argument and decided to deliver him to his friends.
“Tie him up if you must.” She briefly instructed them and headed out on her own.
These feelings were new and stifling to say the least, the girl wanted nothing more than to help him but ruthlessly rejecting it and leaving with no explanation, wasn’t something that she knew was coming. The confrontation played out way differently in her head than it did that morning, but there wasn’t much she could do. It was evident that they had to figure out Gabbie’s whereabouts on their own and sorting through this newfound drama came secondary.
“Sigh… Lin…” She flicked her head away as though flicking away thoughts about Lin and stomped away furiously back to her class, making heads turn all around her to catch her at the worst time of her life.