Saviour's Touch

Chapter 3

"That's all for today's lecture, I hope to see you all in the next lecture." The professor announced proudly, smiling brightly at every tired and bored face of each student trying desperately not to fall asleep. The professor didn't take it personally, knowing that he also felt the urge to catch a couple of minutes of extra sleep at the back of the lecture hall when he was an undergraduate.

But for him, that was almost twenty years ago. The tiredness that these students were encountering had nothing on the weekly exhaustion they would be feeling later in life. They'd feel lucky to get to sleep before 11 pm most nights later.

The room was bustling with the hurried limbs of tired students eager to leave the hall and escape back onto campus. Clicking and shuffling sounds echoed throughout the room, even the professor's exit was audibly evident above the noise of the other students.

However, one student remained still as they looked at the blank page staring back at them on the desk. He hadn't written anything throughout the entire lecture, and it was apparent that he hadn't been paying attention to anything in that lecture either. Something had caught his attention and was occupying his mind like a fly knocking on the window in summer.

"Hey," Jack's voice tried to shake Hayden out of his thoughts.

Jack had nudged Hayden's unmoving figure, having already said goodbye to his other friends and eager to make a new one with this mysterious boy, with his arms crossed over the desk and head hung low. Hayden hadn't noticed Jack's movements, nor his attempt to wake him out of his trance, as his mind continued to wander and battle over that one phrase that had been plaguing his mind the entire lecture.

"She hates men?" Hayden muttered to himself; a look of visible confusion clouded his face as he continued to stare at the page.

No one could say why he had grown so obsessed with that fact, but something about that curious trait perplexed Hayden beyond belief to the extent that his mind was physically buffering from the unusual piece of information.

"Hayden!" Jack's voice broke through Hayden's spiral of confusion and caused the boy to turn and look at his intruder.

Jack was looking at Hayden with concern as he laid a hand over Hayden's shoulder, having left it there after attempting to shake Hayden out of his mental cage fight. Hayden sighed and looked around him, quickly realising that they were quickly becoming the last few students in the lecture hall and began to pack away his things.

"Where were you? What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter," Hayden replied as he stuffed his notepad into his bag aggressively and flung the bag over his shoulder. "Let's go."

"Okay..." Jack responded quietly, dragging out the word as he replied. As Hayden passed by him, Jack quickly hurried to catch up and follow along after Hayden like an excitable puppy, his eyes beaming with respect and worry for his new acquaintance. "Oh, by the way," Striking up a new conversation, "I was about to head down to the field to join my friends for the rugby try-outs if you want to join?"

"You play rugby?" Hayden asked curiously, raising an eyebrow at the concept of this lanky, pale figure running across the field surrounded by a crowd of brawny, muscular men. The image brought an amused smile to his face that felt impossible to wipe off.

Not even when Jack noticed it.

"Hey! I don't play rugby, but there's no reason to think that my playing would be so hilarious!" Jack exclaimed; an obvious offence taken from Hayden's small change in expression. But Jack knew what he was thinking because he often thought the same about himself when it came to sports.