Sleep Starve

Chapter 3

So I feel like writing again. Not sure how far I'll get before I become uninspired, but hopefully I'll be able to finish it. By the way, I'm currently on Spring Break, so hopefully updates will be quick before school- and track- starts back up.

Also, random note that I sort of find funny: when I was writing the first chapter, I was listening to Spamano songs. xD I dunno why, but I was. And last chapter, I actually listened to Iceland songs, so it made sense, but now I'm listening to Spamano again. (Wow long and pointless author's note, yay.)

At the last class of the day, Emil had cooled off somewhat.

Sure, it was true that he was still very aggravated, but his bad mood had diminished enough that he wasn't snapping at anyone who dared to look his way.

Said last class, English, was usually his favorite. But today, the teacher decided that they didn't need to do actual work and had sentenced the class to read an excerpt of Moby Dick. He'd given some grand explanation of why he'd chosen that book (apparently it was a very good read) and, despite the fact that Emil loved this class, he found himself nodding off almost immediately.

He sat up straighter when he noticed this, furious with himself. He'd nearly fallen asleep in class! What a fine conversation that would be, once Lukas found out. Emil shook himself a little, ignoring the curious look he got from a boy across the isle, going back to his book.

Emil's attempts were futile, however, as he found himself falling asleep again within minutes. He continued to attempt to plow through his book with little success. He blinked his eyes furiously, getting incredibly frustrated with himself for being so tired. He should've known better than to stay up so late. Emil sighed. There wasn't anything he could do about it now, other than fight to stay awake.

It seemed that he'd just adjusted his position to be more comfortable when suddenly, he felt as if he were falling. His eyes snapped open as he jumped, then promptly jumped again.

For, much to his misfortune, he had indeed fallen asleep. Many of the students were looking over and snickering, and Emil felt his face start to heat up. The teacher himself stood by his desk, hands on his hips. His name was Mr. Dickson, and he was a generally cheerful, understanding man with a temper to rival his own, when it made a rare appearance. But apparently bad moods were contagious that day, because it looked as if Emil had caught Mr. Dickson in one of his infamous bouts of angst.

"Have a nice nap?"

Emil winced as his classmates resumed their snickering. Mr. Dickson stood over him, glowering unhappily. "U-uh..." He said intelligently, scolding himself as his classmates continued to laugh.

His blush reddened at this. They were laughing! At him!

His teacher rolled his eyes and handed him a slip of paper before whipping around and snarking at the class. "And? Get back to work!"

Emil glanced down at the slip in his hand and winced. Just as he'd feared; detention, from two thirty to five. Just his luck, too, as today he knew that both his brother and Mathias (who were the only ones in their group with cars) wouldn't be able to pick him up. And even if they had been able to, he wasn't so sure he wanted them to. A car ride home from a detention with Lukas would mean a long, overblown rant in which his brother would manage to bring up every fault Emil had ever had.

While a car ride home with Mathias would mean a very awkward conversation or none at all, as the taller blond had no experience with discipline. It wasn't his responsibility, anyways. That place of honor was given to Lukas, as he was his legal guardian, much to Emil's dismay. Sometimes he really just wanted to smack the superior look off his older brother's face.

But returning to the manner at hand, getting a ride home would be tricky. Perhaps he could lie to Lukas and say that there was a club meeting that he'd forgotten- no, that wouldn't work. Emil took part in none of the clubs at school, and Lukas knew it. Their whole group knew it, and most of the school knew it, too. Because he was Emil Steilsson, the reserved (yet hot-tempered), socially impaired, and weird exchange student from Iceland.

Maybe he could say he had to catch up on some work or had a project to work on... His internal debate eventually reached a conclusion. Emil would have to tell Lukas that he had to work on a report for science (which was a real assignment, but he'd long since finished it) in the school's library. Weak excuse or not, it was better than none.

To say that Lukas was not happy when Emil brought this up to him was an understatement. He was, in fact, very annoyed, though it would take someone who knew him like Emil did to figure it out. He replied with a brash 'fine' when he'd told him, and then immediately left the school building.

To be fair, Emil knew he'd been pushing it and it had been just before the buses left that he'd caught the elder. Still, Emil didn't think that Lukas had needed to be so snippy; it was just some mushy, gushy date. They could afford to be five minutes late, couldn't they? Apparently not, if his brother's reaction was anything to go off of.

Sigh. Tino would probably tell him that he'd understand when he was older. Emil scoffed. What was there to understand? He really, really didn't understand love. Then again, did Lukas? Hitting his boyfriend and calling his an idiot or a moron all the time didn't sound very loving to him.

Woah. He shook his head. Since when did he think deeply about his brother's relationship? Or romance at all? ... Well, Emil would be lying through his teeth if he said that there hadn't been a definite increase of that topic in his thoughts recently. He'd even been checking more romance books out of the library lately- what?! Every once in a while he'd see a book that interested him, and it just so happened to be a romance novel, that was all!- , and he'd been pondering it in random moments, like now.

Maybe he was subconsciously trying to tell himself something. But what? Emil grit his teeth in frustration and rolled his eyes. He was being ridiculous. There was no secret message hidden inside his thoughts, he was just going through a phase. A phase that will end very soon, he assured himself as he walked down the hall to serve his detention.

Can I just say that I love Romano's Mawaru Chikyuu Rondo?