Suzua ✓

two

【 S U Z U A 】

⌕ CHAPTER TWO:
轮廓 | | silhouette

Kit felt like someone was watching him as he sat quietly with his friends in the lunchroom. The circular table they sat at was located in the center of the cafeteria. There was a slight chill that snaked up his spine and he couldn't shake it off. When he turned around, everyone was busy eating their lunches and chatting with their friends.

He looked around, his eyes quickly scanning each table. What he was looking for: he did not know. The noodles he was eating slipped back into the cylinder thermos he brings to lunch every day. The sound was quiet to everyone else, but it was the loudest to Kit. Amongst the numerous voices talking over each other, the sound of noodles was what brought him back to earth and made him aware of his surroundings again.

The wooden chopsticks that were in his hands now found themselves being tucked away in the container with the rest of his utensils. He put the lid back on the thermos, spinning it tightly shut. Including him, his friend group consisted of five people: Mao, Ali, Zack, and Chris. All of which he met in middle school.

Kit gulped the saliva that built up in his mouth from the mysterious eyes he couldn't locate. He picked up his tattered backpack that laid on the floor near his shoes and stuffed the thermos inside. To clear his head, he was going to the school library and study. If his parents saw him going to study in the library, would they be happy? Probably not happy enough.

"To the library again?" Mao asked, wiping his dirty hands on the napkin. In his mouth was an unfinished pizza that he stuffed into the side of his cheek just to talk to Kit before he left. With his knuckle, he rubbed the side of his nose. While he waited for Kit to respond, he continued to chew on the remaining pizza in his mouth. Everyone at his table stopped talking and turned to Kit all waiting for him to say something.

"Yeah," Kit laughed lightly, rubbing the nape of his neck with a free hand. One that wasn't clutching into the strap of his backpack as his head started to hurt. "Gotta study hard, colleges don't like it when you slack off."

He laughed again, making his words sound believable as possible. Though he wasn't lying that he was going to the library, it was because his parents scolded him earlier in the morning before school. The conversation he had with them still lingered in his head. He just wanted to get out of the cafeteria fast, but no one was saying anything.

Mao shrugged his shoulders. Picking up some of the tater tots from his tray, he popped them in his mouth. A small crumb fell back into the tray. He took the small piece and put it back in his mouth. "Take care. See you in Chem."

Kit nodded and waved them a farewell before walking out of the cafeteria as if he didn't accidentally yell at his parents in the morning.

He turned around when he got to another doorway, looking back at the hallway that leads to the lunchroom. When he was sure that no one else was coming out of the hallway, he headed to the library in the next building. The library had two floors filled with books and a third that opened up to a spacious rooftop. Up there, you'd find broken desks and litter from students who'd eat their lunch in the quiet space.

It was one of the things he brought up when he insisted his parents let him stay at the school. When he wasn't around his friends, one would find him in the corner of the second-floor library. Sitting down at the table all alone with an assortment of multi-colored highlighters he bought.