Change of Heart

Chapter 5

The rest of the school day went by in a flash, leaving Neo to allow Tai to lead him to the location of the club's meeting spot. Walking down the partly-empty hallways, he clenched the strap of his backpack. Visiting a club, he had thought, I never thought that idea would see the light of day. He did not know where the club members met in the first place. The school foyer, perhaps? It was a reasonable answer, but Tai had brought him to the school staircase, proving him wrong. The boys climbed up the steps, making sure to walk on the side so that other students could get through. There were still some stragglers who took their time with packing or shoved crumpled-up pages into their backpacks. Many of the classrooms they passed were already empty, with the doors shut and the lights off.

"Where are we going exactly?" he asked.

"Room 31," Tai replied.

"Room 31?" His brows knitted together. "You mean 31A? I thought that room was empty."

Tai nodded. "It was. When our leader started the club, he suggested that the meeting could be held there since the room wasn't occupied by any classes."

"Huh." Neo adjusted the strap of his backpack over his shoulder. "I have to admit, that's pretty clever."

"Yup!" Tai reached for the water bottle in his backpack's side pocket. "Pretty lucky too. If that classroom didn't exist, the principal probably wouldn't have allowed the club to start in the first place." He took a long sip of water from the bottle, letting a sigh escape him.

The school bell rang, echoing through the empty halls. Three students appeared around a corner, quickly running their way.

"Run faster, Daren," the one leading them shouted.

The second one nodded quickly, breathing heavily. "Yeah, it's your fault we're this late/"

The first two ran past them, but the third one struggled to catch up. In his attempt at speeding up, he bumped into Tai's shoulder, causing the bottle he held to spill some of the beverage onto his shirt.

"Ah!" Tai exclaimed, quickly twisting the cap back on.

Daren stopped abruptly to turn back. "I'm, I'm so sorry."

Tai waved his free hand, smiling reassuringly. "It's alright, it was just water. Accidents happen."

"A-are you sure?" he asked. "I can go and get some paper towels if you'd–"

"Daren!" The first student had returned, stomping toward them. "What the hell is taking you so long? If we don't hurry up, we'll miss the bus. I'm not taking public transportation because you chose to take your sweet little time again."

He stared at his friend, then back at Neo and Tai. "But..."

"Don't worry about me," Tai said. "I'll be fine."

Daren looked back to his friend one last time, then nodded, scurrying over to him. Joined back up, they continued back down where they were going to catch up with their other friend.

With the hallways empty again, Tai examined the spill on his shirt. "Well this is going to be uncomfortable." He shivered slightly. "I hate it when something wet gets spilled on my clothes. It feels so icky!"

"Hold on." Neo knelt down to pull out a small packet of tissues from his backpack. "You can use these to dry yourself off. I know it won't be that effective, but..."

Tai shook his head. "I, I can't take those from you, Neo. What if you get sick and you need them? If I use these, then–"

"Then you won't have a wet shirt during your club meeting." He stood up. Pulling our two tissues, he began to dry Tai's shirt, pressing them onto his drenched sleeve to slowly soak up some of the water.