The Broken Soundtrack

Track 19: Tired Eyes

His bestfriends, right! But I wasn't comfortable going up to Benjamin or Mason and asking them about Laken. It would be too weird. Instead of asking them, I thought of just messaging Fiona, so she could ask her boyfriend about it.

It didn't even take long before Fiona answered my text with a questioning voice over the phone, "Why do you want to know about that? Are you going to tutor him or something?"

"No, I just thought maybe I could write notes to help him study better. I don't know. I just feel like I should be doing something about it," I answered as I noticed Zander's mouth moving, arguing with me in silence.

"Right. And what if he doesn't accept your help?" Fiona continued to ask.

"Then, I'd feel relieved that at least I did something," I said and Zander shook his head at me.

Fiona sighed. I could imagine her brows arching at me in that moment. "He failed on Business Statistics. He's on his third year, so he probably needs help because he's expected to graduate next year."

If he's on his third year, then that meant he was at least two years older than me. I didn't mind taking notes about Statistics, but I suddenly got pressured that I might not be able to help him as much.

#

The way I had to give up sleep last night just to take down notes for Laken only showed how persistent I was just to help a guy who didn't even want help. Even so, I didn't want to owe him so much after saving me a few times. I hated owing people with passion.

Coffee helped me survive this day. I wasn't really a fan of caffeine, but it was the only way for me to be able to attend my classes. Otherwise, I'd have to explain myself to a bunch of people why I didn't show up in class.

Speaking of not showing up, I hadn't seen Zander all day. There was no way he skipped our Chem class. He never did before.

I checked my phone for the nth time to see any reply from him, but there was none. I messaged him earlier and tried to call him a few times. If he was sick, he could've just told me. My instinct was telling me that something must have happened. As a pessimist, it was hard not to think of the worst.

Gripping the big blue notebook over my chest, I marched my way to the sports centre for the taekwondo class. If I didn't hear from Zander after this, I would seriously find his house and see for myself that he was all right. I didn't want to be right about my gut feeling, but I just really hope I was wrong.

The moment I stepped inside the room, pairs of students were already doing warm-ups and sparring with one another. I just had my white uniform on, but I hadn't even tied the belt around my waist. One could tell that I was not as passionate as the others.

From the corner of the room, my eyes immediately caught Laken sitting on the floor, stretching with his legs wide apart. When he noticed me coming up to him, he stopped reaching for his feet with his arms. "You're late," he commented as he stood up from his position.

I just nodded at him and handed the notebook from my hands. His eyes rolled from the notebook and stopped right at mine. "I made some notes for you to read for your Stat exam," I mumbled, setting my bag down the floor.

His mouth opened to say something, but Mr. Choi already entered the room, gathering us in the middle. We did the warm-up exercises as usual for half an hour before doing the practice sessions with our partners. At this point, I was numb enough to feel anything even with Laken kicking the paddle on my hand.

"I told you I didn't need help," he finally spoke after getting himself off balance from the kick he just did. I could tell he was trying not to hit the paddle too hard or maybe he was controlling himself not to kick me in the face.