Chapter fifty: "Orange"
"Does this always happen?" I asked him softly as I have put a hand over his hair, he shake his head while his face is still on my shoulder
"It happens when I remember something from that night but it sometimes occurs to me randomly always ruining my rare sleep" he lifted his head that rested on my shoulder and slowly raised it to look at me
He is not lying
I can see his eyes and facial expression that what he is telling me is real because no person can just fake a nightmare while sleeping and produce cold sweat as he did when sleeping, my hand went for the duvet and fixed it to cover his lap since it was in shambles after he tossed and turned "Can you still sleep?" I asked him and sadly for the both of us he can't
His eye bags just recently started to disappear and that stupid nightmare happened, so when my alarm rang we were still wide awake, I accompanied him the whole time and didn't go back to get a wink of sleep. We talked at that span of 3 hours that could have been spent on sleeping but I guess it was worth it since Cloud was distracted
I sat up still feeling sleepy from lack of sleep along with Cloud beside me, sure my eye bags are bad but he just started to get worse since it is starting to appear again. He rubbed his eyes and can't seem to get himself to stand up
A chuckle escaped from my lips and I slowly stood up then walked to his side of the bed to pull him to stand up, he was slouched and not in his confidence straight back pose that he always emit. I didn't harbour any hate when I made breakfast for the two of us since when he tried to help he kept mixing up the ingredients needed that I have to keep pointing it out to him
He didn't eat that much during our breakfast either so I packed a snack if he just wanted to grab a quick bite so I put an orange in my bag "Hey Cloud if you get hungry suddenly there is an orange in my bag, you can just grab it" I informed him
I'm so not letting him drive today
Cloud planned to continue walking to the parking lot but my will to live and fear of getting an accident because of lack of sleep took over and my hand grabbed the sleeve of Cloud's leather jacket and dragged him along with me to the bus stop, he didn't try to bicker with me about it, so he just let himself get dragged by me
Many people were looking at us regardless of their age since Cloud has taken their attention when he entered the bus, we couldn't find an empty seat so we stood up throughout the ride to school. A Few girls tried to talk to him but he ignored them as he put on an earphone and gave me the other since the girls were talking too loud
His choice of music wasn't bad so I listened to it, when our stop finally arrived I tugged his arm and he raised his head to look around clearly still confused. I squeezed myself through the many people inside the bus and Cloud was tailing me, we both let out a sigh of relief when we got out of the bus
It was a bit chilly today but Cloud was determined to wear his black leather jacket and wore a black turtleneck sweater inside, we walked to the entrance of the school and of course, people would be curious as to why Cloud isn't in his expensive car that he always used to go to school. Both of his ears are plugged with earphones and he didn't mind their watchful eyes as he passed by them
I looked up at the sky and it wasn't sunny it was very cloudy and it looked like it is about to rain, the area around me in school looked so dim even though it is daytime. Peter walked up to the both of us greeted Good morning
"Why does he look so sleepy?" He whispered to me as he pointed to Cloud who was looking far away
"Studies" is the only thing I said to Peter, I can't tell him the true reason cause of course I saw Cloud's vulnerable state. I hate him but I'm not evil to take advantage of that
Peter slowly nodded his head as he looked at the side of Cloud's head, today is the only day where our schedules aligned with each other which was a good thing to keep an eye out for him. Jane walked up to us while waving a little
Even she saw how groggy Cloud is today just from one look "Is he okay?" She asked me worried about Cloud
"Yeah, he'll be fine"
That's what I assumed that he will be, hopefully
Jane walked up to Cloud and put her hand on his forehead to check his temperature "He doesn't seem like he is sick" she said to me as Cloud looked down at her, he hasn't talked after we came to school and it looks like he doesn't want to
She grabbed something in her bag and it was a beanie hat
Ah, the power of crush never ceases to amaze me
Cloud shakes his head slowly at her and she accepted it as she shoved the beanie back into her bag "Are you sure you're gonna be fine? Just talk to my brother if you need help"
He nodded his head and all of us walked into the school and Jane waved at is as she entered her first-period subject, Me and Cloud stepped in at the other side of the room because our homeroom is near Jane's
We were greeted by Will who energetically greeted him and lowered his energetic self once he saw Cloud "My dude you look like you're gonna faint"
Will's comment about Cloud made Nick's head turn while he was flirting with a girl, Nick hurriedly eft his conversation and walked up to us from the other end of the classroom. He leaned in to whisper "Why didn't he get enough sleep? Did his nightmare keep him up?" He told me quietly
Does Nick know about Cloud's secret?
"How do you know that?" I replied to him with a whisper, we just kept our talk low that only the both of us could hear each other
"He occasionally called me about it, so me and my sister sometimes have to sleepover at his place to keep him company" he went to his chair where his bag is and pulled out some mint and put it in Cloud's hand
Cloud thanked him with a look and popped the mint into his mouth as he sat down beside the seat that I have chosen, the light outside was starting to get even dimmer as more clouds accumulated and made it rain. The teacher wasn't coming today so it was our free time, Cloud suddenly got hungry and he reached out for my bag and told me quietly "I'm hungry"
I knew it
I gave him a small smile as I handed him my bag and he shuffled through it to get the orange, he ate it and shared some of it with me. We ate and the orange scent has filled the entire classroom
"Where is that orange scent coming from?" A girl asked as she looked away from another girl that she was talking to
They all looked at me and Cloud who were minding our own business as we ate