CHAPTER 9

KRIS POV

Today is Saturday and it’s 2am in the morning. I haven’t had an ounce of sleep since midnight because of yet another nightmare. I tried going back to sleep but I couldn’t. I tried to tire myself out by doing pushups and curl-ups but they didn’t work. I tried listening to music. I tried to read a book for a while. Heck, nothing worked. I just couldn’t take my mind off the nightmare I had.

It’s the same one that’s been in my head for years now.

I ended up taking a shower at 3am and watching television until the sun rose. I wasn’t even sleepy or tired. Since it’s the weekend, I decided to leave a message for Amber. We are supposed to practice for our song today. The school festival will be held two weeks from now and we’re not yet even prepared. I doubt we’ll have any major problems though. I mean, I’m the best at everything. I’m a good rapper, I can dance well, I can sing, I can act, I can do anything. Yes, I’m amazing.

I grabbed my phone and entered my password. I typed in a message for Amber.

To Amber:

“Hey… where can we practice for today?”

*sent

A few minutes later…

From Amber:

“Here at my place.”

To Amber:

“Okay. I’ll be there by 10.”

*sent

From Amber:

“I’ll meet you at the bus stop near our subdivision.”

To Amber:

“Okay, cool.”

*sent

I exited my messenger and looked at the time.

Dang, it’s still 7:42am.

What the hell am I supposed to do right now?

I yawned in boredom. I decided to flick off the television. I just laid there on the couch while staring at the blank ceiling. Soon enough, I felt the drowsiness weighing down my eyelids. Fatigue and lack of sleep was slowly taking a toll on me. I just closed my eyes and let sleep take me away.

AUTHOR’s POV

Kris woke up a little while later. It was already a quarter to nine so he decided to grab his breakfast and get ready. He pulled on his favorite ripped jeans and sneaks paired with a baggy sleeveless and his black snapback. He hung his beats around his neck and plugged it into his phone before he headed out. Kris waited at the stop and boarded the bus when it arrived, receiving whispers and winks from teenage girls on the bus. He sat at the seat nearest to the door and blew up the volume to an acceptable level, drowning out the noisy chatter from his fellow passengers. He stared at the busy streets and they happened to pass by a huge mall with a billboard at the front. It was an ad for colored contact lenses and one of them was blue and purple all together. He suddenly remembered the incident at the pool and Amber’s changing eye color. It intrigued him since then but he never saw it again. He just shrugged it off as the reflection of the lights. He laughed inwardly when he realized that the excuse sounded like Edward’s from Twilight. Yes, he watched the entire series because his girly little cousin Tao often visited during the weekend and would hog the television, watching romantic movies all day long. At first, Kris thought that it was very annoying since he preferred action or anime but he got used to it since he just can’t say “no” to his cousin. They treated each other like brothers, twins almost since they share everything and often buy things together. He smiled at the thought of the wushu princess.

Kris got off the bus when he reached his stop. He was about to text Amber when he noticed that she was already waiting for him. She was sitting on a bench wearing a simple white dress that fell right above her knees paired with sneaks. Kris went over and tapped her shoulder and she looked up at him with her round, brown eyes.

 “Hi.” Kris greeted her to which she returned a slightly more genuine smile.

“Hello.” Amber answered as she grabbed two skateboards beside her bench. “Do you know how to ride one of these?” she asked.

“Yeah why?” he asked.

“Well, I thought that maybe we could use these to go to my house faster.” She smiled as she stood up.

“Okay.” Kris replied, sounding excited since skateboarding was one of his favorite hobbies.

Amber stepped on her board and kicked the pavement to move forward. She jumped with her board at the edge of the sidewalk, landing on the concrete ground with a thud.

“Woah.” Kris murmured as he mounted his own board as he followed suit.

Kris watched as Amber skillfully guided her board a few feet away from his own. Her knee-length dress freely flowing as she glided along the cemented pavement and her hair was tussled in the breeze. Kris was too busy staring he almost fell off his own board but being a fairly good skater himself, he was able to regain his balance and caught up to the girl immediately. He kept his board running just beside hers and chuckled as she did another kick flip together