In Our Heads

Chapter 14

*****

Cassian carried the ball under his arm as he walked through the hallway. He was tired and felt a little sick. Somewhat light-headed.

He had not eaten breakfast but had no appetite for lunch either. In his chest, there was the familiar feeling of something being off. A slight worry that he was forgetting something. His eyes were focused ahead of him, though he was barely paying attention to where he was going while trying to figure out what he could have forgotten or possibly done wrong.

He was sure everything was perfect. Maybe he left one of his textbooks at home... No, he had counted them several times before leaving his room, maybe –

Cassian let out a cry when his face smashed into something hard, causing him to stumble back before he tripped over what felt like a backpack and fell onto the floor, dropping the ball.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry –"

He looked up rubbing his head and saw the girl whose locker he had bumped into covering her mouth as she reached to help him. He shook his head and just began laughing.

How could he possibly be distracted enough to walk into a locker?

"It's okay," he was still laughing as he said that, and she giggled as her shock subsided.

"I'm really sorry," she apologised again.

"It's my fault," he said as someone grabbed his hand to help him up. "Sorry, I stepped on your bag."

"I shouldn't have left it on the floor," the guy pulling him to his feet replied. "Are you hurt? I –"

"No, no." Cassian shook his head realising how on-edge the guy sounded. "It's my mistake, seriously. Where's my ball –"

"Captain!"

He moved fast to catch the ball before it could make contact with the guy in front of him as the throw was pretty skewed, before he glared over at Jake who was already apologising for the bad toss. Good thing Lance was their goalkeeper. Jake was great with his feet, not so much with his hands.

Cassian assured the guy and girl he was fine again before joining Jake and they began walking through the hallway.

"Careful, Cassian. Blunt-force trauma to the head can lead to serious problems, you could become a serial killer, I should steer clear of you." Cassian laughed at that.

"Shut up, there was no blunt-force trauma. I walked into a locker. Hey, Cuz," Cassian greeted, hugging Amber as soon as she was close enough to be reached.

"You walked into a locker?" She laughed.

"He did. By the way, why did you do that?" Jake asked.

"I was distracted."

"So am I, but I'm not walking into anything," Jake replied.

"That's because you're always distracted," Amber said, rolling her eyes as Cassian chuckled when they noticed Jake wink at a girl as they passed her.

They kept talking as they walked through the hall until Jake broke away from them to speak to another one of the girls he was interested in – there were many – and Cassian looked up surprised when Amber suddenly grabbed his arm.

"What –?" he began, looking down at her as she grinned.

"So, I heard you've made progress."

"What are you talking about?"

She looked so excited. She was so weird.

"With Theo –"

"Not again, Amber." Cassian glanced around them to make sure no one was paying attention to their conversation.