Anathema | KLANCE

NINE: But Why Would You Care?

Lance's intense, burning hatred for Hipparchus and math was not even a distraction anymore. He completely finished his trigonometry test in fifteen minutes, but his mind was concentrating on something else.

Everything was coming into place – or, at least, in his theoretical connections. From the second day, when they collided on the bus, he remembered the contact name having the same last name as Elliot's, and if that means they are related, it would be even more messed up that the mysterious person paid Keith $400.

Anxiously tapping his pencil's eraser on the desk, Lance impatiently watched the clock's hands tick ever so slowly, the lead in his pencil getting closer to the verge of falling out from how many times he's clicked it. His mind was a warzone of questions and worries, especially about Keith. Not even his brother's wellbeing was as much as an issue, and he believes that stems off from how responsible Francisco was: how much Lance was able to trust Francisco.

The fact that it was Valentine's day didn't help ease his mind of the clusters of troubles bothering him.

Click. Click. Click.

Kids still taking the test were sending nasty glares his direction, but it didn't lessen the amount of uneasiness blooming in his stomach. Why did it suddenly feel fishy all over again? It's only been a month, and they were almost back to square one. His left hand twisted the mechanical pencil around instead, the right one scouring his bag for his meds.

It's not there? Was all that went through his mind, alarms and warnings shouting at his conscience to stay calm. Meds, meds, meds. Tap, tap, tap. Where could it be? He wasn't sure if he dropped it, or possibly forgot it at home. They were never prescribed to the school's nurse, and if somebody found them, he would be screwed.

The abrupt ring of the school bell made him leak a tiny squeal, quickly packing everything up and hurrying out of Shiro's classroom for lunch. Kids, ranging from all kinds of heights and builds, crowded into the moldy hallway, making it impossible for Lance to investigate the area for his pills.

"Shit," releasing an antsy exhale, he continued down to the lunchroom, searching around for Rolo or Shay. Allura was stuck finishing her math test, and that only left two options for people he could rely on. Once he turned to the drama room hallway, the sea of people seemed to disappear into thin air, making the atmosphere around him less tense and more searchable.

A familiar head of hair was in a group of four humored boys, handing something over to them before they headed into the bathroom. The scene seemed so out of place to him, but he knew better than to suspect immediately whenever Keith was with another person – he learned from that encounter with Shiro at the hospital.

Turning around on his heels, he continued searching for his bottle of pills despite feeling completely hopeless about finding them. "Trust him, trust him.." The bundles of laughter deriving from the bathroom was nothing to worry about, the only thing on his mind was his medicine.

Because even though he's not taking them as well as he should be, he knows that without them being there when he needs them, it's going to end in a disaster.

--

"Lance, I'm sorry that we didn't find anything.... We've been looking every break that follows class..."

"It's fine, Shay, Rolo... thank you."

The three were out of breath from running all around the halls for the past few minutes, huddling up together by the senior's section of lockers. Most of the students were outside of the school already and loaded onto their buses, but there were still a few stray kids seen roaming around the halls every few seconds.