Monday morning chaos rang through the classrooms as everybody talked about things like possible tests, homework they didn't finish, and what they did over the weekend, while teachers tried to calm everyone down. Most people thought it was a regular old school day.
But something just didn't feel right to Sylvian.
He couldn't help but let his eyes sneak out to look at the seat next to the window… empty.
AGAIN.
Nobody had thought much of it at first… when Akiel was sick, or family issues came up, he would be gone for a few days. At first, it was just one day… then it turned into three; three turned to five… before anyone noticed, he had been gone for over one week.
The vacant chair was not in harmony with the other occupied chairs that had people sitting in them.
Sylvian was using his pen to click it against his notebook so that he could focus but all he could hear was the teacher talking and he felt uncomfortable in his chest.
A week…
That's too long.
Then, his mind would wander back to the very last conversation they had together.
No… it wasn't a conversation… it was an argument!
The memory came back to him in an annoying fashion. There were high voices, and angry words, and there was clearly no hiding the fact that both men were frustrated with each other.
Most importantly, he remembered how Akiel had looked when he had walked out.
Sylvian abruptly stopped tapping his pen.
Maybe he was thinking about this way too much.
Maybe Akiel was not feeling well.
Maybe he just wanted to spend time on his own.
But the nagging feeling that he has did not leave.
Once the lunch break began, Sylvian immediately began to look for Julia. He got lucky and found her in the courtyard under a large tree with several pieces of paper laid out in front of her.
He immediately sat down at the table across from her – no greeting.
"Have you heard anything from Akiel lately?"
Julia looked up at him.
The small pause in her face immediately dropped his stomach.
"Uh, not really."
Sylvian frowned.
"What do you mean by that?"
Julia shut the file in front of her and leaned back.
"I mean he reads our messages."
"Seriously?"
She nodded.
"Everyone gets left on read."
For some reason, that was an even worse answer than no answer.
At least if Akiel had totally disappeared, there might have been a reason for it – like some broken phone or bad internet or something like that.
But if he is reading every message and not responding? That's a whole different thing!
"Have you tried calling him?" Sylvian questioned.
"There was no response."
"What about any visitors?"
"Only the maids." Julia's expression turned somber.
"And that's it."
Sylvian lowered his eyebrows in concern.
"What do you mean?"
"He has been encouraged to eat properly. The majority of the time he doesn't eat. Most always he keeps locked up in his room, and the apparent fact is the curtains have been closed for days."
The courtyards could almost be heard breathing. There was incredible amounts of loud sounds coming from the students, on the other hand the sounds coming close to us sounded as just white noise.
"Did he seriously never open those curtains?" Julia shook her head slightly.
"I guess not, because he's never talked with anyone before," There was silence between them.
Sylvian looked down at the surface of the table where he felt remorseful as he replayed his argument with Akiel in his mind. He thought that confronting Akiel was a good thing; but now he questioned if he was too extreme.
The image of the curtains in the empty room —always shut— kept replaying over and over again in his mind. Julia rubbed her forehead and sighed.
"I'm worried, honestly."
Sylvian jerked upright all of a sudden.
Julia blinked and asked, "What are you doing?"
After grabbing his backpack from the ground, he slung it over one shoulder.
He would have been able to rationalize giving Akiel some time and space just a week ago, but now he could not avoid visiting him.
"I'm going to see him."
Disregarding Julia's response, he turned and began walking toward the school's gate.
For the first time in seven days, he had a sense that something might be seriously wrong.