He sat back on the barstool and switched his phone on, to see about 25 messages from Grace resolving around the same topic. School.
2:30 pm
"Darra! I suppose you are back from school. Tell me how it went."

3:00pm
"Hey, Darr are you okay, tell me what happened!"

3: 25pm
"Is something wrong?"

3: 45pm
"Oh! I see! You're spending time with your American friends and I'm not important to you anymore!"

3: 46pm
"Well...you're a lama with goat poo stuck in your throat. I hope you choke on it!"

5: 30pm
"Look I'm sorry. Just stop ignoring me."

5: 35pm
"Fine, go ahead and ignore me all you want, you're not my best friend anymore!"

6: 00pm
"I'm sorry I said that I won't trouble you anymore. You are my best friend!"
The messages went on and on, one after the other, two or three angry, and one apologizing. He remembered how her mood would swing in five seconds like she had multiple personalities. He lightly giggled, thinking of her being angry that you could even see smoke coming from the top of her head, and in the next five seconds on the floor, crying and apologizing, then the next five, mad angry, and it repeating like that, over and over again till she finally calms down. 

He then became sad. He was thinking of Lilly when Grace was restlessly waiting for his reply, he couldn't believe it. He forgot about Grace. Even though he thought of Lilly from time to time, and whenever he saw her smile he felt his heart fluttering around his chest, his heart still beats for Grace, and only Grace, at least, that's what he thought. 

Not a day would pass by when Grace wasn't in his thoughts. Oh, how he missed that big bright smile of hers and her red, short locks that stranded every which way when she got up in the morning. And her eyes, that lit up his soul when he was feeling blue. Her touch, which he craved so much. 

The small freckles he was able to spot the last time they met before he came to America. He was only ten, but his mind was far older than that. And his body seemed to mature much faster than children his age are supposed to. Once in a while, he thought if he really was an outsider, not supposed to be living among people. He felt so different. 

But Grace, Grace always thought of him as their own and made him forget all his troubles anytime they met. Just the fact that he was able to feel her touch one last time, made him forget everything that was happening. 

Everything grew quiet and the sound of her beating heart was the only rhythm he could hear. It felt so perfect, so right. Yet something deep down in his chest bothered him. It was like, it wasn't so perfect anymore. And he felt it wasn't that right either. But hey, don't we all need to break the rules for once? Become rebels?

He grew restless now, unable to hold back his urge to see grace, just one time. He would grow restless every time he thought of Grace, and he would crave her. Just like a pregnant woman craving sour mangoes on a February morning. 

He smiled, bright and big. He had an idea. Darra thought of calling Grace. It was just the thing he needed to feed his undying hunger, the thought of her daring voice filling his ears brought a chill down his spine, the good one. But he frowned. 

It was three in the morning. Who in their right minds would be up at this time? So he gathered all his courage and walked back to his room clenching the phone tight and hoping for everything to go back to normal. On reaching he was tired, sleepy out of the blue and he felt like he would pass out the moment his bed landed on the pillow. 

He placed the phone back onto the desk and fell flat on his face. Groaning, he lifted his head up and sighed. 'Well, at least I can't hear the songs anymore.' He thought as a wave of relief passed through him, yet he wasn't man enough to check outside his window afraid he might see the lake again and everything could go wrong from there. He thought he was sleepy, but now he was just bored. Remembering he had school the next day, he decided to just close his eyes and go to bed for the sake of it, hoping he'd get time to talk to grace in the morning.

"Grace I'm sorry I was...busy at the moment." Darra tried to apologize as he put on his grey trouser. "Busy with your friends." Grace rolled her eyes at the other end of the line but Darra couldn't notice. (obviously) "I said I was sorry, can't you just forgive me?"
"Sorry doesn't fix anything. It doesn't bring back the time I spent on writing all those texts, or all the space I used, nothing."
"Please..."

"FINE, I GIVE UP. I forgive you." She said her voice raised in the beginning, then calming down and giggling as she finished her sentence. Darra knew she wouldn't refuse him if he pleaded, and now that he was on her good side, he can rest much better. 

Getting his tie on Grace started bombarding him with questions about school. "You STILL haven't told me about school. How was it? Make any friends? Did anyone tease you? How was class? Are the teachers nice? TELL ME!" She said restlessly waiting for his reply all in one breath. He then realized how concerned Grace was about him, bringing him warmth. 

"Well, for starters, the school was fine, I made a friend, no one teased me...in particular, the class was easy, the teachers were also okay, our homeroom teacher is the best! So yeah, that was my day at school in short." "Really?! That was short. Well, you'll tell me about school today then. And this time don't make any excuses!"

 "I promise!" On hearing that, she hung up and Darra heard a beeping sound coming from the phone, he brought it down from his ear and switched it off, placing it back on the desk feeling he accomplished his entire life. He felt at ease now that he knew he was at peace with Grace. He could finally go to school without any worries. 

As he fixed his tie and tucked in his white shirt, showing off his forming abs but from afar it looked like a normal flat stomach, Darra grabbed his school bag and headed out the door, shutting it tight. Darra came out of the elevator and sped to the dining table. He was quite angry yet he just grabbed an avocado toast and some bacon. 

"Hey, Laura hey Coal. Bye, Laura bye Coal" And just like that he swallowed everything and washed it down with mango juice, running away from the dining table to avoid any questions as he went into the elevator, the doors shutting as he felt the need to bring back all that he just "ate".

Darra was standing outside his mansion, scared. His heart rate picked up, and he began to sweat. Right opposite him was the very lake he saw outside his window this morning. "What?!" He almost shouted, realizing that they were others on the streets two. He could see people just passing through the lake, and they didn't even notice it. 

He began to walk, then he picked up the pace, feeling he was being followed, and then he began to run, faster than he had ever run before. He felt like he was flying. Darra could feel his blood boiling and his body temperature rising, he thought he could melt ice in an instance. This rush, this freedom, this heat, he felt amazing! 

He ran and ran until he realized, he ran right past Lilly's house, and Lilly herself. He stopped, turned around, and run back to her, although not as fast as before because he thought he'd just pass her again. "You're a pretty fast runner!" Lilly smiled at him as he was holding on to his knees, catching his breath, he thought he would turn into a mushy liquid any moment now. 

He looked up to see a smiling Lilly, who looked as though she shouldn't be smiling. Her hair was messed up and her face, dry. Her clothes were just as crooked and broken as her hair, and her shoes looked as though they would break at the slightest of blowing winds. 

"Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?" Darra asked, tilting his head as she fixed up her hair and her uniform, then she laughed. "It's 'cause of you. You run like the wind! You should enter the school's sports competition. One of the acts is racing!" 

"I'm probably not that fast."
"Dude did you see what you did to my clothes?! I'm entering you in the competition whether you like it or not. I can't wait to see you win and crush Juan!" Lilly said as she jumped up in the air with her hands up and a closed eye smile wide on her face. 

She began to move forward literally jubilating over nothing as Darra watched her in awe as a light blush covered his cheeks. He then covered his mouth that managed to hang ajar without his knowledge and shook his head as he smiled to himself. 

Lilly was a nice girl, though unpredictable. Her moods can be two different emotions or more at the same time, and you would never be able to understand her. But something just kept pulling Darra towards her, he just couldn't understand what exactly it was, but he didn't want it to stop that's what he knew. He realized that her figure was beginning to disappear and seep into the morning's mist when he began to catch up shouting, "Hold on! Wait up!"