Dear friends in higher places, carry me away from here
-To The Sky, Owl

The morning is filled with musky feeling in the air as I stand on the stairs waiting in the corner. My burning eyes flicker around the faces and reactions of the fellow undergraduates from under my hoodie, not wanting anyone coming up to me. My head seems to have taken a familiar hammer as it hammers in my skull from the lack of sleep last night.

The shrill of end of a class makes my flinching self agree that the morning is too harsh for filling up students heads with endless lectures. I glance at the large clock in the middle of the common ground, pull my sleeves to the tips of my fingers and then swiftly proceed to my lecture hall.

Upon entering, I take my usual seat and bite my cheek in random thoughts to somehow subdue the pain in my head and ignore the pain radiating from my arms.

"Kohl under eyes, or is that dark circles I see?"

I ignore the source of the energy filled voice while keeping my notes and stationaries on our table.

"Wait a sec."

The hood is pulled off from over my head, freeing the long strands of my hair that now hinder with my eye sight. A hand touches my chin strongly and swiftly turns my head to meet piercing blue eyes rimmed with kohl like she spoke my eyes to be.

"Those are dark circles. What did you do last night instead of sleeping?", she asks while scanning my whole state.

"Nothing of your concern, Alexa.", I reply nonchalantly while removing her hand from my face and my gaze from hers. A sudden force grips me on remembrance of last night making me shudder lightly and place my finger tips on my forehead for a flitting second due to the headache which doesn't go unnoticed by her.

"Stop calling me Alexa. Damn Amazon for it though. Forget it. What happened this time? Don't you dare shrug it off."

I do exactly what she tells me not to do, shrug while a smile of amusement blooms on my face at the annoyance of her own name.

Alexis narrows her eyes at me knowing the reason for my expression.

"Partner look, I'm okay, yeah? I really want to be done with this day and I did not bring my novel today. Thus we are so sharing yours." I finish, quickly to hide my uneasiness, giving her a brief smile knowing her immense possessive nature towards her books.

The professor, Mr. Kent, walks in and slams the heavy books on his arms on the staged above table of his causing Alexis' to stop her rapport against me. She huffs out a breath in annoyance at me with a we-not-done look and begrudgingly lets me 'share' her book.

I'm lost in Shakespeare's world as Juliet runs off with her Romeo while Alexis exclaims beside me with "Why would you Romeo?" or "Juliet, are you kidding me?" or better yet, "Hold on. Romeo is like more than 20 and Juliet is 13 only? What the hell?"

The last one went in everyone's ears including Mr. Kent's which causes him to halt his lecture to question her thoughts on the age difference causing them both to launch in a heated discussion of pedophilia between them while the other students watch it unfold with interest.

I end up doodling the last page of my notebook with words I could not string together anymore, trying to distract my mind from the pain while leaving reality, until the shrill of bells causes me to flinch as I was so absorbed in my own world.

Picking up everything I dash out to the next class ignoring Alexis trying to catch up with my fleeing self.

The same routine was followed in every class until the end. Drop in my usual seat. Open the books. Get the stationaries. Listen to the buzz of my professors. Pretend to take notes. Repeat.

I feel hollow by the end of the day, detached from myself as my legs carry me routinely to the Arts Building to my usual ride. Talking to him helps my mood always. The white walls of the corridors showcased with splatters of paints and quotes blesses my sight until I threw open the huge wooden door of the "Painter's Heaven", room of the painters with everything there. Thus the name given by students.

I see him , alone, with blue paint highlighting the left side of his raven hair as his square spectacles sit askew on his hooked nose. His hands were frantically sweeping over a huge canvas with a paint brush in one hand and a variety of colours and paint boxes lying on the upraised table to his right. Watching him was a treat as he was so devoted to his passion compared to his twin who was carefree and too bubbly for her own good.

He did not notice me walking in the room with my arms around me which causes him to jump when he hears me the third time I call out his name.

"Eddy, don't give me a heart attack like that.", he says, fixing his glasses on his nose and running his hand which had the paintbrush, through his hair, swiping another layer of paint over the one already there.

"You know, you can dye your hair in shades of blue and white instead of painting it.", I say with a wary smile.

The familiar piercing blue eyes look at me with confusion. His faces turns to amusement when I touch his hair and show him my hand being freshly 'hair- painted'.

" It has been a hectic day with the upcoming exhibition next month. I wanted to finish the painting by today hopefully but couldn't so started painting something else to calm my nerves. But right now, it's just a background which looks like mine and Alexis' eyes", he says.

I look at the canvas and see indeed he has been painting the way the twins' eyes look in their lovely soulful blue colour with sunlight bringing in different shades to it. Piercing even painted.

"Alex you are a fucking genius. How did you even get that stroke done? I mean it's darker but it truly brings out other features to the painting. "

Alexander gives me the smile which assures me for the thousandth time why everyone loves him. I mean, how can you not love such a kind hearted and pretty face?

"Why are there dark circles under your eyes?", he asks, looking over at me.

I bite my lips lightly and tell him that the cats kept me awake.

"Ed, you really want me to believe that? I see tiredness in your eyes and you're hiding something. Come on. Won't take you home today otherwise. I kid you not."

"But you are my ride today and I need you to drop me to my house as always before you pick Alexis then to your apartment. I believe she is, by now, at her work, so please? I did not even bring my car today."

"Am I not your ride back home always?", he says raising an eyebrow.

Firstly, I don't have a car. Well I do but I let Dani take care of it as long as it ain't crashed. I do still know how to drive but I'm worried that my state of mind will lead me to a death by car accident if I drive. The look Alex gives to the painting he was doing as if he has to part with his lover for stupid reasons makes me roll my eyes and laugh lightly. He chuckles when he catches me at that.

"Come on. Let's go, but you're telling me your dilemma on the way. ", he says dragging me by my bag, ignoring my stumbling of feet and annoyed cries as I let him.

Alexander and Alexis. The epic twins. I always had a soft spot for twins.
High chances I'll be updating this with long gaps considering my coming mocks and IGCSEs. Thanks for being patient with me I guess

Love,
Luna.