Chapter Eight

One thing Alex absolutely hated was having sleepless nights.

He tossed and turned at intervals, groaning at every movement. It was frustrating as every single time he shut his eyes, he had Sebastian's face showing right up.

He grunted out as he sat up on his bed. Pulling the sheets away from him, he moved towards his bedside and turned the lights on.

He looked at the wall clock as he did that. It was past midnight already and ever since he got back from school and had about two spoons of dinner, he had been on the bed, unable to sleep or infact, do anything he actually wanted to do.

His thoughts had been involuntary- Seb clouding it. He couldn't get his name, his face, his voice and literally everything he knew about him out of his mind and with every second that passed it pissed Alex off even more.

Giving up on trying to lie down and sleep, he crossed his legs on the bed. He folded his arms and looked around him noticing how empty the room felt for the first time. Unlike his room back in London, it looked very scanty. All it had was a reading table he kept neat with very few books on it. There were no posters on the walls, no string lights littering his corner and no shelves housing books he could read to pass time.

It didn't take long for him to realize why the room looked the way it did. It wasn't his aunt's duty to give his room a makeover and he, the new owner of the room, had left more than half of his old stuffs back at his old room and house.

Making a mental note to himself to go shopping to give his room a makeover, he got up to disconnect his phone from his charger. Taking a seat on the chair instead of the bed, he hit the browser icon on his phone and typed in G****e.

He checked out some nearby bookstores and interior decorations shops and luckily was able to find some cool stores that caught his eye. His excitement was however only short-lived as the moment he inputted them into G****e maps, he realized they were not as close by as he expected and for someone who barely knew his way to college on his own, trying to look for such stores in town would be a complete bad idea.

"Check us out on I*******m," he read out the words displayed in bright yellow as he navigated the store's website. I*******m. Social media.

He groaned on realizing his idea of his distraction had quickly been dissed. Before he knew it, his mind was back to thoughts about Sebastian Keates.

"I don't use I*******m."

He felt his stomach churn as he recalled the night Seb had desperately asked him for his I*******m username. Truthfully, he didn't have an I*******m account or a reason to ever use the app. He didn't have friends or anyone to talk to on it or any celebrity he was that interested in to be actually interested in their social life.

Biting his lip, he searched for I*******m on his phone and realizing he didn't even have it installed, he hit the store and downloaded it without hesitation. In few seconds it was installed on his phone leaving him with confusion on what to actually do next.

He still had no reason to have it downloaded on his phone. He fidgeted with his phone in his hand and after a long while, he finally tap the app.

The sign-up process was easy and in few minutes, Alex was in. It was initially annoying as he couldn't go by his name which led to him adding numerous 'x' to his name until he was finally allowed to have a username.

Biting his already bruised lips, he clicked on the search icon. After hesitating for a while, he exhaled and typed in 'Sebastain Keates'.

It was insane how so many people seemed to bear the same name. He came across over a dozen accounts all having similar usernames and none being the actual person he was searching for.

He let out a final groan as he clicked on the last account having a name similar to Sebastian Keates. He rolled his eyes on realizing that again, it wasn't who he was seeking.

His eyes suddenly shot up as he remembered Tasha's words. Truthfully his name was Sebastian but he went by Seb. Nodding to himself he typed in 'Seb Keates', silently hoping to finally find his account.

Seb Keates.

Keates Seb.

Seb.

Keates.

Sebastian k.

Keates S.

Sebby Keates.

Alex was sure he had spent over an hour typing in different possible usernames Seb could use. On every new search, he was displayed at least a dozen accounts and he took his time to go through every single one of them hoping to finally find Seb's actual account.

By almost 2am, he was sure he'd have gone through at least 100 different accounts all ending in vain.

"Why is finding an I*******m account this hard," Alex groaned to himself as he checked the last account suggested to him. He readjustsed his sitting position as he thought of one more possible username.

He was exhausted and as a result could barely think. He bit his lip, rolled his eyes and massaged his wrists as he kept on racking his brain for at least one more username.

"Okay," he exclaimed as he picked up his phone to type his newly thought guess. "S e b b k- oh, shit!"

He was only halfway through typing when he saw an account pop on his screen. It had the username 'Sebbk' and he immediately recognized the profile picture as one of Seb's.

"Sebbk," Alex read the username out loud, shaking his head. "Just what in the world is that."

Without hesitation, he clicked on the account's icon and it was a delight. It was indeed the account he had spent hours searching for.

"Arrrrrgghhhhhhhhh," Alex almost threw his phone out of his hand as he stared at the page. Alex could feel himself reach the peak of his frustration as he stared at the lock image on the screen, signifying it was a private account.

It was definitely Seb's. Other than his picture being the profile picture, the bio literally said "Hi! I'm Sebastian Keates".

He stared at the account for a while contemplating on following or not. It was frustrating to think that after his hours of searching he had only found the account to still have no access to it.

It took the flickering of the light bulb in his room for Alex to come to his senses. He jumped at the sudden darkness and on calming down, stared at himself and asked himself what the hell he was doing?

Not giving himself a chance to make sense out of it, he got up and switched off his phone. He had to be crazy. He just had to be crazy.

Without thinking twice, he dropped his phone on the table and climbed his bed. He grabbed the sheets and pulled it over his head and after a few more minutes of tossing and turning, he finally slept off.

---

"Fuck."

"Whoa, you need to chill out," Tasha turned to face Alex. "You've cursed at least a hundred times today."

She wasn't exaggerating. And she was, it was only a tiny bit.

Alex had started his day on a very pissed note. After barely getting an hour of sleep, he got up to get ready for college.

His annoyance started when he accidentally turned the hot water on making him almost boil his hair and head off. He had shrieked out of the shower and even when he got back in to properly have his shower, he had it in fear of hot water suddenly gushing out of the pipes.

He should have known something was off when the first tshirt his eyes caught was a bright white one. Brushing the feeling off, he took it out off his closet and put it on, pairing it with dark jeans.

He realized he shouldn't have brushed the feeling off when he was having breakfast. His cousin was ecstatic as usual and his aunt was being an angel by serving them breakfast. She had made freshly cooked pasta and a sauce with a name Alex couldn't pronounce for breakfast for them. He was served and on his second bite, mysteriously had his sauce spilled on his shirt.

"Oh, dear! Are you okay?"

He still remembered his aunt's high pitched voice as she stared at his sauce stained shirt in surprise. He cousin couldn't hide his feelings as he burst into laughter on staring at Alex.

"I'm fine," he had replied with a half fake smile. As he got up, he felt both his appetite and hope for a better day fly straight out of the window and he groaned on realization. Flashing them his ridiculous smile one more time, he climbed the stairs and headed to his room to change his t-shirt.

His ride to school was silent as he and his aunt both uttered any words to each other until they finally reached their destination. She bid Alex goodbye and wished him a great day ahead alongside her promise to come pick him up later.

Apparently his aunt's wish wasn't granted as he was having what was far from a great day. They started their classes with the most boring lecture Alex had ever listened to. To make it worse, he couldn't bring himself to fall asleep in the class resulting in him hissing and cursing every opportunity he had. And from the amount of times he had done that, a new opportunity seemed to resurface every five minutes.

"Sorry," he said to Tasha in the least apologetic tone. "I'm just-"

"Having a bad day?" she leaned closer towards him and whispered. "Is that it?"

"Something like that," he replied, nodding. "It seems like the whole universe is against me today."

"Really?" she laughed lightly. "Is that it or is it just school?"

"School?"

"College," she rephrased. "I get that it can be exhausting. Are you tired?"

"Not really," he exhaled. "I can't really say I'm tired of college already."

"Well duh you shouldn't be," she nudged him by the arm. "You also need to stop looking glum. It's literally still our first week. You shouldn't allow yourself get burned out already. By anyone or anything. We still have a very long way to go so you shouldn't be tired already."

"Right?" he asked her and she nodded then shifted her attention back to the boring lecture.

He sighed as he found something else to get busy with other than cursing- reminiscing on her words.

She was right. He had barely spent a week in college and yet he had allowed himself get bothered and distracted by unnecessary things and thoughts, Sebastian being the highlight. He needed to get himself to stop and very quickly at that.

After about thirty extra minutes of the boring lecture, the classes finally came to an end. Students rushed out of the class and as Alex did with Tasha by his side, he confirmed he was done with his lectures for the day.

"Do you want to grab lunch?" Tasha suggested as they walked headed to nowhere in particular.

"Um, I'm not really hungry," he replied, truthfully. Though he had only two bites of breakfast, he oddly felt full. If there was anything he actually needed to do, it was to sleep.

Tasha folded her arms. "What are you thinking about? Tell me. Are you really going to be starving yourself on purpose because of that?"

"No it's nothing," he chuckled lightly, unfolding her arms. "It's totally nothing like that. I'm just not hungry."

"Oh," she stared at him, seeming unconvinced. "What are you going to do then?"

"Um," he glanced at his wristwatch and thought for a while. "Probably go to the library."

"Ohhh," she leaned forward and smirked at him. "Going to the library when the semester just began. I see you're the nerdy type."

"Not really," he laughed. She had no idea. The library had always been one of his favorite places to be simply because they were quiet and as a result, helped him sleep soundly.

"Okay okay," she pushed him playfully. "Go ahead. Mr Nerdy Pants. "

"I'm not-"

"See you tomorrow then. Bye!"

He bid her goodbye and turned in the direction of the library. As he walked, he pulled out his ID card and headphones from his backpack- ID sliding down his pocket while headphones got plugged into his ears.

A smile of relief managed to land on his face the minute the stepped into the library. In contrast to the noisy environment he walked past on his way, the library was totally silent.

The librarian flashed him a smile as he showed her his ID and walked past. To his surprise, the library contained quite a number of students- some reading, some walking around the shelves and some in groups, probably reading together. Only a few number of people were seated with their heads rested on the table.

Not allowing that get to him, he walked to a corner with an empty table and made himself comfortable. Pulling out a few books for show, he replugged his earphones in his ear and rested his head on the table and in a few minutes, fell asleep.

---

"Brrring brrring brrring."

"Ow," Alex winced at the sound of his phone ringing. He raised his head to notice he had been getting stares and quickly grabbed his phone to turn the sound off.

He rubbed his eyes sleepily as he checked out who was calling and therefore responsible for interrupting his sleep. His eyes widened as the caller ID flashed his aunt's picture.

"Shit," he said under his breath. "Just for long did I sleep."

He quickly grabbed his backpack and was about shoving his books down it when his eyes caught a coffee cup holder containing about a dozen cups of coffee sitting on the table.

He gave the cups of coffee a questioning look then looked around him. He was alone on the table and there was no sign of someone else occupying or previously occupying it.

He looked around him again hoping to see the owner of the coffees on his table. It was already evening and as a result, the library had gotten less crowded than it previously was. There were barely any ones seated around or roaming the library.

He had decided to ignore the coffees and had grabbed his backpack to get up to leave when he noticed a note stuck to the coffee. He looked around him one more time and on still not noticing anyone, picked up the note and opened it.

I didn't want to wake you up but I'm guessing you didn't come to the library to sleep. Hopefully you'll wake up soon enough and find both the note and coffee to help you stay up.

P.S: I didn't know how you liked your coffee so I just got one of every flavor they had.

To you, Blue.

He didn't need to think twice to know who it was from. There was only one person that had ditched his original name to address him by 'Blue'.

And for the millionth time, he cursed again. "Fuck."