A boy in distress.

Oliver tried to keep a stoic face as usual when he entered the school premises.

He had not wanted to come to school; it had only been a day since the incident happened with Mr. Elvis in class.

On top of that, it was also a day before he felt Scarlett, and he was afraid she needed his help. He had tried to make his parents see that yesterday, but it seemed it was all for naught.

However, his parents had forced him to go, his mother especially. She wanted him to act normal, go to school and behave like a normal 18-year-old teenager.

He had tried to tell her it was not that simple, but she never paid much attention to that.

His father has calmed him and his mother down and had informed Oliver that he had no choice about it, so long as he was under

their roof. That was what made him agree to go to school, although he had to tamp down on the rebellious part of him who was angry at being forced to play a role that he was not fit for in the world.

Therefore, as he entered the school that morning, he gave harsh glares to anyone who even dared look his way.

He was definitely not in a good mood to act normal. Right, he scoffed internally. I’m being a normal teenager now, he thought.

He felt a hand grab his arm as he walked down the school hallway, and he turned to see Eleanor smiling at him. As soon as he met her eyes, she fluttered her lashes at him, giving him a soft smile.

“Hello, baby,” she leaned in to kiss his lips, but he abruptly turned slightly away from her, and her lips met his cheek instead.

Oliver felt awkward, and his action to turn his face away from her made the situation even more awkward.

There was a brief silence, and his girlfriend stopped walking, tightening her grip on his arm to make him stop walking as well.

“What happened, Oliver?” she asked, her doe eyes looking a bit more glossy now. Great, he thought. He had made her upset.

He gave a short, sharp, and definitely fake laugh, shaking his head at the expression on her face.

“It’s nothing,” he responded and met her eyes. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind these days.” And he wasn’t lying about that. His mind now was on school and Scarlett.

Scarlett, who he needed to make sure was alright. But back to his needy girlfriend, of course. He gave her another smile, trying to look a little less tense and awkward with her. “I have just been thinking about a lot of things. Family stuff,” he finished.

She nodded, her expression moving from hurt girlfriend to one of understanding.

“It’s fine, baby,” she patted his arm, “I understand completely.” Oliver could sense the lie in her words, and the way she smiled as if a needle had been stuck in her throat told him that it was not going to be as easy as he wanted it to be.

Still, he remembered the vision of his best friend and his girlfriend. And that caused a shiver to run through him and down his spine as the duo made their way to their class. Taylor saw the supposedly happy couple as they walked in through the doors, and gave them a wave. Oliver only gave a wan smile to his friend, while Eleanor waved enthusiastically. Oliver fought not to roll his eyes at her antics, and tried to firmly push the vision out of his mind.

She is your girlfriend, Oliver, he began to tell himself in that ‘no excuses’ tone that his father often got. Whatever the vision maybe, she is your girlfriend.

Still, he could not help but sit just a bit farther from her with the excuse of ‘It’s closer to the board’ leaving his lips so quickly like he had planned it, instead of it being a spur-of-the-moment decision.

His mind was full of a lot of things. Things that he did not want to think about.

Then there was Scarlett.

Oliver sighed, playing with his pen and looking

down at his doodles on the margin of his notebook.

As soon as school closed for the day, he got up with his book bag already packed and practically ran out of class.

He did not speak to Taylor or Eleanor, who stared at him with gaping mouths and wide eyes as he exited the class.

Oliver managed to get home in record time, his anxiety through the roof as he entered through the front door. Luckily, his father was right in the living room, and he called out to Oliver as soon as he spotted his son.

“Dad,” Oliver greeted back, walking into the living room. He noticed that his mother wasn’t there, and with a questioning look on his face, his father told him that his mother had gone to the grocery shop.

“Oh, alright then,” Oliver responded. He was a bit glad that she wasn’t there anyway, especially with the way that she had reacted when he mentioned Scarlett the day before. “Dad, I wanted to ask you if you have been able to reach out to Scarlett.”

His father looked shocked a bit at the question, but composed himself quickly before nodding,

“Yes, I spoke with Scarlett and Elder Quinn previously. They are both well,” he finished.

Oliver heaved a huge sigh of relief at the news, and nodded, a smile now beginning to form on his face.

“That’s okay then. Thanks, dad.”

With that, the 18-year-old left the living room and moved up to his room to freshen up. He, however, was unable to spot how his father’s eyes had tightened as he told his son the lie.

Oliver went on with the rest of his day, unbeknownst to him, his father was still trying and failing to reach out to Elder Quinn and his daughter, Scarlett.