5

Thank you." Circoe looked back down at his phone. He began typing another message before closing his laptop and turning off his lamp.

Circle's phone pinged from the sound of the notification. Circoe pulled his phone away from his face and looked at it. He read the message over once again before smiling to himself. 'Don't worry about it, Cir.'

Circoe glanced across the room at his bedside table. There was a bottle of water sitting on top of a stack of books which Circoe assumed was his own copy of the notes he had taken. Circoe reached for the bottle and uncapped it, taking several sips. Then, he placed the cap back onto the bottle and laid it back down on his bedside table. Circoe grabbed the blanket folded neatly on his bed and draped it over himself.

A few minutes later Circoe fell asleep. When he woke up hours later it was to someone shaking him awake. Circoe's eyes snapped open. He immediately recognized the person standing above him. It was Tarek.

"Wakey wakey, sleepyhead. We got school now." Circoe blinked at him a few times, not really understanding what was happening. "Come on, c'mon Cir. We're heading to the school cafeteria now. You gotta eat breakfast first before we can even begin our homework."

Circoe's eyes widened a little before he quickly pushed himself upright with both hands as a bright smile spread on his face.

"Morning!" Circoe chirped. "Sorry I slept so late yesterday."

Tarek frowned slightly as he rolled his eyes in exasperation. He was never really mad at Circoe for falling asleep early anyway.

"How is your arm?" Tarek asked after realizing that he had interrupted Circoe's enthusiastic greeting.

Circoe looked down at his left wrist. His fingers traced the scar on his arm slowly. He then turned his gaze back to Tarek. "It… it hurts sometimes but it doesn't hurt as much as it did yesterday."

"That's good!" Tarek stated. Then, he reached up towards Circoe's ear and started rubbing his thumb back and forth across his ear lobe. Circoe leaned into Tarek's palm. Tarek's touch always soothed him like nothing else ever could. "So how are you feeling this morning? Do you remember anything from last night?"

For a split second Circoe thought back to his memory loss and the kiss he shared with Circoe before he regained his senses again. "No. No matter how hard I try, I can't remember anything that happened between last night and today," Circoe replied as his head hung low. "I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."

Tarek noticed that Circoe still wore his glasses and wondered why he was still wearing them. "Do you want me to take those off for you? It must've been pretty painful to wear glasses without your contacts."

"No! It was fine. Really. Don't worry about it." Circoe said while attempting to push his glasses further up his nose. He sighed as the frames slipped out of place. He then put them down on his bedside table. Once he got his glasses safely situated once more on his face, Circoe gave Tarek a soft smile. "Really though. Everything is ok. Thank you for worrying about me. I appreciate it."

"Okay. Well, let's get going then." Tarek stated as he picked up the bag he brought inside.

Circoe nodded before he started getting up off of his bed. As he did so, he realized something:

"Where is Circle? Is he with us now?" Cirllo questioned.

Tarek furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Why would Circoe care? He was supposed to be angry with him. "Umm… I guess?"

"But… he's still sleeping?"

Tarek nodded.

"Oh." Circoe paused for a moment to consider the situation. He figured that Circle would want to hang around with his friends since he was clearly still in a state of shock about everything that had happened. So, Circoe decided to leave that subject alone for the time being.

"Hey, C, what about you? Where do you think you'll be going today?" Circcoe asked while grabbing his backpack and zipping it up.

"Well, I think I will be doing the same thing as usual, except I may just spend time with my friend Miri this morning," Tarek responded.

Mirri was one of his old friends who also lived in their apartment building. Her parents were teachers at Cloudbank high school. She also worked at the mall.