Madness

Nicholas lay on his narrow dormitory bed. The ceiling above him was plain, and yet his mind painted it with chaotic images—fragments of thoughts, faces, and conversations, everything collided into a mesh of words. People all at once, conflicting voices, conflicting thoughts.

He turned his head to the side, his gaze falling on Clyde, who was snoring in his own bed. "Hey," Nicholas called, his voice cutting through the stillness.

Clyde stirred, half-conscious. "What's it?" he muttered, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"Do you have an extra pillow?" Nicholas asked, his tone carrying more annoyance than gratitude.

Clyde groaned, sitting up just enough to grab the spare pillow at the foot of his bed. He tossed it across the room without looking. It landed on Nicholas’s face.

"There. Happy?" Clyde grumbled before flopping back down.

Nicholas yanked the pillow off his face and set it beside him. "You throw like a toddler" he shot back, the sarcasm thick in his voice.