It's human nature to make promises easily and fail to fulfill them.
– Khay.

sᴏɴɢ : ʜᴇʟɪᴜᴍ

ᴀʀᴛɪsᴛᴇ : sɪᴀ

• • •

"ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ in two weeks time. I promise Mia." 26ᴛʜ ᴏᴄᴛᴏʙᴇʀ | 1:37 ᴘᴍ .

Those were the last words he delivered in person before he journeyed to a homeland that was not a safe haven.

15th November, a fortnight and six days since that day - if you count in sevens - and the rooms and corridors lacked the lingering scent of vanilla musk that filled them when he was around.

The molds growing on a stale pizza slice, pushed to a corner of the rooftop, served as proof of a broken promise and passing days.

I crossed off today's date and threw the calendar and marker to the side as I got up from the mat. Sighing at yet another passing day without his call or return.

I was mad and sad, mentally and physically exhausted from lack of sleep. I wanted to scream, break something, do anything to let out all what I was feeling inside, but I couldn't. I was numb, trapped inside my own body and head.

The stocked up feelings were pulling me apart slowly. It felt like multiple splinters were being dragged out and pushed back in only to be dragged out again. The cycle continuing like the ticking hand of a clock.

Sighing again, I pulled the hair band off my hair and put it around my wrists, tugging the sleeve of my hoodie over it before picking up my sketchpad.

No drawings were completed. Anger usually resurfaced close to the end and I'd toss the book away like a flying saucer, quitting close to the finish line of the drawing.

Halfway through shading, soft footsteps hinted at another presence and a flat voice that was once as musical chords blew the artistic dust off of me.

"Harry and Asa are here. Go with them this time Tonie. He's not going to be back today." Her pain was my pain. Every break in her voice shattered the broken pieces of glass I held for a heart and moulded vessels of anger.

He was the string that held the blinds up for sun rays, and his absence meant dimness, no sunshine and daffodils.

I dropped the sketchpad and let silence engulf me again as she left. The streets were getting empty and the blue blanket of the sky was beginning to fade, yet the day still felt incomplete.

"Veto." Only two people called me that. They both said I have a way of forbidding people from doing things without doing anything. But I wasn't able to hold him back from leaving.

I turn my head slightly, listening to his footsteps as he walks and sits cross legged beside me. We both stare into space before he breaks the calm silence.

"He's not coming back soon, is he?" Neither of us turned to look at the other, I traced patterns on the mat absentmindedly and wondered if he was ever going to come back at all. "We submitted your assignments and did your class works."

A silent word of gratitude left my lips in acknowledgement. My index finger still moving as he went on.

"Mr Brody wasn't pleased though. The old chap doesn't have a jolly spirit." The sound of palms rubbing against each other and an expelled breathe accompanied the brief pause. "Probably because he hasn't lived up to the rep he got in his former life."

Picturing Mr. Brody as a revolutionary Austrian German was hilarious as much as it was unsettling. The language didn't suit him in my head, but he'd pass at looking like Adolfus with the amount of creases he wore from years of permanent frowns.

Feeling Asa's stare and the fresh silence that settled, I looked at him and let a silent 'what' slip from my mouth. His smile intensified my puzzled expression pulling me deeper into the curiosity bubble he wrapped me in.

He shook his head and looked back at the canvas above us that was now stained with streaks of orange.

"Thought I'd only be seeing phantom smiles and hearing silence forever. Thank you for letting me hear your laugh again." He was smiling, but his eyes held a swirl of two counter emotions and my tongue was rolling two replies around like a dice, before settling on none and dissolving the 'thank you too' and welcome' into a genuine smile.

"You'll need to come back to school soon, you know. Your grades are fine, but all the work might save as a distraction for most part of the day."

"I know, but I've got too much going on in my head already. I don't think I'm ready to bring school into it yet."

"Part of that could be solved." I watched him rise to his feet and stretch the leg of his jeans, from where creases had formed behind his knees. "Get up Veto."

I ignored his outstretched hand, remaining still on the mat. "Where are we going?"

"To clear your head." I drew my eyebrows together, my current state of confusion exceeded the previous one. He stopped me from using my crafted excuse to get out of going out as I said the word 'I've'.

Pulling me to my feet, he held my gaze with his as he chastised my Georgian aged line. "Look Veto, we're not letting you sit out on this this time around. You're coming with us whether you've had a bath or not."

"Even if my hair smells like a sty?" He sniffed my hair and shook his head.

"Yes, even if you smell like a sty. Just put on your trainers and come down. You and your mane smell fine." I nodded and moved to the stairs he came from but stopped.

"There's really no way I'll be able to stay back is there?" speaking solemnly with half of my face buried in my hood, I heard him sigh and saw his feet progress close to mine.

"No Veto. There isn't."

"OK." He followed me down to my room and stood at the door. Typing on his phone as I dragged my trainers to the chair by the lace.

"Asa?" I pulled the lace through the last hole slowly, not lifting my head and taking his hum as a sign of his attention. "Check on Harry and tell him two is less than three but better than one. I'll be down soon."

As soon as the murmurs became ghostly, I tied the last knot and went to an off limit zone for them.