It was exactly one hour till lights out. By now, everyone was expected to be already present in each of their various dorm rooms for a quick inspection by the house masters and mistresses before the lights went out, as strictly instructed by the newly laid down safety measures.
The house mistress; Sister Abigail, had just left Felicity and Lilah's room to inspect the next one. Felicity immediately climbed up her bed as the mistress left, mentioning not one word to Lilah who now stood there frozen with bewilderment. With her facial expression, you could easily tell something wasn't right. Of course, something wasn't right, the two girls usually have a little chit-chat about how their day went every day before going to bed, but the case was very unusual today. The entire evening Felicity had been in a certain oddly reserved and moody state. Lilah, who had noticed this whole new vibe that her best friend was depicting, as caring as she was, tried as much as she could to inquire what the issue might be, but was constantly waved off with the same unpromising response, "I'm fine." Lilah knew that there was something really bothering her but she just didn't want to open up.
"Alright now, enough of all this," Lilah finally said, breaking the silence in the room. "Fel, you've got to tell me what the problem is," she said, "I can't let you suffer in silence while I'm here."
There was no response from Felicity as she remained on her bed, facing the opposite direction from where Lilah stood.
"Fel, I'm talking to you, can you look at me…please?" Lilah requested.
Sluggishly, Felicity turned towards her.
"What is it?" she muttered, "I'm trying to get some sleep."
"You need to tell me what the problem is, Fel. Please let me help you," Lilah pleaded.
"Lilah, I've told you I'm fine, there's no need to worry about me," Felicity replied.
"You wouldn't expect me to fall for that, would you?" Lilah asked. "I know when you're fine and when you're not, and right now you just don't seem like yourself," she said, "Whatever the problem is, you can always talk to me."
Felicity sighed.
"Lilah, I really appreciate you looking out for me, but honestly, I'm totally fine," she replied in a persuasive tone.
"It's been a long rough day," she said, "and apart from the unknown monster lurking around the place, there's nothing I could possibly be bothered about right now."
"…except, of course, having my eight hours of sleep interrupted," she added jokingly.
Lilah laughed.
"Alright I'm gonna let go of you now," she said to Felicity, "I'm just looking out for you, you know."
"I know," replied Felicity, "Perhaps, I have the most caring friend in the world" she added with a smile.
Lilah chuckled, blushingly.
"Goodnight Fel," she said.
"Night night," replied Felicity.
Lilah wasn't at all convinced that her friend was actually fine as she claimed, she just decided to let her be for the meantime, while stealthily observing from a distance.
Meanwhile, in the boy's dormitory, Oliver was just preparing for the inspection by the housemaster when his roommate heedlessly barged into the room in the most abrupt manner. Oliver took a quick glance over his shoulder just to confirm who it was, though having perceived the faint scent of Old Spice Whitewater deodorant which he had grown familiar with over time. Oliver ignored him, immediately returning to his personal chore of making his bed, paying little to no attention to Max's presence as though he never even existed.
It's been over about a month or so since these two had been living together in the same room, yet it still seemed impossible for them to ever get along. Between them, both existed a somewhat mutual feeling of scorn, hate, and disgust. However, as for Oliver, he felt they were just totally opposites to one another, and it was just impossible for them to ever work out as roommates.
While Oliver casually carried on with his chores, minding his own business, Max suddenly stepped towards him, after a scornful and malicious stare-down that lasted for over a minute.
"Hay," Oliver heard Max call from behind, though casually ignoring him.
"What's the deal with Olivia?" Max questioned, with a mean quizzical expression displayed over his face.
Oliver took his time to finish fluffing his pillow before turning around.
"Pardon?" he muttered thoughtfully, a slight look of puzzlement slowly displaying in his eyes.
"You heard me, you goddamn weirdo, what's the deal with Olivia Anderson Cooper?" Max demanded.
"The deal with Olivia?" Oliver scoffed. "There is no deal, Max, there never was," he sounded clear.
"But picture evidence shows you two talking to each other, and this makes me curious. What have you been talking to her about?" Max asked, showing some pictures on his phone.
Oliver didn't budge when he saw the pictures, as he had already seen them earlier on, he just kept his typical calm temperament, while racking his mind for a suitable response to Max's rather desperate demand.
"And don't you dare lie to me, Logan, I mean no funny business," Max said.
Oliver sighed. "Yes it's true we've spoken several times," he said, "What we were talking about, though, is none of your business, so why the hell am I supposed to tell you of all people?"
"You think you're smart, huh?" Max said, "I know what you're up to, Logan, so I'm warning you now, Liv is already into me, so it's either you pack it up and head to the back of the line, or you go find for yourself some other loser, cause she's way out of your league."
"You do realize you sound really stupid right now, summoning every bit of courage within you to stand here and confront me because of a girl who wouldn't even care less about you," Oliver said to him.
"Ha! What do you know, you envious little freak? Me and Liv are so in sync, you wouldn't even understand," he boasted loudly. "You're just… so jealous she likes me, and you can't help that you're gonna continue being a weird loner after your inevitable failure in winning Liv's heart."
Oliver scoffed.
"Oh, Max, your slow-wittedness just wouldn't cease to baffle me. You think I'm jealous of you," Oliver said, "You of all people should know by now that I have no interest in getting intimate with the opposite sex, or anything at all involving lustful romance."
"Since you're so desperate to have gone as far as thinking I'm jealous of you, let me do you a little favor and save your troubled mind by giving you a little sneak peek of the cause of my conversations with Olivia," Oliver said, as he reached out at his half-open drawer and took out the chain necklace with a black shiny locket. There was an immediate noticeable change in Max's expression the second he set eyes on the object on display.
"You do recognize this, don't you?" Oliver said, "Because someone did take the grave step to cross the thin red line that reads; do not intentionally provoke Oliver Logan." He sounded more serious and profound, Max just stood there momentarily petrified at the sight of a mesmerizing soul-penetrating gaze.
"Call that gutsy," Max replied hesitatingly with an obviously forced smirk on his face, following the brief momentary delay.
"You see, there is a very pellucid difference between being gutsy and being stupid, and Max, you just took a stupid step," Oliver said.
"Lay those filthy hands of yours on any of my personal possessions one more time and I promise you, Max, I'm gonna make you wish you weren't born. I'm gonna make you gag on every single one of your digits while you beg for mercy," he added.
"You're a real sicko…" Max mumbled, almost inaudibly.
"This conversation is now over," Oliver swiftly cut in, "This is the part where you leave."
Max still remained where he was, as he felt unsatisfied to just leave without being the one to make the final statement, but even as he thought hard on what comment to drop, he felt more speechless and defeated. Oliver, already growing fed up about this, tilted his face a bit closer beside Max's left ear and said,
"Move," he sounded earnest and demanding, almost in a whisper, "You're in my personal space."
At this point, a very big tension had begun to rise between the two boys, as they had a somewhat confrontational face-off. This scenario, for a fact, wasn't something new between these two, as more often than not, each displays an instinct to subtly exert dominance over the other, either directly or indirectly.
Suddenly, the door swung open and Mr Garrett the house master walked in to inspect the room. Oliver and Max quickly backed off from each other as soon as they saw Mr Garrett at the door. The inspection didn't take much time as intended, and soon afterward they both went straight to their beds.
Just two hours past lights out it was. Oliver's watch alarm buzzer sounded, vibrating on his wrist, it was twelve midnight. Oliver immediately sprang out of bed with a sense of alertness. He and Xavier had agreed to sneak out that night to track down the suspect. The issue at hand at the moment was how he was to leave the hostel without being caught by the housemaster or get captured by the security cameras outside. His only option of getting out at the moment was climbing twenty-five feet down the window. Oliver was quite confident it was worth the risk, he was eager to do literally everything within and beyond his power to ensure not to draw further attention of the principal.
Slowly and quietly, he slid the windows open, causing a current of air to whistle its way into the room, roughly brushing against his face. He had just climbed over to the narrow concrete slab, and right now. Taking a swift glance down at the floor, Oliver's heart began throbbing so violently within his chest as if threatening to pop out of his ribcage. He immediately turned his gaze away, pressing tightly by the wall.
"Oh, come on Oliver, you got this," he whispered to himself, his hand clenched against his chest in an attempt to calm himself down. He knew now that there was no turning back, it was now or never.