Chapter Two:

Huy quickly walked with Kaily to her class before he headed back to the north hall for his own. He had piano first period. It wasn’t exactly a boring class, it did pass by quickly for the most part, but it was quite repetitive. Lucky for him, they had a substitute today so they could play whatever he wanted.

Huy searched through his backpack, trying to find his sheet music. Maybe I should organize my papers later, Huy thought as he shuffled through the many folders, notebooks, and loose papers that filled up his backpack. After searching for a minute or two, he pulled out a stack of papers which were covered, front and back with music scores. He set the music upon the stand and opened the smaller pocket in his bag, taking out the headphones to plug into the keyboard.

After setting up for the day, Huy quickly began playing. At first it was a melancholic tune, saddening and deep, but as the song progressed it became happier and much more cheerful. His hands gently glided along the keys, gracefully playing each note very dramatically. He rarely looked up to read the sheet music, for he had to song memorized. He could never forget this song for it was Kaily’s favorite.

He let the rhythm flow through him, gently pressing the keys in time to the beat. He didn’t even have to think to remember the notes; they just naturally came to him. One note after another, the song slowly came together, like the pieces of a puzzle falling into the correct places. The tune changed, from sad to happy, and at times, questionable and random. It was a song that once one heard it, they would never again forget it.

When Huy reached the end of the song, he smiled to himself. He had finally done it. He finally remembered the 18 page long song, beginning to end, perfectly.

If only Kaily could have seen me play that, Huy thought to himself, she would have been so proud of me. If only she could have seen me, if only…

He flipped through the music, trying to find another song to play, but they were all beginning to bore him. He had played them all one too many times to be considered difficult anymore. Huy checked the time, to see if it was even worth starting a new song. The clock read 8:37 AM, meaning there was only about eight minutes left before the bell would ring, dismissing the class for the day. Huy decided it would be best to just pack up then, considering all the songs he had then took over 15 minutes to play and he hated to stop playing half way through a piece.

He grabbed the sheet music off of the stand and put it away in his backpack. He then unplugged his headphones, being careful to not tear the cord, and wrapped the cord around itself so it wouldn’t unwind and placed them back in the small pocket of his bag. He glanced across the room; the substitute was busy reading the newspaper, so Huy took out his phone and checked to see if he had any messages. His phone read that he had two unread messages. One was from Kaily, the other was from Annabelle. He decided to read the one from Kaily first.

‘What’s wrong? You and Andrew seem to not be getting along. Are you two okay?’ the message read. Huy sighed. He wasn’t exactly sure when or why it had happened, but him and Andrew seemed to be growing farther apart.

‘I’m fine, nothing’s wrong. Andrew seems distant, that’s all. I’ll figure it out, this will all be okay, I promise. Love you.’ I replied to Kaily with.

Huy opened the other message, which was from Annabelle. It read ‘Something seems wrong. Be careful, I just felt the need to say that.’

He didn’t feel like Annabelle really wanted him to reply to her so he closed his phone and shoved it into his pocket. Today had just barely started and yet it seemed so confusing. Maybe Annabelle was right, something was wrong, he just didn’t know what.

Huy stared at the clock for the rest of the period and the moment the bell rang he was the first one out the door. He walked down the north hallway until he reached the library. There he met up with Kaily.

“Are you ready for calculus?” Kaily jokingly asked.

“Calculus, gross,” Huy replied, sticking his tongue out. “By ready for calculus, if you mean ready to take a good long nap in calculus then the answer is a definite yes. If you meant otherwise, then no way am I ready for calculus.”

Kaily giggled in response to this. She took hold of Huy’s hand. He gently squeezed her soft hand, making her squeeze his back. They walked off toward the south hallway to their class.

Upon entering the classroom they took their usually seats at the round table located at the back of the classroom. Kaily quickly pulled out her notebook and pencil while Huy sat there and rested his head on the table.

“Maybe you wouldn’t be failing calculus if you actually paid attention in class for once,” Kaily said, knowing that Huy wouldn’t take her seriously.

“I’m not failing calculus,” Huy stated. “I’ve come to know that an A- is not a failing grade.”

“Huy won’t fail, he never does,” Andrew said as he took the seat next to Huy. His voice had a dark tone to it.

“You never fail either. Nope, Mr. Perfect Andrew Thanh never fails. Not a single mistake ever. He’s got the best grades and never misses even a single day of school. Record breaking times in track and perfection in his strokes at swimming. Add in his awesome looks, or so all the girls in school say, and you’ve got yourself the world’s most perfect human ever. How lucky he must be,” Huy said sourly, talking as if Andrew wasn’t even there.

“I can hear you, you know,” Andrew stated, his voice was chilling. “And I’m not perfect, Huy, no one is.”

“Well then, if you’re not perfect than you’re the closest thing to it,” Huy replied. “You never make a single mistake, never. Perfect grades, perfect looks, and you get anything you want. You’re life is perfect.”

“That’s not true,” Andrew stated. “I make mistakes, my grades are good because I actually pay attention in class and do my work. As for how I look, I have no control over that, I was born like this. And trust me; I don’t get everything I want.”

Huy stared at Andrew in disbelief, not saying a single word. Andrew not getting what he wanted was impossible. He had everything. He had a perfect family, one that actually talked to one another and tried to spend time together. He had perfect grades, straight A’s, always. And he had every single girl in the school crushing on him. He had to be the luckiest guy on the planet. What in the world could Andrew want that he couldn’t have?

“You’ll never understand,” Andrew stated just before the bell rang, signaling that class had started.

The teacher greeted the class and got to his lecture. Kaily and Andrew began to take notes, making sure to write down everything on the board while Huy just sat there, half spaced out. He couldn’t think of a single thing that Andrew could ever want that he couldn’t easily obtain. The way Andrew had said that he didn’t get everything he wanted made it sound like Huy had it. But he couldn’t think of a single thing that he had that Andrew couldn’t get.

There wasn’t a single thing that Huy could think of that Andrew could want. Could it have been his driver’s permit? No, Andrew would be getting his in a month or two. Everything else Huy had Andrew already had. PS3? Check, Andrew had gotten his for Christmas last year. Could it be his first edition Ibanez 5-string bass? Forget that idea, Andrew had no intentions of ever playing bass; Andrew was strictly a lead guitar type of person. Huy sat there, staring at Andrew. There was nothing Huy had that Andrew didn’t already have or couldn’t get his hands on.

“Andrew,” Huy whispered, “could you hang out with me after school for a bit? It seems like forever since you came over to just waste the day playing video games.”

“Can’t, I’ve got track practice today,” Andrew replied in the emptiest voice Huy had ever heard. “Maybe some other time,” he added in a tone that implied he wasn’t going to ever take Huy up on the offer.

“Whatever,” Huy stated. He laid his head on the table and listened to the sound of the clock tick the seconds away. He let himself drift slowly into unconsciousness.

Huy’s thoughts of Andrew and him growing farther and farther apart followed him into his subconscious state. In his dream he was sitting in the library. Andrew was sitting beside him. They were both focused on the books that lay before them. As hard as Huy tried, he couldn’t make out the words upon the pages. All of a sudden, Andrew closed his book and stood up.

“Goodbye, Huy,” Andrew said, walking away. From the way Andrew had said his farewell, it had sounded as though it was the final goodbye, that they would never see each other again; at least not on good terms.

Huy woke up at that moment, frightened that we would forever lose his best friend. He looked up to see Kaily smile down at him. He forced himself to smile too, even though he was scared. He looked over toward Andrew, who totally ignored his gaze.

Huy grabbed his phone from his pocket, and searched through his contact list. He quickly found Kaily’s number. He selected the messaging option and quickly began typing his thoughts.


‘Andrew seems to be distancing himself from us. I feel like if we don’t do something about it now, we’ll lose him forever.’ He typed into the message box. When he was done, he hit send.

Kaily looked down at her phone, already knowing that it was Huy who had sent her the message. They always talked like this during class, especially when they didn’t want others to hear. In this case, she was guessing Huy didn’t want Andrew to know what they were talking about.

She glanced at the message and quickly read it. As she had thought, this was something that they couldn’t let Andrew know. She quickly responded.

‘Wait it out for a day or two more, to see if he’s just going through a phase, or being serious about ditching us.’

Huy read Kaily’s message as soon as he got it and nodded to her. He closed the phone, checking the time on the outside screen which read 9:41 AM. He then put his phone away and rested his head on his arm, waiting for the bell to ring.

When the bell rang everyone quickly packed up and left the room.

“Andrew, are you okay?” Huy asked, as they both walked to chemistry.

“I’m fine,” Andrew said.