Chapter 8 : What a guy khalid is…

𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯

"Phewww well then finally", Khalid exclaims as he is finally done with the test, he moves to submit and as he did, he thanked the lecturer for letting him in and giving him extra time to write the test even though he came 20mins late. He walks out of the now empty classroom and heads out stretching before lowering down to lace his shoes for the 100th time as they were unlaced due to all the running around from earlier.

He laughs in his head and smiled,wow I never knew I could run that fast, feeling proud yet surprised at himself, it turns out fear can bring out the best in you at times. Now, let's go to the apartment he whispers to himself feeling victorious for absolutely no reason, perhaps it was because everything worked out as planned, he didn't miss his class if not he would have missed the test.

James is over at his apartment helping him out with the moving guys so he doesn't  have to tell them to turn around once again because he is not opportune or free, he just has to head home now, fix his home and sleep, heck based on how tired he actually is, he can totally see himself leaving the unpacking of boxes and decorating till further notice, whoever said university life is easier than high school lied, because back then he didn't have to fear for his future everyday, he just had to do his best but here with his packed schedule he almost seems to be in a constant fight or flight mode...that's not a good thing now is it?.

On getting to the apartment, he opens the door with his key and carries in the boxes he met outside the room,

"are these the last boxes, found them outside...they're mine right?" he said as he enters the living room but didn't get a response from James that is supposed to be in there, he looks around and sees no one in the living room but all the furniture were arranged, "looking better than I expected " he said to himself surprised at the state of the then empty apartment, now filled up with his things which served as a source of comfort for him.

"Maybe he's in the bedroom" he thinks to himself as he wonders where James is and what he was up to, probably trying to fix the room too, hah he is too much sometimes, did he have to do this all by himself?.

And so he walks into the bedroom to see James and what looked like a girl whom had her hair up in a puffy curly ponytail, her head was facing downward while James explained what not.

"uh hi, man, what are you guys doing? Khalid asks out of curiosity. 

Now aware of his presence, they both raised their heads and looked at him, James lets out an enthusiastic smile while the female, well she looked absolutely emotionless not that Khalid cares.

"You're back, hope the class went well?" James asked 

"yeah, uh It did, we even wrote a test and the lecturer was kind enough to let me stay behind to finish" he replied

"that's awesome man, hope you ace this test. We finished arranging the living room earlier and thought we'd take a break to study for our upcoming test tomorrow" James explained

"Oh wow, thanks alot man, I owe you big time, I like what I see, didn't know you had a thing for interior design" Khalid said excitingly.

"All thanks goes to Crystal, I was the muscles and she the brains, James confessed.

"I knew you didn't have it in you, Khalid said laughing at James while James lets out a dramatic gasp obviously offended by the joke.

"and Crystal, right? Thanks for the help, I really do appreciate it all, and I should probably say sorry about earlier on too, sorry the whole thing had me on the edge that was why I lashed out earlier on"

And she nodded in acknowledgment and replied with a stern look on her face "you're welcome but you keep apologising for what I know nothing of" she states making Khalid frown in disbelief what is it with this girl pretending every encounter she has had with him was non-existent to her.

"I was talking about earlier at the restau-.. You know what never mind, just thanks" Khalid said with a dismissive tone, he rubs his forehead as he could feel a headache coming up soon if he keeps on bickering.

"You guys can go back to studying while I make some touches" he said as he walked back into the living room.

And from behind footsteps followed, it was Crystal apparently he could tell from the sound of her voice and for once in her life she didn't sound as calm as it did earlier when she thanked him.

"touches you say?? everything is already perfect as it is" she said

But he's already moving the lamp from the centre table to the corner,

" I prefer this here" he said

Then he moves a couple of things and smiles, now that's perfect" he lets out a satisfied grin while Crystal looked at him in absolute disbelief,  all her hard work and ideas seems to be pointless to him as he rearranged almost everything. She lets out a deep breath before stumbling back into the room, it was obvious that her aura had turned dark due to the anger she tried to hide under her skin.

What's her issue? He thinks to himself before looking away from the direction of his room,  he appreciated her work and just moved those things because that's how he had them at home, the nostalgic look won't be bad he always thought and to him it isn't. It reminded him of home, his family and even if he would never admit it to them, he misses them so much.

It wasn't long before he moved into his room and as silently as possible started opening the boxes he carried in earlier, in it there was an old camera,a photo book filled with family photos, art work and mostly photos he took with his camera. He goes back and forth places some photos at the living room, piles some up in his room and others he returned to the box as he has plans for them a bit later.

Though he tried to arrange quietly not to disturb those two, he was still noisy though manageable but distracting, he apologised every now and then until they decided to move to the living room, he sighed and said "sorry" softly, he hates to be a bother but he couldn't help it, it was either now or never for him.

He goes on to place the photos he piled up earlier when a very calm voice hit his ears, making him pause for a second. He turns around and there she was just simply staring at him with her eyes filled with curiousity.

"Those photos in your living room, where did you get them?" She asked again upon noticing that he was still yet to reply to her question from earlier on, Khalid weighed his options whether to ignore this girl or actually tell her the truth.

"I took them with my best friend" he said pointing at his camera

"They're really lovely, I bet you make a ton of money from them, where do you sell them?" she asked curiously 

" I don't sell them, I just do it because I love…" before he could finish she cut him short.

"What!? you don't sell them??  You're kidding right?" she asked filled with absolute disbelief.

He nodded in negation,  "hmmm is that a bad thing?"

"Oh my goodness, she said disappointedly , if you are having any smart cell left in your body you probably should, you should, half the people selling on social media and other platforms don't have anything close to what you have, or don't you know how to work the internet??" she states coldly making the man flinch.

"why is she getting worked up over this?" not to mention how she is so rude." Khalid thought looking at her as she finished ranting.

"Gosh, is it bad that I want to enjoy my own art work??, money doesnt measure up to their value to me'' Khalid said with a smile making her roll her eyes in reply.

"Whatever!" she said sharply to him and left the room with more annoyance and this time disappointment. "Arrhh!  how can one be so talented and yet so stupid" she thought as she returned to studying after James was done with the call he had received.

After some minutes, Khalid spoke up while rushing towards the door

"I'll be back guys and hurriedly left, he's starving he remembered he hadn't eaten lunch and had little for breakfast and it's night already so he made his way to the store down the street"

"Hopefully they'll still be open" he thought to himself as he put on his airpods strolling down the street humming and low key excited; he finally got his apartment. He gets to the store, Yes!! He screams, they have Oreos his favourite snack, he bought 5 packs as he thought James and his strange friend will be hungry too and he got drinks too and made his way home.

He enters the room and is surprised to see James and Crystal still studying.

"Guyss, come on take a break you've been studying for hours, I bought snacks, close those books, he said.

" You only bought Oreos? James said raising a brow at Khalid who chuckled "yeahhh, he said.

"You didn't consider the fact that not everyone is a kid like you??" James said making Crystal let out a soft laugh.

"Oreos ain't for only kids" Khalid defended, 

" arrh, anyways thanks, James said and they ate the snacks while studying, turns out it was quite helpful in silencing their rumbling stomachs for a bit.

After an hour or so James stretched and yawned, "finally,this should be everything they have taught us so far and more it seems" James states with an excited grin while closing his books while Crystal nods as she rubs her forehead where she could feel the headache coming up from.

" any other thing I can help with, Little Miss? He said smiling

"No, we've covered everything I need to know Little Mr., thanks for the help"  Crystal replied playing along

"Alright then" James says while stretching and packing up his books into his bag.

 Ooh wow, its 10:30 already!" he exclaims as he picked up his phone

"we should get probably going then, since we have a class early in the morning tomorow" he continued making her nod in agreement 

He screamed," Yo, Khalid we're about to leave"

And a reply came from the little storage room in the apartment " alright, give me a min, I'm almost done here" Khalid replied.

After snacks, he had hid himself in the storage room setting up his photos, this room he now considered his gallery, where he'll have most of his photographs placed, he placed the last photo and left the room.

"Sorry for the delay, let me see you guys off"

Khalid wanted seeing them off to the bus stop but they protested, well James did and simply told him to go sleep, while Crystal just stared at him without saying anything. After some minutes of arguing he gives up on trying to walk them that far so he just walk them outside the building.

 As James and Crystal walked down the street they talked about what to expect for the maths test the next day but Crystal was absent minded thinking to herself " what a guy Khalid is...".

***

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