Another Kind of Sleeping Beauty

[François Laffont]

Franck was not usually doing this. But a lot weighed on him lately. He learned to find a balance between school, his social life, training and work, even though he often felt like he didn’t have enough time to do all of this. But the AMA was doing nothing to help keep the morale up and quite a few of the students, and even some adults, ended up stressed out because of this. Franck had a natural tendency of growing melodramatic, a part of him he was constantly working on. If you had to add the fact he could sense people’s nerves, one could understand why Franck was sometimes on edge. Still, to end up sleeping in the library...

He arrived early for a study session. Layla Harlow was not in the library but he already picked some books and settled at a table. He’d be there when she would arrive so they could start on their psychology work. In the meantime, the stress he accumulated over the week, as well as the physical fatigue he was feeling lately, took its toll on him. He rested his arms on the table and placed his head on them. He could rest his eyes, for just a few seconds. Before he knew it though, he ended up sleeping.

Luckily for him, he was not snoring. That meant no one really bothered to wake him up. Although, it might not be that good. Because he clearly was not paying attention to people around him and totally forgot why he was here in the first place. His psychology books were nothing more than not-too-comfortable-but-suitable-in-the-circumstances pillows.

[Layla Harlow]

Psychology was the one and only thing that Layla had found in her realm of things she was interested in that could become a career. Being a therapist might not have been on the top of her list before, but the longer she thought about it, the crappier her life got, the more she felt that if anyone was going to be able to understand how terrible things could be and how to get through them, it was her. She'd somehow managed to turn her life around so that she was on the right track. It took some time, but she was working on it.

Layla did struggle with her classes still, not always the smartest, or most determined student, she fell behind a bit. She relied heavily on studying for hours at a time over things that others might have been able to grasp with little effort. It was always really nice having a classmate that suffered with her to try and at least help get it into her mind. At the very least the basics. She was running a bit late to her study session with Franck and her hands were much too full to text him and let him know, but she was trying to make it there as fast as she could.

When she finally reached the library, she balanced the books in her arms and glanced around the room, seeking out her study partner, expecting an annoyed or maybe just displeased expression on his face. Her eyes scanned the room once, twice and eventually just realized that he was not one of the faces that had their head buried in a book, studying. In fact, he had his face smashed against one of the psychology books that matched one in her arms. Layla smirked the faintest bit and walked over to the table, relieved that no one had taken to messing with him too much as he slept. Setting her books down as gently as she could, she tapped his shoulder and cleared her throat, "Franck? Helloooo?"

[François Laffont]

Franck always wanted to study psychology. He was taking his classes very seriously. If he ever considered another lone of career, it would have been in his youth, when that don’t really matter since you’re not really serious about it. No doubt part of the reason why he chose to become a therapist, more specifically to children, had to do with how things turned out after he got his power. His power was another reason why he wanted to become a therapist. He wanted to put it to good use, as opposed to feeling like he was simply intruding into people’s life. He did feel sometimes as though all those reasons were also why he shouldn’t pick this career but this really was what interested Franck the most. He was not going to back down, even though his schedule as of late was crazy and he was growing pretty tired.

He didn’t mean to fall asleep. Or let it imply he waited too long for Layla to arrive that he fell asleep. It just happened. He startled when she woke him up, a light groan escaping his lips before he straightened up, realising what just happened. He was so embarrassed! He didn’t mean to appear to her like this, when they were supposed to study no less. He blinked a few times, trying to chase the fatigue away. He hoped he didn’t snore! Well, someone would probably have woken him up if he did. Which was what Layla did. “Gosh, I’m so sorry. I haven’t had that much sleep lately,” he said softly, not wanting to attract the attention more than they may already. He shifted on his seat and made some room for her on the table. “Did you just arrive? You weren’t here long, right?” he asked, concerned that she may have been waiting for him to wake up on his own or prefer to study on her own seeing in what state her partner was in.

He should probably worry whether someone wrote something on his face or not but he wasn’t. Instead, he frowned. “I hope I didn’t snore,” was all that came out. He then brushed his hand over his mouth, just to make sure he didn’t drool either. He didn’t. He sighed of relief at that.