Chapter 2: Unexpected

When I trudged into the classroom the next day, he was already there. He smiled again and my heart jerked again, less this time, but I still felt it. I shook my head lightly and forced myself to smile in return. Joining him next to the window, I began piling the contents of my bag onto the desk and shook some droplets of rain from my hair.
He tapped my shoulder gently, “You shouldn’t leave your hair wet like that, you’ll catch a cold,” he said. Although true, I thought it was a strange thing to say.

“Th...thanks but I’ll be fine,” I stammered, watching as he twisted his lip ring with his tongue. He turned away suddenly and went silent. I was about to ask if he was ok, when Victor entered the room, his jet-black fringe plastered to his face with rain water and his sleeves dripping onto the floor. I started, as Lou doubled over his desk, eyes screwed up as if he was in pain, breathing heavily. I touched his shoulder; he was shaking. I quickly jumped up and raised my hand.
“Yes, Timothy?” Mrs Henley asked, sighing. I pointed to Lou and she raised an eyebrow. “Take him to the nurse, Timothy.” I nodded and helped him to his feet. Victor frowned and I shrugged at him. He went to sit at the back of the class without complaint, although I knew he would probably beat me up later.

I dragged Lou out of the room and started down the corridor. He stopped me suddenly and attempted to strand straight.
“I...I don’t need the nurse.” he said through clenched teeth.
I paused, “Ok, then what am I supposed to do?” He clutched the front of his shirt, whimpering. He was in no condition to give orders. I dragged him into the boy’s toilets and propped him up against the sinks. He groaned and I leapt out of the way, thinking he was going to throw up on me.
He half-smiled at me, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to be sick,” he laughed weakly. I stepped near him cautiously, placing my palm over his forehead, which practically burned my hand. Great, I wasn’t comfortable with sick people.

“You have a fever so you need to go to the nurse.” I said plainly, hoping he wouldn’t argue. He shook his head and I mentally kicked myself for listening to him in the first place. He stood up a little straighter and smoothed his jumper.

“I’m actually feeling much better, must’ve been something I ate.” For some reason I felt like he was lying to me. I shrugged and wet some hand towels under the cold tap. Then he did something I didn’t expect. As I was about to lift his fringe to place the towel on his forehead, he jumped away quickly, as if I was about to stick a needle in him or something.

“N...No! It’s ok...I ...I’m fine, I think we can go back to class now!” he stammered, leaning away from me. He rushed out of the room and left me there, holding a lump of soggy paper, with water running into my rolled up sleeve.
For the next couple of days Lou seemed strangely uncomfortable around Victor, it seemed like something bad had happened between them in the past. Eventually I decided to say something.
I stood in front of Lou’s desk. “You don’t like Victor do you?” I asked bluntly. Lou paused for a couple of minutes as if I had asked him something very complex. He looked at me blankly for a second, then smiled brightly.

“What gave you that idea?”
How he worded his reply didn’t matter; there was a certain strain in his voice that told me he was lying and, no matter how hard he tried, the smile he gave me then was unfamiliar and cold. My heart didn’t lurch; it didn’t even flicker. For some reason I felt an overwhelming sadness at this.

“Never mind.” I said shortly, resuming my place next to him. My chair suddenly felt cold and the air around me felt unwelcoming. Once again, a single smile had done so much.
After that incident everything suddenly changed. I no longer felt comfortable around Victor, my own best friend. I felt they were both keeping something from me; one day I nearly found out what. I was making my way back to the classroom from a trip to the toilet when I overheard them talking through the door; we had been the only three people in there after everyone had gone to lunch.

“Don’t think I’m stupid! I can see the scar on your wrist!” I heard Lou scream angrily.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about; I’ve had this scar since I was three years old. It was an accident.” Victor sounded calm as usual. Although I couldn’t help but notice the emphasis he put on the word ‘accident’, as if he was somehow trying to convince himself that the statement he had just made was true. It blatantly wasn’t.

“You couldn’t sound more fake if you tried! How long were you planning on keeping this from Timothy? Or were you just going to leave out the fact that you’re a...!”
There was a loud crash and a lot of shouting. I chose this moment to open the door; whatever they were talking about I had a right to know! Immediately both of them froze as I entered the room. One of the tables was knocked over and Lou was holding his nose, which was bleeding quite badly down the front of his blazer and onto the floor.

“He fell.” said Victor coolly, swiftly exiting the room. As he passed me I noticed he looked slightly flustered and for a second I could’ve sworn he was crying.
Lou continued to stare at me blankly.

“You should probably stop the bleeding.” I said, pointing at the floor, where a large pool of red was beginning to form. He looked down, as if he hadn’t noticed it before.
“Oh. You’re right.” he answered, however his mind was obviously occupied elsewhere. I sighed and pulled some tissue from my bag, stomping over to him and pushing it against his nose.
“Hold it.” I ordered. He did as he was told. I pulled out some more tissues and cleaned the floor; if Mrs Henley came back she would probably blame me, like she usually did. He watched me silently for a while, then dropped to his knees to help me.

“You don’t have to help me.”, I said, “Just try and stop the bleeding.”
Not that I was doing much use myself; my hands were trembling and it seemed I was just making the mess worse. I threw the soggy tissue onto the floor angrily and sat back, biting my lip to distract myself from the prickling in my eyes. I was extremely tired and stressed out from all the work I had already; now my only two friends hated each other and wouldn’t even tell me why.
I could feel him watching me and it annoyed me. I wanted to glare at him but I knew if I moved even slightly I would cry; so instead I continued to face away from him. I saw him crawling towards me out of the corner of my eye. So now he was trying to comfort me?
All of my feelings tried to escape at once. I snapped.

“Leave me alone!”, I shouted, tears running down my cheeks.
That stopped him in his tracks. He sat back on his knees, looking at me worriedly.
“Just go away! Why did you even come to this school in the first place?!”As I said this I couldn’t look at him, I was afraid of his reaction. I don’t know what came over me, now I’d started I couldn’t stop.
“You’ve ruined everything!”, I screamed. I knew if I didn’t get out of here soon I would end up physically hurting him. I quickly got to my feet and wiped my eyes with my sleeve, then rushed past him towards the door. I needed to calm myself down. As I reached for the handle, he jumped up and grabbed my wrist.

“Let go of me!”, I spat, pulling weakly, which had no effect whatsoever. He seemed to consider it because I felt his grip loosen for a second. Then he gripped harder and pulled me into a hug.
I’ve never felt so uncomfortable in my life. However, I did stop crying.
“Tell me what’s going on!”, I ordered, trying to gain back some of my dignity.
I felt his breath on my ear as he sighed. “I don’t know what you’re talking ab..!”
I pushed him. Hard. I heard a sharp crack as his head hit the floor. I didn’t care; in fact I hope it hurt him. I stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me.
I passed Victor on the corridor. He looked at me sadly. His hand was covering his left wrist. I remember that scar. He told me the same thing he told Lou, that it was an accident. I stopped a few feet away from him. I didn’t turn to face him.
“The only ‘accident’ that’s been made here is me thinking you were my friend.”

I don’t know whether he replied, or if he was going to, because I left the school.