Only Colours

Chapter 3

Mikey had his mum make him extra food for lunch the next day, though he didn't tell her why. She didn't press him. She had long since learnt that if Mikey wanted to share something with her he wouldn't hold back, and if he didn't she wouldn't get anything out of him no matter how many times she asked. He could choose not to even hear her if he wanted.

Mikey kept an eager lookout for Jude when he arrived at school, but he didn't spot him. Finn found Mikey, though, and they sat together in silence outside of their homeroom. Well, Mikey was silent, anyway. Finn could have been shouting at the top of his lungs for all Mikey knew. It seemed unlikely, though. He got the impression Finn was a quiet person.

Though Finn didn't provide conversation, he did make Mikey feel safe. At school Mikey spent most of the day feeling exposed and vulnerable, but when Finn was around he felt protected. He had only known Finn for a day — and perhaps 'known' was an exaggeration — but already he felt confident that Finn wouldn't allow any harm to come to him.

After homeroom, Mikey had music, and he immediately vowed to drop it in grade nine when he would get to choose some of his classes. It was an utter chaos of discordant noise, and Mikey had nothing to do.

Finn shared the class with him, thankfully. At some point he brought Mikey a little hand drum and drumsticks, but Mikey didn't feel like adding to the cacophony. Instead, he sat hunched in the corner and drew stick figures in his notebook. One of them was riding a bear.

Next Mikey had art, the one subject he enjoyed. It was another class he didn't share with Finn, but he went along happily anyway.

Some of his teachers had made token efforts at communicating with him tinged with annoyance or frustration, but his art teacher seemed to see it as a challenge they were up to. Mikey ignored them, of course, though he felt a little bad for it. The teacher even brought him various art supplies to mess around with, making him feel even worse for not even being able to thank them. The rules had to be followed, though. If he wouldn't make an exception for Finn, he certainly wouldn't be making one for some teacher.

Mikey hadn't painted much in a while, not since he'd realised that digital art was a far better tool for producing precise colours, so it was fun to do that again. Despite having done a lot of art, Mikey wasn't that great at it. He only cared about trying to recreate the colours, and those skills didn't translate terribly well to anything else.

Finn was waiting outside Mikey's classroom when the bell rang for break and okay, that might have been because Mikey had just happened to leave his schedule open on the desk where Finn might just happen to see it.

When they reached the cafeteria, Mikey spotted Jude and hurried over to where he sat.

"Oh fuck, not this shit again," Jude said after glancing up from the textbook open in front of him. His attention was drawn to Finn for a moment. He must have spoken, because Jude shot him a dismissive, "Don't care."

"Are you hungry?" Mikey asked, ignoring Jude's attitude as he sat down next to him. He hadn't needed to ask, of course. The hunger was clear in Jude's colours. "I brought some food for you."

"I have to do my homework," Jude said, but he didn't tell Mikey to go away.

Mikey took out his lunch box and handed Jude one of the plastic wrapped sandwiches. "Can't you do it at home?"

"No," Jude said, and Mikey got the feeling that meant the topic was closed.

"What are you doing? Can I help?"

"You're like, twelve," Jude said, sending an annoyed glance Mikey's way. "And no, I'm doing just fine on my own. Or at least I was before you came along and started talking."