Use Me Like A Drug

Progress

"Compare answers with the person next to you. Try to figure out what you did wrong and then fix it."

'A chance!' You thought, glancing at the blonde haired boy.

You hadn't been so lucky in the past. You'd definitely tried to speak to him, but he was the master of shrugging off your attempts. You would ask him what he got for an answer, only for him to mumble that he hadn't done the question yet. You would casually ask him for help on a question that you already knew how to do, but he would tell you that he didn't know how either. All of this would happen on the odd occasion that he actually showed up.

  Often, you would glance to your left as the bell rang, and he wouldn't even be in his desk. It was a consistent pattern. Some days he was there, some days he wasn't. Even when he was there physically, it didn't feel like he was there mentally.

  But today! Today was your chance! Not only had you finished the entire sheet, but he was here today as well! This was your moment. Your chance to be more casual with him so you could have a friend. At least one in class anyways.

  You glanced at him one more time and it was evident that he had no intent to stand up, so you took initiative. You stood from your desk, grabbing your sheet and your eraser, moving over to his desk wearily.

  "Did you finish the questions?" You asked.

  Instead of answering, he moved his sheet across his desk so you could see it, and you could see that he'd only done a couple of problems.

  You slid his sheet beside him and knelt down, careful to make sure your uniform looked proper as you knelt on your knees. You put your sheet beside his and then looked to see what he got for the first one. You'd both gotten the same answer so that gave you hope.

  He hadn't finished the second one. Either he got stuck or just got bored of the particular question. You didn't know. But both of your processes looked similar, so you had hope.

  "Why didn't you finish this one?" You asked softly, pointing to it.

  He responded with a shrug. You decided that you weren't going to get anything out of him. He wasn't going to answer your questions, so instead, you would just walk him through the question and hope he would tolerate you.

  You began to explain what you did after the point where he stopped. He had his chin rested in his left hand and his pencil was in his right hand, scribbling down your answers as you explained them. You'd gotten so caught up in your explanation that you hadn't noticed that he'd gotten ahead of you, finishing the last few questions while you were still explaining the ones before them.

  "I've finished. Will you go now?" He asked, shifting his eyes from his paper to you.

  "Oh. Uh, yeah. Sorry," you apologized, awkwardly chuckling breathily before taking your paper. "Oh! Don't forget your name," you told him, pointing to the top of his sheet. He rolled his eyes before scribbling his name down. HueningKai.

  You went back to your seat and left him alone. You knew you wouldn't immediately become his friend after doing ten minutes of partner work, but you knew his name now, so that was a step in the right direction. You knew his name, and for now, you were content.

  When the bell rang, he was the first to leave the classroom. You packed your things and were probably one of the last ones out.

  You were alone in chemistry class, save the times your teacher randomly assigned you a lab partner. That was better than the other classes you had which left you fully alone.

  During lunch, you opted to sit in a bathroom stall, as cliche as that sounded. You didn't eat lunch, so it wasn't unsanitary, and you just wanted a place to sit. You didn't need to sit in the cafeteria with the others. You just sat and scrolled through your phone, looking back on old videos of your friends from other towns who had long since forgotten you. It was hard to form an unforgettable connection when you rarely stayed in the same place for a year.