He's Just a Skater Boy (boyxboyxboy)

Chapter 78: The Price of a Kiss

I woke up so late the next day I made toast, saw that I was half an hour late and ready to get hung by my nads in the schoolyard by Jacob so I left with a piece of toast and jam in my mouth as I pulled on my backpack, soaking up some of those anime protagonist vibes.

I got to school so late I actually missed the morning monitors like Callen who had already headed off to class. I thought Jacob was going to kick me when he caught me but when I got to class he wasn't there, a quick check proved that he had sent me a text message at six AM when I was still dead to the world, three hours from revival, informing me that he was going to be late to school and to head to the nurse instead of going directly to class.

The nurse checked my stitches, it was the first time I could actually have a look at them. They were these tiny things that looked like they should have hurt more than they did and didn't look much like stitches at all. She covered it back up and told me to come back if I noticed any swelling or pain or whatever.

I was glad to get out, I didn't know what to say around that woman because I was pretty sure she was a doctor, not a nurse, but everyone at school called her Nurse Jackson so I didn't know what was up with that.

In the next class I sat down in the seat I normally did, putting my backpack on the empty seat.

Class continued as normal, the biology lesson was probably one of the most entertaining ones so when I rested my head on my arms I listened instead of going to sleep. My mind wandered though, remembered the biology classes we got in set four with Mr Noraya who recited the textbook in a flat tone as slowly as possible. There were more than a couple things I'd miss when I moved back down, not that it was worth it to change.

Half way through the lesson while we were sitting back supposed to be filling out worksheets Atlas stepped in. He looked good, hair extra messy, the sandy blond dye seemed to be growing out now, the dark brown at his roots growing out, it matched his dark eyebrows better. It felt like every day he got a little better looking, it pissed me off.

I looked up at him as he walked past and saw him glance at me and look away. In a way he was cold when he wasn't caging me in the corner and... being Atlas. 

The teacher said nothing as he sat at the back with his friends, no one ever said anything when he was about doing dumb shit. I had to wonder why exactly sometimes.

The day was half sunny, half grey, pigeons were stacking in the trees next to the class and there was one on the window sill that I could have sworn I recognised, black spot on it's forehead. It hit its wings on the window as it switched to the tree and caused all the other pigeons to emigrate in alarm.

It was awkward that lesson, I didn't really know what to do in that class, with my hands or with my head. Without Jacob to piss off and him stabbing me in the back, his cold sharp gaze demanding for me to at least scribble on a piece of paper.

Sometimes when I was pretending to sleep and facing right I would secretly watch his hands as they wrote, quickly and in perfect format, occasionally switching to a highlighter or crossing out with two exam-perfect lines.

He had nice hands. I wasn't sure what successfully qualified someone as having nice hands but he had it.

I turned with a yawn and looked toward the back of the class instead. They were rowdy as far as kids from this school went. Atlas sort of stuck out from them because he was sort of still, casually glancing at whatever his friend was sticking in front of him and laughing. He stuck out for other reasons too, I wondered if he picked such mug-faced bastards on purpose or what.

Technically I knew people liked them, they got looks and at least one of the lads had a girl who he obnoxiously snogged outside the building like some idiot chad showing off. But I didn't see it. Atlas looked like he walked out of a modelling shoot, that permanent filter look to his face like something had to be edited to give his eyes that piercing edge or make his skin smooth.