John 8:32

20 - Romans 12:9

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Damien's week of exile lasted for what felt like an eternity. He hadn't heard from Spencer all week. Not a single text, and anything Damien sent wouldn't deliver. At this point he genuinely didn't even know if Spencer was alive. What he did know was that Spencer had problems with that stuff in the past.

He could hear the whispers when he returned to school. He wasn't stupid. Rumors of why he was gone flew around. None of them were even close to accurate.

He supposed he could be thankful for that at least.

Damien missed the first half of the school day unpacking his things — and only made it to class after lunch.

Part of him wanted to go hunt down Spencer, but he was only excused until fourth period. So he made his way to his classroom.

Damien almost didn't see Spencer when he passed him. He walked with his head down, and he didn't even glance over at Damien as he passed.

"Wait," Damien stopped and turned around — calling out to him.

Spencer turned around for a moment and their eyes met for just a split second before he turned away once more.

"Spence," Damien repeated himself.

"What do you want, Yates," Spencer scowled, stalking back over to Damien.

"Yates?" Spencer hadn't called him that in ages, "Wow, what—?"

"What do you want?" Spencer deadpanned. Damien couldn't read the expression on his face — or lack thereof.

"Are you okay? You haven't answered any of my texts."

There was hardly a second that had gone by over the past week where Damien wasn't worrying about Spencer. And now he was here and he seemed... annoyed that Damien was worried.

"My dad took my phone," Spencer just shrugged.

"God, I'm sorry," Damien breathed, trying to find the words he wanted to say.

"Sorry?" Spencer scoffed, "You ruined my life, Damien."

Fuck. What the fuck?

"What?" Damien didn't know how to respond, "It was you who—"

"Listen, I made a mistake," Spencer interrupted him, shaking his head, "I don't want to speak with you any longer."

Damien paused for a moment, trying not to linger on the dead look on Spencer's face.

"You know your dad isn't always right, right?" Damien finally managed to get the words out as Spencer turned to walk away. He stopped, for a moment. Not even bothering to look back at Damien.

"Don't disrespect my father."

Spencer continued walking away — and there was nothing Damien could do. He just watched him go.

Then the bell was ringing — and he was gonna be late to class.