We're All a Little Broken

Chapter 4

Nick woke up early, earlier than everyone else in his dorm, and probably even earlier than Wes, which was a hard thing to accomplish.

He creeped out of bed, grabbing the clothes he had prepared yesterday and walking into the bathroom, quietly closing the door behind him.

He looked at himself in the mirror, running a hand through his hair and sighing. He changed out of his pyjamas and into the clothes he had prepared, brushing his teeth before walking out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom.

He grabbed his phone, earbuds and keys, silently walking out of the dorm room and locking the door behind him.

He made his way through the halls, trying not to wake up any students or staff and made his way outside, letting himself take a deep breath of fresh air.

He put his earbuds in and got up his favourite music playlist, playing the first song and beginning to run, letting his feet take him where they wanted to.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

———

"Hey."

Wes turned to look beside him, seeing David take the seat next to him.

"Hey, what were you in before?"

"English." David said with a groan. "I can't stand it anymore, it's going to kill me."

"It's not that bad."

"Not for you, Mr I'm-Amazing-At-Everything." David said, rolling his eyes.

Wes forced a smile. It was a running joke in his friend group, hell, it was a running joke in the whole school. 'Oh, Wes Einstein.' 'You know Wes, the smart one?' 'You want me to describe Wes? He's smart.' 'If Wes can't do it, no one can. But he probably can do it.' 'If you don't know the answer for something, ask Wes.'

Sure, every time someone said something he'd just laugh it off. What else could he do?

It was also nutritious in his friendship group that Wes was disappointed in his grades no matter what. Countless times, Wes would be disappointed at a grade below ninety-five percent, and his friends would either laugh at him, or get frustrated with him and tell him to be happy, I mean, they all get way worse grades compared to him.

Wes used to try and defend himself, 'we all have different expectations of ourselves.', but it grew tiresome, Wes just tries to laugh it off now.

"Okay class, settle down please." The chemistry teacher said. "Now, I have a really bad headache, and my meds won't kick in for about ten minutes, so I want you to work on the exercise sheet I gave you yesterday."

"Uh, miss, I finis-" Wes said, raising his hand, but stopped when David grabbed his hand and yanked it down. "What on God's green earth are you doing?"

"One, don't ever speak like that again. Two, why are you trying to ask for more work?"

"Because I've finished the work?"

"Yeah, so have I."

"I don't see your point." Wes said, frowning.

"My point is that we're both finished the work, so we can just sit here and talk until the teacher finds the motivation and desire to teach us." David said, smiling.

"Oh, but shouldn't we do some work, use our spare time valuably?" Wes asked.

"Wes, we are the top people in this class, you could probably not show up to one class and pass the exam with a top A." David said, rolling his eyes. "Let's just relax and chat. We're best friends, and I feel like we hardly get time just together because we're always around our other friends."