east of eden 𑁋 salvis.

XV

♥̩̥̩♥̩̩̥͙♥̩͙ˊˎ

Sal shot odd, worried looks in Travis' direction all through the next day. Travis couldn't blame him, he was covered in burns and every move made him wince and grind his teeth in pain. He still hated it, though. It was clear Sal pitied him.

Surprisingly though, Sal seemingly made no attempt to speak to Travis about them throughout the first half of the day. That is until math class, when Sal got up to talk to Mrs. Packerton, for some reason. On his way there, a note was dropped on Travis' desk. At first, the blonde believed it was an accident. He didn't even look at it, figuring Sal would grab it again when he went back to his desk.

But Sal didn't. Which just led Travis to looking at the note with a sigh, eyes going wide when he sees his name written on it. He truly had thought the note was an accident. Yet, apparently, it wasn't. At least that was what he thought, considering his name was written neatly on the outside of it.

Travis grabbed it, making sure Mrs. Packerton wasn't looking before unfolding it. If his name being written on the outside wasn't enough of a sign that the note was for him, the contents of it definitely were.

Travis, I'm worried. Please come sit with me and the others at lunch. We need to talk.

That was all it was, signed off with Sal's name. His handwriting was, as Travis had expected out of someone like Sal, large and messy, filled with lots of loops and I's dotted with stars. It was chicken scratch, almost indecipherable. Yet it fit Sal. It fit him perfectly.

Travis folded the note back up, yet it ended up messy. Unlike how Sal folded it, so perfect and pristine, Travis' folding ended up messy and uneven. He just groans a bit to himself, attempting to be quiet so as not to draw Mrs. Packerton's attention to him, and shoves the note into his pocket.

Lunch comes faster than Travis wants it to. Before he knows it he's walking out of third period, slowly walking towards the lunchroom. The blonde walks as slowly as possible, trying to put this off. He doesn't want to go sit with Sal and his friends, even if they'd shown him kindness before, he was afraid. Travis was afraid any moment they'd change their minds and would suddenly start being assholes to him again. Travis knows he deserves it, but he doesn't want it.

Eventually, he does make it to the lunchroom. He goes through the line, pretending to debate each food option until everyone behind him is yelling at him to just make a fucking choice, asshole! To which Travis does, until the next options are presented to him. He's pissing off the people behind him, but frankly, he couldn't give a shit.

Eventually, the blonde does get through the lunch line. Eventually, he begins walking over to Sal's table. He stares intently at the table, seeing if any of them appeared to be even slightly angry over the premise of Travis joining them. Very quickly, it became obvious that Larry was. His face was stern, brown eyes filled with anger as he spoke hurriedly at Sal.

The conversation died down as Travis approached, though he did catch a piece of it. A small, stern but not quite angry statement thrown at Sal, from Larry.

"I dunno, man. I'm pretty skeptical over his sudden change of heart. I'd keep my guard up if I were you." Travis swallowed thickly at hearing it. He knew it was about him, but he tried not to show that he'd even heard it. He just smiled thinly at the group, looking at Sal.