Inhuman [Keveridge/Shier]

5

Neither Drew nor myself heard anything else from Shane for the rest of the college week, causing Drew to gradually become more and more anxious as the days went by. I was slightly worried too, Shane had never been this distant with him before, which worried me whether he was doing this to purposely cause Drew pain, or whether he was being genuine with his unknown reasons.

By the time it was the weekend once more, I was emotionally drained, tempted to miss therapy once more in hopes of getting more sleep and spending my day with Laurence. However, I felt his looming presence beside me, and I knew there was a high possibilty of him glaring in my direction.

"I'm getting up, Promise." I mumbled, turning my head to bury it in my pillow. A few seconds later, I lifted it, rolling myself out of bed and to the floor before standing.

"I bloody hate Saturday mornings." I mumbled sadly, loathing how I had to move from my bed to attend a class where I had to speak of someone no one believed to exist. Laurence gave me a sympathetic smile in response, blowing me a kiss before pointing to a shirt on my floor that he wanted me to wear. I giggled, pulling the garment on immediately before tidying my hair and readying myself to leave the house. Mother would have already left around an hour previous, giving me a chance to leave the premises without being interrogated about what I'd talk about that session.

The youth center where my sessions were held wasn't too far away from my home, only a fifteen minute walk (Around five songs on my iPod) and Laurence never came with me to these; I suppose it was because of how pressured I was to talk about him. The first thing I did as I entered the room was sign in, having to write my name, age, order of business (Client) and sign it before entering the main meeting room.

The room was fairly large, a corner stage on the top left where some of the teenagers performed on occasion while the rest of the room was full of chairs in a large circle and an apple computer on a far corner. No one really used this room anymore, any counselling sessions or 'teambuilding' days were usually held in a room they called 'The Classroom', which looked just as it was named. Sitting myself down on one of the chairs I placed my backpack beside me, giving anyone else who entered a small smile before staring down at my feet.

Eventually Luke (The 'Counsellor') entered, placing his signiture clipboard on his chair before hurrying out the room once more. I watched the doorframe he left through intently, finding nothing much else to do while everyone else spoke to each other; I'd never made any friends here, having never had anyone who wanted to speak to me anyway.

Luke finally returned around fifteen minutes later, however, my jaw involuntarily dropped at the sight of the teenager trailing behind him.

"Guys, look who came for another week!" He called, giving the familiar teen a round of applause, urging others to follow suit while the kid met my eyes, looking down instantly while pulling the hood of his jacket further over his head. "For those of you who weren't here last week; This is Shane, he's a newcomer to the programme and I'm sure you'll all make him feel welcome."

My throat weld up at the sight of him, multiple questions ringing through my mind as to what he was doing here while ignoring what Luke was saying.

"Kier?" I heard him call me, causing my widened eyes to dart into his direction, my mouth open slightly while I felt the groups eyes on me. "How about you introduce yourself?"

"Oh, umm," I stuttered, turning back to Shane who was slouching down in his seat, his arms crossed tightly against his chest. "I'm Kier... I-I've been here for two years; W-Welcome to the group."

"And how has things been, Kier?" Luke continued, pushing me to speak more. I stumbled out a small 'Alright' before he pressed the conversation further. "How's Laurence?"

My eyes squeezed shut for a moment at the soft sniggers from those around me, discomfort heightening by the fact that Shane was yet to know just how crazy people thought I was.

"H-He's fine." I mumbled, playing with the sleeves of my jacket and pushing down any fear. "W-We played Monopoly last week; he won."

Luke smiled gently, nodding along with my words; He was pretty much the only person who didn't think Laurence's existence was completely ridiculous.

"And why don't you introduce yourself back, Shane?" Luke asked, sitting himself in his chair while beaming at the blond.

"I-I'm Shane," He began, voice unusually deep in disinterest. "I joined the programme last week and I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone."

The rest of the meeting went by slowly, filled with weak attempts from Luke to get Shane to talk a little more about him; He flat out refused and ignored us all for around thirty minutes after. He only managed to bring him back by asking about his art course; It was the only thing he appeared to be interested in.

Once we were allowed to leave I watched Shane quickly speed from the room, causing me to immediately grab my bag before hurrying off to follow him.

"Shane!" I called as loud as I could; it only made him walk faster. "Shane, Please!" I continued, breaking out into a run in a petty attempt to catch up with him. I was met with a hard glare as he stilled and turned around to wait for me, hissing out a loud 'What?!' as I finally caught up.

"I-I just wanted to speak to you." I breathed, slightly out of breath as we walked alongside each other. "You weren't at college this week and Drew and I are worried."

Shane just released a short, spiteful laugh in response, snorting slightly as he continued to stare off into the direction we were moving in.

"Drew's your boyfriend, Shane, of course he's worried." I mumbled in response, hating the way he was treating the situation with such carelessness.

"I know, but I just had a week off; nothing major." He replied, shrugging slightly while shoving his hands into his hoodie's pockets, eyes moving down to the floor.

"You have hardly any time off, Shane," I replied, more softer than previously. "That's why he's worried; you should at least explain to him."

"I'm fine." He grumbled, causing me to attempt to protest but was cut off by his snarling reply. "It's none of your business; stay out of it, Kier."

"No, Drew asked me t-"

"I said; Stay out of it!" He replied, voice loud and intimidating before he sped off down the road without me, causing me to sigh and turn back the way I came. I wasn't going to waste my time going after him again.