head in the clouds

twenty seven; josh

"So I watched the tapes," She says sitting down on her desk. "And Jenna didn't do it alone. So I suspended her and the acquaintances."

"Really?" Tyler asks. "Who else did it?"

"Mark Fischbach and Ethan Nester."

I literally have no idea who those guys are.

"Are you kidding?" He asks.

She shakes her head. "No, I'm not."

He rolls his eyes and sighs. "Perfect."

"I suspended all three of them for two weeks. One for graffiti and another for hate speech and bullying."

I nod and lean against the wall. "Thank you. We appreciate it."

She smiles and nods. "Of course, now get to class." She winks.

I smirk and I turn to walk out, Tyler following behind me.

"So who's Mark and Ethan?" I ask.

"Mark Fischbach. He's a fucking douche bag, I never really liked him. Ethan Nester, he's supposed to be a great friend of mine. I've known him since the third grade. He's the guy you beat up, and the guy who pushed me onto Dallon's table."

"Yeesh, that's an asshole."

He hums as we turn the corner. He goes to speak but someone yells out to us.

"It's the school faggot!" They yell.

I whip my head around to see who it is, of course it's a kid on the basketball team.

"I wouldn't be yelling that for someone who can get their ass beat." I yell back.

"Prove it, asshole."

Oh this kid is ballsy. I start to walk to him but Tyler wraps his hand around my arm.

"There's no use, J." He whispers. "Just let him be."

I roll my eyes and flip the guy off before turning on my heels and walking away with Tyler. The guy yells some other homophobic shit but we ignore him.

"God, I hate this fucking school."

"He's probably gay himself J. The internalized homophobia is a struggle that most people look past." He shrugs.

We reach our room and he walks in first. He doesn't seem to notice, but every single pair of eyes watch our every step. We sit in the back, I drop my bag on the floor emitting a loud bang as I sit on my chair. Everyone glares at me, which makes me smile. I put my legs on my desk and lean back, resting my head on my hands.

"Hey, do you have a pencil I could borrow?" Ty asks.

"Does it look like I even have one for myself?" I chuckle. 

I look at him and we burst out laughing.

"Excuse me," Mr. Reed says interrupting our laughs. "Do you want to share what's so funny with the rest of the class?"

Ty calms his laughing and shakes his head. "Just our situation, sorry sir."

He nods. "It's okay, just keep it quiet next time please. And get your feet off the table Josh."

I chuckle and sit up straight, taking my feet off. "Sorry." I mumble.

He turns his back to us again and starts writing on the board. Tyler and I look at each other and try to conceal out laughs.

"Alright you guys," Mr. Reed says facing the class. "We've been doing the whole poem thing for a reason and that reason is, you guys have to write one about something that makes you feel angry or sad. Could be as simple to a tv show that made up upset or as deep as a family issue, it just has to be something that makes you anything but happy. You have until Thursday to turn it in and we well read them aloud to the class on Friday. Any questions?" A few people raise their hands. "Jake?"

"Will they have to be sonnet or anything?" Jim asks.

"You can make them out to be anything. Sonnets, haikus, free verse, blank verse, a ballad; literally anything." More hands raise and be calls on the next kid.

"The thing that we write about, does that have to be a current event or could it be from like, five years ago?" She asks.

"It can be something from the 1500s, as long as it makes you mad or upset."

I block out the other questions and suddenly the bell rings, bringing me back to reality. I stand up, grabbing my bag and wait for Tyler to collect his stuff.

"What are you gonna do?" He asks me.

"I dunno, probably something about school." I shrug.

He smiles and throws his bag over his shoulder. "I'm thinking of something for my dad."

"Wouldn't that like... make him kill you?" I ask as we exit the room and make our way down the hall.

"Yeah, I guess. But I'm just tired of it. Of him."

We stop at his locker first and he starts pulling out the books he'll need for tomorrow.

"Good. I'm proud of you for that. It's never easy to stand up to parental figures." I say.

He smiles at me and closes his locker door. "Thanks J."

I nod and return the smile. We begin walking again, skipping my locker and head out the main doors.

"You wanna come over? My mom isn't home today." I ask.

"I'd love to." He says. "But I'm tired so I may or may not end up passing out."

"I figured." I laugh.

He rolls his eyes and chuckles. Silence surrounds us as we walk the whole way to my house. Once we get inside, he starts talking again.

"I don't know if I should actually do it about my dad." He says.

I fall back on my bed, he copies my movement. "Why's that?"

He shrugs. "He probably would kill me."

"Nah. He won't."

He looks at me with a 'you wanna fuckin' bet?' expression. "How do you know?"

I smile and shrug. "I won't let him."

He chuckles and looks back at my ceiling. "He'll still make it work."

"That's over rated and played out. I can protect you."

He moves his head closer to mine. "I gotta figure out how to protect myself."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't have help."

He chuckles, making me smile. "Thanks J."

"Of course Ty."