Warning sensitive content
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Nathan's pencil tip broke abruptly as he was trying to hastily finish the conclusion of his English essay.
"Fuck..." He whispered softly. The tip made an annoying black streak across the paper. It was a final draft, so this would not do.
Nathan tried to erase it, but his pencil was all used up.
I shook my head.
"Here... I'll grab you a cap eraser..." I said, reaching into his backpack. I figured they would be in one of the small pockets in the front. When I felt they were empty, I reached for the small one on the side.
My fingers had just grazed the zipper, and begun to pull it down, when Nathan's hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. Not hard, but it prevented me from reaching any further. The pocket stayed half open.
"They are not in there." He said in a stern, serious voice. His eyes didn't hint the slightest bit of remorse, and his hands were cold. Ice cold. His arms were also cloaked by his dark hoodie. His sleeves were pulled all the way forward. Very unlike him.
I blinked.
"Okay." I whispered. I retracted my hand. Nathan brought his back to his paper, using it to steady it as he tried furiously to erase with the bare minimum of his pencil's worn down eraser.
I was kind of shocked. What did I do? What was in that pocket? What did he not want me to see? What was he hiding?
"They are in the second pocket, I think..." He said after a moment of tense silence. We were on the first/second floor staircase. There was a ledge to make the turn up the connecting stairs. It was the perfect place. Next to a giant window, quiet, comfy, big, and it was between two floors so no students or teachers could see you. It was a notorious make out spot. But today Nathan and I were using it as a makeshift study hall.
I reached into the second pocket, glancing at the side one out of of the corner of my eye. I pulled out a blue pencil cap eraser and tossed it to him. He caught it one handed, without looking up from his paper.
He put it on his pencil and began to erase his small mistake.
I pulled out my phone. (I had sold my iPod and gotten the iPhone6. The iPhone seemed more... Mature...)
I began checking all my social medias.
Instagram: 34 likes on a picture of the sky I took last weekend. 3 comments on one of my selfies from a few days ago. I replied to the comments and scrolled through my feed, liking a few photos here and there.
Next, Tumblr.
2 new followers. I followed them both back. I posted a poem and closed the app.
I skimmed through my texts making sure the ones I read were ok, and the ones being ignored were still ignored.
My Vent was exploding. 69 notifications. Lol. I posted a quick vent about being curious about what some people are hiding and closed that too.
I didn't bother with my blog, or Flipboard.
Last, snapchat.
52 new stories to watch, and 8 people screen-shotted a picture on mine.
It was a selfie. Ew. Weird.
I closed that too.
Nathan was still writing. I took his first page and read over it. He glanced at me to see what I was doing, then returned to his work.
I read over it, slowly. He had a few errors, mostly grammar, some spelling, but other than that it was good. Our teacher would cut him some slack on that though.
I slid the paper back to him.
"It's good, just fix the spelling." I said quietly.
Nathan nodded. He looked at me and opened his mouth like he was about to say something, when the bell rang. I sighed and stood up.
I grabbed my bag, swinging it over my shoulder. I was waiting for Nathan to collect his things and put his papers in his folder.
He was all packed up and ready to go. I held my hand out for his. He hastily grabbed his backpack, and swung it hard over his shoulder, spewing the contents of his half open side pocket all over the stairs.
I could only watch in horror as several small white pills fell and bounced down the stairs. Others rolled on their sides around the platform. I stared at Nathan as he tried frantically to pick them up. I heard him swear quietly in French as he fumbled to collect the pills.
"Tic Tacs..." I said to myself. "They're just Tic Tacs..."
But as I picked one up and observed the large "E" engraved in its side, I knew I was wrong.
