Sweet Nothing

.4.

Paxton took a deep breath as he strolled through the front doors to his college. He hadn't been here for a day and it already looked different.

'Open Evening' signs were dotted around the reception, tables had been moved to form a sign-in station, and a leaflet table had been placed in the centre of the room. Paxton wandered over to the leaflet table, briefly scanning over the front page.

'Rated No.1 in Hackney!'

Yeah right.

Paxton scoffed, before spinning and walking through the empty corridors towards his digital art room. As he pushed the door open to the classroom, he caught sight of his tutor Mr Williams and some other students that he hadn't bothered to learn the names of. 

"Paxton." Mr Williams sighed, turning as he heard the door open. "You're late, I thought you weren't coming."

Paxton trudged over to the only empty table with his name on it. "We're getting rid of this," he announced, picking up the sheet of paper and ripping it in half. Mr Williams opened his mouth to speak but shut it again not a second later.

"Okay whatever, just set your work up. I've got some frames over near the board if you want to make your artwork stand out." Mr Williams responded, before turning back to the other students.

Paxton glanced towards the board and noticed a cardboard box, he wandered over to it, picking an A4 frame out with an oak lining. He wandered back over to his table, placing the frame down, before picking up his art case and pulling out his 4 pieces of artwork. He had no idea where to start.

"Uh... Mr Williams." Paxton hesitated, "Can you erm... help me set up... please?" 

Mr Williams turned and gave Paxton an excited smile. 

"Of course," he replied, starting towards his table. As he reached his table, he picked up Paxton's artwork, smiling as he shuffled through them. "You made a good selection. I have a laptop if you would like me to bring up some of your other work on the projector."

Paxton smiled thankfully. "That would be great, sir, thankyou."

Mr Williams nodded before placing Paxton's artwork down. 

"Just lay these out on your table, the frame has a stand on the back so you can stand that up if you want, you have around 10 minutes, it starts soon." Mr Williams stated, looking at his watch.

"Thankyou sir." 

Mr Williams headed over to his desk, opening up his laptop. Paxton assumed he was putting some of his work up on the projector.

He set to work finding a layout for his table. He decided to put his drawing of the pigeon in the frame as he found it quite amusing, but arranged the other three images around it professionally. When he finally looked up from his neatly organized table he saw a slideshow of some of his digital art had appeared on the wall.

"Hey sir, why's it only his work on there?" someone spoke up. Paxton sent a glare towards the ginger kid who'd just spoken.

"Shut the fuck up ginge." Paxton clipped.

"Paxton!" Mr Williams called out, "Because, Edward, you told me you didn't want yours up here and the other two of you didn't ever send me your work."

Paxton plonked himself down on his chair, folding his arms. Mr Williams checked his watch again, before looking around the tables, a smile appearing on his face. 

"Are we all ready?" he asked, "Remember, we're trying to convince these students to join us, so don't put them off." as he said this he looked towards Paxton. 

Paxton smiled a little at this. "I'll be on my best behaviour sir," he announced. Mr Williams gave Paxton a friendly smile and headed towards the door, pulling it open and shoving a wooden door wedge under it. 

Paxton sat for a few minutes waiting. Just as he pulled his phone out, a group of people flooded into the room.

"Welcome to the digital art room!" Mr Williams greeted, bustling over to the group of students. "This is the best room in the whole college and I'm not just saying that because this is my classroom."

This earned a few laughs from the group.

What a shit sense of humour.

"You're welcome to have a look round and try out your hand on the computers just over in the far corner." Mr Williams chirped as the group dissipated. Some left the room, others wandered around to the other tables. 

Paxton flicked through his phone, not paying attention to the commotion around him. His phone pinged just as he saw a figure appear in front of him from the corner of his eye. 

Aiden: Dunno about you mate but I fancy a spliff or two, you down?

Paxton typed out a quick response, telling him he was stuck at an open evening but he'd meet up later, before hitting send and shoving his phone in his pocket. He looked up to see a blonde-haired female in front of his table. 

"Hi." she started, "I'm Anika, what's your name?"

Paxton studied her young face. She was slim and had a pale skin tone, her hair was curled and pulled back into a half ponytail, she wore light makeup, and silver stud earrings dotted across her ear lobes. 

She shifted uncomfortably in front of him, like his gaze burnt her. Paxton realised he'd probably been staring at her for a while.

"Paxton," he replied shortly. She smiled slightly, before looking down at his artwork and tracing her fingers across his drawing of the eye.

"Whats this mean, Paxton?" she asked, glancing up at him. Paxton shrugged, feeling a little embarrassed. Two adults suddenly appeared behind Anika, making Paxton feel uncomfortable. He assumed they were Anika's parents.

"Hello!" The woman of the pair chirped, looking at the table in front of her.

"Why doesn't your table have your name on it?" the male asked. Paxton felt his cheeks heat up at all this attention on him. 

"I... uh... I didn't want it on here." Paxton stuttered, standing from his seat. 

"Why not?" he replied, a disapproving look appearing on his face.

"Dad..." Anika whispered, whipping her head round to face her father. 

"Alan, leave the poor boy alone." the woman laughed, taking his hand. 

"I'm late for something." Paxton suddenly announced, picking up his artwork and case, before grabbing his dark-blue varsity jacket and quickly rushing out of the classroom door.

He heard Mr Williams call after him, but he ignored it and began to push through the large crowds of people. His only goal was to get out of the front doors. He started to feel claustrophobic, a tightening feeling coming on in his chest. He knew he was about to have an anxiety attack if he didn't get out of those doors soon.

Luckily, he reached the front doors before his anxiety got any worse. His heart raced and he breathed heavily, taking gulps of air like he'd just run a marathon. A few people dotted around gave him strange looks as they passed him.

"Pax?" a familiar voice sounded from in front of him. "You good man?"

Paxton looked up to see Aiden giving him a puzzled look.

"I just came to keep you entertained, but let's just get out of here," Aiden said, grabbing Paxton's art case off him, before shoving his artwork in it. Paxton smiled gratefully, pulling his jacket on before following Aiden away from the campus.