Freckles - Ed Sheeran

Would you like a banana?

-...and that is all. As you know, the exam will be next week so be prepeared. Have a nice weekend.-

The noise of chairs being moved and people chatting made me sit up straight, suddenly aware of where I was. The ECDL class was over and I'd missed half of it because I'd started daydreaming as always, but I knew all of that stuff anyway. I gathered my things and put them back in my backpack, grabbed a banana I had brought from home and left the classroom greeting the teacher. I walked along the school hallways with my headphones on listening to my favourite soul music and peeling my banana. The ECDL classes were held in the basement floor so I had to walk up some stairs. 

But at the first step, I stopped. I could hear someone sobbing, and I was pretty sure it wasn't part of the song I was listening to. I removed my headphones and the sobbing became louder. Normally I'm that kind of person who just ignores it and goes on, but I just froze and stared at the door on the right, which was cracked open. No light was coming from the inside. A sign on the door said "Music room". I didn't actually know my school that well, I wasn't part of any extra curriculiar activities apart from the ECDL course and I would just go home straight after my classes were over. So there was someone crying in the music room, the school was probably deserted because it was 5 pm and I was standing there with a banana in my hand. I slowly reached the door and peeked iside. It was too dark and I couldn't see  anything at all.

Leave, go away, I told myself.

I opened the door. Once my eyes had got used to the darkness, I looked down at the person sitting on the floor behind the door. He -it was a he- had stopped crying, but his eyes were red and his cheeks were wet. He had a nest of messy hair-I could't tell what colour because of the bad lighting- and he was wearing huge framed glasses, trainers and a hoodie. He was looking at me.

I knew him. Or better, I knew his face and that he was "the odd kid", even though he never seemed bothered by people calling him that. In fact, he was always smiling. Yet here he was, crying. I didn't wonder what he was doing here, why he was crying or what the hell I was going to do now. I only felt an incredible sadness.

I sat down next to him. Even though he'd stopped crying, his mouth was still shaped in a grimace of pain. Something really terrible must have happened.

I'm far from being a spontaneous person and I hardly ever hug my friends, let alone the odd kid. But seeing him in so much pain, I got closer to him and hugged him, my hand in his hair and his face in my neck, his glasses pressing on my neckbone. We stayed like that for what seemed like a very long time.

When we parted, without thinking I said -Here, would you like a banana?- 

He rubbed his eyes and looked at me. Then he reached out and took it with a shaking hand.

When I got home that evening, I looked on the yearbook until I found him. His name was Edward.