Stress Relief

Friends (revised)

School felt like it dragged on for way longer than eight hours for the next couple of days.

He could barely concentrate on what the teachers were saying thanks to his mind being occupied going over all the reasons he hated Braden and his asshole self for spamming his dms. He at least got to sleep in the second break day, but the following morning Braden was starting on his shit again.

Only for that though, he knew he wasn't a dick, he was just being particularly annoying. It continued over the rest of his classes at least once and so, the next thing he knew, he had six assignments he was doing after school on the bleachers. It was times like these when he wished "post-breakup grief" or whatever he was going through was something the faculty could put on his 504 plan.

Putting his earbuds in he pressed play on a playlist and started working. It felt like hours had passed when he finally got through the first few slides of his lab notes, but eventually, as he came to the review for an upcoming quiz, he scratched at his chin, stuck. "I doubt "mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell"'s gonna help me on this one," he grumbled to himself. Lack of sleep weighed down on his body like a weighted blanket. Having said that it probably wasn't a good idea to try and study now while he could feel the pull of unconsciousness tugging at his eyelids.

A snort pierced through his headphones and he turned to see Chase in his gear, leaning against the bleachers. Pulling them out he smiled at him. "Sorry," He smiled apologetically, "I tried calling your name but you couldn't hear me."

"All good." Just then he realized that none of the others had arrived yet, then he remembered they had a break day today. "You ditch your girlfriend or is there another reason you're out here?" He teased, earning an eye roll.

"She ditched me, technically, so I didn't have to get yelled at." Chase came around, sitting to his right, "also the guys and I wanted to hang out for a bit before the soccer kids came out to practice." He looked down at his homework, and gestured to his 6 open tabs. "You look like you have your hands full."

Elijah sighed, looking at the screen of his laptop that he was pretty sure was giving him a migraine. "You have no idea." Chase leaned over to take a peak, humming as he likely tried to answer a few in his head.

Despite having someone looking over his shoulder, he kept working. Eventually, he found the answer to the question he was stuck on and submitted the guided notes. Halfway done. "You can do all that stuff at home you know."

While that was true for anyone else, Elijah shook his head. "No, can't focus as well. I always get distracted by my phone."

"Just put it away." Elijah gave him a look because he had no idea just how tired he was of those words. He seemed to understand and he put his hands up. "Hey, I'm just trying to help. Yknow, out of sight out of mind."

Every time his dad told him that, it just pissed him off, but for some reason, the idea didn't sound as bad coming from Chase. It maybe definitely had something to do with him being cute. "Fine. This is giving me a headache anyway." He shut his laptop and put it up, stuffing the paper he had out into a journal and packing everything up. "You might want to let my dad know you're here unless you don't need help with homework?"

"Crap I knew I forgot something!" He bolted and Elijah smiled as he left. A few minutes later a collection of footsteps came from the school.

"I'm telling you, dude, I'm getting a date for hoco! I already have someone in mind." Carson's confidence rang out as the boys with him chuckled.