Darling, Let's Run From it All

♢ Chapter 3 ♢

Three weeks into the school year, things hadn't gotten much better for Sal. But they weren't getting worse, either, so he couldn't really complain.

Math was still by far his best subject, even though it always made for a boring class period. Today was their first test of the year, and Sal was done with it within about twenty minutes.

Sal raised his hand high in the air, hoping that the teacher would notice him so that she could collect his test. He was the first to finish.

As the teacher stood from her desk and walked towards him, he caught Travis glaring at him from the other side of the room.

He sighed as he handed his paper to the teacher. She smiled at him before she returned to her desk, and only then did Travis turn his head around and look back down at his paper.

Sal let out a deep breath, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. He stared down at his desk, bored out of his mind. Now that he had finished his math test, he had nothing to do for the rest of the class period.

He reached down into his backpack, ripping a torn piece of notebook paper out of his binder. He grabbed his pen off of his desk and began to doodle on the page, drawing random stick figures and scribbles.

Class dragged on for what seemed like ages, but when the bell finally rang, Sal crumpled up his page of drawings and tossed it across the room and into the trash can as he picked up his backpack.

He stood up from his desk and, not realizing that Travis was walking right past him, accidentally bumped into him.

"Sorry, my bad," Sal muttered, moving a few steps over to start walking out of the classroom.

Travis scoffed loudly and elbowed Sal in the arm. "Watch where the hell you're going, Sally Face."

Sal ignored him and continued out of the classroom, sighing loudly. What Travis' problem with him was, he doubted he would ever know. Sure, he felt bad for the boy; he was almost positive that Travis had a bad home life. But even so, he had no reason to be as awful to Sal as he was.

Sal shook his head as he pushed open the door to the cafeteria. He glanced around, searching for his friends, and after a bit, he caught sight of them in the back corner. He fought his way through the crowded cafeteria towards them and sat down.

"Hey, man," Larry said with a grin. "How's it going?"

"It's going," Sal answered, dropping his backpack onto the ground. "It's definitely going."

Ash tilted her head. "Good way? Bad way?"

Sal shrugged. "Right down the middle, I guess. I don't know."

"Well, let us know if you need anything. But on another note, have we decided whose place to meet up at this weekend?" Larry asked, laying his head down on the table.

"No, we never decided," Ash answered. "We could hang out at my house. Benjamin is staying at our grandparents' house this weekend, so we'll pretty much have the house to ourselves."

Todd glanced up from his notebook. "That sounds good. I may not stay for long, though. Neil is free this weekend and we're going to try and hang out."