𝖠𝗇𝖺𝗑𝗂𝗉𝗁𝗂𝗅𝗂𝖺 ☽

Chapter 2: The Mouth Guard

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Fuck!

A small grunt left my mouth as the lead of the pencil in my hand snapped.

A fucking 78? Why can't I ever get a higher grade?!

I rolled my eyes and shoved the test sheet into my red folder and slapped it closed. Small tears of frustration started to form but I held them back from falling in the middle of class. A shaky breath of mine made Hazel right next to me look over concerned.

"Are you okay, Y/n?" She asked as she played with one of her lip rings. It's nothing, just the norm. "I'll be fine. Just another average test score." She frowned at the shrug of my shoulders. "Oh, what the hell—" we looked up at the heavy feeling of our teacher's stare on us. And of course, Mr. Waters looked at us with an eyebrow raised. "Correct the language, please." I let out an annoyed sigh through my nose. He's so weird, and his rules are so weird sometimes. "Yes, sorry, Mr. Waters." He nodded before turning back to the binder in front of him. Most likely where he's putting our grades in.

"We studied for a long time though. What questions did you struggle on?" I shrugged and shoved the red folder deep into my backpack. It's not like I'd need it for a bit, today's a Friday and our teacher has graced us with no homework for the weekend. "Maybe the standard deviation. It was just kind of hard to figure some of those questions out."

"If you're having trouble understanding something, you know that you can ask for help, right?" We both turned to look at Mr. Waters again. My eyebrows were furrowed a bit because he interrupted our conversation, but it didn't help that we were the first two desks in front of his own desk. "Yeah, but at the time I think I understand, but then it all goes blank." I propped my cheek up with my hand and sighed. "Just remember that I'm here to help."

Yeah, but how do you expect us to believe that when you make students feel horrible for not knowing the basics?

"I understand." He turned back to the grade book and Hazel continued to discuss the test with me. "The parts where you have to memorize which scientist did what is the worst for me though. I can not remember names for the life of me." A small laugh came out of my nose as I looked over at the clock. Just four minutes until the bell rings. My knee bounced and bounced. Even though I hate school, I don't want to go home. I hate being home sometimes. Especially those days where Alex comes home early. Today would be one of those days. And dread fills my gut as each minute passes by.

"Y/n, you know that you can stay at my house anytime you want to. My mom doesn't mind at all." Hazel snapped me out of my anxiety induced trance with a warm smile. "O-Oh? Well, uh, I'll have to talk to my mom about that." My cheeks heated up with embarrassment. Ugh, I don't know how she can see through me. It's kind of lame of me. The girl then nudged my shoulder right before the bell rang.

Dread is all I feel.
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My sleeveless shoulders met the cold air of the rickety gas station that has been here for ages. It's just a few minutes away from the school and I occasionally stop by to buy a little water or a small snack before coming home. My jacket was put into my backpack as walking home left me sweatier nowadays since the humidity got worse every time it rained.

No one was seen except for the cashier at the front who was just flipping through a magazine with earbuds in his ear and phone tucked into his pocket.

Is he not aware of my presence?

I continued to the back of the store with the roll of my eyes. He wouldn't even notice if I stole anything. I clenched my fists and shook my head at the thought. There was no point, if I stole once I knew that I'd continue to do it if I got away with it. And going to jail over something so little as stealing would be stupid.

A small sigh escaped me as I reached into the fridge to grab a water bottle. But the sound of the door opening caught my attention, unlike the cashier's.

A small chill ran down my spine seeing those same orange tinted glasses from the day before.

What the fuck?

A now more shaky breath left my mouth as I quickly went around the aisle and looked at the snacks. My mind was racing, the thoughts wouldn't shut the fuck up. Why are you nervous? You don't even know him?

It was kind of creepy at the cafe though.

I went to turn around but the guy was already there as he stared at the snacks too. He was crouched down though and a few inches away. I don't know why, but my chest started to tighten as I just grabbed some chips and tried walking down the other end of the aisle. This is so weird. "Uh, exc-use me." He stood up all of the way, the boy wasn't very tall, and he didn't look all that strong due to the baggy clothing covering him. His curly, brown hair went everywhere and a few glimmers of jewelry made themselves known on his body. But what really stuck out was the twitching he'd occasionally do. I tilted my head to the side, now realizing that I didn't even get a good look at him before.

The twitching...? Does he have tics? Like tourettes?

"Yes, do you need help with anything." He chuckled and nodded his head yes. "I just don't know what to get. Any-y suggestions?" The boy then cautiously took his glasses...or goggles...off. I was kind of surprised that I could hear anything he said underneath the mask he had on. "Uh, I usually get hot fries. But basically because I really like how it feels when I eat it—like the texture of it." I looked at him with my eyebrows raised as I just over shared my reasoning and became super embarrassed.

Oh what the fuck? You're so stupid!

The boy tilted his head before waving me off. "We all have our quirks, you know." His eyes scrunched up as I could assume a smile formed on his face. But, all I could focus on were his brown eyes...and how pretty they were. The boy also had a few freckles on his face.

He shook his hair out of his face, causing his right eyebrow to come into view.

DAMN, A SCAR AND A PIERCING?

I bit the inside of my cheek at the thirsty ass things coming to mind. It didn't help that my eyes started to really grasp the details of his face now.

Fuck, the nose piercings. Jesus Christ.

"But I think I-I could feel the same way about vanilla wafers. It just feels good to eat, not necessarily my favorite thing in t-the world." A small smile spread across my face, it was nice to know that someone in this world finally understood my point of view. "Well, it was nice talking to you, I have to go..home." The boy nodded his head and hummed. "Oh, of course. Sorry for keeping you."

"No, it's okay, uh I had a good time talking..?" I laughed at the end of my sentence and he chuckled a bit too. "Uh, I guess I'll see you later..." his eyes widened as he figured that I was asking for his name. He hesitated for a moment before saying something. "I'll tell you th-the next time I s-see you." The boy slid his goggles/glasses back over his eyes and quickly made his way out of the store. Without paying.

Heh, like I care.
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