blood red // sal fisher x reader

The Worst In Me

And now it's come to end
I think I'm giving in
You set my demons free

Monday morning came around, and if the prospect of a new week beginning wasn't already bad enough, you had math class with Sal.

It was raining that day, so it seemed fitting. The smell of rain wasn't your favorite anymore, not since the breakup, for it reminded you too much of stolen kisses and evenings spent cuddling, watching horror movies while it poured outside. Now it was just you and your thoughts, no more Sal to keep you warm and cozy—if anything, he was colder now than the water droplets that poured over your head and ruined a good hair day.

But Travis was in that class as well, and he was your friend now, so being alone wasn't an issue. The issue was no longer feeling the eyes that used to burn holes into the back of your head sitting a few chairs behind you. As if you didn't exist anymore.

"The weather is so bad today, good thing you're a ball of sunshine." That's how Travis greeted you when you sat next to him, sarcastically, of course. You'd been grumpy all month, and he was growing comfortable around it.

"You better put your shades on then because I'm about to shine even brighter now," you said, because Sal had walked in, which had naturally worsened your mood even more. But Travis laughed, and that earned a small smile from you.

It was like everyone else had decided they could feel the tension in the room, because you could've sworn the chattering quieted down while they followed Sal with their eyes as he made a beeline for his seat. Maybe everyone had grown used to seeing the pair of you attached at the hip, and now they were desperate to know the tea. More importantly, why was it Sal ignoring you and not the other way around? They didn't know him, so they still had that vision of him as the weird, quiet guy who should be grateful a pretty girl even wanted to be around him in the first place. It sucked knowing you were probably the talk of the school now, but that didn't hurt nearly as much as having your hopes crushed over and over again, every single week, because for whatever reason, some stupid part of you always hoped today would be the day he'd finally break no contact.

To confirm your earlier suspicions, every other student went right back to normal as soon as Sal settled into his chair, as if someone had flipped a switch, and you slumped down into your own, feeling defeated. Fucking assholes, feeding on your pain.

"He can't avoid you forever," Travis assured you, sympathetically rubbing a hand down your shoulder.

"He can surely try." You sighed, pulling your hoodie up and propping your elbow on your desk, your chin resting in your hand.

From then on, you battled every impulse to look behind you, nearly failing one too many times. It didn't help that it was math of all classes, so you couldn't even lie to yourself and pretend you had something else to focus on. Mrs. Packerton might as well have been speaking Greek.

But then she did the unimaginable—which would've been expected if only you were a better student who didn't zone out every class—: she asked for the assigned pairs to gather together and discuss her project.

The fucking project. You had completely forgotten about it. Not a single bit of work had been done, and now it was becoming clearer by the day that you were probably going to fail math because your assigned partner happened to be Sal, and he would probably rather be shot in the face again than sit down and work with you.

On the other hand, he could run from you once you were out of school, but, luckily, he couldn't exactly disappear from a project he was also responsible for. And as nervous as the thought of interacting with him for the first time in a month made you, there was a part of you that felt almost giddy at the prospect of talking to him again. Even if it was about math.