calm down // josh dun

s i x

IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THERE'S NOBODY OUT THERE.

--Josh's P.O.V--

I plugged my headphones into the device sitting on my lap before stuffing the right one into my ear, the left one only being left out because my mother was talking.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't get your doctor's appointment scheduled for after school," she told me. "I know you hate missing school."

"I don't hate missing school," I explained. "I hate walking into a silent classroom and having everybody stare at me like I'm an alien, but I'm coming in at lunch, so I'm good."

I glanced down at my phone and started scrolling through my Spotify. A familiar name appeared on the screen, causing me to remove my finger from the cold surface of my phone.

Declan Gray listened to Mr. Brightside by the Killers.

I had forgotten that I followed Declan on Spotify and that I could see what he was listening to. However, the more I thought about the more I realized that I saw Mr. Brightside popping up on his recent music almost every hour or so.

I didn't know the song, but I decided to pull it up where if Declan and I sort of became friends we could have something to talk about.

My mom pulled up to the entrance of the school and I unbuckled my seat belt, throwing my bag over my shoulder. "Love you, mom."

"I love you too, honey. Have a good rest of the day and I'll see you when you get off of school." I climbed out of the car and waved goodbye to her before jogging up the concrete steps of the school, Mr. Brightside by the Killers still blaring in my ears.

•••

"Hey, have any of you seen Declan?" I asked as soon as I got into the lunch room, plopping my backpack down into my chair at the lunch table.

"I don't ever look for him," Ambrosia told me.

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, has anybody seen him? He and I were supposed to work on our English project and he's not at his lunch table."

Everyone turned to look at the hockey players table. None of them seemed worried about their missing star player, which I thought was quite odd.

"Maybe he is just running a bit late?" Jenna suggested a sympathetic smile on her face.

"If you want, I can go ask one of my teammates about him," Tyler offered. "Oliver had last period with him."

"Would you, please?"

Tyler quickly got to his feet, hurrying over to one of the tables that consisted of three or four of his basketball teammates.

"Why did you guys decide to work at lunch at all times?" Ezgi asked. "Didn't you guys work in English?"

"We worked in English yesterday. I was absent today for that class. We are really far behind and Declan isn't want to meet up outside of school to work on it, so that leaves lunch," I explained.

"Parter projects are always hard work," Carter added. "I remember being partnered with Nickolai in some class last year and it was the most stressful thing ever."

Nickolai plopped his book down upon the table, an outraged look on his face. "Okay, listen here, I contributed to that project. We got a fantastic grade on that. You have no reason to complain."