human punching bag

chapter 5

"One of these days, someone's gonna fuck him up."

I looked up from the poster board I was crouched over. Levi was staring at his computer, rapidly typing something. It was probably the essay that had to accompany our poster.

"Who?" I asked.

"Jean," Levi said. He looked up to meet my eyes. "Someone's gonna get sick of his shit."

"Maybe someone already is," I said.

Levi tilted his head to the side a bit.

"Are you?"

"What?"

"Are you sick of him yet?" Levi asked. I blinked a few times in surprise.

"No," I said. "I'm fine."

"Huh," Levi said softly. "Essay's done."

The printer next to him came to life. I watched as Levi collected the papers and stapled them together. 

"How's the poster looking?"

"Good," I said.

I sat back on my heels.

"It's kinda ironic, don't you think?" Levi murmured.

"What is?"

"Our project," he said, jerking his chin towards it.

I looked down at the title I had written neatly across the top.

The Difference Between Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships.

Huh. Very ironic indeed.

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Levi became more distant. I wasn't sure why he seemed to be avoiding me, but I chose not to ask him about it. I hated confrontation.

I found myself hanging out with Nick more. My past self would have been overjoyed at the opportunity to spend time with my boyfriend. My current self was not particularly pleased. 

I wasn't sure why my affection for Nick was waning. I wondered if it had anything to do with how long we were together. We had been dating since freshman year; we were nearly through our senior year now. It was easy to say that time had driven a wedge between us, but I knew better than that.

Nick probably did too. But neither of us made a move to end the relationship. Things between us were easy. We knew each other. We were comfortable with each other. We knew each others habits, what made the other tick, and other useless things like that. It would be too much of a hassle to get into another relationship at this point. I figured we might as well ride this thing out until graduation. That was what most people did anyway.

Jean found me shortly after getting over his cold. He punched me hard enough that there was no way he didn't break my nose. Supposedly I told Mikasa what he did to me and she broke up with him.

I hadn't said a word. I honestly wished I could take credit for it, though.

My eyes unintentionally sought out Nick's. Jean froze, knuckles mere millimeters from my face, and looked at Nick.

~end chapter 5~