In the Name of Love

Withdrawn

Nicolas's POV
I woke up late, because I forgot that putting my phone on silent also meant that my alarm wouldn't sound in the morning, which I think is pretty stupid. The thing is, I didn't realize how late I actually woke up. I was going to be late to school. Well that's a great start to this week. I didn't have time to do much else than a considerably shorter version of my morning routine, which meant that I didn't get to eat breakfast, but none of the normal parts of my morning were as important as getting to school on time, or at least enough so I didn't miss any major material. School was only a few blocks away so if I ran, I could probably get there before the teacher took attendance.

I stepped out the door and practically sprinted to the door of the school, but was forced to walk while actually in the halls of the building. I slid into my chair, and, luckily, I was fast enough that the teacher, who was usually a few minutes late, wasn't there yet. It was like I was here the entire time!

The teacher arrived and quickly took attendance, since we had already lost about 7 minutes of our period, and she obviously didn't want to waste more of the class time on something as mundane as checking that nobody decided to suddenly ditch.

The teacher was trying to tell us about this thing, a project, to wrap up this unit. She even had a presentation on it, and those were supposed to make the concept easier to understand. Yet here I was, focused on all the wrong things at once. Everything except the teacher. Then she was done explaining and all I heard was, "Alright, go find a partner and get started!"
What. I have no idea what this project is about and now we have to start working on it. A boy in a grey sweatshirt with the sleeves pulled over his palms walked over to me.
"Hi." He squeaked in a small voice, but I was so out of it that I had no idea he was even standing there and when he actually spoke, I practically jumped 5 feet in the air. He clearly wasn't expecting me to do that as he flinched slightly as well.
"Hi. Sorry about that. I just, maybe thought, that we could be partners? I don't have one, and you look kind of lost."
"Oh yeah. I zoned out and now I have no idea what the assignment even is. What's your name? I'm Nicolas."
"I-I'm Eli."
"So, if we're going to be partners, do you mind filling me in on what we even have to do?" Eli started to let me know what we were doing, and...oh. That's why. I forgot to take my meds. Oh shit, what am I going to do? Maybe the nurse has some? I ask the teacher but she says I need to bring someone with me. Why? We're in high school I don't see the point. Well, at least I can bring Eli with me.
"Eli?" He looks up at me without moving his head.
"Do you mind going to the nurse with me?"
"Oh, sure." We walked out of the classroom in silence, until Eli asked, "I don't know if you mind, but why do you need to go to the nurse?" I took a deep breath. "Sorry if I'm overstepping."
"No, no, it's fine. I've got ADHD, and I was in a rush this morning, I forgot to take my meds, so I want to see if the nurse has any." We arrived and clearly my parents had anticipated this exact situation, or something like it, because they had dropped off some of my medication by the nurse for if this were to ever arise. I took them and we started to walk back to the classroom. Apparently the project we had to do was one where we wrote a story of our own. That seemed pretty cool, and so does Eli, so I'm excited to be working with him. He doesn't seem to have much to say, though. We haven't known each other for too long, but I wonder why he's so reticent...

Eli's POV
I like Nicolas. He hasn't asked about anything I don't want to share about myself, even though I asked him personal things myself. He respects my boundaries, and that's something that is hard to find in people now. I don't know how long it will take for me to tell him or start trusting him in general, but he doesn't seem like the others. We spent a lot of time walking to and from the nurse, so by the time we got back to the classroom, class was pretty much over.
"We should work on this project after school, since we didn't get any work done here. Who's house do you want to work at?"
"Yours." I said without hesitation. I said that too fast. He's going to suspect something. I look up and his expression doesn't seem to have changed, so I think I'll be okay.
"Alright, that's fine. Meet me by the first door after school?"
"Okay."

*Time skip to after school*

After my last class, I went back to the academic buildings to the first door to wait for Nicolas. After at least five minutes, I was starting to think he might've ditched me. It would make sense. But then soon he came up next to me, out of breath.
"Hey, I was starting to think that you weren't going to show." It was supposed to be a joke, but the statement ended up sounding a lot more serious than I intended it to be.
"I would never do that. Our class just got let out late. Sorry about that. Do you want to get going? My house is only a few blocks away."
"Yeah, let's go." We started walking and arrived at his house in less than ten minutes. He used his key to open the door, and his dad was in the kitchen cooking.
"Hey, Nico. Who's this?"
"This is my friend Eli. We're working on a project together."
"Oh, cool. Will he be staying for dinner? I'm making tamales."
He looked at me. I didn't want to intrude, but on the other hand, it would prolong the time that I had until I went home, which was a good thing. "If you'll have me."
"Of course! Now go work on your project and I call you down when it's ready."
We went upstairs to his bedroom and sat down. Before brainstorming ideas and plot points for our story, I needed to ask him something: "So downstairs. We're friends?"
"Yeah! Unless you don't want to be, but that would be pretty hard considering we're going to spend the next few weeks together."
"I definitely want to be friends. I just didn't think you'd want to be mine. I'm kind of a mess." I guess that's when we became friends? I'm decent at art, but Nicolas said he sucked, so I started drawing a storyboard. We were making decent progress when food was ready. So we put everything down to go eat.
"So, Eli. How long have you and Nicolas been friends?" His dad asked me during dinner.
"Um, not long actually. We just met today, and I didn't even know he wanted to be friends with me, I'm pretty strange."
"Oh trust me. However weird you think you are, Nico's weirder."
"Dad!"
"It's true though!" Nicolas just rolled his eyes at that and continued to eat. "By the way, your mom asked, no, told me to tell you that she's working night for the next two weeks, starting tonight, which is why she's not here."
"Oh." He didn't have much of a reaction, is this normal?
"Sorry, you know how her residency is." She's training to be a doctor? Awesome! The rest of dinner was pretty much silent. Afterwards, we went back up to his room.
"Are you okay, Nicolas?"
"It's just, she's always working! But I know she can't control her schedule unless it's really important. Luckily she's graduating in a year, so then she'll have more reasonable hours, and more pay."
"I'm sorry. Do you want to do more work? Or I could just go home, I guess it's getting late."
"I would love for you to stay, but it's like nine, and you probably need to get home and sleep. I'll go with you, make sure you don't get kidnapped or anything." Little does he know I probably won't be getting any sleep, despite my efforts.
We left his house and I told him where I live so he could walk me home. It was dark so I was glad he was there with me. It's usually very nerve racking to travel the route back to my house, but it wasn't as much tonight. We arrived and I was sad to leave Nicolas, because this was one of the best days I've had in awhile. Luckily he couldn't see me almost crying through the darkness.
"Bye, I'll see you tomorrow?" Nicolas asked while waving.
"Uh, most likely." I said back, shakily. I waved back and walked through the door. I made sure to close it almost silently, so my dad wouldn't hear. I heard snoring, so he was asleep. I breathed a sigh of relief. I walked the short distance to my room and shut the door. I didn't want to go to sleep, because that would mean my guard would be down, but I was exhausted, so I ended up falling asleep anyways.