Hearts Without Chains

9.

~You have to be smart. The easy days are over~ Robert Kiyaoski

Harry-

Brown eyes peek through the window in the classrooms door that next day, and I slide down into the seat behind my desk as Josephine pops the door open, slipping inside like a scared little cat. A small smile crosses her lips as she sees I actually have my history book that she'd given me, and she sits at her usual desk a few in front of me, causing me to stare at the back of her head. That's the first time I've ever even seen her smile, at least I think it is, I haven't paid attention much.

"Highlighter? Notebook?"

I hear her sigh when I ask this, and then hear the flap to her bag un-buttoning as she gets them out. She stands, and sets them on top of my book before returning to her chair. I flip to where I had left off on Monday, and look at the back of her head again, opening the highlighter.

"You know what those pills can do to you, right?" I ask her, knowing she's fully aware of what I mean.

She looks over her shoulder, and then leans down beside her to get her Biology book from her bag.

"I kn-now the side effects." She tells me, and I wouldn't have even heard her if I hadn't been listening for it.

"Then you're obviously stupid for still taking them." I tell her.

She looks at me from over her shoulder, and I can see the angry lines in her forehead as she glares at me.

"Just say what you want, you barely ever speak." I say.

"You do p-pot, that's worse th-than Adderall." She speaks, and I sit back in my chair.

"Marijuana is bad, I know that. But those pills are too, they just aren't bad in the same way." I say.

When she doesn't say anything I talk again.

"You're exhausted right? And those pills are supposed to help you stay up, only when you take them of course. And then once they wear off you feel like shit, and only feel better once you take them again." I speak, and she still looks at me.

"You say it a-as if you know." She says quietly. This topic is making her uncomfortable, that's why she's tripping over her words so much.

"I did take them once upon a time, when I actually cared about my grades like you do now." I tell her, and she turns back around in her seat, and I look down to the bullcrap called schoolwork below me.

A while later, I threw a piece of crumbled up paper at Josephine to get her attention, and her head snapped up as it bounced off her back. She highlights one more thing in her text book before coming to the desk beside me, and I hand out the notebook to her. When her finger only barely touches my own, she pulls the notebook out of my hand quickly. I can't help but chuckle to myself, and that makes her purse her lips as she begins to ask me questions. I have to admit, her studying technique works. I remember things about government and shit that I didn't know I could. With my other classes I'm fine, I can keep up with what they are teaching just fine even though I rarely show up. But with history, I never could keep up before. And now I sort of can.

Another chapter later, I was five out of ten in. She surprised me by staying put in the chair beside me, her arms laid on the desk and her head rested on them, face hidden from me as she rested. Now she knows what I mean about the fucking pills. I always supposed she moved to the desk in front of me after asking me questions so she didn't have to be close to me, so we didn't have to pay attention to eachother.

"I'm surprised you don't have your face shoved in your biology book over there." I speak, and she doesn't raise her head in response.

I know she isn't sleeping, because she turns her head to the side.