Highkey Dodgy :Erisol:

Chapter 6: Thursday

Eridan's brain appeared to have set itself a task of making Eridan as miserable as humanly possible. Which was fun, especially as it also seemed to have set itself the task of making him think about Sollux far more than anyone should think about anyone, which only served to make him more miserable.

Life really sucked sometimes.

He was genuinely surprised he had managed to avoid his family after his First Time™ (eating junk food, that is), but grateful about their absence. It was always a great day when he wasn't forced to see his family's faces. On the other hand, his brain was punishing him for said First Time™, meaning he was back to avoiding meals as much as he could.

Thursday morning had brought a spark of panic after a nightmare that had left him sweating and hot. He couldn't quite remember what it was, but it left a deep, cold sense of dread in the pit of his stomach, which had lingered through the whole day, making him feel heavier than usual and leaving him with a clinging sensation of fear wrapping around his throat and most definitely feeling constricting. He was even more paranoid than normal of the legs stuck out to trip him in the halls, even jumpier when Fef poked him and squealed unexpectedly.

All that had built up until he had freaked out in the middle of history class, shoving his chair back suddenly and interrupting the teacher mid-lecture. Before he could get in trouble or get uncomfortable by the blatant staring, he had swept his things in his bag, swung it on his shoulder and sprinted out of the class as soon as possible, which led to stares from the students in the halls.

Eridan had zero clue where or why he was running, but he knew he just didnt want to be anywhere with the judgemental members of the student body - so, somehow, he ended up curled in a tiny corner outside the school, desperately trying not to cry for fear of lingering asshats just waiting for an opportunity to make fun of him.

All in all, it wasn't an ideal way to spend the start of his Thursday. It wouldn't be an ideal way to start any day, truth be told, and he could definitely think of better ways to spend his time.

But here he was, alone and unreasonably scared behind a high school gym. Nothing to be done now.

He had no idea how long he sat there, leant against a cold wall, trying to compose himself and not think about the punishment he would get for running out of the class. He had probably looked fucking insane, jumping up without a hint of warning and booking it out of there like he was being chased by someone with a chainsaw come to cut him in half.

Groaning, Eridan rubbed his eyes with his fists, figuring he should either make his way back to class or skip out on school entirely, and the latter was far too tempting of an offer for his liking. If it wasn't for fear of his father, he likely would take his brain up on the suggestion.

Instead, he shifted slightly and figured he should move, but before he could, he felt a soft hand come down on his shoulder, making him freeze and automatically tense up. The owner of the hand retracted it immediately, and Eridan realised it had made him start shaking involuntarily, so naturally he looked up to see who it was that had discovered his hiding spot.

And of course, of fucking course, he was greeted with a lopsided toothy smile and 3D glasses slipping enticingly down a nose he had studied far too closely over the past two days.

"Thaw you thprinting down the hall a little while ago," Sollux offered by way of lisping explanation. "Took me a while to find you. You alright?" He took a seat at Eridans side, and the smaller teen was having too much difficulty with not dying or hyperventilating to do much but stare.

"Mm, informative," Sol added dryly when Eridan didn't reply, but his expression quickly shifted back from sarcastic to quietly caring. "Theriouthly though, what'th up? Dont normally thee cutieth thprinting down thcool hallth, ethpecially not in the middle of clath. Wait. Fuck, I... You didn't hear that, right?"