//dear leo// barsandmelody︱au︱

O.D.D

 "Most people really don't get me
I'm the girl in the back of the class;
Blank stare, don't care, don't ask."  

- Hey Violet; O.D.D

________________________________________

There is nothing romantic in sadness.

Bullshit posts on Tumblr with bleeding wrists and bandages could not showcase even a fraction of the pain one needed to feel in order to be able to do something like that to oneself; pain is not romantic.

He knew that. And yet, he'd see those posts and his hand would hover over the mouse for a short moment, before clicking "reblog" - there was nothing romantic about pain; but it was strangely liberating to know he wasn't the only one who felt that way.

He himself felt like a hypocrite sometimes; he'd regularly scoff at the sight of the "edgy kids" from his school - you know the type, you probably seen them around. Girls with super skinny ripped jeans and fishnets underneath complete with a shirt of a band they don't even know, with their feet clad in a pair of Adidas originals, and all of that is paired with a leather jacket and a cap. And boys? They wear all black, just to show off how edgy they are. Mostly, they can be categorized as pacifists; stoners who believe that the world could be a better place if all of the human race would just hold hands and dance in a magical "kumba-ya" circle; complete with a couple of unicorns and mermaids thrown into the mix, because, why not? They'd reblog pictures of mangled, bleeding wrists and add captions "for similar follow ____" so everyone else could see how "edgy" they were.

He wasn't any better then them; not that he added obnoxious captions like that, but he clicked that "reblog". He too was showcasing something; pain.

3:54 AM

He could not sleep.

Tossing and turning in his bed wasn't helping; not when his mind was miles away. He wished he could magically scrub the images of tomorrow's day out of his mind, but the pesky little bastards plagued him; persistent in their need to make him as miserable as possible, even before time.

Tomorrow was the first day of school. After 2 months of blissful peace, he was going to face that hell, once again. It's not that he hated school; no, school was usually holding his attention - it's the people he hated. People with their petty complaints and happy couples that would make out on the corridors and most of all, people who will bully him.

"Just shut up and go to sleep, for fucks sake."

Half conscious and barely keeping his eyes open, he tries to plead with his mind, but the battle is over before it's even begun. Sleep evades him.

6:30 AM

The beep of the alarm clock is annoying and unforgiving. It's enough to get him out of the warm bed. After the shower he had to take in the morning because he was feeling too lazy to take one last night, he pulls on a hoodie that's at least three sizes too big for his overly thin body and some skinny jeans and heads downstairs to the kitchen.

"Morning, my love." with a kiss he desperately tried to dodge, but failed, his mother wishes him a good morning; mumbling something incoherent back, he heads straight for the coffee pot.

"You'll get whiskers from drinking that. And a tail." A girl younger then him grins from across the table as he sits down, pulling up the plate with french toast.

"Only girls get whiskers if they drink coffee." he pulls a face similar to hers, and that leaves her wordless. His sister pondered it for a moment, but with a small shrug, she decided to let it go - a character trait her mother loved - Tilly was not a fighter; she too was a pacifist.

"I gotta go, I'll see you after school." with more then a half of his toast still on the plate, he grabs his bag and hurries out the door, ignoring his mother's calls that he could clearly hear.

"Leo, when will you be back? Leo - Leo, wait..?"

8:05 AM

And there it was; the insults he knew all too well.

He tried to block them out, he really did try. If only it bloody worked.

"Fag."

"Is he serious with that hair? Someone's been watching way too many tv shows that have the "MADE IN JAPAN" disclaimer."

"Hey look, it's the Yu-Ghi-Oh!"

"Stacy told Mary that she'd seen him throwing knives down by the beach during the summer. Psycho. She thinks he cuts; truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised."

Of course, he could hear all of it - and they knew it. But it didn't stop them from talking. Distracted by his desire to get the hell away from the courtyard sooner rather then later, he walked right into someone. With a soft thud, his back met the dust-covered concrete with a sharp jab of pain in his back. Great. A fantastic way to kick off the school year. He didn't even enter the actual building yet, and he's got a bruise. That's gotta be some record or something.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry! I totally zoned out and wasn't paying attention to where I was going - are you okay? Oh God." a voice filled with panic forced him to open his eyes that were screwed shut in excruciating pain that was slowly spreading through his lower back. That's going to bruise for sure.

Suddenly, a hand was thrust in his face and he flinched away before he could stop himself.

"Whoa, easy, just trying to help you up." the owner of the voice, a boy, that's maybe only a year or two older then him, stood above him - the hand still stretched out.

"I'm Charlie." once he accepted the hand, the boy pulled him up.

"Leondre."

"It's nice to meet you, I'm kind of new here - hey, wait. Leo!" 

But Leo was already half way across the courtyard, ignoring all the stares and whispers thrown his way. This day will take forever to finish, he just knew it.

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Okay, so, I'm currently sleep deprived, hella late with all my work (i should be working rn), but I've had this idea in my head and it was fucking driving me nuts, so here it is. Rate, comment, correct my shitty facts if you spot something wrong, thank you :)

PS. I know it's charlie+leo, but fair warning, there will be no smut. I can't write smut to save my own skin, so no smut in the future of this work. Maybe some cute, fluffy gayness. But I'm not making promises.