Unlikely // Grayson Dolan

T h r e e

Kaitlyn's POV

I woke up and went to school today, even though I really didn't want to. My head hurts. 

In math Grayson really needed help. The teacher let him stay in during lunch to work and Grayson asked me to stay too, and help him. 

I was helping him, but we got way off topic. He then asked if he could ask me about everything, everything that I was avoiding telling him. I gave in. I told him everything. About my friends leaving me, my mom, my dad leaving us, and how I have to take care of everything by myself. He stared at me so intently when I was telling him all of it. It seems like he genuinely cares. And I guess he does, because he was asking me multiple times about when I could tell him all this.

"I'm sorry, you don't deserve any of that." 

"Thanks." I said.

He put his hand on top of mine and intertwined his fingers with mine.

I smiled, Grayson grinned. 

"You really don't, you don't deserve to have to basically be an adult already and worry about bills and money and all that crap." 

"It's just how it is I guess." 

"Okay, I really don't get how to do this." He looked down at his math. 

"It's okay, we still have like 35 minutes of lunch to work. Here, do you remember the quadratic formula?" 

"B squared... Minus... 4b?" 

"No, here lemme write it down." 

I spent 15 minutes trying to explain it to him. 

"Aghh! I don't get it! This is so stupid!" He threw his pencil across the room and put his hands on his head. 

"It's okay, you'll get it." 

"Aghh!!" He slammed his hand down on the desk, "I'm just going to go to the bathroom for a second." He stood up and walked out of the classroom. 

10 minutes later. 

It had been ten minutes and Grayson wasn't back from the bathroom. I texted him to see if he was okay. I know he's just frustrated, but math can be hard, I don't blame him. But I got no response. I walked down the hallway to the bathrooms and saw Grayson outside of the door, crouched down against the wall with his head on his knees. He was crying and shaking. 

"Oh my God Grayson!" I ran over to see if he was okay.

"Stop. Don't... Touch me...." 

He was shaking more. Oh my God. He was having an anxiety attack. Wait, really? The big tough badboy Grayson? HE has anxiety?

I sat down next to him. A few minutes went by.  

"Can you-- help me get up--now?" 

"I can touch you?" 

"Yeah." 

I put my arm around him and helped him stand up. He was still shakey. 

"Let's go back to the classroom, can you walk that far?" 

"Yeah." 

Being right next to Grayson made me feel really good. I felt safe and comfortable. I haven't felt that since Elisabeth moved away. But it was even better being with Grayson. I held him up and we slowly walked down the hallway. We got back and sat down. 

"Are you okay?" 

"Yeah yeah I'm good." He grabbed his hoodie from the back of the chair and put it on.