Bodysnatchers

11

Keith's grateful for study leave because it means that he only has to drag his feet over to the school when he has exams, and communication isn't even really allowed anyway. Still though, even that is pretty painful- Matt and Pidge are still feeling not so great things about him, and he's had to begin desperately trying to find new, stealthier ways of getting off the school grounds after finishing the exam he goes in to do. Eric Kelly, Jamie and Aiden are throwing him all kinds of unnecessary insults every chance they get and he is officially back to his status of 'constant target'.

He hates it. But that isn't to say that he doesn't completely and utterly deserve it.

Keith's spent a lot of time moping alone in his room, misery blatant all over his face, and the way he moves about the house. Shiro was concerned at first, but it soon evolved into frustration, and now Keith also has to tiptoe his way around home after doing the same for school.

"For God's sake, Keith," Shiro sighs. "It's a nice day. You should go hang with Pidge and Matt!"

Yeah, Keith thinks. I should but I went and fucked that up.

He doesn't say it though.

"Or even any of your other friends? Don't try to lie and say you don't have others because I know you haven't just been with Pidge and Matt this past month."

Okay, Keith thinks. I would If they didn't hate me now.

He doesn't say this either. And if anything he should be making the most of the long amounts of spare time he's come to acquire by at the very least studying, but instead he's just wallowing alone in his room, trekking downstairs for the occasional sandwich and to fill up his water bottle.

He's being pathetic. He knows that, but even so he spends the vast majority of his time miserably chewing while sitting around in pajama pants. He thinks that this is what he deserves. He brought this on himself and had been warned so many goddamn times by Matt and by Pidge that this was a bad idea. That it would make him just as bad of a person as those he was trying to avoid, and look at him now. It fucking happened and the fact that he could have avoided probably all of this mess if he had just listened to Matt and Pidge one of those times, makes him hate the situation even more.

Things aren't going so well. He misses Matt, and he misses Pidge. He misses Allura and Hunk and Shay, and he misses Lance. He misses Lance really fucking horribly and he can't believe he actually managed to mess it all up this badly

——

It happens on Friday afternoon. Keith's been at the school for an hour long study session for math outside of his house. He needed to get out so Shiro would stop harassing him about going out to see people and his eyes are pretty much burning from staring at numbers for far too long.

He's just kind of wandering listlessly out of the school grounds. The back way, around the edge of the sports fields. He feels a small jolt inside of him, passing by the wall and the slope where he used to sit with Lance and the rest of them, carelessly smoking cigarettes. Staticky music blaring out of dodgy iPhone speakers.

He'd been so happy. Lance had littered bored kisses over his lips, he'd laughed. Nyma had glowered- she was always glowering, or maybe that was just her eyeliner and Allura would tell them to cut the PDA, and Lance would always protest that they weren't nearly as bad as Shay and Hunk which was definitely true.

Keith would be late to lessons. Eric Kelly would glare, Matt and Pidge would look a little surprised.

There's an unwelcome pang in his chest as he thinks about Matt and Pidge- he misses them, too. Like fuck.

"Keith?"

He almost has a heart attack at the unexpected sound of his name, whipping around quickly. And, okay- reason says that it isn't Eric Kelly, Jamie, or Aiden, because there is clarity in the voice and it is far from sounding anywhere close in one of their vocal ranges. Yet he's still expecting to be punched in the face.

It's Allura and Nyma, though, and he realizes that voice was Allura's. Nyma's messy blonde hair is pulled up high into a ponytail, which shows her face, and makes her seem ten times more intimidating to him. With her full face on view, Keith can clearly see her eyes studying him carefully. Keith gulps. The gut feeling that he's about to receive a fist to the face intensifies.