Violet Nights

Chapter 32

Tuesday, 6:00am--
Keith woke up to the noisiest alarm clock he had ever heard in the history of the 18 years he'd been alive. He shot up from the curled position he was previousy in and frantically glanced around at his unfamiliar surroundings. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the just barely lit blue glow from the window before finding the alarm clock and aggressively knocking it off of the nightstand to shut it up. At the moment, he had no idea whose house he was currently in. That was until he examined the blue walls and the bed at eye-level with him. Up, still sleeping, on the bed was Lance McClain. Why...
And how?
Keith stood from the floor and stared at the sleeping boy for a few seconds. Man, did he have some weird- --- sleeping positions.
Keith then grabbed the pillow and pulled it out from underneath his head and slammed it down violently over his body. Lance's body winced for a second, but then went back to its sleeping state again.
No wonder he's late to school every day..
Oh wait..
School! Oh my god, we have school today and it's-- Keith glanced at the alarm clock tipped over on the floor-- 7:00!
"Lance!" Keith whispered, tossing the pillow onto him again a few more times. He sighed, realizing that it wasn't doing anything to help him. He gently placed his hand on Lance's shoulder and shook him, only to get a quiet groan out of the boy.
Keith realized he had only one pair of clothes with him and he'd have to wear them to school again, unless he was willing to make a speedy trip to his apartment to get more. (Which he wasn't)
"Lance, we're gonna be late, wake up!" Keith shouted, finally shoving Lance into the wall and watching him roll off the bed with a loud thump against the floor. The boy blinked, sitting up and rubbing his head. He looked like a confused drunk. "What the hell is wrong with you??" Lance questioned, using the bedside to pull himself upward off of the floor.
"What do you mean?? It's a Tuesday! " Keith shouted. Next thing he knew there was a knock at the bedroom door and it creaked open. Lance's sister Veronica was standing there, almost already ready for the day. And there Lance and Keith were...standing there in their wrinkled clothes and messy hair.
"Can you guys be a litte quieter? Mom's still asleep."
"Yeah, sorry sis'" Lance replied in a little bit above a whisper. Once the door was closed again, Keith began to fix his jacket hanging on the rack of Lance's bed and pulled it over his shoulders, letting those long sleeves of his cover his hands where only the knuckles and below his fingers were visible. Lance didn't say anything to him for the remainder of the morning--not until they got to school at least. It was probably because he was still embarrassed that Keith had slept over at his house--the guy who was supposed to be his rival, worst enemy and all that other bullshit.
The two rode in separate cars like they had the day before. By the time they reached the high school, Lance slowly regained the ability to communicate with Keith. He wasn't as bad as he wanted him to be. Keith was actually a pretty cool guy when he wanted to be. He was just...distant, and didn't connect with others well.
"I don't remember any of what happened before I fell asleep last night," Keith sighed, approaching his locker and putting in the combination. He looked over at Lance a few times as he leaned his back on the locker next to his. He really did seem like he was slowly opening up a little, day by day he could see it. It wasn't that Keith wanted that, but maybe it was a good thing. Maybe they needed this closure. Maybe Lance needed it from his breakup with Allura. Maybe their whole physical fight in the parking lot did the opposite of what it was supposed to do and brought them closer to one another. (Physically and mentally.)
"You don't?" Lance asked, almost like he was pretending to be surprised.
"I'm not shocked. After you lied down, you were out like a match. You're pretty lightweight, huh?"
"And you're not?"
"No, not really. I don't even have to sleep at all. I've gone 3 days without it and I survived."
Keith looked over at him again with wide eyes.
"I don't think that's healthy"
"It's probably not, but I will admit I was a bit out of it that third day. It took me way longer than it needed to for me to regain all of that lost sleep." 
Keith didn't respond to that but with a small hm sound out of his closed mouth. He finished grabbing his belongings and shut the locker door. He might as well walk with Lance to first period since they had it in the same class. Much to their dispair, they had been given a research project the moment they walked into the classroom. It was history on the city of New York, which required them to actually take a plane to the city itself.
"The school had better be paying for this," Keith grumbled, angrily scribbling his name into the top right hand corner of the rubric sheet in graphite. Lance, who had seemingly migrated to the back of the room next to Keith, did the same and glanced up at the other boy. "I know a lot of rich people go to this school, but not all of us are made of money. I can't pay $1000 or more for a plane ticket to New York."
"Dude, chill. I know you're not made of money, but my family could help"
"I thought you hated me, so why are you being so generous?"
Lance had to think about that one.
"I don't know..I just..I can't lie and say I know what you're going through in your life right now because I don't. But whatever is going on with you, maybe this is good. Just let me do this for you."
"I don't know..I can't..I just..It's disrespectful"
"I've been disrespectful. Let me make it up to you."
"I..fine."