First Punch ➟ Kellic

N I N E

When Monday morning rolls around, I wake up feeling so exhausted that I immediately want to fall back asleep. I groan as I roll off of my matress, the whole day seeming to move as slowly as I do.

I head to school in all black like always, bringing Jake's pants with me. I should've given them back on Saturday, but it completely slipped my mind.

I go through my usual routine, putting my switchblade in the loose brick before going inside. It's a few minutes into third period, and I guess I could take his pants to class with me, but that'd be kind of weird. Besides, he'd have to deal with them so I decided against it and shove them into my locker for now.

I head off to calculus, smiling a little to myself. Jake was so nice to me the other day, I should figure out something nice to do for him. I don't know him well enough to figure out what to do though.

I walk into the classroom, Mrs Turner looking somewhat annoyed before continuing her lesson. I make my way to the back row, smiling at Jake who's already sitting there. He smiles back, pulling my chair out for me.

"Thanks," I say quietly to him, sitting in it and opening my notebook.

"How is everything?" he asks, keeping his gaze on me.

I shrug, knowing he's asking about how I'm dealing with the weekend's activities. It has been a bit strange without the six of them, and the house feels smaller now. We've lost 9 Triads this year, so obviously everyone's kind of off. Carter was really close with Tommy and hasn't been quite himself the past few days. I've been fine though, like I said, the only person I really care about is Carter.

"Fine," I tell him.

"Really?" he asks, looking concerned. "You're not lying, right? Are you really okay?"

"Mhm," I answer, nodding. I don't want to talk about it anymore so I change the topic. "I have your pants by the way."

"Oh, right," he says, chuckling. "I forgot about that. You could've kept them, I literally never wear those."

"No," I tell him, shaking my head. But I have to suppress a smile at the gesture. "They're Adidas, I'd feel so bad."

He just shrugs, saying, "Still. If you like them just keep them."

We get a glare from Mrs Turner, and I question myself before replying.

"You don't have to do that," I tell him. He smiles at me, shrugging again. I smile back, looking away from him.

The eye contact made me feel a little awkward. He saw me cry. Oh God...he saw me sleep. I don't think anyone except my parents have seen me sleep or cry. Not even Carter.

"I'm really sorry about Saturday," I whisper, not even able to look at him.

"Stop apologizing," he whispers back, elbowing me lightly. I go quiet, still not looking at him.

I feel weird. That whole day was just a mess for me, and I feel awful for getting him involved. Plus it's super awkward that he'd seen me like that. I try to be a strong person, or at least put up a strong front, and now he knows just how weak I am.

I get distracted as Jake takes a sip of some random energy drink on his desk. I don't think much of it, but I've never seen him drink one before. It's a little strange, but not that strange. People drink them all the time.

"What?" he asks, looking at me after probably noticing the staring.

"Nothing," I say, turning back to the front and continuing to copy down the lesson.

We don't speak again for a while, both of us concentrated on Mrs Turner.

But then his phone goes off and he looks at it before turning to me. I try to ignore him, feeling embarrassed about staring at him earlier, but when he talks to me I can't help it.