Trapped (egobang trans)

Chapter 40 - Sleeves

Sitting down at his seat for first lesson, Danny was shocked to see no sign of Arin. It had been maybe ten minutes since he left him, what was taking him so long? He was definitely in this class, too. Danny watched as his classmates continued to trickle in, hoping that he would see Arin among them, but he felt his heart sink as the last person walked in, even closing the door behind them.

Fiddling with the end of one of his curls Danny continued to worry. He'd been worrying about Arin non-stop since yesterday lunchtime. He'd never cared about someone so much, it was somewhat scary to him to think about it. Even on that first day, after he'd calmed down from his fight with Jon, Danny had had no trouble talking to Arin. It had been so easy, and right from the start he realised that he'd been able to perfectly read Arin like a book. From the short walk to the nurse's office he'd learned so much, and though they hadn't spoken much for about a week after that, when they did it was so different from anything that Danny had ever experienced. It wasn't like it was with Brian or TWRP, it was... special.

Now, it was like Arin had suddenly transformed into a different person, and Danny almost felt as if he didn't know him anymore. He couldn't read him at all. And now he was missing!

At that moment the door opened and Danny jerked from his thoughts, looking up. Arin walked in finally, and Danny was strangely relieved to see that he wasn't smiling. There was a sliver of an expression he recognised, which though it was one of sadness and shame, gave Danny a sense of hope. He tried to catch Arin's eye, but he simply walked to his seat and sat down quickly, not answering the teacher as they asked why he was late.

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"Hey, we have English next right?" Danny asked, coming up to Arin at the end of the lesson.

Arin, who seemed to have been daydreaming, jumped and looked up wide-eyed at Danny. His mouth opened as if to speak, but for whatever reason words failed him suddenly. His cheeks flushed a bright red before that new, enthusiastic smile appeared once more. Danny felt a stab of disappointment seeing that.

"Yeah, let's walk together. It'll be fun."

As Arin picked up his bag Danny couldn't help but see him flinch. His jaw clenched as he hefted it onto his back, relaxing a second later as he grinned up at Danny again, making his way towards the door. Danny followed, coming up beside him silently as he thought about what he'd just seen. Casting a sideways glance he spied Arin trying to gently rub his forearm, again flinching as he did so.

"You okay?" he asked, concerned.

"M-My bag's just a bit heavy."

The stutter in his voice and the hurried tone told Danny that was a lie, but he decided not to mention it - not yet.

They arrived to English as normal, and apart from every so often rubbing his arms again, Danny observed Arin's behaviour to be quite normal throughout the lesson.

At some point, however, he excused himself to go to the bathroom again. Danny watched in confusion as he left. Was Arin sick or something? He was relieved that he didn't take as long as last time, and he returned with a smile. He fiddled with his sweater sleeves a little as he walked back to his seat. Danny honed in on this, but after a moment's thought convinced himself that he was just overanalyzing; Arin probably had to roll up his sleeves to wash his hands, anyway, so he was most likely just readjusting them.

Though there was something off about his sleeves that hadn't been there when he left the classroom. The forearms looked slightly bloated, like there was something stuffed into the sweater. It wasn't too extreme and Danny wondered if he was actually seeing anything at all, or if he was just being paranoid. It wasn't like him to be like that - that was more Arin's thing - but he couldn't tear his eyes away, whatever it was. Before he knew it this lesson was over too. Looking down at his workbook he'd written practically nothing, and he blushed imagining what the teacher would say about it. He blushed more when he saw everyone was handing in their books, probably to be marked for the work they'd done.

Joining the back of the line of students he tried to think of an excuse. He was usually good at winging situations and getting out of trouble, but with his mind so caught up on Arin that proved difficult now.

Finally it was his turn to hand in his work. What would be worse: telling her now or waiting for her to find out when she was sat at home marking the books? She held out her hand for the book and he hesitated.

"I didn't do any work this lesson," he said bluntly.

She raised an eyebrow, scanning his face to see if he was serious. To prove his point Danny opened his book and showed the blank page, nothing but the date and a few poor attempts at starting, which he'd promptly crossed out.

"Why?" the teacher asked.

Danny cast a glance over at Arin, who was still packing his things away at his desk. He was worried about his friend, but he didn't want to admit that to a teacher. Turning back to her he shrugged.

"Sit back down, Danny. Since it's break you can do your detention now."

He nodded, walking back and plopping down into his seat. Looking up at Arin again he saw him handing in his work. He turned his head over his shoulder at Danny. They caught each other's eye for a moment. Arin was the one to break the stare and, to Danny's surprise, then hurried out of the classroom.

Once again Danny got the uneasy feeling and the impression that something was wrong. Arin was sweet, compassionate, he would wait for Danny if he was late or had a detention. But now he seemed eager to leave. And Danny knew that he wouldn't go to find TWRP or Brian; he never hung out with them without Danny. No, Arin would go and be alone.

And right now, Danny had a feeling that that was the worst possible thing for Arin to be right now.