Let me hold you

1. Exhausted

"What do you see in her?" Jake slammed his locker door shut waking me out of my daze. I turn my head to the side to glare at him from the side.
"Nothing, she's just some girl, Same as all the rest." I sigh exhausted. I rub my eyes and try to wake myself up.
"Who kept you up this time?" I slam my back against the locker I'm leaning on. I don't know who's locker it is and at the moment I don't care.
"You know I hate that question." I say slightly annoyed.
"You hate every question." He says smugly as he folds his arms and leans on his locker. Maybe he knows who's locker I'm leaning on. And if he does he's never mentioned it.
"Just my dad." I sigh.
"Was he drunk again?" I roll my eyes at him and push myself off the locker and I slam my fist down on it.
"What do you think?" I snap. Instantly I regret it. Jake hasn't even flinched though, its like this is something that just happens. But then again it kinda is. "I'm sorry mate, I'm living off of 2 hours of sleep right now." I sigh.
"Hey I don't blame you, with everything that's going on it's understandable why you'd snap." I bight the corner of my lip that doesn't have a piercing. "Do you wanna stay at mine again, you know my parents don't mind?" I look up at him.
"No its alright, I can't hide from my house forever." I say sliding my hands into my deep jeans pockets.
"Well the offers always there if you need it." He said throwing his bag onto his shoulder and handing me mine.
"Thanks." I say weakly as I take my almost empty rucksack from his hand and chuck it over my shoulder.

As we start walking I see the girl Jake was talking about earlier. She looks over at me but as soon as she sees me looking back she quickly turns back to her friends and hides her face. I can feel Jake slightly nudge me and I growl slightly and he laughs silently to himself. I try to think what we have now but my minds gone blank from the lack of sleep. Thankfully though I have Jake by my side and I have all my classes except one with him, and even then he drops me off at my classroom to make sure I know where I'm going.

We walk in and I remember that it's Biology we have now and I follow Jake to our desk at the front where the teacher put us after many failed experiments. I throw my bag under the desk and sit down.
"Hi Max." Here we go again.
"Jenna." I say not even looking behind me where she's sat.
"Here's your book you left it at mine yesterday." Jake says.
"Thanks mate." I say shyly. I feel bad about how much Jake does for me. And whilst I do occasionally do things for him as well he always does like 10 million other things that make mine seem pitiful.
"So Max," I roll my eyes and I see Jake laughing to himself in the corner of my eye. "what did you get up to yesterday?"
"Nothing that concerns you." I mumble.
"What happened?" She asks.
"Nothing that concerns you." I say again getting annoyed.
"Oh come on something must have happened." She says. By now I would have jumped out of my seat and yelled at her till the teacher sent me out again but I'm too exhausted to even keep my head up without leaning it on my hand.
"Jenna stop being annoying and mind your own business." Jake says to her which makes me smile.
"Says you." She says like a child in kindergarten.
"Pathetic." Jake mumbles in and almost inaudible tone as he turn around. I can tell Jenna's about to say something when the teacher finally comes in and quiets everyone down.

The lesson starts and I'm half way through and I can feel my eyelids starting to gain weight and fall down.
"Max?... Max?" I hear Jake whisper to me.
"Ummmmhmmmm?" I mumble, my eyes struggling to stay open. Suddenly I felt Jake elbow me hard in the ribs and I yelled out in pain. I put my head down on the cold table and heard the teacher slowly walk over to my desk and stand in front of me.
"Mr Jones?" They said not sounding very impressed. Then of all the times this could have happened why did I have to forget their NAME?!
"Mr sir?" The whole class started laughing and I lifted my head off the table and realised what I'd just done. "Uhhhh... sorry about that Miss." I could feel my face burning up from the embarrassment.
"After school Mr Jones you know the drill." I sighed.
"Yeah yeah." I said placing my head back on the palm of my hand that was holding me up.

The rest of the lesson just dragged on and on and it was only when the bell rang that I realised I hadn't done anything all lesson. I sighed and shoved everything back into my bag and followed Jake to our next lesson.
"Mate what the hell happened in there?" Jake said as we walked to our next lesson.
"I don't know my mind just kept going blank. Then I wasn't paying attention and then Miss came over and it all got a bit jumbled." Jake stopped in front of me which made me stop where I was. He looked at me with concern in his eyes.
"Maybe you should ask to go home, or even take tomorrow off." He said.
"No I'm fine mate, I'm just having a bit of an off day."
"Look at you your exhausted! Look you don't even need to stay at your own home you could leave early and go to mine."
"Jake I'm fine, besides a few stupid little hours of sleep aren't gonna fix anything." I sighed.
"Okay lets make a deal, if you crash again in next lesson then your leaving and letting my parents pick you up and then your gonna take tomorrow off as well." I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. I looked up at Jake and I could see the worry in his eyes and I knew he'd only settle if I did as he said.
"Fine... you have a deal." He smiled reassuringly at me and we carried on walking to class.

And of course it just had to be gym class. I got changed and walked out with Jake. We had to run laps round the field as a warm up. I was confident seeing as I used to do this daily and that I was always the best in the class and coach loved me for it. But today as soon as we started I knew I was in trouble. I was probably halfway through the laps when my body shut down. I slowed down to a stop and suddenly everything was spinning. Word we're slurred and I could barely make sense of anything. That's when I realised I was falling towards the ground. I could feel myself slipping away. Then all of a sudden the girl from the hallway appeared. She looked tired and exhausted but still she helped me. She held my hand and gripped it tight and for a second it was like she knew what she was doing like it was a daily routine for her. She called for the coach who then helped me up and carried me back to the office.

Their was a sofa in the coaches office which they laid me down on.
"Ally can you go get me some water from the fountain outside?" The girl was still here? Why?
"Yes coach." She said as she ran off to the fountain.
"Max can you hear me?" Coach asked. The world still felt like it was spinning and I felt to weak to say anything.
"Ye..s coa...ch." I mumbled. My eyes were starting to close but I felt coach grip my hand tightly.
"Come on Max stay with me now." It was so hard to keep my eyes open. The suddenly the girl came back in with a small white plastic cup in her hand. She didn't say anything she just handed the cup to coach who then helped me up and supported the cup in my hand. The water was cold against my lips and felt hard to swallow. But once it was empty everything had settled down again and I was able to hold myself up right by myself again. Coach then placed the empty cup on her desk and turned back to me.
"Better?" She asked. But before anyone could say anything Jake burst in through the door.
"Good grief mate you get yourself into more drama then a damn soap opera does in a week and its only the second lesson of the day!" I laugh weakly and I can see coach trying to hold back her laughter. I've always loved coach she has a great sense of humour and has always been there just to talk to if I needed her.
"I'm fine, I just over did it a little." I said brushing off the whole situation.
"You are a pain, you do realise that right?" I give him a small wink.
"Well if we're done here..." I start to get up but coach pushes me back down and stands in front of me.
"Oh no you don't your staying in here for the remainder of the lesson." She says strictly.
"But how exactly are you gonna keep me in here, don't you have a lesson to teach and Jake's gonna kill me if you leave us alone." I said smugly thinking I'd out smarted her.
"He's not wrong." Jake said rolling his eyes slightly.
"Then Ally can watch him." Coach said calmly.
"I'm sorry what?!" The girl said. "I'm not a babysitter."
"Ally please, your the only one who's completed all of the laps." SHE HAS!? "And you and I both know your probably the best person for this role."
"Do I not get a say in this?" I asked.
"You lost that when you were stubborn enough to run the damn laps." Jake snapped.
"Touché." I said with a smug smile.
"Fine I'll do it." The girl said and Coach patted her on the back and lead Jake out the room leaving me and her alone.