Euro High: A Eurovision High School AU

Chapter 6: Apology

The whole class' eyes were locked onto Kostya when he entered the classroom- a black eye drawing in everyone's attention. He sat at desk, ignoring all the intrigued stares he was given. Benji and Ari gave him sympathetic smiles while Mikolas hadn't showed up all morning and Nikita sat across the school in his sophomore class, worrying about the events that had thrown their happiness out the window.
"Class!" Mr Toome announced, running in late once again, "Sorry about the absence, I got lost again." He noticed everyone staring at beaten Ukrainian at the back of the room. "Please avert your attention to the front please, there is nothing to see at the back." Enough of them turned around to let the timid Geography teacher get on with his lesson.

"Psst"
Kostya's eyes glanced to see the Kristian Kostov, a cheerful Bulgarian kid he'd only very briefly talked to.
"Hey Konstantin."
"What?" He groaned, praying it wasn't another question about his fight with Robin.
"I'm sorry about what happened to you." Kristian whispered.
"Please, just don't mention it," Kostya answered, slightly irritated but accepting of Kris' kindness, "I really don't want to talk about it."
"No really, Konstantin. I think it was really great of you to stick up for Mikolas like that, especially for standing up to Robin. I saw it all, you were great!"
"Umm, thanks? I honestly couldn't just stand there and watch get humiliated like that. And please, call me Kostya." Kris smiled at the thought of being friendly enough with him to call him by a nickname- despite the fact that everyone was open to call him that.

Meanwhile, Mikolas sat in the janitor's closet, hiding from the school for a day after even more negative attention had been drawn towards him after the dreaded fight. He scrolled through his Instagram aimlessly, feeling empty on the inside after being drained of joy, humor and charisma. He caught sight of a video on his feed, a video of his P.E coach pulling Kostya and Robin apart from their fight. It zoomed in on Kostya's face, bruised and covered in blood; feeling as if this was all because of him. He tried to hold back the tears for a moment, but gave in to his emotions and let them stream down his cold cheeks- ashamed. He wished he'd never cracked under Klemens' questions, he wished he'd never told anyone about his feelings, or confronted At, or took it do seriously. He seriously wished he'd never even found the diary in the first place.

All of a sudden, the door swung open and the lights turned on- Miki immediately stood up, prepared to get several detentions for skipping classes and entering staff only areas. But... that wasn't the case. It was a young girl, confused to not be the only one interested in not turning up to class that day.
"Mikolas?" Lena said, confused but then worried upon seeing tears running down his face. "Are you okay?" Miki gasped and started rapidly wiping his face- extremely embarrassed once again- could his week get any worse?
"Hehe y-y-yeah I'm fine. What are you doing here?" He muttered nervously, forcing a smile at her.
"I uh... I'm skipping Math." She was quite ashamed of this, and it showed as she looked at the ground, tucking strands of her dark brown hair behind her left ear. "I suck at it so I just come in here every time I have it. What about you?"

He thought. He'd found that opening up never ended well for him, he could lie but practically everyone in the school already knew what he was going through; he stayed silent.
"It's okay, I understand." She sighed. She sat beside him to express some kind of sympathy. She of course had no idea how he felt but tried her best to help him back to his usual sense of humor and genuine charisma, the Mikolas everyone missed on the inside throughout the drama surrounding him.
"Where's The Five Guys?" She asked, trying to make small talk through their awkward silence.
"I don't even know anymore. I know for sure I can trust them, heck I told them how I felt! But not Ari, not yet." He'd promised himself he wouldn't give in to opening up anymore but he couldn't stop himself anymore.

"I just wish all of this never happened. I've gone over the story so many times and I'm sick of it. I'm just convinced that I like, it can't be real!" She began to feel his pain as he began to forbid the promises he'd made to himself. She wished to comfort him but stayed quiet. "And the incident in the hallway, the fight, it's all my fault- why do I do this to myself? I've ruined everything!"
"We can fix this!" Lena suddenly announced, catching Miki out of his saddened trance. She slightly regretted cutting him off but she felt it was necessary. "You can apologise to Klemens for a start, wether that outburst was purposeful or not." She giggled as Mikolas smirked guiltily. " Then you could get those videos of the fight taken down, get justice from getting Robin back and..." He stopped smiling, he knew where this conversation was going. "...Tell Ari how you feel." She smiled.

"There he is." She whispered to Miki. They hid around the corner from the row of lockers. Lena looked up at the clock: 4:02 it read- being the very end of the day. They stared down the hall at Klemens in his studded leather jacket and spiked, velvet-red platforms that constantly got him dress-coded. "He's gonna leave any minute, this is your chance!"
"I don't know about this." He said- or at least we would be said if he wasn't forcefully pushed out of his hiding spot by the short German girl he'd been on the lookout with. "Here goes nothing!" He thought to himself before shuffling towards Klemens cautiously.
"Oh...Mikolas I've actually been wanting to talk to you." He muttered upon seeing him approaching.
"Uh hey I um just wanted to say-"
"I'm sorry." They chimed in unison.

Their eyes widened upon hearing this, curious to what else they had to say.
"I'm sorry for shouting at you. If you really want to date Ari, go for it! I shouldn't have reacted the way I did- I just feel really awful for causing a huge scene." He smiled, relieved to feel just a little better.
"Actually... I'm the one who needs to say sorry. You do realise I don't actually like Ari right?" Mikolas' smile slowly faded. "I said it to see if you liked him back, looking for clues in the way you responded and such. It was a plan set up by Ari and Matti. And y'know, we would be told him about what you said but already 5 people had ran up to him in a matter of minutes to tell him." Mikolas' anxious expression turned to determination and then joy. Klemens- who was expecting an angered response with his confession- didn't expect a sudden tight hug from him. "Thank you so much." He whispered as he pulled away and began to take off down the hall.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Klemens yelled down the corridor.
"Thanks for for your help man, but I've got a cute guy to ask out!" Lena took off after him, happily squealing and throwing Klemens a quick thumbs up while he stood and stared in utter awe.