— after school —
"rose, i can't." noah panicked, sitting on the toilet seat as he covered his face with his hands.
rose leaned on the stall door, staring at herself in the mirror. "noah, it'll turn out okay. this is probably the hardest part. i'm sorry, but confronting her about the situation is better than having so many unanswered questions."
noah's breath sped up, and he could've sworn his world starting spinning a lot faster than usual. "rose, i-i-" he felt nauseous as his legs went numb, almost.
rose noticed his unstable breath and she placed her hand on the stall. "noah, are you okay? let me in."
he tried to stand up, but that's when his knees buckled, and he passed out.
rose heard a smack on the tiles, and she hit the stall with her fist in panic. "noah? noah? what's going on?"
"god dammit noah!" she dropped on all fours, and looked under the door. she saw his body on the floor, and her heart dropped. she crawled into the tiny space, and pressed her two fingers against his neck, and felt steady pulses. she breathed out a sigh of relief and leaned her head on the wall.
suddenly, noah opened his eyes and lifted his head off the ground. rose shifted her eyes to the boy, then looked at the floor guiltily. "are you okay?"
he nodded, holding his pounding head in his shaky hands. "yeah."
rose sighed and looked up at his brown orbs. "i'm sorry."
"what for?" noah furrowed his eyebrows, lowering his hand.
"i pushed you too hard."
"you didn't." he pushed himself off the ground and held out his hand for her to take. she bit her cheek and accepted his hand, lifting herself off the ground with his help.
"let's go see if millie's on the bleachers." noah opened the stall door and walked out with rose behind him.
— 5 minutes later —
millie tapped her finger on her arm impatiently, scanning the field until someone popped up. it'd been half an hour since school ended and she didn't have forever.
she finally let out an irritated groan and snatched her baby blue backpack from the steps. she stomped down the metal steps, hearing loud clanks coming from her shoes. she reached the bottom and stormed off to the exit.
she turned a corner, and smashed into a shorter girl. the two girls yelped out in surprise and stepped back.
"millie, hi. sorry i'm late, um—"
"i don't wanna hear it, rose." millie rolled her eyes, scoffing. "i had to waste 30 fucking minutes because you decided to be late. now he's gonna be mad at me, because of you."
"i'm sor—" rose started but was then cut off by noah, who stood next to her. "he?"
millie hadn't even noticed the boy earlier, as she'd been too mad at rose to pay attention to the rest of her surroundings. "don't go jumping to conclusions, noah."
