Vapour (Krii7y)

Safety | Chapter 4

Jaren's POV

"Baby, are you sure you want to go back?" Eri asks, threading her fingers through my hair as we stand at the door.

"It was nothing, Eri. I'll be fine." I reply, smiling up at her.

"That's what you said yesterday." She complains, hands on her hips now.

"Just drive me to school, please." I sigh out, shaking my head at her.

She nods softly and opens the door, watching me closely as I head over to the car.

I get in the passenger seat and let out a soft sigh.

This school isn't like my old one, and no one from my past is here.

I have nothing to worry about.

I've even made a few friends.

This will be ok.

My thoughts drift back to John and how easily he got into fights. How easily he got angry.

But they also drifted to his funny jokes and laid back attitude when we were alone in the bathrooms, vaping our problems away.

Maybe it's silly, but I think I want to be friends with him.

I don't know if I'd be able to handle him getting mad at me, but I think I can handle him when he's mad at someone else.

I think I'm alright now that I know what to expect.

John seems like a pretty cool guy, with a hell of a lot of demons.

The jokes he makes are dark, depressing, racist and sometimes even self-degrading.

He's been through some shit, I can tell.

I know a broken guy when I see one, some would call me an expert in that field.

"Jaren? You alright?" Eri asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, just thinking." I reply, staring out the window.

"Uh oh." She jokes, causing me to scoff at her slightly.

"Ugh, I have music today." I complain, sitting up in the seat and looking over at her.

"Gosh, what a bore." She replies, rolling her eyes.

"I know right! Ugh, I hate music. All you do is hear kids play instruments terribly, I'd much rather listen to rap." I state, crossing my arms.

"Maybe you'll have some friends in that class." She points out, causing me to nod.

"Hopefully. Cameron seems like a cool dude." I say, looking over at her again.

"What about Luke?" She asks, still focused on the road. I gulped at that and looked out the window again. "He wasn't mean, was he?" She asks, parental concern kicking in.

"No, I was the mean one." I reply guiltily.

"You? Being mean? I can't imagine."

"I called him and his friends faggots."

She slams on the breaks, causing the car behind her to beep loudly.

"You what?" She asks, eyes wide in disbelief.

"It slipped. I was thinking about my old school and instead of saying 'gays' I said 'faggots'." I explain. She nods her head slowly, but continues to drive.

"Did you apologise?" She whispers, I can tell she's disappointed in me.

"Of course." I reply, looking down at my lap as I play with a loose thread of my hoodie.