Sticks and Stones | Levi×Eren

Chapter 8

I didn't sleep at all. That fact isn't overly shocking. I stared at my walls in the dark until my eyes created moving patterns on the paint as if I was on an acid trip. The pain in my body was too much to simply ignore and catch a solid eight hours. I heard my father leave for work, though I'm not sure what time that was. I stayed in my room with the chair still pressed firmly under the doorknob and blankets covering ninety percent of my form. My alarm clock was useless as I woke up on my own and proceeded to get ready for school as a zombie. I've never gone a whole night without sleeping ever since my father first laid a hand on me back in elementary school. It never gets any less terrifying.

Most of my morning preparation is me standing motionless in the shower staring down at the water trailing off my arms. It relieves some of the pain for a brief period of time. The clothes I pull from the closet are a wrinkled mess and I throw them on anyways. My backpack was where I left it at the base of the stairs full of homework yet to be touched. My phone is buried inside which I will be locating later or I'll be late.

I make sure the front door is closed and locked and head to school with the sun blinding my still tired eyes. I was dumb and didn't bring a jacket, so I'll be freezing my arms off on my short walk if they haven't gone numb already.

My route into the school changes on my own accord; going out of my way to avoid Levi's locker and all the people that will inevitably surround it. I take one of the back entrances and duck away unnoticed to my locker on the second floor. Well, unnoticed for the most part. I avert my eyes from the group of boys hovering around the area, but that doesn't help my situation.

“Hey, Jaeger...”

The greeting isn't friendly, more like a taunt. My intentions are to ignore them, however that becomes increasingly more difficult when they all approach my locker. An arm slams the door closed in my face causing me to jump back with a small cry. The damn asshole nearly tore off my fingers. I have no choice but to look at said asshole.

“I saw you with Levi yesterday. What was that about?”

“It was nothing...We were just talking.”

My voice doesn't sound as stern and confident as I'd like. It's my own fault for not waiting until the whole field cleared out from the game before I decided to pull Levi aside. Of all people to see me, why did it have to be them? Someone out there must really hate me.

“Oh yeah? Talking about what?”

“That's non of your business.”

All I want is to put away my stuff so I can leave. I'm not looking forward to first class since there's a very good chance I'll fall asleep and be even further behind than I already am. Not to mention the teacher hating my guts and the incomplete homework crumpled in my bag. School isn't exactly an escape from home that I enjoy.

“Come on. We wanna hear the story.”

A palm is placed against my locker keeping it forced shut and the two other boys loom over my shoulder casting shadows across the wall. Why did they have to pick today to torture me? I've been torn apart the past few days and have nothing left to fight with.

“It was about soccer, so there's no reason for you to be interested.”

“Oh really? Jean says otherwise.”

That's a name I haven't heard for a few days. Not ever since he was in that gang threatening to tear up my notebook and making a complete fool out of me in front of Levi. I wish I could forget that smug looking horse face who does nothing but irritate the piss out of me, but now isn't the time to be worried about that.

“What's your point?”

A better question would be how did Jean know what we were talking about in the first place? It's all thanks to my stupid brain having tunnel vision when my crush is in front of my face. Caution is thrown out the window and now it's coming back to bite me where it hurts the most.