No Turning Back (Rewrite)

Chapter 11

As expected, Jayden bombed his paper. I winced simply looking at the red numbers scribbled in the corner of his paper. Jayden wasn't fazed. He stared at the grade for a moment before shoving it in his backpack. Again, I winced from the crumpling sound of the discarded essay.

Groans filled the class as Mrs. Ryan announced another writing assignment. This time, we would be writing about The Great Gatsby. She tried to assure the class this would be an easier task, as she'd spent loads of class time talking about it. Still, a lot of my classmates proceeded to whine and complain.

For the rest of the class period, we were instructed to work on graphic organizers to jumpstart the assignment. Unlike the last writing assignment, Mrs. Ryan warned us we wouldn't have a lot of class time to work on. "Most of this paper will be written outside of his classroom," she said with a stern frown.

She allowed us to work with our partners in brainstorming ideas, but Jayden immediately tuned me out. He stuffed his earbuds in his ears before I could even offer to collaborate. Not even a moment after, beats were vibrating from the tiny knobs.

I didn't push him. If I were in his place, I wouldn't want to talk to anyone either. Especially not someone who'd ridiculed them for their intelligence in the past.

A frown pulled at my lips as I recalled all of the horrible insults I'd fired at him. How could I have been such an ass? And to someone who hadn't shown any premeditated malice towards me. Conner was right. I wasn't acting like myself. The visible tuning out and disinterest around my douchey friends could easily be mended but participating in callous behavior was a habit I didn't want to fall into.

My eyebrows rose as a familiar beat hit my ears. I glanced in Jayden's direction, pinpointing where the noise was coming from. I tilted my head as a small echo of the artist's voice intertwined with the beat.

I ripped out a piece of paper and jotted down a short question. I passed it towards Jayden's side of the table.

He took his eyes off his paper to look at the note. His brows came together. He pulled out one of his earbuds. "You listen to NF," he asked in astonishment.

"Yeah. I love his music. It's some real shit."

His lips curled in disbelief. "Name your top five favorite songs."

"Let You Down, If You Want Love, I Just Wanna Know, Only, and I Miss the Days."

A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips. "Nice selection."

"How about you? What are your top five?"

"Leave Me Alone, Change, If You Want Love, You're Special, and Only."

I smiled. "Which album is your favorite?"

"The Search," he said without hesitation. "Every song on that album is a masterpiece."

"Perception was better in my opinion."

"Fuck your opinion."

I chuckled. "I'm just saying, man."

"Perception is a good album though, I can't lie." He paused. "What do you think is the best song off of that album?"

Both of my eyebrows shot up. "Are you really asking me that question?"

"Yes."

I considered the question for a moment. "Let You Down for sure."

He nodded. "That's a good one. Why do you like it so much?"

I averted my gaze. "It has a lot of relevance to my current home situation."

"Oh," he replied quietly. "I'm sorry."