Burnt Out - Patrick Hockstetter.

Chapter 34; Orange Juice.

I walked into the school building, my arms burning.

Anxiety had kept me up all night, and thoughts can be evil at 3am.

Pulling my jacket closer to my body, I avoided the eye contact of everyone around me and headed straight into first lesson. Art. For once I was actually on time; early in fact. Only a handful of people were seated, and it appeared that they were just finishing up homework. The teacher wasn't seated in her usual spot, she was nowhere to be seen.

Carry Smith, the girl from Marshal Dent's party, looked up at me from her magazine and sneered, pure disgust in her face.

My entire body went numb, but I just threw my head towards the ground and kept walking to the back of the classroom. I took my seat and lay my head down onto the desk, making sure I didn't accidentally stick my face in paint or something.

As the minutes passed, more people shuffled in and took their seats. I was dreading the moment that Victor Criss walked in.

The teacher handed out our sketchbooks, and i opened mine up to the page where Vic had doodled a small field of flowers in the right hand corner, just before the summer break. Above that was a shitty drawing by me, which was just a spider thing with a toothy grin. Vic liked it though.

I flicked a couple more pages down until I found a blank page, and then began doodling. On the page now sat a poorly drawn slug with evil eyes and pointy teeth, and it was sliding towards a bird who only had one leg.

The chair besides me pulled out, screeching against the floor. I jumped out of my skin, and looked up at the blond haired boy.

"Hey Pat." He smiled then took a seat. "Are you okay after yesterday?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I spoke cautiously, not knowing what Bowers had said to him.

"Are you sure?" He spoke quietly, his eyes flickering to my arms and then back to my face.

"I said I'm fine." I grunted, going back to my drawing of the mean slug.

"I like this one." He whispered, leaning over my shoulder and taking a look at the chaotic scene.

"Thanks." I muttered, scribbling in red all around to signify blood.

"It's spooky!" He smiled.

I looked up at Vic. I didn't have that gut feeling that Henry had told him anything. If he had, Victor wouldn't even be sitting next to me, nevermind complementing my drawing.

I finally sucked up my anxiety, "Bowers hasn't said anything about me?"

"No? Why?" Vic questioned. 

"Nevermind." I said, going back to my drawing, a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders.

"He didn't hurt you too bad, did he?" Vic asked, his finger softly tracing my arm where Henry had cut me.

My entire body felt warm, and maggots were eating at my stomach and I felt sick. My face felt like it was burning and I just wanted the floor to eat me up!

I gulped and mumbled, "no, no, I'm fine."

Vic just ruffled my hair and went back to drawing in his personal sketchbook. More flowers danced on his paper. He loved to draw flowers.

"Hey Vic?" I asked quietly, not wanting to get the attention of anyone.

"Yeah?" He quizzed, looking up quickly from his page to me and then back down.

"You should design me a tattoo." I smiled.

"Should I now?" He teased, "how much money are you going to give me for that?"

I pulled my backpack up onto the desk, rummaging around.

"I have no money, but I can give you a tore up, burnt copy of How To Kill A Mocking Bird and half an orange if you want it." I shrugged, tossing the book onto the desk and holding up the orange.

Victor laughed loudly, getting the attention of the teacher.

"Criss, Hockstetter! Be quiet!" She yipped.

This just caused us both to erupt into a fit of laughter.

"Sure, I'll take the orange." Vic sniggered, taking the half eaten orange from my hand and opening it up.

He popped an orange slice into his mouth and grinned, orange juice dribbling down his chin.

I leaned over and rubbed the juice off of his face, then licked my thumb, the sour taste on my lips.

My mind wondered. What would Victor Criss taste like? Would his lips taste like orange? Would he taste like tobacco and orange juice, like how I imagined?

"Patrickkk-" I was snapped out of my thoughts by Vic, his hand waving in front of my face.

I jumped, then shoved him, my face growing warm again.