Sanctuary (A Dan Smith/ Bastille fanfic)

8. Chloe

The whole week drags by in a blur of lessons and avoiding certain people. When I go into my first psychology lesson after the Claudia incident I receive a number of cheers and laughs. I notice that as soon as Claudia enters the room everyone is silent though, it’s like they’re scared of her.

I don’t know why they are though; she’s just like any one of us. The amount of equality in this school is driving me insane. Why should one group of students have the power to control every other person in this college? I sometimes even see teachers backing away from them like they are going to get abused by the bitches too. I see the girls hanging around at break and lunch time, there’s a group of them. They all look like clones of each other, there’s no individuality there. It’s like they can’t function with their own brains so they all link together to construct a normal sized functioning human’s brain. I haven’t even spoken to the other two girls that she hangs around with, but I can already tell that I probably wouldn’t be too keen on them.

By the time Saturday comes I’m relieved that I can have a lie in and not have to go to college. Although for the first time in what feels like years, I have absolutely nothing to do. If this was back at home I would just go to the beach to meet up with my friends. But I can’t do that here. I don’t have any friends.

It gets later into the afternoon and I decide to call my friend Eloise to try and make myself feel better. Perhaps we could arrange a time for them to come to London? I would love it if I could have all my friends here. Then maybe my mum could see how much I miss them and belong with them.

Within two rings Eloise answers and seems happy to have heard from me. Even hearing her familiar voice is making me feel better too.

“Dude, I’ve missed you so much! This week at college has so not been the same. I actually had to do work in art!” She moans as soon as she picks up. She reminds me about the art lessons that I took back at home which makes me miss them. I would of loved to have carried them on but the idiots that control the prison college told me that the course was oversubscribed as it was.

“Oh my god, you have no idea how shit this college is El! There are literally no nice people here.” I begin to moan about my new surroundings.

“Oh no, are there the bullshit cliques?” She guesses straight away whilst sighing. She knows me too well.

“It’s worse than the films I swear! And there’s the actual mean girls.” I state, referring to Claudia and her trolls that all stick together.

“Haha I bet you’re like Janis! The dark haired moody one fucking with them from the sidelines!” She laughs, causing me to chuckle along with her.

“Yeah except I don’t have my Damien! I don’t have my gay best friend! Tell Andy that I miss him by the way.” I add, referring to our hilariously over the top camp gay best friend.

“He’s right here, we all are actually. Hey everyone say hey to Chloe!” She shouts and I hear a lot of shouts of “we love you” and “we miss you” back through the speaker.

“I miss you guys loads! I wish I could come down and see you all.” I imagine the scene now; they’re all sunbathing in the warm spring air on the beach. Some of them are in the water surfing or swimming and others are climbing on the rocks looking for crabs.

“Don’t go all emotional on us mate!” She jokes to keep me in high spirits.

“I’ll try not to. It’s just a bit lonely here, you know?”

I hear Eloise get up and walk away from the group and I’m thankful that she is thoughtful enough to keep this chat between ourselves. “I know dude and I’m so sorry you called when we’re all together, it’s so shit that you’re so far away.”

“I dunno, maybe you guys could come visit.”

“Yeah sure.” She plays it cool and makes no attempt to make a plan with me, which tells me that she has no intentions of coming to London ever. It’s not like I blame her though, none of us like the idea of the big city. We’re all beach guys and girls at heart. “There’s gotta be someone in London that’s nice enough. Have you met anyone at all?”

My mind flashes to all of the people I have met this week. I can only think of two people. Claudia, the bitch, and Dan. I decide not to tell Eloise about Dan but instead go on to inform her about the argument with Claudia that I had the other day. She laughs loudly and congratulates me for being such a badass. Then she’s quickly making her excuses, telling me that they’ve just lit the fire to cook food on so she has to go. I desperately want to be with them all but I know that unfortunately I’m stuck here.

Even though hearing El’s voice has made me feel a bit better, I can’t help but feel lonely still. It’s only 7pm so I decide that I’m going to spend the rest of the evening watching television. Back home I never get the chance to watch television. Instead I’m usually out most nights.

A couple of hours into watching horrible Saturday night programmes whilst on my own and suddenly some loud music starts coming from the house next door. I peer out of one of the windows from the top floor to see what seems like hundreds of drunk teens spilling out from the house next to ours. I can see the girls scantily clad bodies as they push up against any guy that gives them a glance. Not like the boys mind though, they seem to be pretty happy about it whilst clutching their red cups filled with whatever cheap alcohol they have managed to get their hands on. I can recognise a few people from college and yep, as guessed Claudia seems to be centre of attention.

I find myself strangely jealous, they seem like they’re having… Fun?

I can’t help myself but compare this place to Cornwall yet again. If this was there I would go over there without a second thought to enjoy the party with everyone else. Instead I feel that would be socially unacceptable in this situation and that I would be better off staying in.

I walk around to the back of the house where my bedroom is and I open the window as wide as I can. If I’ve learnt anything in the past week it’s that there’s a perfect place on the roof to sit and think. If I stretch out of my window and climb around a tiny bit, there’s a small flat area just big enough for me to sit on.

When I get there I light up a cigarette and smile instantly, enjoying the feeling of the smoke inside me. I glance over to the house next to me and notice the figure of a man climbing out of his window to sit on the roof which is identical to mine. I look closer and realise I recognise the tall, dark haired teen that I've grown to know as moody and unsociable.