Daiya no Ace x Reader | Birds

23.4

You're tempted to message Carlos as you lie in the free bed of Kuramochi, Eijun, and Masuko's dorm, but you don't want to be too lenient on him or annoy him, especially since it's late at night. So you set your phone down, beneath your pillow, and lie in the darkness. You wait for the thoughts to race in your mind: the ones that tell you how foolish this whole situation is, the ones that debate for hours on what to do. But they never do. You lie in the dark with nothing in your head.

You hardly get an hour of sleep by the time school starts. The boys wake you up as they get ready for morning practice, and it takes a lot to stop yourself from getting up and helping out. You pretend to be asleep, but in truth, you couldn't be further from it. Even with the light, you lie thinking of nothing in the soft light of the lamps.

A small good morning text rings out from Carlos as you get ready, and you read it as you sneak out of the dorms, scolding yourself that you should've known to get out earlier, but you weren't thinking straight. Hardly thinking at all. You didn't have a plan, either.

Once you're in the clear, you're able to respond.

Carlos: Morning, how'd it go yesterday?

You: 'Good morning!'

'And.. Fine.. I guess? It didn't go bad, it didn't really go the best.'

Aw

But it went partially right, then, right?

'Yeah, I guess it did'

'Thanks'

Mhm

'How's school going for you?'

Ehhh

Yeaah no

':('

'Do you have any extracurricular activities?'

Yea..

Hey, they're not so bad I'm getting pulled out

Yet.

'Pfft'

Hey

Are you free after school?

Without thinking much, you reply.

'Yeah'

Wanna meet up somewhere?

Andmaybehelpmewithmath

'Haha, yeah sure'

'I should get going, we can sort stuff out later'

Right

See ya

'Bye'

You slide your phone away before realising you probably should spend the day trying to finish getting things sorted out with the guys, but they have practice after school anyway. You're pretty sure it'll be alright, though it was a bit of an impulse decision.

You mentally hit yourself as you slump in your seat, working on some homework for a class later in the day you'd forgotten to do.

____

No one bothered you all day---a sort of blessing and curse wrapped into a stressful joke of a present. You want to cry and vomit and scream all at the same time. Tears to release the chaos in your head, vomit to release the coiling tension in your gut, and scream to at least try to relieve the burning in your chest. Everything hurts and everything is numb.

You double check the meeting spot and time with Carlos, and you have enough time to change, but you feel awkward, not knowing whether or not you wanted to risk going to your dorm.