Chapter Text
Spring Break had happened the following week after Josh’s arrival, and when we got back to school I had avoided Cynthia at all costs. Cynthia tried contacting me on a daily basis, I knew she was worried, but I just couldn’t tell her. I couldn’t tell her that the guy she was slowly accepting into our group had bullied and beaten me up for the entirety of the year I moved away from Austin. I had told her everything when I came back, she is my best friend, but I never described who bullied me, never said his name, never shared my fears of him coming back into my life.
That guy had made my worst fears come true.
I didn’t talk to Annie or Amity either during the week, I knew they would relay anything I said straight to Cynthia. I didn’t want them to worry, but I couldn’t avoid doing that if I needed to be away from Josh.
Right now I’m in the process of sitting down in my seat for Science. Honestly, I was lucky. I was the only one without a lab partner to slow me down, since there was an odd number of students. I personally loved it, not having to worry about another’s opinions on the labs and assignments. Usually, for some reason, there was this one guy in my class who would always try to hit on me. He didn’t do it too often, but when he did I didn’t ever say anything back, just focused on the work.
People still rebelled against the whole ‘soulmate’ thing, even if nowadays it was heavily frowned upon. I guess this guy was one of the people who would rebel, or maybe he just hadn’t found his soulmate yet.
It didn’t make his flirting any less annoying or pointless.
“‘Ey, Danny, wanna come over to my place tonight? Ah, why do I even ask, I know you want to babe~” His voice was slick, his hair as well, and he said it in a whisper. He was probably trying to make me shiver with delight or some stupid shit like that. I kept my gaze on the handout we had all picked up upon entering the room.
“Danny, come on babe, don’t be like-” Greaser Boy paused when someone sat down next to me.
What. The fuck. Why was he of all people sitting next to me? When did he transfer into this class? Wait. Was that a Teacher Aid badge? Fuckfuckfuck.
“Mr. Brachan thinks it would be cool for me to sit here, since he doesn’t have anymore desks and you finish your work pretty quietly.” Josh didn’t seem to look at me, though I couldn’t really tell from the edge of my vision. Before I could nod, Greaser Boy cut in.
“Who the fuck’re you?” At this point I was pretty much a statue breathing slightly.
“I’m the Teacher Aid, what are you supposed to be? Some shitty representation of a greaser?” I almost laughed out loud. I had forgotten how funny Josh was when he wasn’t beating me up. This time I visibly winced, but Greaser Boy had turned around with a tight jaw and Josh didn’t seem to notice.
God fucking damn. Daniel looked so scared right now. I wanted to say that he looked pathetic, but I couldn’t. That would be going against everything I had told myself to do when I came into this classroom, when I found out he left.
My name’s Josh Noel, and I’m the one who beat up Daniel Spencers at school for the entire year he was in New York. I’m the one who just stood there as my group of friends berated his existence, who called him the biggest idiot in the world. I never said anything, I just hit him, that’s all I ever did.
And it killed me when he left, and I never realized why until a month after.
I felt bad. That wasn’t- that didn’t happen very often. And then I moved to Austin with my parents in the middle of Junior year, dropped my old friends, and then I meet Cynthia and Amity while the two are scaring the living shit out of Lyle and Mike. Then they end up being friends with Daniel.
Since Daniel didn’t contact his three best friends during Spring Break, I spent the majority of mine with the three girls. They were all really nice, showed me around Austin, showed me their hangout even. Even through all of it I knew their thoughts were on Daniel’s well being. It didn’t bother me at all, because I myself was worried.
I don’t really have that right, do I though? Fuck… No, I’ll start over. It shouldn’t be
hard should it? I mean yeah, he didn’t look like he was breathing properly since I sat down next to him, but I’d apologize. That can’t be hard to do, right?
He was staring at me, and I had no clue as to why. Was he still angry at me? Did he want to beat me up still? Fuck if I knew… Hell, for all I knew he could be planning a wedding for me. I guess I could never tell what he was thinking, not even in New York. Since it was always him beating me up, I guess I never got the chance to think about it.
His stoic face was too much I guess.
My head was spinning with all of the questions I wanted to ask Daniel, why he was avoiding us, what made him so jumpy whenever me, Amity or Annie tried talk to him, and why he didn’t even tell his parents what was going on. My mother was pretty good friends with his mother, so when I asked my mom to see if Mrs. Spencers knew anything, it wasn’t difficult for Betty Highland to find out the information I so desperately craved.
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t talk like a really elegant stalker.
Or something. I have no idea.
Anyways, it was lunch now. And I had more important things to worry about than whether I sounded like a stalker or something.
Walking out of my second period Algebra I class, I noticed that not very many freshman had adapted to the bell schedule.
I made it to my group’s usual spot, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
Daniel was there. Fuck yes.
Somehow, I ended back at the spot I had been avoiding for a week. If you asked me how I got here, then I could only tell you that it had to do with Josh. What exactly? No idea. But here I was, sitting with Josh and Annie, with Annie casually looking towards me every so often. She didn’t say anything, but when she saw Josh and I walk up - she was always first to get to our lunch spot - she smiled a little at Josh.
Annie only did that when she trusted that person.
How could nobody else see that Josh fucking Noel was a total asshole?
Oh, right. Well, maybe I’ll tell them. Later.
“Daniel, where have you been you buttwipe?!” Cue Cynthia tackling me to the ground with no warning. Honestly, it surprised me, I wasn’t expecting to be pushed to the ground in a hug.
I was expecting to be yelled at. I mean, I had been avoiding them for at least two weeks.
“Uh-hm… w-well…” Cynthia shushed me.
“I don’t care for right now, as long as you text me later okay?” She sounded so concerned, and I felt really bad.
“Y-yeah.”
We all spent the majority of lunch talking about everything besides Spencers’ whole two weeks of avoidance. Annie even chirped up and talked about how she was writing a book about a dystopia. Amity came after Cynthia had practically pounced on Spencers, and she was ecstatic to see that one of her friends was okay and not avoiding them anymore. Cynthia kept talking about how the bell schedule was so hard to get used to, while Daniel nodded and for the most part kept quiet and ate his lunch.
But I knew something was going through his head right now, twelve months of watching his every move made me pretty familiar with how he acted. I mean, I probably wasn’t as skilled as the girls when it came to recognizing his feelings, but I knew when he was scared. Even if it was just a little, he was scared.
Because of me? Probably. And he had every right to be.
I guess, I really needed to apologize, even if it really meant nothing to him.
When lunch had ten minutes left, I nudged Daniel very gently. None of the girls were paying attention, well maybe Annie but who knows.
He looked at me for two whole seconds before averting his eyes to his still not finished yogurt.
“Can I- can you come talk to me for a sec?” He nodded.
“Uh, girls? I’m gonna go show Josh where the water fountain is, we’ll be right back.”
We actually went to a water fountain.
“Look, uh, fuck. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything, and I know it won’t probably mean much, if anything, but I- I’m still going to apologize.” I bit my lip, I was not good at these things.
He didn’t say anything, just looked at me like I’d grown a second head and three tentacles out of every opening. Three seconds later and he was tilting his head to the side and asking me:
“Why… Why now? Why ever? You… You don’t even- you don’t even mean it probably!” He honestly looked shocked.
He… He didn’t believe me.
“What?” He asked.
I slowly looked at him and carefully put a hand on his shoulder, and even though he saw me doing it slowly, he still visibly flinched. Once my hand was on his shoulder, I looked him dead in the eye and said:
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for every single fucked up thing I have ever done to you, and I mean it. You know I hate liars Spen- Daniel. I’m not lying. I mean it when I say I’m sorry.”
He blinked.
And then his chest started to glow.
And then mine.
Barely registering what was going on, I also blinked for a moment. Before pulling away and being very confused.
What in the fuck.