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Oh, shit, Michael thinks intelligently as he makes his way down the school hallway. He stops in his tracks, suddenly remembering that he'd forgotten his notebook in his last period's classroom. He’d really rather people don’t find it and see all of the little M&J s outlined by hearts doodled in there (even if they’re already dating, it’s still embarrassing.) So he backtracks, finds the door to the classroom still unlocked and the lights still on, but there's no one here. Across the room, he sees his notebook. Thank goodness.
After shoving it away into his backpack, he's about to make his way out when he hears a sound like... like sniffling? Crying? He glances around the room and his eyes land on the lower half of a body underneath one of the desks, legs curled up to the owner’s chest. Cautiously, he makes his way over to them.
It's much to his surprise that he sees Chloe Valentine sitting underneath the desk, eyes red and puffy and cheeks stained with tears. He stares at her, not having realized that Chloe even had tear ducts and not really knowing what to say as she glares back at him.
"Uh, hey..." he says slowly. "You okay?"
"Stop fucking looking at me like I'm a puppy you just saw get kicked." she says harshly.
Michael blinks, shaking his head to snap himself out of his shock. "Um, do you wanna talk about it?" This is probably a bad idea.
But she looks away, sniffles a bit. "I failed a test," she says. Michael frowns.
"Okay?" he says uncertainly. "Is that it?"
Chloe scoffs. "Is that it. Fuck off."
"No, no!" Michael says quickly. "I'm sorry, I just. I don't really understand. I've failed tests before and, I mean, you could always make it up? It's not the end of the world."
"For you, maybe," Chloe snaps, eyes cold as she glares at Michael. She holds his concerned gaze for a moment before she softens. A sigh escapes her lips. "I've never failed a test before."
Michael blinks. "Never?"
"Never." Chloe nods. "I've never gotten anything below a B+. And even that was bad. I can't fail. I don't let myself fail."
Michael crouches down, hand on the edge of the table to keep himself steady. "Well, these things happen. You can't hold yourself to such high standards, dude."
"You don't know me," Chloe says, rolling her eyes. "You don't know my parents. They'll flip when they see that I failed. I'll have to do, like, years of extra credit just to make up for this."
Michael presses his lips into a thin line. "That's not fair of your parents to expect so much of you," he says in earnest. Chloe looks at him out of the corner of her eye, obviously not believing him. “And if they do make you do a bunch of work, I'll help you with it. We all will." A moment of silence passes, then Michael gestures to the space next to her. "Can I?"
Chloe hesitates before she nods, keeping her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms folded over the tops of them as Michael slides in next to her.
"You're more than a failed test, man," Michael says. He pauses. "Sorry, uh, girl? Should I not call you man?"
Chloe shrugs. "Girl sounds weird coming from you. You're not the flamboyant type."
Michael chuckles. "You'd be surprised."
Chloe's eyebrow quirks up, as does the corner of her mouth. "I don't want to know."
"Probably not," Michael says, nodding. "But seriously, Chloe. Your entire sense of self-worth shouldn't be defined by a single test. It's fucked up that your parents taught you to think like that."
"Really?" Chloe says, voice weak. "I never really thought it was. It was always just... normal. It's how I was raised. I was told that if I wasn't the best at everything, then... then I wasn't worth anything."
Michael winces. "Aw, dude," he says. "Guess that explains a little bit about your personality, though." Chloe snaps her head to the side to glare at him again, and Michael holds his hands up in defense. "Sorry, that was mean. You just... you obviously have emotions. You're obviously vulnerable. And we never get to see that. I mean, you kinda chill out when Brooke is around. But other than that, it's hard to tell what you're actually feeling."
"What are you getting at?" Chloe asks.
"I just. I see you when you're not talking to anyone. When you think no one is paying attention to you, just for a few seconds. You completely deflate, dude. Like for once you can relax and you're trying to, I dunno, cherish every fucking moment you get to yourself. You probably don't get a lot of time to just chill, do you?"
Michael sees another tear roll down her cheek. She takes a shaky breath. "I'm so tired," she says. "I'm so tired of studying until I can't stay awake anymore. I'm so tired of trying so hard to look hotter than everyone else in this fucking school, of trying to be better than everyone all the goddamn time. It's too fucking much." She pauses. "I hate them."
"Your parents?" Michael asks softly.
She nods. "Yeah. I really don't love them. But that's fine, because they don't love me. They love who they've, like, structured me to be, y'know? All I ever fucking wanted was for them to love me."
"Understandable," Michael says. "You're not required to love them just because they're your parents. They have to be worthy of that love."
Chloe chokes on a laugh. "Then what kind of a person does that make me? I'm not worthy of that love either."
Michael's expression hardens. "Chloe, you're not your parents. You're not a failed test. You're you."
"What does that even mean?" Chloe asks.
"It means that you're Brooke's best friend, you're Jake's ex-girlfriend, you're my friend, you're Jeremy's friend, Jenna's friend, Rich's friend, Christine's friend— and you know what? We all love you not because you're popular, but because you're... well, because you're you. You look out for us whether you admit it or not. You like cheesy romance novels and have a weird affinity for horror movies. You listen to acoustic covers of top 40 hits and insist on them being better than the originals. We like you for your real personality, not your aced tests or your popularity."
Michael keeps his eyes glued on Chloe's face, watching as her lips quiver and her shoulders shake. She buries her head in her arms and Michael can hear her sobbing, can hear the pain in her cries. He risks setting a hand on her shoulder, and when he does, she lifts her head up. For a moment, he thinks she's about to tell him off, but instead she scoots closer and rests her head on his shoulder. He blinks in surprise.
"If you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you," she says.
Michael chuckles. "I know that. My lips are sealed, buddo."
There's silence save for Chloe's occasional sniffle, and Michael wraps an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm soothingly. After about fifteen minutes of quietly existing together, Chloe speaks. "You wanna like, knock off and go shopping or something?"
Michael laughs. "Yeah, dude. Actually, would you mind, uh... coming to Victoria's Secret with me? I kind of. Um. Want to get something for mine and Jeremy's anniversary."
Chloe lifts her head up, looking him straight in the eyes. "That is disgusting," she deadpans. "I would fucking love to."
Michael thinks that this might be the start to a very strange friendship.