Chapter Text
“Sal?” Larry kicked the door shut behind him as he came out into the courtyard. Sal was sitting, curled up and leaning against the wall. “There you are, man, we were wondering if you got caught up in some business or something.”
Larry walked over, bag slung over his shoulder and bagged lunch in his hand. Sal only hummed in response from where he was resting his throbbing head on his knees. Larry shifted his weight for a second, then dropped his bag to the ground a few feet away from his friend.
“Did you already pick up lunch?” Larry scooted over to lean against the wall beside Sal. He stretched his legs out in front of him and bumped Sal’s arm with his own.
“Nnhn. Not hungry,” Sal turned his head on his knees to look over at Larry. His stomach felt empty and tight with the reminder. The noise of the cafeteria had been unpleasant, so he figured possibly ending up hungry would be more bearable than dealing with the crowd and noise. Sal’s prosthetic cast a shadow over his eyes, but Larry paid no mind. Next thing Larry knew, Sal tilted and let himself fall against his shoulder.
Sal’s arms were dotted with goosebumps even in the warm sunlight, and he never regretted trusting the weather channel and wearing short sleeves so much in his life. Larry was warm, though. Sal rubbed his hands up and down his arms trying to shake the chill.
“I’m so tired,” Sal turned his head to block the light out with Larry’s shoulder. He could feel the vibration of Larry’s laugh.
“Man, you were up late talking to Megan or something again, weren’t you? Catch a nap, I’ll wake you for class.” Larry shifted his bag and readjusted his legs. Sal made to sit back up, but Larry tugged on his shirt sleeve. With the minor prompting, Sal laid down with his head on Larry’s lap. “Ash and Todd’re in the cafeteria, but they’ll figure out where we are. It’s a nice day out, good choice.”
Sal nodded. He heard Larry’s brown lunch bag rustle, caught a whiff of peanut butter, and zoned out to the sound of textbook pages turning.
Sal’s dad had been of town for a conference for a few days, he’d only be gone for one more night. It had been pretty great, Sal was living up the life sans parental supervision- all late night movie marathons, ghost research, and dinners with friends. Coming back late after school and horsing around until it was dark out. He could wander the apartment building without worrying about waking his dad when he came back in late, and took full advantage. It sucked a little more when the nightmares hit and in the morning it was hard to force himself to stay awake, but he managed. Or thought he was managing pretty well, anyway. He even made it to school on time today after waking up so late and feeling so run down.
Half dozing, Sal kept revisiting the conversations he’d had with some of the less corporeal residents over the past few days. They’d had a lot of fun lately, all of them living or dead. Sal let his thoughts drift through it all. It was so easy to let his thoughts buzz around in the fog in his head today. Larry didn’t pester Sal to talk, either. He just kept working on his sociology homework while they sat.
After a while, Sal felt someone bump his legs. It jolted him out of the half-sleep he was in. He was hit with a moment of panic, was lunch over already? Larry was saying something Sal missed entirely.
“There you guys are! Larry, we thought you’d come back once you found him.”
“Hey,” Sal yawned behind his mask, looked like it was still lunch period after all. Todd and Neil were sitting across from he and Larry, and Ash had been the one to bump into his legs when she sat down on his other side. Larry had his hand on Sal’s shoulder now, when had that happened? He almost wanted to sit up properly, but everything still felt so heavy. It felt so much worse than that morning and it was just starting to get comfortable now.
“Anything exciting? For a minute there I was half expecting you two to run back to the cafeteria with some wild news. It’s really all calmed down then?” Ash leaned forward resting her elbows on her knees.
“Yeah, Todd’s cool electro-pulse thing really put the scare in that demon. Mostly it’s just been Sal telling Megan bedtime stories at like 2 am I think.” Larry laughed, “At least that looks like what you did last night, sleepy face.”
“Shut up, Larry Face,” Sal gave a weak smack to Larry’s chest. “It looks like it worked, but they have a lot of information we just don’t have. It’s almost like some of it they can’t talk about, but I feel like it’s important to know what they know, what happened. Just in case.”
“I’m just glad it worked,” Todd said.
Lunch continued on, Sal kept trying to doze for the most part. Sal felt a prickle of cold and curled up on his side a bit tighter, pulling his legs up to his chest. Larry gave him a bit of a look, but it was Ash who surprised him.
“Did you already finish lunch? If you’re still hungry I have extra, you don’t have to just sit there with nothing.”
“Thanks, I’m okay.” Sal half smiled and gave a low thumbs up. He still was more tired than anything.
“Are you alright? You’re a lot quieter than you usually are.” Sal laughed a little. He guessed that was true, since coming here anyway. He shrugged.
“Tired. School’s half out so, just gotta drag my ass through the last few classes.” If Sal was honest with himself, he was considering sleeping through both periods. He kind of wished his dad was back to drive him home after school too, but he’d survive the walk back with his friends.
“Why not just go to the health room and sleep there? If you’re that tired-”
“Rather not. It’s fine.” Ash apologized after realizing what she said. They’d all kind of figured out that Sal still had a bit of an issue with anything looking like a doctors office or hospital a while back. Slip ups happened, with everyone, but they were all learning.
“You sure, Sal? You’re kinda warm, dude.” Sal tensed a bit- of course Larry would be able to tell, Sal was still laying against him after all. He felt his face flush at the same time he felt Larry press the back of his hand to the exposed part of his jaw and neck just below his ear. Sal brushed his hand back and knocked Larry’s hand away. He pushed himself up to properly sitting and fiddled with his hair and prosthetic straps.
“It’s not that bad,” Sal stared at the worn grass in front of his crossed legs. Still toying with the straps on his mask, he blanked on how to change the subject. He really felt awful, but it was more of a hassle to try and figure out how to go home and explain everything to teacher and to his dad when he would get home.
The bell rang while Sal was still trying to figure out what to do, and everyone started heading out. Ash gave him a quick squeeze on his shoulder and said she was looking forward to walking home with them all later. Todd and Neil just let the subject drop and waved as they headed to their separate classes. Larry picked up his own backpack before grabbing Sal’s too and slinging it over his shoulder.
“Come on, dude.” Larry nodded towards the school and held a hand out to Sal. Sal took it and brushed the dead grass off his pants, taking the moment to wait out the headrush from standing so quickly.
Larry lead the way and Sal trailed behind feeling half dazed. They passed by the physics class, but Larry didn’t break stride and kept walking. Sal ended up realizing they’d passed his classroom around when they got to the art hall and were coming up on the administration offices.
“Larry…”
“Come on, Sal, you should sleep. You can probably duck in the library and sleep in one of the study corners or something.” Sal tilted his head, blue pigtails swaying. He blinked at Larry and let the silence stretch for a minute.
“Sally Face,”
“Larry Face.” Sal kept staring at Larry. He sighed and stepped closer to press his head against Larry’s shoulder again. “You’re right. I- I really don’t…”
“Its okay, man, I get it.” Larry shifted the bags on his back and put his palm flat on Sal’s back. He ran his hand up and down Sally’s back. Sal weighed the words and thoughts that were slow and sticking in his head- discomfort, embarrassment, he shouldn’t hate the health office, he needed sleep- hell he probably needed some tylenol too.
“Want me to get my mom to come pick you up?” Larry asked after a few minutes of the two of them standing in the now emptied hall. ”I’m sure she’ll let you crash at out apartment ‘til your dad gets home.”
Sal nodded against his shoulder.