Chapter Text
The first petal wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It was just a simple daffodil. A yellow petal that rested in the palm of Alejandros hand. He assumed he got something stuck in his throat on his way to school. He simply crumpled it and wrapped it in a napkin, throwing it away. He didn’t think anything of it until study hall. He was walking to his usual seat next to Courtney but saw her busy making out with her new boyfriend, Scott, a ginger boy who Alejandro knew had only gotten a chance with Courtney because she needed a rebound after her and Duncan broke up last year.
“Sorry, am I interrupting something?” Alejandro mumbled, keeping his voice low to not interrupt any students. Courtney simply looked at him and Scott gave him a glare.
“Uh, yeah, you kinda are, dude.” Scott grumbled, Courtney still on his lap.
“Awe, Scotty, he’s my friend. Have some respect.” She contented. She looked back at Alejandro. “Sorry, but we’re busy. We could hang out in the library later if you’d like.” Courtney pushed her lips back onto Scott’s as they went back to making out and Alejandro sighed. He looked around trying to find a place to sit. He walked around until he found a free seat and hoped to ignore the person he happened to come across.
“Ale?” A familiar raspy voice sputtered next to him. Alejandro hesitated to twist his head but eventually did and was met with the face of Noah. He knew it was him, his voice was to recognizable for him to mistake it for someone else’s. But he still gasped and jumped in his seat at the sight of Noah’s russet brown eyes looming back at him.
“Oh Noah, what a pleasant surprise.” Alejandro enthused. Noah rolled his eyes and looked back at his notebook.
“Whatever, just wasn’t expecting you. Don’t you always sit next to Courtney in study hall, anyway?” Noah recalled, furrowing his eyes as he plotted notes on his line paper.
“Well yes, I see you have a good eye, my tiny friend. But she’s a little busy with her new boyfriend right now.” Alejandro explained. Noah let out a slight hum and looked over at Scott and Courtney, who were still in the middle of their PDA. He scoffed.
“Of course their making out here when there’s people trying to actually study. Didn’t even bother to pick somewhere more private.” Noah complained. Alejandro always hated when Noah bitched about his friends but he assumed it was his karma for showing clear resentment towards Noah’s friend, Owen, last year. He didn’t say he hated him but it was clear in his body Language.
Alejandro didn’t really mind Noah though. He was truly neutral on him. Sometimes he couldn’t stand him. And sometimes he couldn’t stand being without him. Most of the times, he had no opinions for the haughty boy. He was just another face in the Crowd who Alejandro liked to observe and judge. He seemed to do it to Noah more than the other people in his school. He had learned all of Noah’s ticks and mindsets since they had met. He knew how Noah would twirl a couple strains of hair when he was deep in thought. He knew the only reason Noah paid Attention in classes was so he could find someone to correct if they got a question wrong. He knew Noah would lick his lips more than usual due to him refusing to drink water during classes. He knew the reason he sat in the back was so he could do the same thing Alejandro did, observe and judge people, the only difference was Noah would never do anything with this skill. Alejandro, however, had been honing this skill since childhood. He used it to get what he wanted, even if it hurt people. (Although the worst thing he’d ever done was Rig a few votes in homecoming.)
Alejandro sat there, almost like he was waiting for Noah to say something but instead was met with the chilling silence. He decided to break it.
“So Noah, I’ve never seen you here before. I was beginning to think you thought you’d be to smart for study hall.” Alejandro queried. Noah raised his head from his notebook for a moment.
“Yeah but I need that extra credit for math plus I get to skip gym class. It’s killing two birds with one stone.” Noah explained. He looked back down at his notes and went back to his homework. Alejandro simply nodded and stared down at his feet, tapping his designer boots on the cheap floors of the auditorium.
“So, if you’ve never been here before, how did you know about me and Courtney?”
“I come here to give the teachers papers sometimes. Ive seen you guys talking.”
Alejandro felt a certain itching in its throat, crawling up and tickling the back of it. He gulped it down, coughing at the scratching feeling when he swallowed whatever was coming up. When he did, he looked back at his textbook to see a few more daffodil petals, sitting on the pages. Now Alejandro was confused.
It wasn’t like he was eating flowers in the morning, so what the hell was this? He looked down at them for a another moment before deciding to just get rid of them. He dumped them down on the floor and swept them under his seat, hoping the janitor wouldn’t question it. He decided studying would be the best thing to do.
Study hall ended shortly. Alejandro packed his stuff up and looked at Noah who was already booking it. “Noah! Wait up.” Alejandro called out, almost as if they were best friends. He practically ran to him.
“What?” Noah asked, a sharp edge to his voice. He tapped his foot impatiently. “I don’t have all the time in the world so spit your words out already.”
“I just wanted to say..” Alejandro stopped for a minute to catch his breath. “It was a pleasure talking to you today, should we meet up more frequently?” He stumbled on his words a little, feeling the itching coming back up. Noah stared at him for a minute then shrugged.
“Sure, I need someone to entertain me in the hormonal hell hole we call study hall, see you later, I guess.” Noah responded and walked out of the auditorium. Alejandro couldn’t hide the wide smile that crept onto his face. He walked out, pushing the large doors out of his way and coughed again. He noticed another golden petal fly out of his mouth and onto the floor. Alejandro stopped and picked up the flower. He had already coughed up five petals that day and still had no idea how it happened. He probably would’ve stood there forever if Courtney hadn’t crept behind him and tapped his shoulder. He discarded the flower and looked back at her.
“Hey, wanna go hang out in the library before they close up the school?” She asked, Scott coming up from behind her and hugging her. “I hope you don’t mind if Scotty comes.” She teased the gingers nickname and kissed his chin lightly, making a light pink flush on the edges of his cheeks.
“No I think I’m good. I should be catching my bus early anyway.” Alejandro said and Courtney shrugged.
“True, okay I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully we can talk in study hall tomorrow?” Alejandro nodded and rushed himself away, his mind still on the petals he coughed out.
He walked past crowds of people until he got into his bus. He wasn’t really a fan of the bus, it was full of bile and immature seniors. He only took it so he didn’t have to get a ride home from his brother José, who he was 99% sure was hitting all the bumpy parts of the road just to get him sick despite always complaining about his expensive seats getting ruined. He would driven himself but he needed an engine change. He was basically stuck on the bus for now. As he walked to his seat in the back he coughed up another petal but this time ignored it, though counted it In his head. He went to the very back, it was secluded and he could think about whatever he wanted without someone bothering him with another stupid joke, if he heard the words ‘joe mama’ one more time he would snap.
Alejandro never thought anyone would join him. But somebody did and that person just so happened to be a green haired delinquent who seemed to be the main topic of gossip that year. It was Duncan, who looked like he was about to stab somebody’s eye out with his spiked choker if they made another dunkin donuts pun about his name or asked about Courtney again. Nobody would be surprised if he did.
“Hey.” Duncan grunted out with a voice that sounded like he smoked ten packs of cigarettes and then got choked out. Alejandro turned his head slowly. He wasn’t confused on why Duncan talked to him, he was popular and didn’t mind when people questioned what he was doing riding a bus being held together by bubblegum and duct tape. But he had a slightly alarmed look in his eyes.
“Are you…talking to me?” Alejandro asked, not caring about ruining his nails as they dig into the fabric of his backpack.
“Yeah, who else would I be talking to? I know guys like you wouldn’t survive a day on a bus like this, so tell me why do you take it?” Duncan questioned.
“That’s an interesting take, I think the bus is fine. It’s a little old but I have no problem with that.” Alejandro pondered the words ‘people like you’. He wasn’t the stereotypical geek, and he wasn’t a wussy jock either, he had a fine reputation.
“Dude, the only thing stopping the windows from flying off is gorilla glue and frankly I feel like not even that’s gonna work. Can’t your parents afford another bus or some shit?” Duncan asked. And it was true, his parents had offered to send another one in or drive him to school, but Alejandro rejected these offers as this bus had the longest route to his house.
“Well yes, but I chose this one for more.. Uh personal reasons perhaps?” Alejandro said. Duncan crossed his arms and looked at him with an expression that could make the devil confess to his darkest deeds.
“What personal reasons?”
“I can’t tell you. That’s why there called personal reasons y’know.” Duncan chucked.
“I didn’t take you for the sassy type, I gotta say your not to bad.”
“Thanks, I guess?” The bus stopped and Alejandro looked out his window to see his house, a large white one with a well kept lawn and a stone fence, not well fitting for a bus that had graffiti written all over the insides. “This is my stop, bye I guess.”
“Catch you later, oh and it’s-“
“Duncan. I’m aware of your reputation. I’ll consider you my Amigo for now though.” He said and stepped of the bus. As he did, he coughed up his Seventh petal and he could feel his lungs aching slightly. He’d have to book a doctors appointment real soon.
If only he knew how bad it would get from there.