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It was a normal day at school. Pretending to not be superheroes. Pretending to not know that Doug was a liar and a villain. Pretending to not know what happens when you die. Pretending that their home wasn’t destroyed a few days ago.
It was a relatively normal day at school. Dakota was heading to his history class, bored out of his mind without William and Vyncent. They decided that band would be a better use of time than another gym class so their schedules didn’t line up. Whatever. Dakota can live without either of them in this class. He had other friends. Well, Doug wasn’t his friend anymore, and he couldn’t call Jimmy a friend when he was so mean to William. So maybe he has less friends in this class than he thought. It’s fine though, it’s just an hour and 20 minutes of history. 80 minutes isn’t too bad.
The teacher, Dakota can’t remember her name, was babbling about something that didn’t matter. Probably historical in some way, not like Dakota is paying any attention. She calls on some student to answer a mundane question. Sitting in the rear of the class, like always, Dakota was hoping to avoid answering at any costs.
Almost immediately after this thought, he hears a “Dakota?” from the teacher. "How did the ports near New Haven City have an effect on the population boom of 2030?”
He doesn’t even want to try and answer this and ignores her, hoping that she assumes he’s sleeping.
“Cody. How did the ports have an effect on New Haven’s population?” asks the teacher again.
That.
That was new. Cody. Cody. New for a teacher to call him that. Cody. Fuck. Fuck.
Dakota smells a little bit of bleach. He hears slow breathing. Weak breathing. Not now. Any other time. His friends are all gone. Dakota's breaths pick up speed. The other breath slows down.
"Uhh, can I go to the bathroom?" Dakota asks, not masking any panic he has.
"Answer the question first, then you can go."
Fuck, what was the question. Shit. Breathless, he remembers. "People on boats, they moved in. Can I go? Please. I really need to." There's no way she can't tell he's panicking now.
She nods and lets him leave. He walks out of the door and runs to a bathroom. Dakota forgets to grab the hall pass. Dakota also forgets that a normal student cannot run at 60 miles per hour. That doesn't really matter though.
He enters the first open toilet stall. He can still smell the bleach disinfectant. He can hear the damn machine beeping. He can hear squeaky tiles. He sees the light from the phone in his hand.
Dakota looks down to actually look at his phone, and unlocks it. He pulls his headphones over his ears. He scrolls to find Ashe’s contact. His hands feel numb. He hopes Ashe is okay with the sudden call in the middle of the school day.
The phone rings once. Then again. And right before the third ring, he picks up.
“Dakota? It’s like 12:15. Don’t you have school or something?,” Ashe asks.
“Please just. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I mean I did but-,” a sob catches in Dakota’s throat. “Fuck. I’m sorry man. You can go back to your… school or whatever.” Dakota sniffles.
“No way. Are you like. Good? You sound like you’re crying.”
“I’m not crying,” Dakota said as tears welled up in his eyes. The disinfectant’s smell was overpowering. He thinks about getting a drink of water to try and calm himself down, but promptly decides not to when he hears the bathroom door open. He hears talking, both from Ashe and from whomever entered the bathroom. He can’t understand what either are saying.
He hears the door open and close again. Alone. Again. In the hospital room, in the shitty, uncomfortable, plastic chair. He wishes he could see her face, but the only thing he sees is his phone and the stall door. He can smell the disinfectant.
“Dude! You’re zoning out. Are you okay? Wait, no, I know you’re not okay. But, like, what do you need?” Dakota realizes that Ashe is still talking to him. Oh right. He called.
“I’m fine! I don’t need anything.” Dakota yells as a tear drips down his face. He sniffles again.
“You called me? I don’t know man, you just called and sounded super upset and panicky and it sounded like you were crying-”
“I wasn’t,” Dakota interjects.
“Okay, but still. What’s up?” Ashe raises this question and. Dakota wishes he knew how to answer. How can he explain that he doesn’t like being called Cody in a way that makes any sense at all? How can he explain that he smells the hospital room like he never left? How can he explain that he was the only person he could talk to because his other friends ditched him to play some instruments?
“I don’t like other people calling me Cody.” Dakota admits. He hoped it would feel like a weight being taken off of his shoulders, but it just felt like another one was being placed there instead.
“Okay. Is that why you’re upset?”
“Yeah. I think so. I’m just kinda scared right now. I don’t really know why I’m scared of being called that though. It’s just a name.” It’s not just a name though. Fuck. Another tear falls. His hands were sweaty.
“Do you want me to… I don’t know. Talk about something random?” Ashe asks. What a god.
“Yeah.”
Ashe starts talking about some video game he got for his birthday. Some game called Fallout something or other. He starts talking. He keeps talking. He sounds excited. His voice is quiet though, and gentle. Dakota tunes in to the actual words at some point to hear Ashe talking about how caps are a currency. Somehow. Don’t know how they made so many hats that they could be money, but hey, it’s a video game. It doesn’t have to make sense.
“Hey Dakota, are you any better now?” Ashe asks. Dakota checks his breathing and realizes it's no longer heavy. He doesn’t hear any other breathing next to him. It doesn’t smell like bleach anymore.
“Probably. Yeah. Yeah I am. I think,” A bell rings from the hallway. “Oh shit. I’m sorry Ashe, I need to get to math. Thank you man!” Dakota hangs up the phone before Ashe gets a chance to reply.
He leaves the bathroom realizing he still needs to grab his backpack before leaving for his next class. Eh, he can always grab it at the end of the day. Not like he was going to need it to take notes anyways.