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Aunts that act thinks she knows better than his mother irks Naib most of the time.
His mother is probably the sweetest person he’s had the honor of knowing in the entire world. She genuinely cares about his wellbeing, constantly asks how he was doing in school and with his social life, and always cooks his favorite food to celebrate every time he does something note-worthy.
In the other hand, his aunt thinks it was her duty to walk up to his face and scold him for getting even one mistake in his quiz that day. She would’ve grounded him if she can, but Naib knows how to escape from various places in the house so anything she does is worthless.
To be honest, he wouldn’t even have agreed to stay with her if only his mother wasn’t suffering financially due to having to send him to school.
But this wasn’t about him and his sob story.
No, it was about the familiar figure than Naib spotted sitting on one of the steps on the stairs. He almost kicked the teen down when he was descending during break time. Both of them ended up cursing nothing in particular as they see each other.
It was Norton Campbell. Of-fucking-course it was.
If only Naib hadn’t just suffered two hours before school listening to his aunt’s tirade, he would’ve actually entertained this person before him.
“You trying to clean the floor with your uniform or something?” he scowls in annoyance. “The hell you doing sitting in the middle of the stairs?”
“Lay off, Subedar.”
It seems neither of them is quite in the mood.
On every other normal day, maybe their banter would be less heated and more fun. Despite their little rivalry of being two of the best athletes in school, they still are very friendly with each other and don’t mind the other’s presence most of the time. On some occasions, Naib even comes to Norton’s baseball matches to laugh at every mistake he does in the match, and vice versa.
But today isn’t really like every other normal day. Both of them look like absolute shit.
“What, your auntie yelled at you again?” Norton mocked as he recognizes the type of brood on the brunette’s face. “Poor little Subedar, always getting yelled at by his dearest aunt—"
“Shut the fuck up.” Naib’s own fists were balled tightly. He was honestly barely restraining himself from punching the infuriating teen in front of him. It may be wrong, but his emotions were a bit frazzled. He cannot think properly and the urge to hit something is quite strong.
“Why, does the truth hurt? Betcha were really sad she was disappointed, huh?”
“What about you?” he snaps back. “What’re you hiding there, huh? Your report card? Don’t think I didn’t see it. Why are you so determined to hide it? What, you failed? Huh, tell me!”
“What—none of your business!”
“So my aunt getting mad is yours?”
“Maybe don’t kick off others when they’re quietly sitting on the stairs next time.”
“Oh, so you’re blaming me?!”
“Am I wrong?”
“You piece of shit—"
“Ehem.”
The two simultaneously froze at the sound of a third person joining their ‘conversation’.
Behind them is a rather impatient-looking teacher, who had his arms crossed and staring at them with a deadpanned look. Professor Burke has never looked so scary until that moment.
Apologizing shortly, Naib turned around to leave both the teacher and the annoyance alone. But then he paused as guilt finally caught up to him.
Thankfully he hasn’t gone too far away.
For some reason, Norton never got up from where he was sitting on the bottom of the stairs. He only looked up tiredly as Naib reappeared in his view.
“Look—”
“Let’s go.” The brunette marched over to him and roughly pulled him up. With how much he does boxing, it was actually laughably easy to lift the taller teen.
“I don’t want a fight, you dumbass.”
“And I never asked for one, moron. Stop jumping to conclusions.”
The two friends-slash-rivals walked off together, but did not head to the cafeteria. Norton looked strangely at the back if the head of his shorter companion, wondering where on earth were they heading as they snuck out of the school grounds by climbing the walls.
“Are you proposing we skip classes?” the dark haired male asked drily.
“You up for it?”
“You literally dragged me out first before asking. What do you think?”
Naib only shrugged as they continued walking. “You wouldn’t come otherwise.”
“Of course I wouldn’t! Won’t your aunt get mad again? Not to mention, my grade would drop lower than what I already...” he trailed off, suddenly realizing he was supposed to be hiding the fact that he received a bad report card.
“Look at you being nervous. I already knew anyway,” scoffed the other.
“Do you?”
“You weren’t being subtle.” Neither of them mentioned how he blatantly ignored the question about his aunt getting mad. So what if she does? It’s not like she’s his mother. He can do whatever he wants!
Norton’s hands kept shuffling anxiously. He was looking everywhere as if trying to find something interesting.
When they stopped, Naib brought out his wallet. He seemed to be counting the amount inside, for some reason. “Stay here for a bit.”
“You take me to skip classes, now you’re leaving me?”
“I’m not leaving. I’m just gonna get something.”
Norton stared after him with distrust, but still reluctantly sat down on a bench conveniently placed beside him. He took out his phone as he was waiting, just to pass time in case the brunette takes too long with whatever it was that he was doing.
Surprisingly, he did come back soon. In his hands are two boba tea of different flavors. Each one with flavors they usually get.
“What is this?” Norton asked, stunned.
“Boba,” Naib stated as if it was obvious.
“I know that, you smug lil’ brat.”
“Then why ask?”
He paused for a while, and sighed. “You know what I mean.”
Blue eyes remained trained on the dark haired man’s face even as he takes a sip from his drink. It was quiet for a while, so Norton decided to also start drinking his tea until the other finally cracks.
Neither broke eye contact.
Out of nowhere, Naib started snickering so much that he almost choked on his drink.
“What the fuck,” Norton commented as he watches the brunette try to recompose himself with boba up his nose. “Why did you laugh out of nowhere?”
“My bad, I think looking at an idiot for a long time really got to me.”
“Excuse me? I’d have you know just last week you admitted I’m handsome—”
“I said you were aesthetically pleasing to look at! That’s different!”
“So basically, hand—”
“Shut.”
This time, it was Norton’s turn to try to suppress his own grin. Gone was the tense atmosphere between them not too long ago. But a brief reminder of the card in his pocket dampened Norton’s mood again. This was naturally noticed by his companion.
“Listen, I was being dumb about your card…”
“It’s cool,” Norton shook his head. “It’s just…I don’t think the coach would appreciate my grades slipping.”
Ah. Of course the brunette immediately understood what he meant. They were both athletes in school, after all. Same problems arise sometimes. In times like these, especially school situations and grades, there was no better person to talk to than each other.
(Of course, neither would admit this.)
“It’s not like matches happen until a few more months,” Naib tried. “You can still catch up with your grades. You have plenty of time after this.”
“Improve my grades after skipping, huh?”
“Look, I—” Naib inhales to compose himself. He lowers his boba down so he can properly stare at his friend in the eye. “It’s no big deal, okay? Don’t stress the grades too much. It’s not like you need it much to prove yourself. But if you want, maybe we can rope Martha or Helena or, I don’t know, Eli into helping you with studying.”
Norton’s gaze dug into his companion’s face, trying to see if there are any hidden intentions behind it. “Why?”
“Why?” echoes the brunette incredulously. “Well, I need someone to laugh at during baseball matches, or it won’t be as fun.”
The few nerve-wracking minutes is almost awkward. Thankfully, no one spared two boys clearly skipping school a second glance, even if they were literally having a staring contest while sitting on the bench.
“I see.” Finally, the raven haired teen snorts, his expression melting back to the casual lightness. “In the end, you’re using me like this, huh, Straight Punch?”
Naib cursed inside his head, not believing this man just used the name he sometimes cringes at sometimes.
Well, two can play this game.
“Wipe that depressing look from your face, Wild Pitch,” he grins. “I bought you boba fatter than the letter in your report card. You are obligated to not be bummed as long as you’re drinking boba that came from my money.”
“Wow, okay. Assertive, huh?”
Lightly bumping his cup with the other, he scowls, trying to ignore the heat in his ears. “The fuck wassat supposed to mean?”
“It is whatever you think of it.”
“Unbelievable…”
On the bright side, both has long since forgotten why they were angry at each other earlier.