MICHAEL FROWNED AT THOSE WORDS,it reminded him of his very own bestfriend. Being in love with your best friend and hiding it for years is harder than crushing on someone and getting rejected, especially if the other already has someone on their mind. The raven would always be the one to give Jeremy helpful advices and even help him even though he's incredibly stubborn at times. But he was always labelled as his friend and nothing more,and he knew he couldn't change that.

Ever since Jeremy and Christine got into a relationship,Michael distanced himself away from the brunet. No,he wasn't ignoring Jeremy- they even talked yesterday,but he just changed his actions whenever he was around him. And after the accident that happened last night,he decided to avoid Jeremy even more.

He heard Rich say something,but he paid no attention to any of it. Until a fluttering object knocked him out of his trance:A long wave of Rich's fingers in front of his face.

“Dude! I thwear man,are you thure you're really okay?”

Michael nodded,flashing a small reassuring smile."Yeah,I just remembered something,"

“Well,whatever you thay Michelle.”

Michael rolled his eyes,taking a sip from the cherry drink he was holding ever since he walked in school grounds. He tend to have a habit on going to 7 Eleven every morning just to get a slushie. Even though many people recommended him to drink caffeinated drinks on the morning and not sugary drinks—saying it was bad for his health.

Yet he still claimed that the cherry was more soothing than the aroma of strong coffee beans. The sweet smell that even from afar the wonderful scent can still hit your nose.

Rich sat down on his seat next to Michael,hearing muffled laughter and murmurs in every side in the classroom—which was common since half of the students in the whole school is either the one who starts the gossip or the people who is interested in sharing the word with others. And when that happens,within a blink of an eye and who could have knew,the word already got spread on the whole school.

“Settle down children!”A middle aged woman stood in front of the whole class,a huge smile on her face. She was unfamiliar to any of them so he figured that she's a substitute for Mr. Reyes. Poor guy probably didn't get his Hot Pocket break.

Michael's interest soon left the class after a while,his mind deep into his thoughts. Knowing that the teacher won't notice since the flying paper planes and loud chatter noise already made her distracted. Unsure of what to do,he checked the time as he counted the minutes left before the next class.

➳

The discussion was cut off when the bell rang and the final class before recess was finished. As the students hurriedly rushed out the classroom to go to the Cafeteria to ease their hunger— both food and the fresh new rumors. Michael was behind all of them,not bothering to eat since he didn't have the appetite at the moment. The boy noticed that Rich was still inside of the classroom with him,trying to carry some books.

Rich turned at Michael,holding the pile of books stacked on top of each other. “Hey dude can you help me with thome of thethe?”

Michael nodded,swiftly rushing to get some books from Rich's grasp. Even though the jet black haired male had little interest in studying and wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer either,he still managed to get acceptable grades,with some help from Rich of course. Since the shorter boy was smarter than he actually seems.

Both of the boys made their way out of the now empty classroom,they stepped into the busy hallway full of students walking in different directions. The smell of gossip filling the air,every student passing by the both of them gave them glances.

The two reached both of their lockers after a short walk that felt like forever. Both of them shoving the heavy books on their locker.

“I'm tharving,”Rich complained, shutting his locker.

They were about to leave until the both of them spotted a browned haired tall male walk out of the crowd,waving happily with a small grin on his face.

“Hey Michael!”

“Oh look it's Jeremy,”Rich chaffed in a dreamy voice,wiggling his eyebrows stupidly and running away before Michael could even glare at him.

The raven snapped back to reality when he remembered that he was avoiding his friend,he turned around and started to dash to the other direction. He was about to turn around until he felt a hand on his wrist hold him back.

“Hey,you missed the bus again? I thought you were grounded.”

“Yeah,I texted you last night. Didn't you read it?”Michael coldly responded,making the taller boy flinch.

Michael's expression softened as he looked away,his forehead furrowed and his hands slid on the pockets of his hoodie.

“I gotta go,”Michael hesitated,a sudden plea on his voice. He took one last glance at Jeremy before walking off.

At loss for a response,the brunet merely gave a small nod at nothing, not even bothering to follow the male. Since he knew Michael wanted to be left to himself at this time. He decided he will ask him about it when he cooled off.

Jeremy walked around the Cafeteria,a worried look glued on his face as he tried to find his friends. His eyes catched at his usual table,seeing a small group interacting with each other.

One of people in the group,Christine, smiled as she waved at Jeremy from the table. The boy quickly made his way onto to table,a confused looked plastered on his face.

“Tall Ath!”Rich smiled,greeting the shocked boy.

A pair of bored ocean blue eyes met Jeremy's,Chloe Valentine was sitting next to Jake while listening to both Rich and the dark skinned boy chattering random topics she wasn't interested in. By her expression she looked like she was forced to sit here. Brooke was beside her,wearing the same expression.

“Hey Rich,”Jeremy's eyes scanned the boy's clothing,his eyes landing on the others who was busy with their own doings.

He knew it wasn't the time to ask any questions,even though it was really confusing to him. Jeremy sat down beside Christine,his worrying killing him each second he thought of Michael. The silence on the table was replaced with the loudness on the other tables. The six of them were eating silently, until Jeremy finally detoured the awkward silence.

He traced his thumb on the table nervously,“Do you guys know what happened to Michael? He's been avoiding me since this morning,he told he was just having a bad day but he seems kind of upset...at me,I think?”

Rich slowly nodded,but he bit his tongue because he wasn't quite sure the conclusion he have on his mind was correct.

“Ugh,it's probably what Sweeney is talking about,everyone is so obsessed with it,”Chloe sighed, everyone on the table eyeing her with confused and suspicious looks.

“I was not involved this time. God.” The blonde rolled her eyes,resting her elbow on the table.

The others confessed that they didn't really see him all day since Rich was the only one who did before Michael stormed out. Christine and Brooke offered to help him find the missing noiret,while Rich just walked off in deep thought. Leaving the others with confused faces.

The honeycomb blonde wandered around the school,ending up behind the school,where a lonely charcoal haired boy sat in one of the benches. He sighed,marched towards the boy with frustration painted all over his face.

“Explain.”Rich demanded.

Michael frowned,a nonverbal touché to their argument,“Fine,okay calm down. I'll explain,”

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1323 Words