october [bxb]

5 - hey, loser

The next day, there were only four people in the detention room: Tobes, Charlie, a boy named Alex, and a girl named Courtney.

            Tobes didn't find much interest in Alex or Courtney. He honestly figured the two must've gotten detention for something small and unexciting. Perhaps something like skipping school or being on their phone during class. Maybe he had them pegged wrong, but he didn't really think that it could've been something much worse than that.

            It was strange being in a room with Charlie after all that had happened the other day. It was the closest thing that Tobes had ever really had to having a heart-to-heart with someone, yet now, it felt like it had never happened. From an outside perspective, it'd seem that the two were just any ordinary strangers.

            Tobes wondered if Charlie was thinking about this as much as he was, or if Charlie had just completely brushed off what happened the other day.

            Today, instead of choosing to sit at the table that was across from Tobes, Charlie took a different seat. He sat at the table that was behind Tobes. Tobes was facing away from Charlie so he was unable to see if the other boy had even given him so much as a glance.

            Admittedly, there had been a time or two that Tobes' nosiness led him to pretend to look around the room so that he could glance at Charlie and see what he was doing. This wasn't really worth the effort, though, as every time Tobes managed to look at the boy, he just had his head down on the desk with his eyes closed. Tobes wasn't sure if Charlie had fallen asleep or if he just didn't feel like sitting up. Part of Charlie's dark brown hair was covering his face but for the most part, his expression was still visible. Honestly, Tobes thought that Charlie must've been asleep since he never looked quite this peaceful when he was awake. It was hard to imagine Charlie as being such an irritable person when he looked this relaxed.

            Tobes didn't check up on the other boy again for a good deal of time. He went back to working on his school work and for the most part, disregarded the knowledge that there was even someone behind him. Time went by fast as Tobes focused on his own work.

            Eventually, he looked up at the clock. 2:50, it read. Just another ten minutes until detention was over, and Tobes was glad as this was the last day of detention that he had.

            Tobes checked behind him once more, only to see that Charlie was now sitting up in his seat. Tobes' grey-ish eyes interlocked with the other boy's darker ones for just one second before Tobes quickly turned back around in his seat.

            For whatever reason, Tobes couldn't help but feel embarrassed about being caught trying to look at the other boy. Honestly, he wasn't used to feeling shame about something as insignificant as that. Perhaps it just mattered more to him now that he'd had a meaningful interaction with Charlie. After all, if Tobes was caught trying to look at a random person who he didn't know at all, it would be quickly forgotten about by the both of them, but with Charlie, there was more of an implication to it.

            He had to wonder if Charlie had really been awake all along and could tell that Tobes had snuck multiple glances at him. Maybe that was the reason why Charlie sat up in the first place. Then again, detention was going to end in less than ten minutes so Tobes figured that Charlie was most likely just getting ready to leave—or at least this was the easiest conclusion to swallow.

            Just as Tobes was beginning to start putting his schoolwork back into their rightful folders, he felt something roughly hit the back of his head and in surprise, he let out a quiet—yet still noticeable—yelp, grabbing the attention of the other people in the room as well as the detention administrator. Tobes widened his eyes as the teacher looked at him skeptically, asking, "Is everything ok there?"