Too Soon | Sidemen fanfiction

7

"Where were you yesterday?" Vik asked Valerie as they walked down the corridor to their lockers during their lunch break. Vik had noticed Valerie's absence yesterday (Tuesday) and was somewhat unhappy. In a way, he looked forwards to seeing her. After all, she was the only apparent friend who he had nowadays. 

"Just a stomach bug." she shook her head with a smile. "Much better now though. Suppose it was just a cold."

"A cold in March?" He questioned. A cold made sense though. It was raining bullets outside.

"I've had colds in Summer, Vik- this is nothing." She let out a small laugh, happy with the friendship she had. Valerie had expected it would be far harder to make friends than how it had been in reality. "Anyways, I'm gonna renew my book in the library. Can you grab a pasta bowl for me? I'll meet you in the cafeteria afterwards."

Vik nodded in agreement, deciding he'd pay on his card rather than hers, which she held out. 

They then separated, Valerie heading to the library, and Vik to the cafeteria. Valerie opened the library door, noticing the librarian wasn't present, and checking around the library for her. Realising she wasn't there, Valerie went to the backroom of the library, knocking on the door.

No response.

She cracked the door open just slightly to see whether anyone was inside- and she was surprised to see that someone was inside. But she wasn't surprised that there was a person. She was surprised that the person there was cuddled in a ball, sobbing in their hand and muffling their noise as fat tears rolled their cheeks.

...

Valerie walked into her classroom for her final lesson of the day- DT. Last Wednesday she had been too sick to make it to DT, and hence it was her first day in the workshop. 

She scanned the room's machinery and pupils, already scattered across the room in their unsightly blue overalls, tarnished with remains of sawdust and paint. She followed in suit of a few of the other enterers to the workshop, slipping on a pair of cheap plastic goggles and the ugly overall before looking over the room once more.

"MARTINS!" Valerie turned to find the teacher calling her by her second name. A disgusting thing to her. Why not just call someone by their first name?

"Hiya, Sir." She met him in the middle of the workshop.

"Welcome to the workshop. Let me get you a partner in here- everyone has a buddy with whom one another help each other out... Hm, you can work with Harry. I'm quite sure he doesn't have a buddy at the moment. If you need any help just give me a shout."

Valerie looked to find Harry, before her eyes settled on the previous-crying boy from the library. At least she had seen him before.

"Uhm, hi." She could feel the lump of nerves rising from the back of her throat as his eyes met hers, still with prominent red arteries and red tainted skin surrounding his eyes. He wasn't alright.

"Hey!" His expression completely changed from one of neutrality to a big smile and wide eyes. Like he was happy. His teary eyes and hoarse voice gave it away, though.

"U-uhm..." He'd thrown her off. "I'm sorry for just leaving when I saw you in the library. I guessed you might not have wanted to speak."

A pause.

"No worries. I'm alright, anyways."

"Right..."

An awkward silence.

"So what's the project this term? You know, like, for DT."

"Oh right, well, this term we're just meant to strengthen our understanding of circuits, so we're making some sort of light. Oh, also you need to know how to use wood in terms of bending, finishes and... Well, it's wood. Just understand it I guess."

A chuckle.

Then pause.

"I know I don't know you too well, but if anything's ever bothering you I'm happy to listen. Just following the events in the library. You seemed pretty bad, and... Well, it gets hard and I get that. And I'm happy to listen whenever or if-ever."

It was now Harry's pause. He was unknown to kindness like this. Usually a person just gave him a weird look or took his word that he was okay.

He liked her persistence, though. The fact that she was more strong- she knew he wasn't alright... And she... She cared.

"Thanks." A smile.

The clouds parted slightly outside. A glimpse of sunshine could be seen between the heavy grey clouds. 

...

Valerie smiled at Harry's joke as she walked to the lockers. Having made initial small talk for approximately ten minutes- Harry felt closer to her as a friend than he had with anyone before. Nobody gave him this care or fun, not even the boys. And god forbid talking about his family. 

Valerie had noticed the thin scratches across his wrists, too. As he was taking off his overall and putting back his blazer- for a fraction of a second her eyes caught the angry red gashes against his forearm- the lightning streaks across the clear canvas of his arm. 

She was most definitely concerned for him. Scared, upon realising that the breakdown she'd walked in on him having wasn't the worst breakdown he'd had. And although she wanted to bring it up to him- ask why, when, with what- she decided against. There was a time and a place, and the workshop was none. 

"Heya, Vik." She smiled as she reached her locker, spinning the correct code into her lock before opening her locker and packing her bag for the school day. Harry already had his bag, and Vik was quick to pack his- before they all departed from their lockers to walk out of the school- get away from their suffering for a few, fortunate hours. 

"Yeah, this is Harry. My DT buddy, now." Valerie introduced. "And this is Vik. My first and kind of only friend." She watched as Harry and Vik made small talk for a few moments, letting out laughs and bidding farewell at the school gates where the groups had to split to go to their houses.

"He's kind." Vik smiled as they began walking back to their houses. 

"Oh yeah?" Valerie smiled, looking at the sun getting close to setting. There were orange tinges burning through the golden hues, with blue creeping through the edges of the horizon. Gorgeous.

"Mhm, nice style too. He wore a ring- did you see? A spinny one with some letters on it. I couldn't read the letters unfortunately, though. I quite like his shoes too- the laces are done in a star instead of the normal criss cross. That's quite cool."

Valerie let out a chuckle at Vik's happy rambling.

She was so happy with where she had moved. With England, with her friends, with everything. Life was really peaking for Valerie. If only she could look into her future.