I'm Not That Mad

14

Word count: 2107

Literally, the longest chapter I have ever written, dear lord

Hattie made a small humming noise as they watched Kanin run off towards the student dorms.  Ozzy watched along with them, noticing the smallest droop in Kanin's ears, the way that their tail twitched slightly, a nervous habit that he noticed they had. They had bitten their lip slightly as well after they looked up from their phone, another nervous habit of theirs.

"It is quite odd of you to stare at them like that," Hattie commented, raising the teacup to their lips, "Even odder that you would invite them over to your dorm to, I would assume, to be alone with you. Especially considering you still claim to not like them."

"I don't like them," Ozzy insisted, rolling his eyes, "But they know something, and they're hiding it," He let out a small breath, "I just want to know what it is."

"Uh huh," Hattie hummed, though they didn't sound all that convinced, "whatever you say, Ozzy. What do you think they know?" They tilted their head towards them, "You know, they weren't the one that killed your mom, Ozzy."

He looked back up, looking alarmed as he set his cup down.

"What?" He asked, "Of course I know that they didn't-... Hattie, come on now, of course I know that."

"Sure you do," they said, tilting their head, "So that dream you had last night has nothing to do with your weird behavior?"

"How did you know about that-"

He was cut off by the bell ringing, cuing the beginning of the passing period.

"Oh dear, I do hope Kanin doesn't end up being late," Hattie said, ignoring Ozzy completely as they scooped up the teapot and cups, tossing them into their hat and cupping the little dormouse in their hands, setting the creature on their shoulder, "You know how they get when they're sunning late. The poor thing is going to have a breakdown. So high-strung," they tilted their head, with a small shrug, "You better run along before you're late, Ozzy."

"Hey, wait, what did you mean by that?"

Hattie ignored them again, scurrying off in the opposite direction, feeding their little mouse a piece of a cookie they had. Ozzy sighed, he should have known better than to ask them about things. He got up from the table, swinging by his locker before arriving at his first period class about 3 minutes before the bell rang.

As he stepped in, he noticed Xavier at a desk near the back corner of the room, not usually where he sat. He looked uncomfortable, keeping his gaze trained skillfully on the wooden desk in front of him, nodding occasionally along with whatever it was his boyfriend was saying. Ozzy tried not to make it too obvious that he was eavesdropping as he stepped closer, setting his things down on the desk directly beside Xavier's, where he was usually placed with Kanin. It's not like they had assigned seating, but the two of them were 'highly encouraged' to sit beside each other.

Ozzy pretended to be flipping through the pages of his binder, looking for homework, as he picked up bits and pieces of the conversation between Xavier and his boyfriend. From the sound of it and the tone of his voice, it sounded as is Ambrose was getting on him for spending too much time around Ben and Aziz, and Ozzy could pick out the bits and pieces that were accusations of cheating that the djin tried to firmly deny. He glanced over at the pair of them, catching a glimpse of one of Ambrose's hands resting on Xavier's waist, while the other traced along the intricately made golden cuffs around his wrists.

The warning bell rung out, catching both of their attentions, Ambrose leaning over and pressing a light kiss to Xavier's lips, supposedly not seeing the way that Xavier tensed up, looking like he wanted to throw up at the feeling. Ozzy waited until Ambrose had left the room before he slipped into the seat next to Xavier, startling him a bit.