Live in Color

seventeen - gold

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Jericho's in an awful mood the next day.

He comes to school early- as he often does, especially lately- so I'm one of the first people to experience his snappy mood. Approaching him with my books in hand and raising an eyebrow when he doesn't even glance at my direction, I knock twice on his locker. Jericho's eyes shut, as if he's trying his very, very best not to punch me in the face, as he takes a deep breath. Opening his eyes again, he zips up his backpack and grumbles, "What do you want?"

"Good morning to you, little Mrs. Sunshine."

Jericho sends me an exasperated look. "Not in the mood, Grayson."

"Ouch, using the last name. I'm wounded, really." Jericho sends me another glare, to which I only elbow him in response. "Seriously, who has allowed me the honour to be graced with Jericho's crap-tastic mood?"

Exhaling deeply and swinging his backpack over his shoulder, he mumbles, "My pathetic excuse of an aunt."

Unlike Jericho, I'm feeling great this morning. So I just send him a smile and skip down the all with him, "What'd she do? Put too much milk in your cereal? Mixed up your socks when she was folding them? Vacuumed in the middle of the night?"

"She kicked me out," Jericho says flatly.

I blink, my skipping dying down as I say, "That- that wasn't one of my guesses." Jericho snorts at my expression before he sighs, running a hand through his hair. My voice loses its joking-tone when we slow down to a stop. "Shit, what happened? Is that why you called last night?"

"Yeah. We got in a really bad fight after Arsenio opened his gigantic mouth and- just spewed a bunch of shit. She got really mad so I went to my room; that's when I called you. I fell asleep for the first time in what felt like weeks but then she stormed up to my room, shook me awake and told me to get out."

"At one in the morning?" I ask, shocked.

Jericho sighs once more, slowly beginning to walk down the hall again, me following suit. "Two, actually. I packed my stuff and headed to the nearest motel."

"That's like a twenty minute walk from where you live."

"I know, it wasn't that bad. The bad part was walking from there all the way to school. It took almost an hour."

"I'm guessing Arsenio couldn't give you a lift."

Jericho shakes his head, "Nope. I mean, he could, but I didn't want him to."

I hum, following Jericho down the staircase even though my first period class is on the other side of the school. "What'd you and your aunt fight over?"

Jericho looks slightly uncomfortable, and chooses his answer hesitantly. "Just what I've been fighting with everyone about lately."

Raising an eyebrow, I bluntly ask, "Me?" When Jericho doesn't reply, I sigh, "Jericho-"

"Don't worry about it, Natalie. It's my business with my family."

Realizing he's only going to shut down on me if I continue to push on the subject, I nod, only sighing heavily as my response. I just walk Jericho the rest of the way to his class, giving him a quick smile (which he returns) and a goodbye (which he returns) before running up to my class, managing to slip in through the door just before the bell rings. I settle down beside Jamie, giving her a grin before pulling out my books and laying them out in front of me.

First and second period fly by quick enough, much to my relief. Mitchell is finally back and feeling better, so when we make it to our regular lunch table he wastes no time telling us how boring being sick is. Cole joins halfway through the conversation, making sure to yell at Mitchell for leaving him alone with Jamie and I for so long (even though it was only a couple of days).