A Certain Sort Of Loneliness

Red

It's only when class ends that Emil notices the red seeping through his clothes:

"Shit-" he curses under his breath, gripping his arm to stop the flow of blood - his next class is on the other side of the grounds and there's no time to go to the toilets and clean himself up, "Fucking kill me please I don't need this right now-" He looks around desperately, would anyone notice? Leon. Maybe he could-? No. Absolutely not. But maybe...?

"Leon do you uh...have a tissue or something? I would go to the toilets but my class is on the other end of campus," he asks a little pleadingly, still gripping his arm.

"Oh, yeah sure." Leon hands him a small pack, "Take the whole pack while you're at it, I always have spare." He grins as Emil takes it gratefully - a genuine smile, for sure, but his eyes never leave Emil's arm-

"Thanks," He says honestly, "I should go now probably, don't wanna be late."

Emil turns and walks in the opposite direction, increasing his pace so that he can stuff the tissue up his sleeve as soon as he's out of the others view.

Leon calls his name and Emil freezes, turning to him questioningly,

"See you around sometime, okay?" Emil nods automatically, turning and walking away so quickly that he almost misses Leon say the last part, "You seem...interesting. Or something like that."

Before he knows it, it's the end of the day and he's making his way to the school gates, where Lukas is waiting, having been too impatient and worried about his little brother's wellbeing to simply wait in the car.

"What are you doing out here?" Emil asks irritably, being picked up and dropped off at school was fine but having someone - especially Lukas - waiting right by the gates is just awkward honestly.

(Or so he tells himself)

Lukas is about to respond when Emil begins to usher him along to get to the car,

"You know what - never mind, let's just go, okay?" He says, having spotted Lili, Michelle and Leon (as well as someone he doesn't recognise) out of the corner of his eye - he can't tell if they've seen him yet, but Emil really doesn't want to deal with introductions today. Especially to Lukas. Specifically to Leon.

(Something tells him that they're not going to get along, despite their similar personalities - perhaps because of exactly that?)

He's battered with questions the moment the car doors close, so many that Emil just stares at Lukas incredulously till he finally quiets and starts again, asking just the one for a start,

"Was it okay?"

"I guess." Emil shrugs, staring at his shoes, "I dunno. Good as it's gonna get. It's school - not exactly gonna be rainbows 'n sunshine."

Lukas says nothing, focusing on the road as they sit in a comfortable silence for a while,

"...Did you cope?"

Emil shrugs again. He slips on his head phones, finger hesitating at the play button,

"I'm gonna listen to music now."

(He presses the button, and then he's gone again)

When he gets home, he avoids the questions all over again like gunfire, cleans his wounds and locks his door.

He doesn't want to "be"

Just for a while

A while, at least.