Sheets | ✓

FOUR

After a rough, distracted start to my classes, I had finally been able to push away my unsavoury thoughts and focused my attentions onto my studies. Maths wasn't a real struggle, as I had covered most of the content during the summer holidays, and spent some of the time writing up some exam and revision notes for Sofia during the second half of the period, even though I wasn't completely sure if I would actually see her again, but part of my was hoping that I would. She seemed like a nice, genuine girl, and I wouldn't be opposed to being friends with her. People like her were easy for me to get along with - studious, easygoing, kind. Safe. She was the kind of girl my mum would be ecstatic to see me bringing home, the type of girl Jamie would immediately take a liking to and invite her out shopping or to brunch to gossip about me out of earshot. She was the type of girl that I, one day, would probably ask out on a date.

One day.

The other morning classes dragged on slowly, my stomach rumbling by the time recess came rolling around. I didn't bother trying to meet up with Benny during the short break, choosing to head to my next classroom early and have a snack there. Tables were arranged neatly in rows, each table seating two people side by side. The tables had long since been defiled with graffiti and etched doodles, and the underside of the tables were no doubt caked with gum crusts and other unmentionables. Now, sitting in the classroom alone, air conditioner lazily whirring in the background, I let out a sigh of relief.

Since our awkward encounter before class, I hadn't seen or heard Nico anywhere, and felt my muscles loosen with the thought that he probably cut class and left campus after his smoke. Maybe he left with that girl from this morning, or another one that crawled out from his posse. Either way, he wasn't here, so I was happy - it was nice not having to look over my shoulder and duck around corners to avoid the guy.

Ripping open a pack of biscuits and popping a few into my mouth, I opened up the book I was reading on the train this morning, a small smile on my face as I leaned my head against my open palm, elbow on the table. Time passed slowly, the only noise in the room my turning pages and occasional crunching noises, the loud buzz of conversation outside the door a muffled drone in the background. Halfway through the twenty minute recess, the door suddenly burst open, making me jump in my seat, the biscuit in my fingers clattering onto the table in a sea of crumbs.

Hair mussed back, a few stray strands falling over his eyes, Nico stood there with his dark brows creased, his blue eyes impossibly bright as he looked at me. My mouth popped open as he closed the door behind him, the frame rattling with the brash force he put into it, long legs soon striding over to stand beside the chair to my right.

"Don't you dare take that seat," I pleaded mentally, eyes flickering between Nico's form and the seat next to me. "Don't, don't, don't, don't don't - oh, shit." Nico pulled the back of the chair out, feet screeching against the ground, before dropping his weight onto it. He didn't say anything as he pushed the chair further back to kick his legs up onto the desk. I gulped as Nico let out an exhausted sigh and crossed his arms over his chest, the sleeves rolled up to just below the bend in his elbow, revealing the dark tattoos scattered across his left arm. The pattern rippled as his muscles flexed, his neck rolling as he tried to find a comfortable position in the stiff seats, settling down with his eyes closed.

"U-Um," I started, but Nico just snorted, prying open one eye to give me a withering look.

"What?" he asked, voice deep and gruff, his mouth turned down in a frown, skin pulling around his lip ring.

"Nothing," I replied shortly, the lie a little sour on my tongue. Everything. So many questions swirled around my my mind, but I choked them back as I swallowed thickly, my chest tight as I glanced at Nico's legs out of my periphery. In the quietness of the classroom, I could hear his breathing begin to slow as his head slowly dropped to his chest, lips slightly parted as he dozed off. The late morning light cast shadows on his long lashes, which fluttered every time he took a lazy breath. Closing my book quietly and brushing the crumbs off the table with my hand, I tentatively looked at Nico's face again, wondering why he of all people was sitting next to me in an empty classroom, just sleeping the day away. He looked so similar to how he had looked when I had woken up next to him, the thought making me let out a shaky breath.