𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙧 [𝙡𝙞𝙡𝙣𝙖𝙨21]

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐.

━━━━━━━━━
𝐨𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭
━━━━━━━━━

LUNCH WAS IN JUST three minutes and montero sat in class, his stuff all packed up and sitting in front of him in a neat pile. his earbuds were lodged into his ears and his head was down, trying to get a nap in, but deep down he knew he couldn't because everyone just wanted to run their mouths today.

"remember to finish your paper! it's due in a few days but a few days rolls by faster than you know it." the teacher tried to speak over the students, but it turned to be futile so he just sat down and went on his phone. they wouldn't be so talkative when he put in them 0's.

but montero heard loud and clear and made a mental note to finish it by tonight so he wouldn't have to worry about it later.

soon, the bell rang loudly and the classroom was empty within a few seconds and once again, montero lagged behind, not wanting to get caught up in the crowd.

montero had finally left the class and walked towards the hallway where his locker was and scrolling through his various playlists on his phone trying to look for a specific song. he weaved through the people in the halls and finally reached his locker.

not in a particular rush, montero took his time and switched out his belongings for his afternoon classes, completely engrossed in the song that was in his headphones.

"i don't need no one, i don't need no one, said i don't need nobody," he mouthed the words of jhene aiko's 'nobody'. lately he's been listening to a lot of r&b music and was in his feelings more often than normal.

closing his locker, he took a minor step back and felt his back lightly collide with someone's shoulder.

"say slime, can you open yo' fuckin' eyes? this tha' second time today!" the familiar voice fussed at the chocolate colored boy.

montero froze up for a second before returning to his stoic, nonchalant facial expression and turned around. he felt his heart beat out of control when he saw not only kentrell but the slightly older man, shéyaa, who was walking closely next to kentrell while talking to the other guy from earlier, jay. 

montero seemed indifferent on the outside, but on the inside he was getting increasingly nervous and suddenly didn't know what to say. "uh... my bad." was all he could think of at the moment.

montero's eyes kept shifting to gaze at shéyaa who didn't even bother to tear away from his conversation to acknowledge his presence. montero couldn't lie to himself and say it didn't hurt a little. 

"sorry.." montero grumbled out a final time and rolled his eyes, before sticking his headphones back in his ears and walked away from the group before kentrell, or any of them, could say anything else.

his anxiety washing over him, montero rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. what a lovely coincidence, he thought.

making a bee line for the cafeteria, montero went straight to the line, relieved that it wasn't that long. he grabbed all that he wanted and put in his lunch pin and nodded his head at the lunch lady, silently thanking her.