Fragments of His Being | ✓

CHAPTER TEN

The school's cafeteria was a medium-sized hall with wooden tables that could take up to eight students at a time. Usually, Quinn would sit with his friends on the table closest to the door, but today Quinn was on a table at the back sitting next to Cody whose usual pale colorful face was red. Having slept over meant that Cody stuck around when Quinn got ready for school and tagged along with the boy.

Cody looked stressed. And his eyes were fixated on the plate in front of him as his hands gripped at the cloth of his jeans. He rarely ever visited the cafeteria—he rarely ever went to school at all, so it was strange to be in the sea of students as the smell of food hung in the air. Worst still, people couldn't take their eyes off both of them. Cody wondered if Quinn saw what he saw.

"Are you worried about something?" Quinn asked, cocking his head a bit so that he could look at Cody's face properly.

"N-no, I'm n-not..." Cody trailed, looking up from his plate of beans. His voice was shaky, and the way he twitched when Quinn leaned forward with a frown discounted his words.

"You look uncomfortable," Quinn stated, and Cody shrugged his shoulders.

The fair boy sighed. "People are staring at us," he said, picking up the plastic fork in his tray to poke at the beans.

The crease of Quinn's frown deepened at Cody's words. He looked up, noticing what Cody had said. The whole cafeteria was indeed looking their way. Some people turned away when Quinn turned his gaze to them, but Karl and Lindsey had their eyes still fixed on him and Cody. The confusion was clear on everyone's face. Most people wondered what Quinn was doing with the weird kid that moved around the school building like a ghost. Quinn was known for being barely two meters away from his friend group, and now he was sitting with a kid who was—in kind words—the school's outcast.

Karl turned when Quinn rose a brow at him, but Lindsey continued to stare before she made to whisper into a friend's ear.

"I don't feel very well," Cody admitted. "I don't like being watched." Cody didn't have much time left in school, so he preferred to remain unknown. Having people up in his business was not something he wanted at all.

"Do you want me to leave?" Quinn asked after a while of being silent. There was a sadness in his tone. He didn't want to leave, but if it made Cody uncomfortable he would leave. Cody found himself staring down at his food as he tried to think up an answer to Quinn's proposal. He wanted the staring to stop, but he didn't want Quinn to leave.

"Do what you want," he ended up says before shrugging his shoulders. When Quinn had spotted him the cafeteria and left his friends to join him, Cody had been a bit surprised. Quinn had walked over to him with a smile and offered him food he has watched his mother pack for him as they had left his house together that morning.

Quinn sighed, frustrated. "You should really start saying more of yes or no."

Cody froze up at Quinn's voice, scared that the boy might be angry at him. He looked up, and visibly sighed in relief when he noticed Quinn was smiling at him. "I really don't know. You can leave if you want. I don't want people to give you trouble because of me—"

"I'll stay," Quinn said, cutting Cody off. There were about thirty minutes left for lunch, and Quinn wasn't going to leave the boy alone by himself. Cody was hard to catch in and out of school, and Quinn realized that they might not get to talk to each other for a while if he left now.

Cody blinked, before focusing his gaze on the wooden table. "Okay." The decision Quinn made brought him joy, but he wasn't going to express that to him. Instead, he tried to hide his grin by stuffing more food in his mouth.