【COZEN】Bloody Painter x Reader

❥Chapter 18

"Helen?" You call out his name in a calm manner, Helen slowly breaks the hug but his hands still held your arms, "did I say something wrong?"

He still didn't respond, he kept quiet and looked down, just a quick glance before he looked at you again, "I think I was too deep in my head to actually talk to you." That's the only thing he said and that left you confused.

You only looked at him, you were waiting for him to say something more, an explanation. "So... why did you stop? Why were you avoiding me?" You ask.

Helen takes a deep breath in and slowly lets go of your arms, "someone told me some things about you that's all." He responds as he starts picking on his nails, slowly peeling the skin around his nails from getting nervous, he didn't seem to want to talk about it.

You didn't say anything else you already had an idea on who started talking about you. "Why did you believe him though?" You ask. You didn't understand, he believed the words of someone else instead of talking to you to clear things up?

"I don't know... he just sounded genuine I guess." That's all he said, feeling ashamed of his actions, his eyes focusing on anything but you. As much as he wanted to look at you he couldn't as guilt was eating him inside.

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After that small talk with Helen and clearing things up, you decided to meet up with Aiden and see how his talk with Tom went.

You waited at the usual spot, feeling the slow breeze gently touching your face in the warm afternoon right when school was over. The thought of Tom saying things to Helen about you never bothered you so much until now.

Aiden's figure shows up, as he held his black sweater in his arm, then him just wearing a plain white shirt as he made his way to you.

"So how did it go, Aiden?" You ask as you take a seat on the floor your back against the tree waiting for Aiden to take a seat next to you.

Aiden sits and sighs in disappointment, "I tried to talk to him and..." he stops for a bit, as if it was hard for him to get those words out, "he didn't seem very happy that I was trying to talk to him if I'm honest."

"What do you mean by that?" You ask, confused by his response.

"He asked me why I was trying to talk to him, he thought our friendship was over. And when I tried to ask him about Helen he got very defensive." He says as he picks on the grass below him, the soft and warm breeze that passed by made some of his hair get out of his face, showing his saddened features. "I don't really understand him anymore, I think I should just stay away from him. But what about you? Did you talk to Helen?" He asks.

You nodded in response, but you didn't say anything else as you tried to process everything Aiden told you, it didn't add up for him to be acting like that unless Aiden did something terrible, "Aiden did you tell him something that might have upset him?" You ask.

Aiden quickly turns to you and shakes his head, "I would never, in fact I'm more scared to say anything to him cause I know the way he would react."

"And how would he react exactly?" You ask once again, getting more curious at finding out more about Tom's behavior.

"He would pretty much glare at me or lash out, saying that I'm overreacting or that I'm accusing him of things, so I just stayed quiet for my sake." He sighs as he tells you that little story.

You furrowed your eyebrows, now you realize that Tom might have said something to Helen, a lie maybe that you said something about him, to the point that Helen believed him.

You rub Aiden's back in a comforting manner, you now understood why Aiden never said what was on his mind, he thought someone would have lashed out at him if he did. And he didn't want to stop being friends with Tom cause he was the only friend he could have.

At the same time, he was the one spreading rumors about him so Aiden couldn't have any friends. What did he even gained from doing all this?

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After talking to Aiden, you were now sure that Tom was the one causing trouble, you were gonna make sure to talk to Tom tomorrow just to make him stop, or just report him to the principal, you were sure he wouldn't beat you up like Ban would.

At least you hope that won't be the case.

All this thinking didn't let you sleep as much, all you could do was be in your bed while staring at a blank ceiling, it was oddly quiet, too quiet for your comfort.

You didn't expect your year to be like this, you never expected to have friends like this.

Morning finally came by. You lazily get up from your bed to do your daily routine to get ready for school.

Just thinking about school didn't make it as exciting as before.

As soon as you got to school you didn't waste time to look for Tom in his usual spots when he's alone. Your eyes scanned every hallway just to find a glimpse of blond hair.

Once you saw that familiar white hoodie and blond hair you quickly went up to him, and there he was sitting under the stairs, crouched down waiting for classes to start by himself.

"Hello, Tom." You say.

Tom gets a bit startled from your voice as he looks up, looking defenseless, until he realizes it was you his demeanor changes a bit and then looks down, "hi, (Y/n) you came to have a talk too?"

He surely expected you to come by, wonder what type of answers he's gonna give you.