Three Words, I Love You ✔️

37: And I'll never understand why

|37: And I'll never understand why|

The cafeteria is eerily quiet this morning.

It's also quite... empty. Besides Toryn, Nemo and myself... there's only four other kids in here. Two of them are sitting at a table together, their shoulders touching as they lean against each other and watch whatever is playing on the phone propped on a balled up sweatshirt. The other two are at separate tables, one tiredly scrolling on his phone and the other typing away furiously on her laptop with her headphones swinging rapidly.

She's probably writing fanfiction.

Hear me out! I've seen her before in the library and in the back of English class... and everytime I do, she's on a book-like document and just... going ham on her keyboard.

But hey, it looks like she's having fun.

(A/n: 👁️👄👁️)

When Nemo arrived at my house, I thought everything was like the usual. Although today I mixed things up a bit! I thought I would surprise him with a little smooch on the cheek... heh. That was until I noticed that he looks awfully tired... so I didn't.

By now, I'm used to the tired look in his eyes and occasionally in his face but... I dunno. Today he just looks... absolutely drained.

His eyes has dark bags underneath them, not to mention that he can barely keep them open. They're bloodshot as if he didn't sleep at all. The way he talks is super slow and drowsy-like. Just the energy he radiates has a slow, tired vibe to it.

I would've asked what's wrong but my gut told me not to. Deep inside of me, there's still the fear of making him upset. I mean, he was just fine yesterday... at least... he seemed to be.

My worrying only got worse when we got to school.

He was both more quiet and more... distant in a way. He walked next to me but not as close. Occasionally as we made our way down the hall, I would glance at him and he would be staring off into the distance. We didn't hold hands or anything...

Then we got to the cafeteria, sat down at our table and y'know... I tried talking to him with the biggest smile I could put on, thinking that maybe he'd cheer up a bit... but all I got was a few chuckles and a couple 'yeah's. Then his face would drain back into a fallen, weak one.

So I fell silent, along with my smile.

Is he mad at me? Did I do something wrong?

Those two questions had taken over every inch of my mind... until Toryn arrived. Dressed in a tight black t-shirt and his sweatpants, his hair damp and smacked against his forehead.

We hugged like always and Nemo just... wasn't fazed by Toryn's appearance. He didn't even give him a glance. His eyes stared directly in front of him. Apparently Toryn immediately noticed because he turned his back towards the quiet Nemo, and signed, 'He okay?'.

Although Toryn's caring question was nice to see, I couldn't do anything but give him a shrug of uncertainty.

So now... the three of us are sitting, waiting for Rory and Zoe to arrive and for classes to start. I eventually pulled out some practice questions for math. I'm so bored to the point that I'm doing math for fun.

Toryn folds his lips together, glancing between Nemo and I. Toryn leans forward, placing his elbows onto the table and his head into his hands before looking at me.

"Hey, best friend," he says to me with a small smile.

I chuckle but don't look up from my math sheet, "Hi, Toryn,"