When Hands Touch

4. saturate

warning: use of homophobic slur.

—

CHAPTER FOUR

SATURATE

—

Milo had a feeling the day was going to be a shit one from the moment he walked into school.

And fuck, was he right.

For starters, he was late to class, which resulted in him feeling completely lost for the rest of the class. To make matters worse, it was one of his only three AP classes, Calculus. It was also one of the only classes he understood.

So being late really fucked things up.

Currently, he was sitting in his History class, frantically trying to keep up with what was being taught, but he was severely falling behind. He knew that whatever was going on in class was in their text too, but he still preferred to preserve all the information he could get.

Once class ended, Milo made his way towards the door, where Mr. Friar was handing out printed notes on the chapter they'd just done. Suddenly, someone standing behind him spoke, voice grating and loud, like nails on a fucking chalkboard.

"Milo's notes should be in Korean instead of English. Maybe then, he'd actually be able to read it."

Do these people genuinely think I can't hear them?

"I'm Chinese," Milo harshly snapped, before turning back around, the rubber band in his chest getting tighter and tighter.

I hate school. I hate the people here. I fucking hate them.

"Same thing," someone muttered. "Fucking faggot."

Fuck. He could feel a lump start to form in his throat, the tell-tale sign that he was about to cry. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He immediately began to reassure himself in his head, knowing that if he didn't, he'd actually end up crying in the classroom. People use that word all the time. They don't know anything. They can't know anything, because I haven't done or said anything, and only two people in this school know, and they would never out me. People use that word all the time. It's okay.

Still, his thoughts didn't get rid of the giant fucking bowling ball pressing down on his chest, waiting for his ribs to explode.

Milo knew that people said shit like that all the time. But he wasn't out to anyone. And the thought of someone knowing scared the fuck out of him.

Of course, that wasn't the end of his shitty day. As soon as he left the classroom, he was greeted with something much, much worse.

There was a massive crowd of people in the far end of the hallway, shoving at each other to take a look at what was going on, even though fights in school happened on a daily basis.

"Hey, get the fuck off me, you fuckin' motherfucker bitch!"

Shit. Is that Jude?

Hurrying over, Milo pushed his way through the crowd, only to find Jude and some ugly ass boy with a fringe pushing each other around, fists flying. And Jude's lip was split.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Milo instantly stepped forward, yanking Jude back and holding him securely in his arms, inspite of the copious protests and insults flying out of Jude's mouth.

"Hey, hey," Milo murmured, despite the fact that Jude probably couldn't hear him, considering he just barely reached Jude's shoulders. "It's okay. Come on. It's okay."