I'm Not Okay [UsUk]

Don't Break

After lunchbreak and the heaviness of laughter at Alfred's and Arthur's silent excitement from being around each other, the students all went back to their classes once the bell had rung marking the beginning of the next period.

For Alfred's class, it wasn't going to be an easy one. A not so big, but difficult Geography exam awaited each student on the desk when they got in, and all the teacher said was one sentence.

"You have forty-five minutes to do this, start now."

Alfred sat next to Elizabeta, and whispered a 'good luck' to the girl before picking up the pencil and glancing over the two pages of the exam.
In all honesty, he didn't study for this so much. So all he was able to do was write it, and see what turns out.

Okay, it won't be too difficult.

Name, Alfred Jones. Date... Uh... I'll skip that, it's not important anyway.

Let's see this. Question one.

What? How am I supposed to know how many counties does England have? Not my fault I lived in the States for twelve years of my life.
I'll just put ten.

The clock could be heard ticking from the back of the classroom, and all it did to Alfred was boil even more anxiety inside of him. Soon enough, all he heard was the rhythmic ticking of the clock taking over his mind, and he wasn't able to focus on the goddamn questions.
His breathing was getting shallow, and he felt as if there was something in his throat, choking him until he was completely out of breath.

Come on, Alfred. Focus. At least you're not failing geography. Forget about it all. Focus on the exam. Just a little bit more...

As he reached question seven, not having as much trouble with it as he thought he would have, he was almost finished with the exam.

Only one more question.

Um... Fuck. I should know these. I do know these, wait a little.
Okay, let's do a speed round. Circle the correct answers. Answer one, answer three, answer two, answer one again.

Great, I finished at last. Let's hand it in and get out of here before I get an anxiety attack in front of the class.

Letting out a breath from slight relaxation, he stood up from his seat and handed in the exam to the teacher, who just nodded and took it without a word said.
Once he had looked around, Alfred noticed he was the only one who handed in the paper. Was it that difficult? He didn't have too much trouble with it after question one.
He picked up his backpack and waved to his friends before leaving with a mutter of 'goodbye' towards the teacher.

When the students were done with the tests, they were usually allowed to go to the library or hang out in the hallways as long as they stayed quiet. They just weren't allowed to go outside of school for nothing more but safety reasons.

Alfred wasn't going to the library, though. Leaving his backpack on a bench outside of the Geography classroom, he quickly ran into the boys' bathroom and slammed the door behind himself, almost falling to the floor from the tension which boiled inside of him.

He didn't understand what was going on, what was happening to him. He had no reason to feel down now, but something still pressured him and made him lose breath more and more by each second.

It could have easily been the lack of sleep he was getting. The lack of food in the past days. Anything.

Rethinking whether he should go to the school nurse just in case or not, he found himself on the bathroom floor, a moment away from bursting into tears. But he held it in, like he always did when he was at school, or anywhere that wasn't his room.