Chapter Twelve

5.4K 357 105
                                    

Chapter Twelve

"Look who finally decided to show up!" Jonathan snarled as Louis entered the classroom and took his seat at the back. Rolling his eyes at his peer. "What's up, Toilet, you look pretty shitty!"

The class let out a laugh as Jonathan relished in his comment before the teacher silenced them.

"Ah, Toilet." Louis sighed, not really in the mood for this. "Creative, because of 'Lou'. I get it. Nice one. I'm glad you've managed to get the class' approval, 'cause I doubt you have your parents'."

"Louis!" The teacher's voice cut through the air like a knife. "Enough! You, too, Jonathan," the teacher said, eyeing Louis who just shrugged while Jonathan glared at him. "Now, care to explain your tardiness, Mr Stan?"

"No, I do not," Louis replied bluntly. "I'm here now, before the actual learning starts, so I think that's good enough, don't you, Mr Tracy?"

Mr Tracy glared at Louis, though he didn't say anything more and just marked him off as 'present'.

The bell soon rang through the classroom, and everyone piled out into the halls and made their way to the first class of the day. Louis, however, rushed to his locker first to get ready for the day. Once he got himself organised, he made his way to his maths class, sitting down in his assigned seat once he arrived. As the teacher started the lesson and began collecting the homework she had given out the day before, Louis heard a whisper come from behind him.

"Hey, Lou."

Louis turned in his eat to see that Sarah was sitting behind him. He had tried so hard the other day to ignore her at school that he hadn't even realised she got assigned the seat behind him.

Louis knew he looked worse now than he did when he first saw Sarah, however, it seemed Sarah had followed suit with Louis. The dark circles under her eyes more prominent and her face looked more drawn.

Louis started to think the way she was looking had something to do with why she wasn't staying at her house.

"Hey." He gave a small smile biting his tongue as to not ask the question that was on his mind.

"Is everything okay?" Sarah asked, and Louis nodded before turning back around in his seat to face the front.

He didn't want to have this discussion in class, nor at all really, but he knew he would have to have it eventually with someone.

A few seconds later, Louis felt a tap on his shoulder. Again, he turned in his seat and saw a sympathetic looking Sarah, who held out her hand towards him. Louis mimicked her and held out his own. Sarah dropped a scrunched-up piece of paper into it and signalled him to turn back around.

Louis did as he was told and waited a moment before opening the piece of paper that Sarah had given him, smiling slightly at what was on it. It was a picture of a heart with the words "Get Well" written underneath it. And just as it had last night when he was talking with Isaac, Louis' heart fluttered. Maybe, with the help of Sam and Sarah, this day would be bearable. With that thought in his mind, Louis prepared himself for the rest of the day.

********

"Hey, Toilet, where do you think you're going?!" The loud and obnoxious voice followed Louis down the school hall, causing him to stop.

The other students standing around in the hall all seemed to freeze, turning their attention to Louis and where the voice had come from.

The whole day had dragged on. Considering he was functioning on barely any sleep and looking as though he would pass out or collapse at any second, he was not thrilled about that fact. He'd give anything to be back on home, in his bed, and even if he didn't end up getting any sleep, it'd be better than being where he was.

That's not to say his day hadn't been eventful, because of how incredibly long it had been; because of the state he was currently in, people took it as a good opportunity to bully him just a bit more than usual and throw even more insults at him. Apparently, he looked 'weak', and 'ready to give in', and, according to Louis, because they didn't have any spines, they thought he'd be an easy target. They were wrong.

Currently, Louis was making his way to his final period of the day, which normally would have been drama, but due to his recent conversation with Mrs Carter, and the fact he didn't have to go, Louis decided that he'd go to the library again, to see if they got new books. They probably didn't, but Louis thought it was worth a look. However, it seemed as though that was going to have to wait.

"Geez, these creative nicknames travel around this school fast," Louis muttered, though making the words loud enough for the person that called after him to hear. "It's almost like people are too stupid to come up with their own insults."

Louis heard footsteps rapidly approaching him from behind and decided it would be in his best interest to turn around, just in case someone decided to throw a punch. As he turned to face the direction the voice had come from, he saw three people stopped in front of him. Louis, of course, knew who they were. Luke, Ryan, and Tyler.

All three of them were a part of Jonathan's little bully squad. It was clear to Louis that one of the requirements to join the said squad was to have the IQ of a toddler. To his surprise, though, Jonathan wasn't with his goons, which was unusual, as they were the same goons who usually followed Jonathan everywhere.

"So, the rumours are true, then," Tyler said. "Toilet is looking pretty shitty!"

"God, I feel like I've heard this insult before..." Louis stated, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Oh, yeah?" Luke said. "Well, you're not as smart as you think."

"Oh, burn," Louis muttered, clenching his jaw. "What do you sheep want?"

"How are we sheep?" Luke asked, moving bit closer to an unflinching Louis.

"Because you follow Jonathan everywhere—why am I explaining this?" Louis muttered the last part to himself, shaking his head.

"You know, I don't think we'll waste our time on insults today," the final one of the three spoke, and Louis glared at him.

"Why's that, Ryan? Are you too stupid to come up with anything clever?" Louis smirked. "I mean, I know Jonathan set the bar pretty high with 'Toilet', but aren't you even going to try?"

"No," Ryan responded, an evil look sitting on his face. "I think we'll just go straight to boxing practice."

"Oh, very clever use of words, bud. Do you want a treat? I do, however, think that you're forgetting that I'm about a foot taller than you and could probably slap you into next year."

"Really? 'Cause it looks like you can barely lift your arms," Tyler laughed.

"Right... 'cause I look like death or something, yeah," Louis calmly said. "Look, you three. I'm not in the mood right now, so if you expect me to fend you off with words politely... it ain't gonna happen. I may be tired, and I may feel like shit, but just know... if you try anything, I'm gonna knock you on your asses. Got it?"

Luke, Tyler, and Ryan all looked at each other, and then back to Louis as they tried to think of the next move to make. It seemed to Louis that none of them had expected that kind of response from him, and they were unsure what to do now. Louis let out a scoff as they struggled to decide.

"Oh, my God. Are you three trolls too thick to think for yourselves? Or do you always need that pathetic leader of yours to think for you?" Louis knew it was not his usual style, but it seemed to do the trick.

As soon as the last word left Louis' mouth, Ryan swung his fist, connecting it to Louis' jaw.

-------------------------------------------

A/N: Oh no... Well, that was Chapter Twelve!

It's going down. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you're excited for the next one, make sure to vote on this one! Maybe even tag some friends, get them pumped as well!

But now, a question:

What do you think is going to happen in the next chapter?

If Walls Could TalkWhere stories live. Discover now