A bit different

Twenty two

He looks down at the table as his curls fall down, slightly hiding his face which is good, he wants that. He wants to hide right about now.

He can see pink heels under the table so he slowly raises his head, just wishing this was over. He spots Erica with her long blonde shiny hair dangling down her shoulders, she has a baige dress on. Not quite appropriate for college but at the same time she's about 18 so it's her choice.

He winces when his eyes move up to her face, her dark eyebrows raised high and a look of question on her face. "Yes?" She asks in a bitchy tone, well what Peyton thinks is a bitchy tone but he's probably biased as he thinks she's a bitch herself. But hopefully that thought will actually stay in his head this time.

Hopefully.

Peyton's eyes dart around quick, trying to think of what to say next. And not wanting to look like a weirdo, well more of a weirdo. He could feel multiple pairs of eyes on him and he just wanted to crawl under the table and hide away forever.

"Well?" She questions again, snapping him out of his own thoughts. "Doyoustilllikecole?" He rushes out, stumbling on his words, she looks at him with a blank face until the corner of her red lips curl upwards.

Into a menacing smirk.

She then barks out a huge laugh and covers her mouth with a manicured hand, "oh my god, are you jealous of us? That's so precious" she laughs again loud and high pitched, Peyton would have associated her with a witch if he wasn't too busy trying not to cry.

He hated that, crying in front of others. Crying at all actually.

He starts slightly shaking his head from side to side hearing her friends laughter. She then leans down and smiles, its a sweet smile but her eyes show something else. "You're way out of his league doll, he will never look at you the way he looks at me" she tilts her head slightly as the smile drops. "Just except that and stop chasing something you'll never catch."

She then turns around and walks back to her friends, who are all staring and laughing right at him. A couple girls give her high fives and the guys wipe their eyes of tears, from laughing at him so much.

He shakes his head more, trying to block out the laughter. It sounds like everything is under water and far away, he hates that sound because then he knows that he's panicking. That he's freaking out, that he's being an idiot by covering his ears to get away.

To get away from the noise of laughter and the word idiot  that has now plagued his mind, but no matter how hard he covers his ears he can never escape his own mind. So he just has to sit there listening to his brain call him an idiot in his dad's voice while his hands start to shake on his ears.

His eyes are squeezed closed and he tries rocking on the bench he's sat at which normally helps calm his down. But he feels something tug on his shoulder so he jumps, removing his hands and looking up.

His eyes are wide and frantic as he stares back at Milo's worried ones, his breathing is still fast but he now knows that he is fine. It might be because there's no noise now which confuses him, his eyebrows scrunch as his head darts forward to see the people who were once laughing at him now staring at him with shock.

They look like they've seen a ghost, some of them are staring with confused looks on their face, others with wide eyes and some whispering to each other. He can see Erica stare at him but with a blank look, but he can see her eyebrow twitch slightly every so often like she's eager to do something. Maybe say something.

Probably teasing him further.

"Hey Pey, you're okay yeah?" Milo uses a soft voice as he gets Peyton to stand up, he supports the smaller boy by holding his arms. His whole body feels weak and he's slightly shaking, it's like he's had a panic attack.

Milo looks at him with pity and a worried look in his eyes. He wants to shout at everyone for doing that, for laughing and pointing at him when he was clearly distressed. And now for being silent and statue still after seeing the consequences of their actions.

He hates bullies, they're so insecure in themselves that they crave other people's attention so they don't care hurting someone else for a few laughs and fist bumps.

It's messed up.

But right now all he cares about is making sure Peyton is okay and taking the poor boy home to cool down.

The boy in question is thankful that his friend is there to help him, he wouldn't know what he would have done if he wasn't. But right now he can't relax as every set of eyes are still on him, staring at him.

He can even see in the crowd of curious eyes his teacher from his lesson animal management staring at him, it looks as if he was watching him the whole time. Just letting people pick on him without doing anything, what a great teacher.

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Sorry this chapter was short and had no Cole in, it was sort of a filler chap. You'll see him next time <3