Thats Life

Chapter Thirty-One

Today I had my other class, the one that Katie isn't in. It's incredible how much slower the time goes by when you don't have an annoying ass friend bugging you the whole time. My pen taps on the desk as I try my hardest to appear I give a shit. This was a math class of sorts, and by far my least favorite subject but school is school, so I suppose I should still put in a solid effort.

The notes I take hardly make sense to anyone, I'm not even sure I'm doing them right but I don't mind. There's only 10 minutes left of the class and all I can think about is leaving and heading over to Josh... I mean the shop.

Today, I made sure to bring an actual lunch, now that I've been eating its weird that I get hungry throughout the day. I was surprised when an hour before lunch I was already contemplating breaking into the bag and eating everything. Somehow, I managed to wait until an hour ago that way I had some energy for the run to shop, but not close enough to the run that it would make me sick.

The second the clock in the room hit 2 I was out of my seat and rushing towards the door. When I get outside, I see Will sitting on a bench.

"Shit." I whisper to myself. I completely forgot to tell him I wasn't going to need a ride today. Or any day, actually. Is that a red flag?

He stands up when he sees me walking towards him. "You ready?"

I could, in theory, have him drive me home, then walk to the shop. But I do like the part of this where I force myself to exercise, plus, it's a good way to work off some of the pent-up excitement and energy I have from being at school all day.

"I forgot to tell you; I don't need a ride today. I'm sorry dude, I know you've been waiting I can't believe I forgot!"

"No its cool, I haven't been here too long. I was hoping you would have Katie with you."

I walk the rest of the way to him and turn back towards the doors of the school. "You're still trying to get at her?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

"No! You brought her home, and now she's all our friends it's not always about getting with people. Why, has she talked about me?"

I do love that in this moment, Will doesn't worry about why I don't need a ride home. No questions are shot at me like I had expected them to be, not when he was on a mission to see Katie. I don't want to lie to them, that's not what I'm trying to do here, I just want to do things on my own so I'm withholding information.

"She has not, sorry bro. Her class gets out in a few minutes." I pat his should and walk past him towards the sidewalk on the other side of the street.

He turns around, "Where are you going?"

"On a run, helps clear my head." Not a lie, I am going on a run and it does help clear my head.

"You don't run." He laughs.

"I do now!" I smile back at him before picking up a light jog.

Jogging to the shop still wipes me out, when I get to the shop I stop outside the door and do all my coughing and dying outside before walking in. I should probably go easier on myself, but you don't grow from nothing. No pain, no gain, right? I'm sure after a week of this it should get easier but for now, I'll die in secret, away from Josh's gaze.

Luckily, I managed to steal a lighter from Tyson this morning before heading out. So, after dying outside, I do the smart thing any athlete would do, and get in a quick smoke break before heading in.

When I pull the door open, there's a trashcan right behind the door that I almost trip over. "What the fuck?" I pick it up and bring it over to the desk where it used to be.