I Painted A Picture (Jalex)

Why Don't You Think Before You Speak

When I got to seventh period, my friend Rian was already in his usual spot. I went over and stood next to him. "H-Hey."

He smiled shyly, like normal. "Hey. You weren't at lunch today."

Oh right. That. "I-um, I..."

"Jack sat with us. He said he knew something about it."

I blushed, and tried to hide it. "What did he say?"

"He said he knew why you weren't there, but he wouldn't tell us why. Something about wanting you to have your privacy."

"That was nice of him." I shifted uncomfortably. "Do you want to know?"

He nodded.

"I-um...I had a panic attack," I mumbled.

"Oh," he said. "When?"

"Third period. Nurse Anna insisted on making me stay in the office until fourth period started."

"Ah." He, thankfully, didn't pursue it any further. He couldn't've, anyway, because the bell rang for seventh period to start. The teacher, Mrs. Whasher, came over and unlocked the door to the PE locker room, and Rian and I joined the torrent of boys rushing in there to change.

The locker room was generally unpleasant. I'll spare you the details.

After changing into our gym uniforms, Rian and I followed the class out to the track. Looks like we were running the mile today.

"Alexander," Mrs. Whasher called, and I turned at the sound of my name. She walked up to me and Rian with her usual resting bitch-face, which softened into what I deemed a condescending sort of leer when she reached us.

She pulled a clipboard out of her special PE teacher bag and flipped to a page. "It says here that you had a 'panic attack' during your math class and spent the rest of the class and the entirety of the lunch period in the 'quiet room' of the nurse's office."

I nodded, a bit taken aback at this sudden interrogation. "I...yeah, I did."

Rian gave me a strange look. Mrs. Whasher went on. "Nurse Anna advised you abstain from any strenuous physical activity for the rest of the day. So I am requiring you to sit out of the mile for today, and you can make it up later."

With my head down, I walked over to the bleachers at the side of the track and sat there while Mrs. Whasher prepared my classmates for the mile run. I was pretty sure I'd get out of this free, but then one of the boys raised his hand. Mrs. Whasher called on him. "Yes, Luke?"

"What's Alex doing over there?" Luke jabbed a thumb in my direction.

"Oh, he had a panic attack earlier today, so he's sitting out." Mrs. Whasher carried on torturing my classmates, while I attempted to keep a straight face. Of course, I failed miserably.

That's twenty-five more people than I was planning on telling. I silently cursed Mrs. Whasher and my entire seventh period while the former stood by the mile timer clock and the latter ran around the track, gasping for air and shooting mocking glares at me as they ran by.

It felt like hours, but school finally got out. Rian and I went back into the locker room, changed into actual wearable clothes, and walked down to the front of the school. We stood by the side of the road and waited for the bus to come, along with Vic and Kellin and some other kids.

Rian and I often did our homework together at my house after school, and I'd invited Vic to come over and see my painting, and naturally Kellin was going to tag along, so Rian and I decided it'd be a good idea to sit as far away from each other as possible. Except, you know, Vic and Kellin would sit together, as they were the ultimate gay power couple.

I spent the entire bus ride worrying about what everyone would think of me. Given that now about fifty people knew what had happened to me, the whole school would probably have heard some variation of the story by tomorrow. I was surely going to die. I'd definitely get teased mercilessly. What would everyone think?

And most importantly, what would Jack think?