They Don't Exactly Cover This Subject In Boarding School

23. Saturday, November 8th

(Y'all have suspected this pretty much from the start, so I doubt you'll be that surprised, but oh well.
Also small trigger warning for talk of suicide.)

"Don't forget to email me your notes, please!" Eston called after Philip.

Philip thumbs up-ed him and continued walking across the courtyard, enjoying the crunch of the leaves under his feet.

He climbed the stairs to his apartment, stomped twice on the welcome mat to get mud off, and opened the door.

Frances and Theo's shoes were laying in the front hallway. Philip rolled his eyes and straightened them before looking for his girlfriend and sister.

They weren't in the living room or the kitchen from what he saw glancing around the room, and assumed they were in his and Frances's bedroom.

"Hey guys, how was cla-" Philip said, opening the door. He stopped himself in the middle of his sentence, shocked.

Frances had her shirt off, and was holding her self over Theodosia, who had her arms around Frances's neck. The stopped making out and looked at him, surprise and embarrassment easy to read on their faces.

"Philip-" Frances started, sitting up.

"This is clearly a bad time." Philip choked out, interrupting her.

He spun on his heel and ran out the front door. He heard Theo call after him, but he didn't stop to see what she had to say.

He ran up the stairs to the third floor, and then the roof, which he knew would most likely be empty, and Theo and Frances wouldn't think to look for him there.

The roof was surrounded on all sides by chain-link fence so no one could jump or accidentally fall off. He sat against the fence farthest away from the stairs and watched the wind blow the colorful leaves off trees.

He shivered and curled his knees up against his chest. He wished he had worn a thicker jacket, but then again, hadn't expected to find himself on the roof.

"Philip?"

Philip glanced up at George Eacker climbing up the stairs.

Philip tucked his knees closer to his chest.

"Are you alright? I saw you run up here and you looked upset, and I didn't want you to-"

"I'm not going to kill myself." Philip muttered.

George sat next to him. Philip could feel the warmth coming off of him, and wanted to lean against him, but didn't.

"What happened?" George asked.

"I just walked in on my girlfriend, maybe ex girlfriend now, cheating on me with my sister." Philip said.

George inhaled sharply.

"It's not like I didn't deserve it though. I cheated on her at the Halloween party, and I can't even remember who it was with. I'm a fucking mess."

"Hey, hey," George said "Don't cry."

Philip was suddenly aware of the tears on his cheeks and wiped them away.

"It'll be alright." George said, wrapping an arm around Philip's shoulders. "At least she wasn't cheating on you with a dog or something."

"Oh my fucking God." Philip said, placing his head in his hands and laughing "At least she didn't do that."

"Do you want to spend the night at my place so you don't have to talk to your sister tonight if you don't want to?" George asked, standing up.

"But you're roommates with Theo." Philip said.

"You don't have to talk to her either if you don't want to," he said "I'll protect you."

Philip smiled and let George help him up. He still felt like crying, but at least George made it a little better.

"I'd like that."

(I'll write a thing about Theo and Frances soon, because I'm not letting any of you hate on my girls.)