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Chapter 4- Decent Days

"You're not surprised?" He questioned.

"No," Connor stated, quickly, "most of those guys aren't good enough for private school."
Jonah smirked again.
The pair of them fell into a silence that completely shattered when they instead listened to the chatter and loud voices of their schoolmates that formed a seemingly endless crowd around them. One glance at his expression told Jonah that Connor was content with their silence, his eyes having now wondered to the window, pupils shrinking in the natural light of the sun outside, the reflection of which danced across the surface of their table, gracefully laying across it. Jonah blinked as his eyes tried to adjust to the light as he followed Connor's gaze, but the taller teen remained slight unnerved by the silence between the two boys. He wanted to continue conversing with Connor, very much so, as he appreciated the time that they were spending together and that, although the burden of 'looking after' Jonah had been given to him suddenly, he seemed as though he really wanted to get along with him, whether they became good friends or just class goers that somewhat knew one another.

"Don't you have any other friends?" Jonah questioned Connor, curious as to why the rest of their table was left empty and untouched, even students that he recognised from his English class remaining unseated when there were perfectly good seats that could accommodate all of them.

"She's outside," Connor said back, quietly as he turned to face Jonah, his pupils switching once again, widening in the dimmer light of the lunch hall.

"She?" He wondered, "just the one friend?"

"She's my one real friend," Connor shrugged, looking back towards the table that he'd used previously as an example of what the cause for other people's assumptions were, "in fact, I used to be perfectly welcome over there. I still am. I just choose to distance myself from them now because we had nothing of substance to talk about."

"They were boring," Jonah simplified Connor's words, "that doesn't surprise me if they all look the same."

"You're in no position to speak to them like that, we've been over this," Connor laughed, "if anything, you should be welcome over there too."

Jonah looked back at the table to see the cheesy smiles of the boys, shaking his head with a deep breath that soon became a low chuckle as he saw Connor's smile. It was once they had calmed down, the seconds passing quickly between them, that Jonah continued to question Connor on his 'one real friend'.

"So, who is she?"

"Christine Scott. She sits behind me in English," Connor stated, looking down at his hands. He began to pick at his nails, pulling them away, chipping them and ripping them, Jonah seeing the reason behind the uneven cutting and texture on them.

"Why aren't you with her?" he asked.

"Because I'm with you," Connor smiled, slightly awkwardly, feeling as though his answer was quite obvious.

"No," Jonah sniggered, "I mean, why isn't she joining us here?"

"She's having a cigarette," Connor's eyes travelled back upwards, landing on Jonah again, who saw that his expression had changed to something quite new. He looked as though his mind was absent as he stared on at nothing, looking into the space behind the boy across the table instead of at the teen himself. His eyes seemed darker, the natural light seemingly vanishing entirely as he let his dark chocolate curls fall in front of his face, his face remaining expressionless. Jonah made another twisted expression, his expressive features showing a strange mix of his emotions; he was perplexed at Connor's sudden switch. He had appeared bright, youthful and young, and yet somehow, now it was gone. He waited for Connor to continue speaking, awaiting the sound of his voice to move on with their conversation, but it never came, even after his eyes finally moved to look at Jonah, tearing his own gaze away from the blank space over Jonah's shoulder.