Forbidden Love [Sally Face x Travis]

2-Sal's POV

I rush over to the bathroom to see how much damage has been done to my mask. I can feel a crack near the right side of it, adjacent to my previous one. I wish I didn't have to wear this stupid thing all the time anyway. It's hard to breathe, since the only holes I've got to breathe through is the eye and tiny nose hole. The mask is also so bulky and gets dirty easily. I just wish I had a normal face...maybe Travis would bully me less...

As I walk up to the bathroom mirror, my phone goes off. I take it out of my pocket, flip it open, and check the message. It's from my dad, which is a surprise, since he rarely even texts me. Actually, he never really gets to talk with me either, or do anything with me. He is a busy man with emotional stability issues. It only got worse when Mom passed away. It left him heartbroken. Diane was such a great mom and wife. I only know so much about her to an extent, since she died when I was at a young age. Dad talks about her to himself all the time, cramped up in his room, files stacked high upon his desk. I do feel sorry for the guy.

Anyway, I check the message from Father. It reads, 'Sorry son, I won't be here when you get home. Important business to do. Love you'. I can feel my hand clench the phone with a tight grip. He is never home, ever, and when he is home, he is always in his forsaken room. I know he loves me, and I love him back, but I wish I had more time with him. It's like I'm growing up with no parents. I'm so lucky to have great friends around, like Larry, and Ashley, and Todd. They're like a second family to me.

I flip the lid back down on my phone and tuck it in my back pocket. My face turns towards the mirror, as I examine it. Yep, the mask has another crack in it. I already knew that, but I didn't believe it. I'm not very fond of this pink shade eroding the greyish white of my mask. With this additional crack, when they replace the crack, nearly the whole right side will be pink at this point. I don't mind the color pink, it's just an ugly, greyish pink.

Unbuckling the straps of my mask, I check out the rest of my face. God, my hideous face. It didn't get too much impact from Travis shoving me into the seat, thankfully. Despite that, it seriously looks like roadkill. You can't even tell it's a face anymore. I look into my eyes and see that a piece of the mask has chipped into my right eye socket, which is where my glass eye is. I take the glass eye out, bring out my container from my other pocket, and carefully place it in there. I wash my hands and begin trying to pick out the chipped piece. Successfully, it comes out, and I throw the piece away. I let my glass eye run over the warm water, before placing it back in my eye socket. It's weird not having depth perception, when you can only see out of one eye, but depth perception is such a weird concept anyway.

Once I wash my hands one last time, I strap my mask back on and exit the bathroom, before I'm late to class. As I walk over to math class, I bump into the one person I do not want to interact with; Travis Phelps. He was heading to Math as well, since we both share the same first period. I hope he just leaves me alone and doesn't make a big deal over the bump.

"Excuse me, queer!" He shoves me into the lockers. I shook it off and regain my balance.

"At least you used manners," I mumble under my breath. "Anyway, sorry about that Travis. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"S-sure as hell you weren't," he stammers on his words a bit, toning down. He seems to loosen up on the strict tone when I said 'sorry'.

"I will pay more attention..." I look facing down, trying to make it to class without another interruption. I could still feel his eyes on me, but it didn't seem as hawk-like. Instead, it just seems more like a stare. I was too afraid to turn around and check though.

Unfortunately, I bump into another person, but to my luck, it's Larry. He stumbles back a bit, dropping a few of his possessions. Hastily, I help him pick up his textbooks. He notices my nervous manner and puts a gentle, large hand on my shoulder.

"Dude, what's shaking you?"

"I-I don't know? There's something up with Travis...he's acting a little strange..."

"Did he do something else to you? I'll kill him if I have too," he mutters the last part under his breath.

"No, we just bumped into each other, but when I apologized, he tendered up."

"Don't let it go over your head. He probably just realized how much of an asshole he was being," Larry concludes, walking off to his class. I think his first period is Art with Ashley.

I decide to listen to Larry and shake the whole Travis thing out of my head. The thing is, I can sense some negative energy from him, whenever I'm around him. I know something is up with Travis. Who would just bully a kid and continue to use homophobic slurs around them. Another thing I noticed with the blonde, is the bruises. He seems to gain a new one almost everyday, major and minor. No one is that clumsy enough to get hurt that often. Either he's hurting himself...or someone's hurting him...

Finally, I make my way to Math. Mrs. Packerton has already called attendance, since everyone was silent in the classroom. I slowly make my way to my seat, trying to not distract or disturb the class with my entrance. Right as I sat down, Travis turns around in his seat and looks at me. Again, it wasn't really much of a glare, just more like a stare. It made me a little tentative, but I decide to best ignore it. Mrs. Packerton stood up from her desk, looking like she was about to make an announcement.

"Attention class! Attention, please! The math exam is scheduled to tomorrow morning. Too many students are absent from school today, and we don't have enough make up days for every student that is not present today to do the exam later. This should give you an extra day to study, for those of you that haven't," she concludes, getting out a stack of papers.

The class erupts in a few cheers and sighs of relief. Surely, no one was ready for that test anyway. I already had studied for the exam, but I still didn't understand half of the content. Math never ceases to confuse me.

The thing that caught my attention, when Mrs. Packerton was speaking, was the amount of students absent. She was right. Already, about seven were gone out of just this class. More keep getting sent home early after lunch every Bologna Day. The last Bologna Day was nearly a week ago, but probably some students are still sick from the food. I'm telling you, they're feeding us poison. I don't get how Travis likes that shit, but at least there's something that makes him happy.

The teacher passes out a sheet to everyone in the class. I look down at it and groan to myself. A group project. I didn't mind working with people, but I barely knew anyone in this class, besides Chug and you-know-who. I made my way to Chug's desk, but by the time I arrive, he already had a partner. I didn't know if it was better to work with my long-term bully or a complete stranger, but I didn't have a lot of time to choose. I went up to the teacher, hoping to have a third option.

"Mrs. Packerton, is it okay if I work alone? I'd prefer the independency for now..."

She looks at me, placing her grey braid behind her shoulders, "Sally Face, try to work with someone, please. The project relies heavily on two people."

"I don't...really have anyone to work with. I'm sure everyone is taken by now," I look around the class.

"I don't think Mr. Phelps is taken, why don't you go work with him?" She gently shoves me over to him, then went back to her desk.

Travis looks up at me, his knees pressing up against the desk, sitting improperly. He let out a huff, sitting up, "What do you want, Sally Face?"

"I...I have to work with you. You're the only one left, I guess," I avert my eyes to the side. "I know how much you hate me, but let's just get the project done. The sooner it's finished, the sooner we can stop being around each other."

Travis just looks at me with a blank expression, then scrunches his eyebrows together, "Ugh, out of everyone in the class, it just had to be you!"

I wince a little, sitting down in the seat adjacent to him, "Yes, I know, how unfortunate."

"Whatever, fine. Only for the sake of my grade. If I get one more C on my report card, my dad will kill me."

I smile a little, hoping that he would soften up again like he did in the hallway earlier.