anonymous ✧ multi

3: we irritating😂😂

stokeley just shrugged. "i'm fine y'all. my momma had to go to the hospital because she went into diabetic shock, but she's alright now, she just needed to get her blood sugar up," he explained to his worried friends.

jahseh reached past michael, placing a comforting hand on stokeley's shoulder. "i'm so sorry about that, you know you can always talk to me if you need anything right?" he suddenly got serious, locking eyes with his friend while michael stood awkwardly in between them.

"jah, i said i was fine," the dark skinned boy insisted, "my mom always has health scares like this, you know that, it's not really a big deal to me anymore, it's just...the way it is."

"are you sure you're fine-"

"can we talk about something else now, "stokeley moaned, his expressions turning sour. the truth is, he was actually worried about his mother's health, which had seemed to take a turn for the worst ever since she's been diagnosed with diabetes last year. that didn't mean he wanted to talk about it in the middle of art class at 9 am, even if he knew that jahseh had good intentions.

jahseh withdrew his hand, his cheeks heating up in embarrassment after stokeley all but told him to fuck off. "sorry, just trying to be supportive," he mumbled, turning back to his painting.

jahseh felt discouraged. not enough to ruin his whole day, but enough to fuck up his whole mood for the time being. he understood why stokeley didn't want to talk about it, because he had his own family issues he didn't like to talk about, that wasn't the problem. he just felt upset because he was trying to reach out and all that did was make stokeley get mad at him for prying too hard. 

serves me right, he thought, me of all people, i should know not to push people to talk about shit they don't want to talk about.

the three of them went silent after that awkward exchange, only focusing on painting their respective photos as mr. beaumont walked around the room to make sure everyone was working. 

"mr white, your work is amazing as usual, keep up the good work," he praised michael as he stopped by the trio, which caused the redhead to beam with pride.

"thank you mr. beaumont, i tried my best," he sang, which caused jahseh to silently tease him about being an ass kisser.

"mr. goulbourne, your work is absolutely and completely abhorrent. do you learn nothing in this class? absolutely pitiful. F." the french man spat out at stokeley, showing nothing but complete and utter contempt for the stick figure art he compiled.

"mr. onfroy...." the man lingered around jahseh's easel, looking for ways to critique it. "you have potential, but i don't see it coming through here. i feel like you're not trying hard enough."

jahseh wasn't really internalizing mr. beaumont's critiques, he just nodded and pretended to listen while his eyes stayed glued to the analog clock at the front of the room, counting the minutes until the class would finally end.

besides, jahseh wasn't a completely awful artist, he just didn't like drawing realistically. he was more into the cartoonish style of art. 

oh well, he didn't let it phase him, it's not like art class really affected his gpa anyway, he just took it because he knew michael and stokeley were taking it too, and even then he briefly contemplated taking woodshop with symere.

not too long after mr. beaumont walked around to critique everyone, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class.

jahseh and michael lingered in the hallway together, their next classes were on the same side of the school, so they'd always walk to class together after they left art.