Drown in You

3. Mind if I sit?

I stayed in the park for about an hour or so before finally heading back into the school. I knew I couldn't miss the rest of my classes. I didn't want to deal with the crap I'd get if I did.

Lucky me, I arrived just in time for drama. The class was inside the school auditorium. Everyone there was the exact type of person I resented most: loud, self centered, and dramatic. I saw Noah up front laughing about something. I sighed and dropped into one of the seats near the back.

After a few minutes a short lady with a purple streak in her hair came out from off the stage and hopped off the front. She seemed like the teacher.
"Ok everyone," she said, "Today will be just another rehearsal day. I want to polish up some of Act 2. Megan will warm you up. I'll be with you in a minute, but first can a William Parker come see me?"

After the rest of the class was swarmed around a piano doing lip trills, I got up and went to see the teacher.

"Hey there," she smiled and extended a hand. "I'm Ms. Cortez."

I took her hand. "Will"

"Welcome to class, Will. So, you've come at kind of a strange time. We're nearly halfway through rehearsals for Into The Woods. I was thinking you could join our tech team and help with lighting and set building for this production. Unless you want a spot in the ensemble. I'm sure we could work something out for you if that's the case."

"Lighting sounds fine," I said quickly. No way in hell I'd be caught on a stage.

Ms. Cortez took me to the sound booth to meet the tech director, Preston. He seemed like a nice guy. He handed me a small packet -apparently it was a syllabus- and told me to go read through it for a bit and sign it when I finished. I took a seat in the audience of the theatre and started reading. But it didn't take long before I got distracted by the rehearsal up on stage. I was really confused about what was happening, but from what I could gather, Noah had one of the bigger roles. I watched him deliver his lines. He was actually really good. No wonder he was so popular. I rolled my eyes and got back to reading.

After I gave the syllabus back to Preston, I spent the rest of class in the wood workshop, helping build a set. Once again, I didn't really know what was going on, so I just helped the other guys by holding planks steady and handing them tools. By the time the bell rang, I was exhausted. Nobody told me drama class meant wood working.

That night, I heard a knock on my door and opened it to see Carol there a second time. I remembered my irritated comment from the night before and found myself surprised that she remembered, and even more shocking, she actually listened.

"Hi, Will. Can we talk?"

"Uh, sure. What's up?" I said. Before I could help it my mind immediately jumped to the worst. I knew these people weren't up for letting someone like me leech off their home. Guess taking in a fucked up foster kid wasn't as easy as they'd expected after all.

"The school called. Apparently you missed two classes today. What happened?"

I looked down at my feet. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize, Will. I'm not mad. I'm worried."

I felt repulsed at her words but forced myself to swallow it, She was just trying to be nice. Just trying to be nice. I didn't want it.

"I want you to tell me why," She said finally.

I shrugged it off. " I'm not gonna do it again."

She frowned and said, "You can always talk to me."

"I know," I said.

"Everyone's downstairs watching that new Disney movie. You should come watch with us," She added with a smile, before turning around and shutting the door behind her, leaving me standing alone in the dark.

I waited till I heard her footsteps down the stairs before releasing a breath I didn't even know I'd been holding.

"I guess I should go," I said to myself finally. I didn't want to outright ignore her invitation.

Downstairs, Bill and Carol were together on one end of the giant couch, arms interlinked. Eliot was as far away from them as he could be, busy on his phone. The O'Neil parents smiled when they saw me.

"We're glad you came," they said. I made myself smile back and sat down in the free space between Bill and Carol and Eliot.

The movie was about a dog on a tv show who ended up across the country from his family. It made me think about the dog I used to play with when I was staying at a house in Pennsylvania. I used to take him for walks really early in the morning before anyone else was awake. I was really sad when I had to leave him behind. I wonder if he would remember me. I left about halfway through and smoked a quick cigarette before falling asleep.

The next day, Noah pretty much ignored me. We hadn't spoken since he caught me ditching. I hope he didn't tell anyone about the cigarette. I turned to look over at him across the room. He was super popular. There was a little circle of people surrounding him, everyone competing to be a part of whatever was being discussed. I looked back down at my paper and exhaled long and heavy. I didn't understand shit about trigonometry. I ended up spending the rest of class doodling random shapes all over the page. When the bell rang, I realized it was time for lunch. Yesterday, I'd been too busy ditching.

I headed out into the hall and followed the crowd to the cafeteria. Carol packed me a lunch, so I skipped the line and chose a random table near the back and crossed my fingers it wasn't reserved for some clique.

I opened up the brown bag and couldn't help but acknowledge Carol's lunch-making skills. The woman made a full on deli style sandwich accompanied by sliced apples, potato chips, and a juice box. A freaking juice box. I almost laughed when I took it out and saw the smiling cartoon characters printed onto the cardboard.

"I see you didn't ditch again."

I looked up to see Noah standing in front of me with a tray of cafeteria food.

"I decided to stick it out today," I shrugged.

"Mind if I sit?" he asked. I shook my head and he stepped over the bench and put his food down onto the table.

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday," he said.

I squinted. "What for?"

He laughed and scratched the back of his head. "I just feel bad for being rude to you."

I kept my mouth shut but evidence of my laugh escaped through my nose. "I don't even know what you're talking about," I said. "I'm the one who made you search the school for me."

"Nah," he said with a smile. "It was the gym teacher."

"Whatever, dude." I was getting tired of this. What did he want?

Our one sided conversation continued for a few minutes, and I still had no idea what his objective was when a few of Noah's friends called him over. He apologized with a smile for leaving and I watched him go.

What a weird guy.

A/N
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