"John! Get up-you're going to be late for school!" Harry yelled, ready to push John off of his bed.
John abruptly woke up, immediately sitting up. He was in the clothes he had worn the day before and his hair was a mess. He didn't realize how long those sleeping pills would knock him out for, but he was glad that they actually did keep him asleep for as long as they did.
"And check your cell. Sherlock's been phoning all morning," Harry quickly stated before exiting his room with a slam to his door.
John breathed out, placing a hand on his forehead and allowing his mind to keep up with his body before he got up and quickly got ready for school. No practice today, he reminded himself while his arm reached out for his backpack. Before leaving his room, he grabbed his cell off of his bed side table and looked at the messages.
John, please answer. It's urgent.
5 missed calls from Sherlock <3
Are you okay? -SH
Why aren't you answering? -SH
2 missed calls from Sherlock <3
......
John got a terrible feeling in his gut; he didn't mean to be such an asshole to his boyfriend. As soon as he read all of the messages, he found Sherlock's contact and pushed the call button, rushing down the stairs as he did so.
The cell rang only twice before Sherlock picked up.
"John, where the hell have you been?!"
"I'm so sorry, Sherlock. I don't know why I didn't wake up. I-"
"Do you know how worried I've been?! I wanted to come check on you, but my dad had some business people over for dinner and my mum didn't let me leave all night."
"Sherlock, please. You didn't need to come. I was fine-just asleep."
"Why do I find that hard to believe? Oh, yes, because you never sleep through my calls. Why didn't that wake you up?"
"I'm sorry, Sherlock. I don't have an answer for you."
There was a long pause before Sherlock spoke up once more.
"I'm on my way to pick you up."
"I can drive-"
"No. I'm on my way," he repeated. Sherlock hung up the cell before John got the chance to argue any longer.
John inhaled deeply, not having the energy to argue anyway. The blonde tried to escape the house without drawing any attention to himself, but his efforts were wasted when Harry stepped out of the kitchen.
"I'll see you after school? I have to talk to you about something going on over the weekend."
Relaxing his tense muscles a bit, John took a step back and looked at his sister. "Yup," he answered, looking at the floor in a hurry and anxious to get out of the house to Sherlock.
Harry smiled tiredly and nodded, taking a step towards the kitchen.
"Harry," John said abruptly, stopping her from disappearing through the walkway. Once she had her eyes focused back on him, he added, "Get some rest today."
She took a moment of hesitation before nodding her head in understanding. "Good idea," she agreed. John smiled and quickly walked back to the door, tugging it open and breathing in the outside air.
He waited another two minutes before Sherlock's car pulled up to the driveway. Quickly, John climbed into the passenger seat and settled into the seat, letting out a deep breath. He felt Sherlock's eyes on him and turned his head questioningly.
Finally, Sherlock let John know what he was thinking. "Something's wrong, and I know you're not going to tell me, but I just wanted you to know that I know you're not okay."
John inhaled deeply and sat up slightly, nodding as a reply. He wasn't going to argue with Sherlock, especially when he knew the brunette was right.
~
When John walked into history, he began to resentfully walk to his seat next to Anderson when Mycroft stopped him.
"Mr. Watson. John...I changed your seat. You now sit in the front beside the door," he informed, his chin at its usual height.
John furrowed his eyebrows but nodded, taking a seat in the desk he was just assigned. He was grateful, of course, but he would be extremely irritated if Sherlock was behind this. He didn't doubt that his boyfriend had something to do with it, but he didn't want to think about that. During class, John didn't look back at Anderson once. He wasn't even sure how he was supposed to be on the same soccer team as the moron.
There weren't any problems by the time the bell rang besides the fact that John hadn't listened to any of Mycroft's lesson. The lesson was probably some stupid rant about the government of a country John had never heard of at any rate. The only thing John had heard come out of Mycroft's mouth after the first couple minutes of class were, "Don't forget about the essay due tonight online. Email it to me to receive full credit." Just after those words, the bell sang into everyone's ears.
John was the first one out of the door. He needed to get to Sherlock-to feel the brunette's arms around him. He was so confident that everything was okay. The weekend his parents died, Sherlock had made him feel like there was no reason to feel sad, but now all John could feel was sadness. The thing that really frustrated him was that he didn't know why he felt that. He didn't think he felt sad about his parents because he didn't feel that depressed after it happened. It was a very confusing emotion, which made John's head spin more.
He was thinking too much about it now, causing him to start running through the halls. He needed Sherlock, now; it was the only way John would calm down. His breath was heavy, but not because he was running. The heaviness he felt in his chest made his lungs gasp for air. John was terrified. He had never felt anything like it before.
Suddenly, John collided with another body. The person he had hit was, fortunately, just the person he needed the most at this moment.
"Sherl'ck," he breathed out, barely making a sound as he fell into Sherlock's arms.
The brunette looked down at him with furrowed eyebrows. He noticed the way John pushed himself into Sherlock, his heavy breath, the way his eyes closed in desperation, his slurred speech. Concern filled every pour in his skin.
"John. John, you're having a panic attack. What happened?" he asked quickly, bringing John to a corner in the hallway so that they weren't in the middle of everyone trampling around. He kept his head looking down at his partner, running his hands up and down John's arms comfortingly.
John just shook his head. He didn't know what was wrong, so trying to explain it would be pointless and bring even more stress over him. "I don't know..." he choked out.
Sherlock's heart sunk. How was he supposed to help John if he didn't know what was wrong? Instead of trying to make things better that way, Sherlock brought his arms tightly around John, surrounding him in warmth and love. "You're okay. I'm right here," he whispered to the shaking boy. "I'm right here..."
John nodded quickly, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing his brain to think only about how comfortable he was standing there. He was just starting to calm down when he heard the bell ring. They were late to Lestrade's class; he'd understand. Opening his eyes a sliver, John saw that the hallway was empty, as if no student had been there all morning. He swallowed and breathed deeply before looking back up at Sherlock. He could stay there forever, wrapped up in Sherlock's arms, but he knew they had to get to class, and they'd have time to cuddle close together after school when they went to their usual spot in the park. Despite Harry's request of John coming home right after school, he planned on sending her a quick message saying he'd be a little late (and by a little late, he would mean several hours late). That's how he texted her every day him and Sherlock did something together after school.
Sherlock looked down at John when he felt his head move. "Are you okay?" he asked in more of a whisper, although his deep voice echoed through the empty halls no matter how quietly he spoke.
John nodded slightly, but placed his head on Sherlock's chest and breathed in his scent one last time before letting go. "Yes. Thank you," John muttered, disappointed in himself for behaving the way he did.
Sherlock nodded in approval. "We should probably get to class now that everyone's going to think we had a five minute make-out session," the brunette joked.
John smiled slightly, but wanted Sherlock to know how he really felt. He brought his hands around Sherlock's neck and looked down at the floor to gather up some courage before looking back to a confused Sherlock.
"Sherlock, you've done a lot for me. You help me see that not everything in the world is so bad. You make me happy, even if I wasn't before. I love you," he said slowly, eventually getting all of it out. For most of his panegyric, John avoided eye contact with Sherlock, but when he got to the end, he made sure to meet Sherlock's eyes.
John started to get worried after Sherlock didn't say anything. He let his eyes drop from Sherlock's and started to pull away, but couldn't. Sherlock's arms were fastened around John's waist, and he didn't show any sign of moving them or any other part of his body.
"Sherlock?" Again, no answer. "Well say something. Don't just say nothing."
Finally, Sherlock opened his mouth. "You...you love me?"
The corners of John's mouth turned upward slightly. "Yeah, of course. Of course I love you," he replied. Even after just eleven minutes with Sherlock, John had gone from feeling like he was drowning to feeling like he was on top of the clouds.
Sherlock nodded slowly, still unsure of how to comprehend those three words. John didn't give him any time either, pulling his hand toward Lestrade's class.
"Come on," he was whispering quietly, but Sherlock pulled him back.
"John, I don't really want to listen to another one of Lestrade's miserable lectures."
"Well neither do I, but there's nothing we can do about it. Now come on."
Sherlock sighed. "Obviously you don't understand. I'm saying let's just go to the park and we can stay there for a while," he suggested.
John was ready to object; he had never been one to ditch class, but a lot of things were changing in his life. "That sounds much better."
Sherlock smiled and slid his hand into John's, sneaking away from the school's boundaries and driving to the park. John couldn't believe how easy it was to ditch school here; at his last school, they had supervision on every corner of the school at all times making sure that no one left. Here, though, it was like they wanted you to be where you weren't supposed to be.
~
It had been hours since they got to the park, and they were still seated under the crack willow, cuddling close with their backs against the trunk and talking and laughing and just enjoying one another's company. John took Sherlock's notebook for a period of time, giving Sherlock a taste of his own medicine and not letting him see what he was writing.
They spent even more time like this after school had let out, and John assured Sherlock that the time they shared that day was the happiest he'd been the past week. It eased Sherlock's mind to know that John was getting better, but what Sherlock didn't know was that when John got home, he would take two more pills because that was the only way he would sleep and forget about all of the pessimistic thoughts.
A/N: Hola amigos I added a picture because I just wanted to show y'all the tree surprise lol...also I know exactly how I'm going to end the story (don't worry it won't be for a little while) but yeet that's chapter 14! ALSO yest they have gotten into the LOVE YOU stage!! Oh and I'm really sorry about not posting for like a week but I had so much homework for a change lol but hopefully it won't be like that after tomorrow!