"That's the sarcasm, right?" Fiori moved a step closer to help before he realized what a bad idea it was to crowd someone he'd already hurt without permission. "Can I help you? I promise I won't do anything. And I have painkillers in my car. Um… I could run out and get them for you if you want them but not the help."
"Of course that's sarcasm. I don't want to be on this floor any longer than necessary." Jude hissed. He leaned on his fprearms, trying to breathe as deeply as he could without it hurting too much. "You know, we wouldn't be in the situation if you hadn't followed me in here."
"You know I'm not actually stupid, right?" It was a sincere question. People always seemed to call Firori stupid, and he didn't know if it was his status as a school bully, a dad people thought bought him his grades, or his disinterest in social cues. Probably a mixture of all three. "I know basic cause and effect. Can I please help you up? I think you're going to hurt yourself even worse if you keep doing that."
"I would be concerned if you didn't know that. Cause and effect is like, 5th grade stuff. And if I recall correctly, you didn't really start doing shut until middle school so you should at least be 6th grader smart." Jude used sarcasm for everything. Especially in situations where it wasn't particularly helpful, such as this. He couldn't help it. Other people had fists, jude only had his words. "A little ironic don't you think. You did this to me and now you're trying to help me? It almost feels like your the big brother and you "hurt" me so I cried and now you're trying to shut me up so I don't tell."
Fiori's mouth pressed into a thin line and he shuffled a bit closer, reaching down to wrap an arm around Jude's waist and pull him to his feet. If Jude wasn't going to answer his question, he would take the silence as a yes. "I did this to you out of duty to my friends and I'm helping you out of duty to myself. I don't think it's ironic, more a…" What was it called? "…a conflict of interest."
Jude let out a small whimper as he was forced to his feet. He had grabbed on to whatever closet, which unfortunately for him meant Fiori. He took a couple breaths then let go of him. "A conflict of interest? I wonder why? Oh, maybe because you associate yourself with bullies. Although I guess it's better than everyone else that doesn't do anything. At least you do something. Not anything I want, but at least it's something." He sighed. "Are you going to let go of me now? I can get home by myself now."
Fiori rolled his eyes and loosened his hold on Jude, still holding him steady. "At this point, could I associate myself with anyone else?" The answer was no. Fiori had thrown in his lot with the wrong crowd and now he was stuck until high school was over. He walked Jude over to the sink, giving him something to brace his hands against so he wouldn't topple over when Fiori let go. "Can you stand on your own?"
"And you did that yourself. You need to work on your people skills. It seemed like everyone but you realized it was a bad crowd. Well, when you go off to college and play college football maybe you'll learn who your true friends are." Jude gripped the sink. He turned the water on and washed his face carefully. "Can you hand me my bag? I'm not going to topple over or anything."
"I grew up with them. I didn't know other kinds of people existed until middle school." Middle school had been when his friends went from troublemakers to bullies, and Fiori had plodded along behind them without hesitation. He knew it was his fault, somewhere deep down. He knew he wouldn't make a different choice if he could change things now. It didn't matter anyway. He picked up the backpack and handed it over to Jude. "And I'm actually not sure if you're going to topple over or not. You seem kind of shaky."
"Then you shoild have explored your options during middle school. I know I sure did." Jude smirked and gave him a wink. He took the backpack from him and settled it on his shoulders. He leaned against the sink as he pulled his phone out of his bag. He had put it in one of the pockets while he was working with Mrs. Braxton. His mom had called, not once, not twice, but ten times. "I'm fucked."
Fiori frowned slightly at the wink, wildly confused. Was this good, or was it more of that sarcasm Jude liked throwing around? Could it even be sarcasm if it wasn't spoken? He sighed and tried to clear his head, looking up curiously at Jude's exclamation. "I thought we established that already. Did something new happen?"
Jude rubbed his templed and showed him all ten calls he had missed. "I'm a little scared to listen to the voicemails. A lot scared actually." He slipped his phone into his back pocket. "I got to go. Or else you will on thr news how a mother tried to bury her son in her yard." He pushed away from the sink.
Fiori winced in sympathy, hoovering close to Jude just in case he fell. He held the door open for him as they walked out into the hall. "Are you sure you don't want a ride? You'd get home faster. Might make your mom a little less mad."
"I would rather take another beating from you then get a ride from you. So if you'll excuse me, I have a very long walk ahead of me." Jude started walking with a limp. Maybe he just wouldn't go school the next day. His mom would let him if he said he wasn't feeling good.
"Okay." Fiori wasn't about to force Jude to do anything, not when he was the reason this was all happening anyway. He still kept close to Jude, just in case he fell over, but he pulled away quickly once they were outside the school. "See you tomorrow?"
"That's unlikely." Jude gripped his backpack as he walked away as quickly as he could. At some point durimg his walked he had plugged in his earphones and started listening to music. The walk home was almost an hour long. Walking into his proceedured being yelled at by his mother and then her asling what happened. In which he proceeded to say he tripped down a flight of stairs and his tires were slashed again. His mom didn't bother him after that. Jude went to his bedroom and passed out on his bed, exhausted.
Fiori took the long way home, stopping at a beat-up looking liquor store to buy his dad some booze. When he got home the old man was passed out on the couch while Nascar blared on their shitty old tv. He put a blanket over his dad, muted the sound, and headed up to his bedroom to struggle through his science homework. Mrs. Braxton was sweet and she really tried to help him, but none of the material made sense. Half the time he was just guessing at what he was supposed to write down.
(I have a plot idea)
(Ooh what's your idea?)
Jude woke up around midnight. He peeled out of bed, which proved to be difficult, and took a very cold shower. It didn't help with the injuries but it didn't make it worse. The cold felt nice anyways. He collasped in bed about half an hour later and pulled up YouTube on his phone. He couldn't sleep the rest of the night so he just watched random videos and tried to forget what had happened.
(Fiori's dumb ass is failing science so Mrs. Baxter's like 'I'll get this kid a tutor' and decides her favorite student, Jude, is perfect for the job)
Fiori slept the same way he always did, deeply and dreamlessly. He woke up earlier than normal, grateful that his father wasn't wandering through the house breaking shit the way he normally did after a hangover, and set to work making breakfast. They were almost out of eggs, he'd have to buy some more after his shift tonight ended. Was that 24-hour grocer on Picadilly street still open?
(I always love a cliche)
"Jude, get up for school!" His mom yelled from the kitchen. All Jude did was grumble. He really didn't want to go to school. He hurt and he was just so tired. His mother came in after a couple of minutes and sighed.
"I'll call the school and tell them you're sick. There's breakfast on the counter. Make sure you take your meds. I'll see you tonight okay?" His mother kissed his head then left.
Jude buried hinself back under the covers. It was the only time he actually acknowledged his feeling. When ge was alone and in the conforts of his bed
(yeah, me too! Should we skip to the class where it happens?)
(Yeah)
Fiori got to class late, slamming open the door and plopping down in his chair with a scowl deep enough to have the kids around him leaning away in fear. There was a large bandage on his face, which he picked at as Mrs. Baxer chided him lightly about the importance of punctuality. He didn't care, it wasn't like he understood this class anyways. Why should he be on time when he was only going to spend the class getting more and more confused?
(Thats me in math)
Jude had spent of the morning in his bed watch videos or attemlting to sleep. Since his mother wasn't home to force them down his throat, he just…didn't take his medication. He hated the way they made him feel. He could never sleep when he took them. He couldn't eat. And sometimes they did the opposite affect. He'd gotten several texts from his very small friend circle. They worried about him too much. At ariund lunch, he called his mom and said he was ready to go to school. He was excited about his science class. It was the only reason he ever looked forward to school. It was favorite class. His mom and him got something to eat before she dropped him off at school. He got an excused tardy pass from the secretary then walked slowly to his class. He was feeling a little better from all of the ice packs he had put in his body throughout the morning. Tomorrow would be better, as long as no one jumped him. He walkes into Mrs. Braxton's class and handed her the pass. He sat down in his usual spot and pulled his hoodie over his head.
Fiori relaxed slightly when Jude walked in, not really sure why he felt so relieved. Or even if he had the right to be relieved at all, considering that he was the reason Jude missed two periods of school and lunch. All this soulmate shit was really starting to mess with his head, almost as bad as Mrs. Braxton did when she started talking about the applied principles of evolutionary biology. He almost cried.
The lecture was long and confusing and way over Fiori's head so he had sneakily started to doze off. It wasn't until the bell rang that he snapped out of it, realizing that Mrs. Braxton was calling his name and telling him to stay after class. Not a surprise. His grades had been slipping since the start of the semester, they were probably overdue for a talk. She held Jude back too, which was much weirder.
"Now boys, I know you're very different, but it's come to my attention that Fiori's grades have been far below satisfactory and I think he needs some help. Jude, as my student aide, I'd like for you to tutor him after school."