The walk home used to be quite peaceful. Well, maybe not peaceful, but the only things really going on were idle jokes and chatter, as they recounted what happened in the day and lamented the starting of the next. But ever since… well, ever since they all grew up, and stopped being carefree Year Sevens with no troubles or acquaintances to worry about, the walk home had become a lot more stressful - for a start, they had Cleo constantly hiding from possible suitors behind her boyfriend, her face barely visible anyway under the huge hood of his hoodie. T had his own problems, dodging various students who he owed money or favours to from some time or another. In fact, Jey thought they might’ve been the only one in their group who wasn’t constantly being stalked by someone for something or other.

“Jey! Wait up, will ya?” Nevermind. Sighing internally, they turned to see one of their regular customers - not a friend, or even an acquaintance, just a customer, maybe called Nathan, but they couldn’t truly remember - with the red blush on his cheeks and beads of sweat decorating his brow which indicated that he’d been chasing them for a while. Had they been ignoring him? If they were, it was entirely accidental - or subconscious. Either way, it wasn’t their fault. “Jeez, you deaf or something?”

“No. Sorry.” Keeping their voice curt and as business-like as a Year Nine could be, they took him by the arm and steered him into a nearby alley. They wouldn’t be missed by their group, and could always catch up later, or just walk home alone. They didn’t really mind. “You want cigs?”

“Nah, nah, not today.” He was smiling. It was a strange sort of smile: almost genuine, but not quite there. “Nah, I was wonderin’ if you had ‘out else. Someone was saying - well, you know how this shit goes.”

“I sell cigs. If you want cat piss, go to Jayden.” They reprimanded him sharply, preparing to turn and leave, but an unwelcome hand on their arm stopped them - ugh. He was like… he was like Cleo. Did nobody understand personal space boundaries in their school? “I’m being serious. Leave me alone if you’re just wasting my time.”

“Jey- wait a sec, just hear me out, ‘kay?” Making sure their face looked as pissed as possible, just to remind the kid that this was, indeed, a grand waste of their time, they shifted their weight onto their right leg and stood back, regarding the kid with something like contempt. “Some people’ve been saying you’re the person to talk to for, you know, diet pills and all that shit.”

“Well, they’d be wrong.” Snapping at the Year Eight, they crossed their arms, actually pissed. “And if I were you, I’d recommend to anyone you hear repeating that to stop repeating it, got it?”

“So you do have some.” There was that smile again. They didn’t like it. In fact, they didn’t like him. “Look, I’ll pay you a couple quid for a bottle, no bullshit. I’ve got the money now.”

“Hm-” Hesitating, they weighed up their options; the fact that there was an unopened bottle of pills hiding in the bottom of their backpack with all the other painkillers and ‘diet supplements’ they dabbled in was true, but no one was meant to know. They’d have to keep more tight-lipped in future. “I won’t ask why you want them, if you tell no one that I’m selling. Got it?”

“One hundred percent, Jey.” They wanted to rip that stupid jaw out of his face, just to stop the lopsided, fake smile. “I have a fiver - is that good?”

“Fine.”

They didn’t have to root in their bag for longer than a second, pulling out the unlabeled bottle and discreetly passing it to the customer, who passed them back a fiver and was gone within the same moment. Rolling their eyes, they closed their bag and rejoined the slow-moving crowd of school kids traipsing home after a long day slouching behind their desks, slowly crushing their dreams and removing any hope they had of a decent future. It was a truly beautiful life cycle, if you only took a second to stand back and watch it subjectively. They thought they had everything, but that everything including an overwhelming knowledge that they truly had nothing, contributed to nothing and would never amount to anything. Ah, well. At least they made a startling sea of blue blazers washing over the previously-bland grey concrete shore.