Chapter two

“You know you really should just go home,” Matius began,

“It’s only the second week of college. Nothing important is going to happen in any of your lessons.'' James spoke, inhaling his cigarette.

“Besides, you told us last week, that your chemistry teacher had you lot roasting fucking marshmallows.”

“To be fair, john is going through a horrible divorce, and he spent most the lesson crying.'' Chris muttered, as James passed his cigarette over to him. “I kinda feel bad for the guy, his wife is taking his house and car, and judging from the long fights he has on the phone, she’s winning the custody battle too.”

“This is why no one should ever get married, you're entangled with a person, who half the time you want to strangle to death, let alone your tangled together financially and intimately, cause you can never get rid of the person if you have kids together,” James blew out some smoke through his lips, “you know?”

“So how old were you when your parents got divorced?” Matius chortled.

“Shut up,” James shoved Matius, in a short laugh. “I get to go to Amsterdam to visit my dad, whilst you only need to go down to the bloody window cleaners.”

Matius groaned, “fuck off, at least i see my dad on a daily basis.”

Chris smirked as he watched the two boys, “at last you lads know who your parents are.”

“Oh come off it Chris,” James whined, “for all you know, your real parents left you a fortune, and that some lawyer is searching every fucking corner of this depressing country, trying to find you.”

“Or you find out you're related to the weirdos at the manor.”

“Jesus Christ imagine that,” James laughed.

Chris passed back the cigarette to James. “I was probably just left behind by a family having a fun day at the beach, and they just didn’t want to come back for me.”

“That's depressing,” Matius muttered, “i like the millionaire thing.” he decided on, “it’s funner, and less, people are shitty and-" he stopped, "shit i don't think i fed the cat, fuck."he exclaimed loudly, his hands traveling to the top of his head. He began to rush backwards, jogging up in the opposite direction, crossing the road as a car started to honk at him, but Matius only lifted a middle up, and began to walk a little slower, grinning as the person inside the car began honking their horn repeatedly. He then began to run up the path towards a large hill, both sides decorated in an array of houses.

"You're not gonna run all the way home, Matius!" James yelled as he and Chris began to watch Matius running up the road with amusement.

"Watch me!" He shouted back. Sprinting as if the hounds of hell were chasing behind.

James let out a small chuckle, "he's an idiot,"

"Ten quid says, he gives up halfway up."

"That's not a fair bet, because we both know he isn't going to make it up that hill."

"At least it isn't the manors hill."

"God he'd be shot by a hunting rifle if he did." James laughed. “Besides he ain’t that stupid.” James grew silent for a moment, as he turned back to look at Chris, “Are you sure you're alright mate? You’ve been having attacks a lot lately.”

“Yeah, i’m fine, it’s nothing. I’ve been getting them more frequently since my birthday, I think it’s stress or something, I don't know.” he shrugged, beginning to walk again, he looked over to the empty beach, seeing the waves ebb back and forth.

“Stress?” James questioned with disbelief, “you are the least stressful person i know, you don’t give a shit about anything. I mean I'm surprised you even passed your GCSEs, let alone got into a good college.”

“It’s not like i’m dumb or anything, i was going to get least get passing grades.”

“Yeah, but you literally went into your maths exam high, I mean sure it could be my fault for bringing in weed, but I brought it for after, not before.”

Chris shrugged again. “Was she nice?” he asked.

Chris looked back to James with a confused look,

“Grace,” he explained.

“Oh, not really, but we ended up going to the pub for my-” he took a breath, “-quote on quote, first drink. Dad got pretty drunk actually, quite funny. Mum had to hold his hand like a toddler, cause he kept wondering off.”

James smirked, “my mum said she’s gonna let me have some of her good liquor for my eighteenth.”

“What a glass of pink.” Chris laughed.

“When’s your first lesson?” James asked,

“Don’t know, ten i think.”

“I got till after lunch.” James smirked cockily.

“Lucky, you’ve only got two lessons.”

“It’s double English lit, i’ll be wanting to stab my eyes with my pen by the end of it.” he grumbled. James looked down at his phone, “you should go soon, you’ll be late.”

“I’ve got fifteen minuets,”

“It’s a fifteen minuet walk.”

Chris groaned, looking to the sky, “alright, bye then.” he waved, frowning, as he stomped away,

“Have fun!” James shouted behind in a chuckle, which Chris responded with his middle finger raised to him.

The molly began to kick in as he neared the college, walking through the gates, a few minutes later Chris began to feel restless and started to stretch out his arms, feeling a little relaxed at the motion, his heart started rush, beating hard in his chest, then as quickly as it came, Chris felt an euphoric feeling set place in him. He allowed a small smile to prick up on his lips. He felt a spring in his step and he walked ever so calmly down the courtyard to the maths block, almost skipping up the steps to the second floor of the building, moving to his computing classroom.

He fell effortlessly into his chair, as it spun about, only stopping when Chris placed his feet down on the blue carpet.

“What's wrong with you?” a girl asked, her brows frowning, Chris smiled and shrugged, spinning himself side to side in his chair.

The girl took a deep breath, turning away from the strange boy, “well, just don’t distract me whilst i’m doing course work, okay?”

Chris hummed, carrying to play with his chair, the girl sighed, tucking strains of her copper hair behind her ears. Murmuring to a song as she logged on to her computer.

"What are you listening to?" Chris asked after a while, shuffling his chair closer to the girl.

"Just some indie rubbish my boyfriend wants me to listen to,” she whinged, “wanna listen?" she sighed asking.

"No,” Chris spoke, “music is ruined for me. When i was fifteen, my dad broke all the music CDs we had, all except for the CDs of the smiths and a band called the adverts."

"So what? You just don't listen to music?"

"Nope,” he nearly spat on the girl's face, “but I do listen to audio books, my mum got me into it after the incident with the, er, CDs."

"And I thought your uncle was mental. No offense."

“None taken.” Chris leaned back on his seat, as he spun round to face the front of the room. Their teacher still hadn't arrived, many were chatting, or on their phones trying to keep themselves busy. A boy walked in his face blank and still, he was a good twenty minutes late to the lesson, but he walked in as if that wasn’t the case. As soon as Chris caught the boy's eyes, Chris felt paralyzed in place, it drove his body into shock as his heart rate elevated, and his skin began to damp with sweat, Chris felt fearful, which he shouldn’t have, yet the feeling remained. A second later, Chris felt his fingers move once more, as his head and legs soon followed behind, he turned back to his computer screen, feeling dazed and drained, almost, as if the effects of the drug was wearing off.

“Wow,” the girl breathed, as she looked and gazed at Chris with amazement. “Y-your eyes they’re so bright.” she spoke in awe.

Chris stared back at the girl with no expression, switching again to his blank computer screen. Mirrored back to him were the eyes of a stranger. No longer a dull darkened blue, but a bright ocean green.

The girl moved away from Chris, only for a moment, smiling up to a boy, who spoke with a strange accent.

“Do you mind if i-”

“No, go ahead,” she said, then quickly snapping her neck back to Chris, gazing deeply at his eyes.

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