“Speaking of the principal,” Cedar interrupted their laughter, “Why did he want to talk to you today?”

Memories of the morning flooded in, and Misha fidgeted with his fingers. He knew, his friends wouldn’t like him to take on even another responsibility, particularly when it consisted of babysitting the demon, as they chose to call Krane. However, he couldn’t lie, so he answered truthfully though quietly, “Well, he asked me to tutor Krane for two hours every other day, spend a little time with him and make him feel welcome here.”

“And you declined, right?” After he received no answer for 10 seconds, Cedar repeated, “Right, Misha? You didn’t accept this, did you?”

“I-I couldn’t say no, I mean, I wanted to help him, so…” Misha felt even worse with his decision, now that his friends did not support him.

The two could not understand his small friend. “But he insulted you in class! Why do you even care about him?” Cedar snapped, while Jarred only looked troubled.

“I don’t know,” he spoke, unsure of what to do or say.

Jarred tried to calm the atmosphere, however, his next action involuntarily made the metaphorical shit hit the fan. “Hey, hey. Relax, let’s watch movie or something,” he smiled and nudged Misha’s left shoulder. The surprising contact made the boy hiss in pain and jump back a little, his eyes went wide. “W-what’s wrong? Misha, are you okay?”

Misha smiled, “Uhm yes. You only surprised me, sorry.”

But one could see, if Misha was lying, and especially Cedar was quick to notice the change in his behaviour. He took two swift strides towards his friend and pulled his collar down to his shoulder, revealing a big bruise spreading on his back left shoulder. Misha immediately jumped back, except it was too late.

“What was that? Who did that?” Cedar was furious at this point. Someone hurt his friend, but that one didn’t answer.

Jarred was just as alarmed now and tried as well, “Misha, who did this to you?”

Misha however stayed quiet and stared to the floor. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t tell them, yet he couldn’t lie. They would see.

“Was it Krane?” Jarred now asked quietly to calm his friend’s mind.

Misha tensed at that and clenched his jaw. That was enough for Cedar to put the pieces together and sprint out of the room, towards the delinquent’s bedroom, cursing him under his breath.

Misha and Jarred were stunned for a second, before running after him. “Ced, no! Stop! Please stop!” Misha shouted after him. Jarred obviously didn’t want the violent roommate to get away, still, he wanted him to be punished by the principal not Cedar, who could face trouble himself afterwards, so he also kept running and screaming.

Even though Cedar was smaller than him, he was faster and pumped with adrenaline, so he arrived at the room first. He threw the door open, stomped towards the unsuspecting guy on the bed and threw his fist towards his face. “You asshole!” He shouted. Krane was not prepared, so the punch met him full force. It wasn’t a powerful punch, but still stung. So, as the boy, he recognized as one of Angel’s friends, drew back for another blow, Krane was again overtaken by anger and the urge to fight back.

He caught Cedar’s fist, grabbed his collar with the other hand and threw the boy to the floor. Krane was tougher, bigger and more experienced in fighting, so he was far superior in that aspect. He strangled the boy on the floor, though before he could land his own punch, a small body threw him off the other boy and to the floor. 

“Please don’t!” he heard the body cry out. Misha was on top of him, both lying on the floor, while Jarred tried to hold back Cedar, who regularly spat insults at Krane. The delinquent could have easily pushed his roommate off him, but the presence of the other did calm the violent flame inside of him. 

It was not extinguished entirely, though, so to not lose his control, he had to breathe heavily and grit his teeth. Misha was still cuddled up on his chest, trying to hold the bigger boy down and whimpering small pleads.

“You bastard! You come to this school, feel all high and mighty and the first thing you do is hurting Misha! What the hell is wrong with you?” Cedar shouted. Krane was confused. What was he talking about? He could not focus with all this commotion.

He had not noticed it back then in the darkened room during his sleepless night, but when he had slammed Misha’s body on the wall, his left shoulder met the edge of one of his hanging shelves, causing the bruise in the process. Misha’s shoulder had hurt since then, but the small boy was sure, it would subside eventually. He didn’t want to cause trouble, so he didn’t tell anyone.

Jarred continued to struggle with his friends, “Calm down, the teachers might hear you.”

“So what if they hear me? Maybe this guy will finally be expelled,” he exclaimed, the anger the same as before.

“And what about you? This time, you punched him. They will not let it slide.”

Cedar knew his friend was right. He was still angry, though instead of shouting, he gritted his teeth.

“Get off me,” Krane groaned, and with only a little resistance, Misha complied, now sitting in front of his roommate who came to sit up as well. Misha was sniffling and whispering apologies. He was on the verge of tears yet held them back. “What the fuck is he talking about?” Krane still didn’t get it yet calmed down enough to not go berserk.

His ignorance however fuelled Cedar’s anger again. “You’re really as stupid as you look like,” he said unbelievingly. “Do you harm people so often that you immediately forget it afterwards? Do you have dementia?” Yet, as he saw Misha’s distraught expression, he immediately stopped and instead pulled his friend away from Krane, Misha’s back now facing his roommate.

Krane surprisingly held himself together. In every other situation, he would have already sent the other into unconsciousness or worse, but this time was different. He merely stared into Cedar’s eyes, showing no emotion.

Cedar could see that Krane still did not know when or where he had hurt Misha, so in a whisper, he asked his small friend, if he could show the injury to his roommate. While Misha’s face was still facing his friend’s shoulder, he nodded and to this, the brown-haired boy carefully pulled down his collar, exposing the bruised skin.

Krane eyed the injury. At first, he was confused, but then realization hit him. His head snapped towards Misha’s bed and the bookshelves on top of it. He immediately understood what had happened. He was lucky that only Misha’s shoulder was bruised. Had his body met the wall a bit more to the right, his head might have taken the damage. At the thought of this scenario, Krane clenched his fist. His anger was now turned towards himself, mixed with a feeling of sorrow.