Alex sighed defeatedly. He's been looking at the large school gate for a while now, seriously contemplating turning around and heading back home. He couldn't stand looking at this awful building. But he knew the horrible feeling of guilt would haunt him for the rest of the day. 

He stood there for a few seconds longer, then started walking towards the prison he'd be locked up in for about 6 hours. Alex already imagined the stale air inside that would give him a headache.

He walked into the locker room and noticed it was empty. Thank god. He didn't want to be around his classmates more than he already had to. He doesn't like them, they don't like him. It's as simple as that.

He went up to his locker, located right next to one of the windows facing outside. The cold air was coming straight through it. It reminded him of how shit this fucking school was. They didn't even bother isolating it.

He grabbed a key from his backpack and opened the locker. He made quick work of stripping down his jacket. After he changed his shoes to a way more comfortable pair of slippers, Alex closed and locked the metal door, then headed out.

Alex took his phone out of his pocket to check the time. He was glad that the phone only read 6:49. He had about 10 minutes to spare. 

Right in front of the hallway heading to his first class, he made a turn to the right and walked up to the bathrooms. There was no one inside when he came in. He went into one of the stalls. 

Alex spends at least a few minutes in there every day, trying his best to lessen the tight, heavy feeling in his chest. He usually listens to music or reads a fanfic he's interested in, to feel less like he wants to desperately run away. 

Alex looked up and saw the old, faded white color of the bathroom ceiling. He saw that very same nasty view every single day since the start of the school year.

Alex sighed. He felt more awful than usual today. He pulled up his favorite songs and blasted them straight through his headphones into his ears.

This bathroom was his only safe space in the entire school, but sometimes it wasn't enough to calm his wildly beating heart. It seemed like today, this was the case. 

I want to go home so, so bad.

Alex urgently needed something to distract him. Then, he remembered he didn't get to finish a manga that he started reading the day before. He opened Chrome on his phone, and the site loaded exactly where he left off.

It managed to momentarily take his mind off the horrible day he had ahead of him. He got sucked into the story fast, even starting to smile at a silly scene. 

'BANG!!' 

Alex almost dropped his phone after hearing such a loud noise. It came from someone violently opening the bathroom door. He immediately lowered the volume of the music. 

"Did you study for the test?" Jesus. Alex recognized the voice. It was the voice of one of Alex's classmates, Eric. His irritating voice pierced Alex's ears like a knife. 

"Nah, I was too busy with Tiffany yesterday lol." Some other person answered with a laugh. It was someone Alex didn't recognize. 

Ew...

"Hell yeah, dude! Finally." Eric flushed the urinal. "So, was she good?"

"Weeelll..." 

They both started laughing, and thankfully, Alex heard their steps slowly weaken. Then, he heard the door shut a second time.

Thank god they left. Alex really didn't want to hear more than that, he was already disgusted by the few sentences he had heard them exchange.

About 5 minutes later, he unlocked the stall and left the bathroom. It only took a moment to arrive in front of his classroom. He took a deep breath before he entered.

He saw the familiar faces of his classmates paying little to no attention to him. He's known them for a few years, sure, but they still feel like strangers.

He headed for his desk, all the way at the back of the classroom, next to the window facing the outside school gym and track.

"Hi!" 

"Hello." Alex greeted his seatmate; his name was Noah. He was a lanky guy with a goofy smile. His hair was bright blonde and always very messy.

He was Alex's only acquaintance in the whole class. Their brief interactions began after they were assigned to sit next to eachother by their teacher. 

Sadly, Noah was the only person Alex could call a friend.  

Their convos were always pretty shallow, including a lot of what could be classified as small talk, and/or situational humor and comments coming from Noah's side. 

Most of them did result in awkward silence, which Noah strangely didn't seem to mind. 

Alex didn't understand why he was trying to be friendly with him. He has other close friends.....what did Noah see in him?

He sat down next to him. He was sitting on the left side of their desk, closer to the window. He'd sometimes blankly start staring out of it, most of the time in the middle of class, greatly frustrating the teachers.

Alex prepared his pencil case and books for class. 

But soon enough, he started feeling anxious once again. The loud voices of people surrounding him were getting too loud, too much, and his brain started hurting. He laid his head on the desk, intentionally covering his face with his hair. 

"...hey, man, the bell's gonna ring in a minute or so, they'll quiet down soon." 

Noah's sweet demeanor made Alex feel even worse. Why was he so nice?