The Devil On Your Shoulder

"We're getting a divorce."

"We're getting a divorce."

"We're getting a divorce."

"Jack!" The teacher snapped, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Y-yes?" I replied, running a hand through my hair.

"Do you have an answer to the question?"

"What question?"

Miss. Dixon sighed at me. She turned to face the board, ready to ask the question again, when the bell rang.

"Off you go," She said, adressing the class. "Apart from you, Jack." She said, pulling me back into the room and closing the door. I fiddled with my hoodie straps, a nervous habit of mine.

"What's up with you lately?" She asked, taking a seat on the edge of her desk.

"Nothing.." I replied, looking at the ground and making sure not to make direct eye contact.

"Talk to me, Jack."

"There's nothing to talk about." I snapped, turning my back towards the door.

"Not so fast." She called, standing in front of the door, disabling access to get out. "If you need to talk, anytime, I'm here, okay?"

I nodded, trying to reach for the door handle, but she pushed my hand away. "I mean it, for anything."

I nodded again, reaching out for the handle. She hit my hand away again. "Oh, and you have an assignment due tomorrow."

"What assignment?"

She stood up from leaning on the door, and folded her arms. "I want you to write about your life, a biography let's say."

"B-but.. we haven't.."

"No but's. Tomorrow, on my desk." She removed herself from my way, and I heard the click of her heels reach to her desk. "Good day, Mr. Barakat."

I turned the door handle, walking out slowly. A assignment about my life? Great.

I wrapped my books closer around my chest, walking down the hallway. To my left, there was a bunch of guys shoving and pushing each other, and to my right was a couple, making out like they were alone. I rolled my eyes, carrying on down the corridor. I hated this school, everything about it.

"Drew! Wait up!" I heard a voice shout, and suddenly, after a massive push, I fell to the ground. I had managed to keep a hold of my books, thank god. I got up, brushing myself down. Not even a 'sorry'.

I finally made my way to my locker, shoving my books in and proceeding to slam it. I rested my head on the front of my locker, closing my eyes.

I stood there, for about 5 minutes, obvilious to the noise around me. Like I was in a different world.

"Umm, excuse me." A small voice said. I shot my head up, opening my eyes quickly.

"S-sorry." I spoke quickly, removing myself from the locker area.

"No problem." The small guy said, bending down to his locker.

I sighed, turning my back to him and walking down the corridor. My next class was PE, and I just couldn't be bothered.

I carried on all the way down to the PE department, which was right beside the main door. The door to the outside. Away from school. I stood in the middle of both the doors. Left or right? Hell or freedom?

After a few moments of debating, I turned my back on the PE department, pushing the main door open into the ice cold air.

I did it.

I smirked to myself, picking up my pace before beginning to run down the school path, very consious of people seeing me. Shaking the guilt and fear off, I continued running.

After 5 minutes of running, I decided I was as far away from the school as I needed to be. I took a seat on the edge of the road, tucking my legs up to my chest. It was so cold.

"Bunking off too?" A voice said, sounding amused. I spun around to see a short, chestnut brown haired male.

"Umm.. yeah.." I replied, biting my lip lightly.

He smirked. "I'm Alex."

"Alex?" I replied, frowning at him.

"Yes, I know what you're thinking," He said with a smirk. "The year's dork, right?"

I nodded.

He chuckled. "I don't think anyone could survive their whole highschool life in there." He continued. "Not even a nerd like me."

"It's hell, right?" I agreed, leaning back into the grass.

"It's worse that hell." He grinned, lying down beside me.

"So you do this a lot?" I asked, turning my face to the side so I could see him.

He shook his head. "Only when I need too."

"What?"

"I only bunk off when I need too." He repeated.

"What do you mean? When you need too?"

He sat up urptly. "Nothing, never mind." He said, standing on his feet now. "You're my year right?"

"Yeah."

"You take Biology?"

I nodded.

"Like it?"

I shook my head. "I suck at it."

"Perfect."

I looked at him questionly.

"I take it you haven't been revising for the exam next week?"

"There's an exam?" I replied, eyes widening.

He laughed. "Not once we're finished."

"What?" I frowned, and then something clicked and I grinned a little. "It's not.."

"It is." He smirked. He gestured for me to stand up, and I did as I was told. He grabbed my arm, and began running back towards the school. I let him pull me, running a bit myself.

We pulled up outside the school and he pushed me in first.

"Okay, okay, I'm going, Jesus, calm it, ALEX!" I screeched as he poked my back.

He chuckled. "Shut up, or we'll get caught."

I closed my mouth, following him into the building of hell. My stomach started doing front flips when we stopped outside the Biology base.

"Come on!" He gestured for me to follow him in. I moved slowly, tip toeing into the place where all the exams were sitting, ready for children to write on.

Alex looked back at me, grinning at my worried expression. "It's fine, don't look so worried."

I dropped my face, half smiling at him. "I'm not worried."

He raised his eyebrows. "Doesn't look like it."

I went to open my mouth to fight back, when I heard laughter and talking. I looked at Alex to make sure he had heard it too. He had.

"Shit." Alex muttered under his breath. "Hurry up, find the papers!"

Alex moved his way around the small room, throwing bits of paper everywhere. I followed his lead, but a little bit neater than him. I didn't want to make it too obvious someone had been in here.

"Let me just get my diary." A voice sounded, and the door opened. I fell to my knees, crawling under the table, where I was hopefully unseen.

"What a mess." The same voice sounded, making butterflies enter my stomach. A lot of butterflies. Lots of butterflies doing front flips.

"Come on, Linda." A huskier voice said. "We won't finish this in time."

"That's what she said." I heard someone whisper, and I nearly screamed to see Alex right beside me. He grinned, putting a finger to his lips.

"I'm coming!" She replied. I heard the door close, and I felt Alex's smirk grow.

"Coast is cleaaarrr." He sang. "Let's go!"

I followed him up, and we began looking through the papers again. Alex was throwing paper everywhere. I rolled my eyes.

"Found them!" He called. I spun round to see him dancing around the base with a smug smile on his face. "Let's get out of here!"

He opened the door, hurriedly, me following not long behind him. He ran down the corridor. I was a few paces behind him, but it was fine, there was no one in the hallway.

"This is the prinicpals room." Another voice sounded. The prinicpals office was about two doors down from where we were.

I felt an arm wrap around my waist, and I was pulled into what looked like a store room. It was pitch black, I couldn't see a thing. I felt a tight hand grip around my hand, and I smiled realising it was Alex's.

"Down this corridor is the science labs." The same voice from earlier sounded. I sighed with relief. The science labs were down a small hallway away from where we were.

To my surprise, though, Alex hadn't shot out the storeroom yet. His hand was still wrapped around mine, and I could hear him breathing lightly. I looked to the direction of him, and I saw his light outline. His mouth moved, into what looked like a smile.

Not a grin.

A smile.

I might have mistaken it, but it looked like a genuine smile.

I was in a few classes with Alex, and never had I ever seen him genuinely smile.

He began laughing, his head leaning against my shoulder. I felt the shape of his mouth against my skin. I looked down into the darkness, when I felt his head leave my shoulder. He put a hand on my face, pulling it back up.

How the hell could he tell where I was? All I could see was his face and a couple of buckets or something. He put his face close to mine- well at least, I think it was his face?

"You need to eat more carrots." He chuckled, his soft breath on my face. I let out a small smile.

He removed his hand from my face, letting my face drop back down. He then removed his hand from my own, and opened the storeroom door open, walking out of it. I followed him.

What just happened?

"Come on." He chuckled, seeing my confused face. I looked down to his hand, which was open for me to take. I rejoined our hands, before moving my eyes back up to his face. As I was about to smile, he turned his head away, and pulled me out the door. We ran, hand in hand, down the alleyway, until reaching the patch of grass where we had began.

As soon as we got there, he let go of my hand, and threw his hands in the air.

"I did it!" He shouted.

I coughed. "We."

He stopped waving his hands about, and looking at me grinning. "We."

He proceeded to high five me, before leaving me with the feeling of his hand hitting mine, as he ran off screaming.

So we'd gone from strangers, to holding hands, to high fiving?

This was weird, I didn't understand Alex at all. Was he trying something on with me?

Did he know I was gay?