Chapter Seventeen

"I'll keep my fingers crossed, shall I?" Isaac joked with a chuckle.

"If you wouldn't mind, thanks."

"If I fail my final year at school because I can't write anything, I'm blaming you."

"Don't blame me 'cause you're not intelligent enough to pass school," Louis said with a laugh.

One thing he was starting to like about Isaac was that he could go from being serious to trying to lighten the mood in an instant. It was like he knew that Louis didn't want to talk about something further and he made sure not to dwell on it.

"I blame who I want, when I want. And only when those I want are blamed can I be free from these chains," Isaac faked a serious tone.

"Geez, you could become a rapper."

"That's what I keep telling my mum. She doesn't think so, though."

Louis and Isaac laughed, the sound echoing through the wall before silence fell between them. It was a pleasant silence, and there was a certain calm about it. Louis felt peace he hadn't felt all day, maybe longer. Sure, there was a moment when he had been with Sam and Sarah when they made him feel at ease, but this was different. This was a different feeling. And it was something that he could get used to.

"I'm not going to wake your family up am I?" Louis asked, gently rubbing his jaw.

"I don't think so. Apparently, they heard me talking the other night, but didn't hear you," Isaac replied after a moment. "Have you heard them at all? They can get quite loud. Especially, my two younger sisters."

"I don't think I've heard them. Only you." Louis sighed; thankful Isaac's family hadn't been able to hear him.

"That's weird. Considering how quiet we're whispering and can still hear each other," Isaac ponder, and Louis hummed in agreement.

"Oh, I forgot to ask, how was your first day at your new school?" Louis asked after a few minutes of quiet between them.

"Ah, damn it. I was hoping you'd fallen asleep." Isaac sighed. "Not because I don't like talking to you, but because you need sleep."

"So caring, Isaac. But don't avoid my question," Louis teased.

"I'm more caring than a nurse at a retirement village," Isaac replied, chuckling. "As for my first day; it was full of adventure!" Louis could sense the sarcasm in Isaac's voice and felt himself liking this boy more and more.

"That fun, huh?"

"You have no idea."

"Try me."

"Okay, okay," Isaac started. "First of all, the school didn't have my schedule. I rocked up, and they pretty much didn't even know who I was. So, like, good start, right? When that was all fixed up, and I finally got to my homeroom, I was scolded for being late, and when I tried to explain why I was late, I got scolded again for back chatting the teacher."

"Sounds like a great morning to me," Louis said teasingly.

"I know, right? Anyway, after that, the first few classes were good. I made some friends and what not, but then English came, and let me tell you, my teacher is older than the school itself, and it is a pretty old school," Isaac laughed, causing Louis to cackle. "I'm pretty sure she used to own a pet dinosaur or something. Probably rode it to caveman camp."

"Does her age have anything to do with the story?" Louis interjected as he let out another laugh.

"Don't get antsy, fancy pants," Isaac replied. "I'm world-building; shut up."

"Sorry, sorry." Louis raised his hands in surrender as if he was in the same room as Isaac. "Continue."

"So, I stride in. Back straight. Chest pushed out. I'm like a proud lion walking into this classroom, right? And I go to take a seat, and the teacher stops me. 'Excuse me,' she called to me, and at first, I thought it was my grandmother calling down to me from the heavens until her dementor hand clasped my shoulder. When I turned around and saw her, I thought I had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a retirement home. Call back to my comment earlier. Anyway!"

At this point, Louis was trying his hardest not to laugh as to not wake up Isaac's family next door—in case his voice carried further than usual. Only tried, however, as evil cackles left his mouth. The pain in his head and jaw were still there but at this moment unnoticeable.

"She tells me to introduce myself to the class, so I do." Isaac clears his throat and does an exaggerated impersonation of himself. "'Hi, I'm Isaac, and I don't like it when people wink with both eyes.' Of course, the class went wild, because I'm hilarious, but the teacher disagreed. Anyway, long story short, I got detention."

"What?!" Louis managed to say through his laughter. "You got detention for that?"

"Well, not for that exactly," Isaac muttered. "I may have also made some other comments throughout the lesson that the teacher found less than amusing."

"Do I even want to know?"

"My parents sure didn't want to." Isaac laughed. "They were not impressed when the school called them and told them I landed in detention. My sisters, on the other hand, loved it."

"You need to behave yourself, young man," Louis said, deepening his voice.

"That's actually what my dad said to me. Almost in that exact voice, too."

"You should listen to him."

"Sure, like you've never done anything wrong at school."

Louis fell silent for a moment and wondered if he should tell Isaac about his day. For some reason, he felt extremely comfortable with Isaac. Maybe it was because of the wall between them, making Louis feel free of judgement. Whatever it was, Louis took in a deep breath as he made his decision.

"I probably got expelled from school today."

Isaac didn't respond straight away, and it killed Louis. The silence was fierce, and it felt as though it was causing the room to get smaller. For a second, Louis regretted his decision, wondering if Isaac would respond at all. But the thought left his mind just as quickly as it had come as Isaac's voice filled the air once again.

"Crap, I'm sorry. What happened?"

"Not to go into too much detail, like yourself." Louis tried to keep the topic light-hearted, but he wasn't sure if it had worked. "I punched a kid in the face and kicked another in the gut, all before screaming at the principal."

"And I thought my day was bad," Isaac after a short pause, and Louis chuckled. "But I do feel like I need some more information because I did not picture you to be the type of person to, firstly, be able to fight someone, and secondly, to willingly do so."

"Well, you have one of those things, right," Louis said. "I don't like to fight. I'd rather spit some fire insults." He chuckled, still trying his best to keep the topic light.

"Okay... but you're not the scrawny kid with glasses carrying around a notebook that I imagined, are you?"

"You have the glasses thing kind of right and the notebook. If I had a notebook." Louis grinned. "So, no, you got none of it right."

"Wait, how did I get the glasses 'kind of right'?"

"Well, I wear contacts. But if I wanted to, I could wear glasses. Though, I hate them with a passion. More so than my contacts. Either way, I can't see without assistance," Louis responded, thinking back to the day he had just had and how hard it had been for him to see anything.

Luckily for Louis, he knew everything he was learning at school, so he didn't have to read the whiteboard. Because if he'd had to, he would have failed miserably.

"Ah, okay. But that's all I got kind of right?" Isaac questioned, clearly trying to get a better indication of what Louis looked like, but Louis wasn't going to give that information out so easily.

Still doing his best to steer clear of a serious conversation, Louis played on that.

"Maybe, who knows? You have to unlock the next friendship stage for that information."

"How do I do that?" Isaac asked, groaning, trying to hide his laughter.

"It'll cost you fifty dollars a month, and you will be locked into a contract for a year."

"Okay, I have one question."

"Yes, my kind sir?"

"Is it worth it?"

"Probably not." Louis laughed. "But we can always pretend it's worth it."

"I'm sure I won't have to pretend," Isaac murmured, and Louis found himself smiling at his words.

They were only simple, and to Isaac, there was probably no weight behind them. But for Louis, hearing them meant a lot.

"Anyway," Isaac's voice cut in again. "Do you want to talk about what happened?" Isaac seemed hesitant to ask, and his words seemed quieter than they did before.

"It was just stupid," Louis responded, surprising himself as the words fell from his mouth. "There's just a lot going on, and I lost control a bit. It wasn't even over anything major. I mean, the fight, if you can even call it that, wasn't my fault. They threw the first punch. But what I did in the principal's office... I don't even know what came over me. It's like all the anger I'd been holding in just spilled out. It's been happening a lot recently..."

Louis went quiet, still shocked at himself for telling Isaac all that.

"Like last night?" Isaac asked cautiously.

"Yeah."

"You said you 'probably got expelled'. You don't know yet?"

Louis was glad he didn't ask any more questions about the previous night.

"No. I kind of stormed out before the principal said anything; so, I don't know."

"I'm sorry, Lou. I wish there were something I could do to help."

"You are helping," Louis stated with a small smile, deciding that he didn't care about revealing the softer side of himself.

Isaac made him feel comfortable. He felt he could bring down his walls a little bit. Which, in a situation like his and Isaac's, was a bit ironic.

"Tell me more about your day," Louis whispered, making himself more comfortable in his bed.

Without another question about Louis' life, like he knew to leave it at that for the moment, Isaac started to talk about the rest of his first day at his new school. He was talking about all of his teachers and the nicknames he had given them, as well as the few friends he had made. Louis soaked in every word. Isaac's voice, kind and soothing, washed over Louis as he lay in his bed with his eyes closed. As time passed, he slowly drifted away, falling into the first peaceful sleep he'd had in a very long time.

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A/N: Honestly, I can't believe I'm sticking to a schedule. If only people were here to see it...

Joking! But anywho, I hope you liked this part! If you did, it would be super cool if you voted on it... maybe even tag your friend?

For now... a question... or two:

Do you think Isaac deserved a detention?

What do you think is going to happen to Louis?