chapter 3
"stop pushing me away"

dejah was sat in business studies all by herself. she hates business in general, so that class being the only one she didn't have anyone in made it even more hard for her, even chris being there would of been better than just by herself. she sits there in the back corner, fiddling with whatever she could find, pens, hoodie strings and her bag before she finally sneakily took her phone out of her pocket.

she scrolls on tiktok on low volume aimlessly for a second when she sees a message from an unknown number.

ⁱᵐᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ

unknown
hi

she decided to not reply to it as it was probably a scammer or someone trying to prank her when another message caught her eye.

ⁱᵐᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ

unknown
hi
it's chris

she paused before pressing the notification. why was he texting me? and how does he have my number. weird. she typed out a few responses, but ultimately kept deleting them all as she didn't know what to say to him.

ⁱᵐᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ

unknown
hi
it's chris

me
hi
what do u want

unknown
nm
js realised that i never had ur number

me
how did u even get it

unknown
nate
also yk that jude kid

me
omg u rlly got my number to talk abt jude

unknown
js hear me out ffs
his older brother n nate have problems ig
n apparently jude's trouble so i'm js warning u that's all

me
chris
bffr
js bc u don't like him doesn't mean to have to make shit up abt him 🤦‍♀️

dejah changed unknown to chris

chris
omds
even ask nate abt it
but whatever
u clearly love him sm so

dejah rolled her eyes at that last message. something about it infuriated her, the fact he had the nerve to say something like that to her made her blood boil. just as she begins to try type something out as a response to his childish message, the teacher slams his fist against her table making her drop her phone on the desk. "is there someone you're messaging thats more important than this class, miss doe?"

dejah looked around the room anxiously as everyone was staring at her, whispering to their friends and laughing. "n-n-no" she stutters, making everyone burst out laughing. she heard even more whispers like, "she's so weird."
or
"i've never seen her actually talking to anyone in this class, does she even have friends?"

"didn't think so." he says, taking her phone from the desk to put it in his drawer on his desk.

dejahs heart was full of anxiety, she found solace in the back corner of this classroom, hoping to blend into the background, but now that the teacher had humiliated her in front of everyone it made her feel seen which she didn't like. the lack of friends in the class made her feel like an isolated island of discomfort. without a second thought, she sprung up from her seat and ran out of the door to escape from that room full of people who didn't like her.

☁︎︎☀︎︎
_______________________________

"did she say anything else?" asks nate, passing chris a pot of paint so that he can finish his painting.

"nope. she started typing and then she just left me on read." he explains, turning his phone off. he picks the paint up and squirts a little bit onto the pallet, grabbed a paint brush and started painting the background of his painting.

nate shrugged, "well i knew she wouldn't believe you" he laughs, grabbing another colour of paint to squeeze on the pallet for chris to use later. the paint wouldn't come out as it was nearly finished, so nate was squeezing the bottle hard and shaking it up and down causing the paint to splash all over chris' arm. nate puts the paint down on the table and covers his mouth to refrain from laughing.

chris' mouth dropped open as he freezes, not knowing what to do. he starts to laugh before grabbing a paper towel to try and wipe the paint away, only resulting in it spreading more over his arm, "bro, look what you did you idiot" he says, pushing nate playfully.

nate bends over so he can stop laughing before walking towards the teacher to ask her to let chris go to the bathroom to wash his arm off. the teacher lets chris go to bathroom and chris walks out of the class. as he was heading to the bathroom he saw dejah speed walking down the hall. he stops walking for a second to see if it was actually her and not someone else who looked like her before he walked over towards her. "dejah? are you oka-"

"chris, thank gosh you're here." she says. even thought chris knew he was the last person she probably wanted to bump into, and she only said that because she would of been happy to see anybody she knew as long as she knew them, it made chris happy. it was almost like she was actually happy to see him.

chris puts his arm around her, leading her to the janitors closet. when he opened the door, he was met with a load of cleaning products and cobwebs which he flapped away with his free hand. he felt around the dark room to find the light switch to light up the room so they could sit down. "what's wrong?" he asks her, sitting down on the table.

"my phone got taken from me in class from your stupid message, and then everyone was staring at me and whispering mean shit about me and i couldn't handle being in that classroom for another fucking second because i was about to go insane" she says in one breath, in a panicked voice. she seemed angry at chris like it was his fault. he didn't know that messaging her would of caused all this stuff, because if he would of known he would of saved it for later. "i don't know why i'm even talking to you right no-"

"why not." says chris, cutting her off before she could finish her predictable sentence. chris didn't know why she was holding back so much? in that very moment she was talking to him just like everyone else, but then convinced herself to stop and act like she doesn't like him. dejah stops for a moment. she wasn't about to pour her heart out to him about how she got badly rejected in pre school and then got led on by him all of middle school? besides, she's already ranted enough today.

"i.." she starts, trying the find the words. she opens her mouth again to speak, but stops. "don't know. i just dont"

"i don't get why i have to try so hard for you all the time? this is the perfect opportunity to just explain what i'm doing wrong, dejah." whispers chris, trying to get to the bottom on why. again, dejah shrugs her shoulders and pushes herself off the table they were both sat on. "where are you going?"

"back to class." she says dryly, twisting the door handle open to leave the janitors closet. chris sighs and follows her. dejah sped away towards the stairs to the library, she was going to bunk the rest of her class.

chris stands in awe, watching her walk up the stairs, "and i wasn't lying about jude." he shouts, making her pause for second before she continues to walk up the stairs ignoring his comment. chris scoffs and actually heads towards the bathroom to wash the paint off his arm that was now dry.

dejah was glad to see jude sat in the corner with his friends when she walked into the library. i'm guessing he's bunking too. maybe he is trouble, that's why he bunks pretty much every lesson? i mean, i can't really talk, i'm also bunking and maybe he has anxiety like me too. jude glances over at dejah and smirks a little bit. dejah smiles back and begins walking towards him, "hey" she says, making him and his friends look at her.

"who the fucks this bitch" jude's friend says, making the group laugh. jude smiles awkwardly, before standing up.

dejah pulls a dirty look at him. jude walks behind a wall, dragging her with him, "sorry about my friends. they're all dicks" he apologises.

"it's fine. you should really drop them you know, and hang out with us? we would love you there" she says, raising an eyebrow. jude smiles, pondering on the idea for a moment.

"maybe." he says with a flirty smile, "you bunking too?"

dejah presses her lips together, looking at the floor for a moment, "yeah.. i hate business studies." she explains, taking a small step closer to him. jude nods his head in agreement.

"you guys making out or something back there?" says one of jude friends, making kissing noises in mockery. jude rolls his eyes at his comment before taking a step around the corner to walk towards his friend.

"what if i was? what about it"

the room fell silent and dejah smiled at the fact that he was finally standing up to his 'friends' and also the fact that he did it in that way too. she walks around the corner and waves slightly at jude, walking towards the other side of the room to sit down on one of the bean bags.

¹⁵⁸⁶ ʷᵒʳᵈˢ

𝐦aisie
💌

chris didn't even apologise.. well atleast he got most of what he wanted to say to her off his chest?
jude's friends genuinely piss me off sm-

also we love nate for giving chris her number 🤗