corrupted lungs | d.w #Wattys2016

f o u r t e e n

I was impatiently shuffling my feet in the snow outside of Dallon's house, making different patterns just to distract myself from the cold, even though it already had crawled under my skin. I had come to the conclusion that it was very hard to shake something off that already was under your skin.

The familiar creek of the front door made me look up to see a very well dressed Dallon walk out of the house. His face brightened up as he spotted me and he hurried his steps a little when he noticed me freezing.

"Hey, sorry for making you wait." He mumbled as we started walking down the sidewalk.

"It's okay." I told him and shot him a smile.

"Are you finished with the biology assignment?" Dallon asked rather awkwardly and I nodded.

It was so typical to talk about school when we were on our way to it. I just hoped that this day would pass by fast. Monday was the absolute worst day of the week. I was glad that Dallon was here though. He'd be having some classes together with me today.

We arrived in the entrance of the school about ten minutes later, but we didn't part ways yet. I walked with Dallon to his locker were he pulled off his coat to reveal a neat blue button up shirt that was nicely tucked into his black trousers. He had a great fashion sense unlike other boys at this school. Screw that, Dallon wasn't a boy. He was a man.

We then made our way over to my locker that was located deeper into the school. A few students glanced at us and whispered between each other as we walked past which seemed to make Dallon slightly uncomfortable, since he fidgeted and faced the floor as we walked. I didn't dare to put an arm around him and I mentally slapped myself for that. We finally reached our destination and I unlocked my locker and grabbed my things.

Just as I was closing up my locker again, I heard steps making their way over towards us. As I turned forward again, I saw Sarah coming at us.

"Hi!" She exclaimed as she walked up to us, or more specifically, to me. She didn't even glance at Dallon. It was like he was invisible to her.

"Hi," I responded rather blankly as my eyes travelled between Dallon and Sarah. "This is Dallon, by the way." I told her.

She looked up at the taller boy and nodded a little, kind of uninterested. She raised her hand into a small wave, before turning back to me. She started talking about something as usual, almost pushing Dallon out of the way. I quickly grabbed him by his hand and pulled him next to me again. Sarah shot me a look of confusion before she shrugged and walked over on my other side.

Dallon looked down at me with the same amount of confusion and insecurity in his eyes, but I could spot a little smile in the corner of his lips. I smiled, before letting go of his hand.

The three of us made our way to the first class of the day, Sarah speaking of something that I usually would've been really interested in hearing but right now, I just couldn't concentrate.

+++

"I want to show you something." Dallon whispered to me during biology class. We were sitting in the back of the room while the rest were watching some movie that I hadn't been paying attention to.

I looked over at him. "Like, right now?" I questioned and he nodded.

"We can't just leave.." I whispered and he chuckled.

"If you go with me, no one will notice." He said and looked down. My heart ached hearing those words leave his mouth. But I knew that sadly, it was true.

"Let's go then." I said and he got up and I followed.

No one noticed us leaving.

We walked down the empty hallways side by side. Dallon lead the way to the staircase and we started making our way up the stairs. We got up to the second floor. There were rarely any classes held up here and the only ones who actually used to be up here was the teachers. Right now, it was dead silent and no steps echoed between the walls except mine and Dallon's.

He suddenly rounded a corner and continued down a short hallway. I curiously followed him. I'd never been to this part of the building. We walked to the end of the hallway and I spotted an iron door on the right side of the wall with the letters 'EXIT' printed over it.

"Where are we going?" I asked him and he pushed the heavy door open.

He just looked at me with a smile, before gesturing for me to go inside. I walked inside to find yet another staircase, but a much smaller one. I walked up and found another door that looked like it was leading outside. As Dallon came up next to me and opened the door, it turned out I was right.

Outside, it was the side of the roof were there was enough space to actually sit on. There was a small and probably slippery way to walk on and I was a bit scared of actually trying it out.

Dallon casually walked past me and balanced out on the roof. I chuckled a little out of pure nervousness of him falling but he made it safely over. He sat down and patted a spot next to him.

"Come on." He said in a soft tone and I smiled, before slowly making my way over to him. I sat down next to him and looked at him.

"You've got some explaining to do." I told him with a smile and he looked over at me.

"I found this place on my first day here. One of the teachers, Mr. Simons, was showing me around up here and I saw the door. Once he'd left, I snuck up here." He said and smiled a little. "It's my second happy-place."

"Is this where you go when you disappear from class sometimes?" I asked and he shrugged.

"Sometimes." He said and looked out over the snowy world.

I looked down at my hands. The air was cold and the warmth was quickly leaving my body, but I didn't want to go back to class. I wanted to stay here with Dallon.

"You should meet my friends." I said and looked at him.

He looked down. "Why?"

"Because I think it would be good. To show them that they're wrong about you." I told him and he shrugged.

"I don't know..."

I grabbed his hand. "You don't have to. You know you don't. I wouldn't make you do something you weren't comfortable with." I assured him and he gave me a little smile.

"Thank you." He said and gave my hand a tensed but gentle squeeze.

We didn't talk more about it. We just sat there together, our hands sloppily laced together and our feet dangling over the edge. I had no track of time, but I didn't care. For the first time in my life, I didn't care if I missed class or what anyone thought.

All that mattered, was this.