2. Embarrassment

It suddenly became really quiet. Eren thought he heard Hanji say something about him dressing up as a girl to the ball next week, he must have fallen asleep again or maybe it was all a dream. He pinched himself trying to find the comfort of feeling no pain that symbolised all of this wasn't real and he was going to wake up soon. But there was pain, his eyes widened in horror as he slapped himself and felt the pain burst on his right cheek. "Eren..You alright? Stop hurting yourself please… im so sorry." Hanji's concerned voice suddenly cutting sharply through the quiet still air.

Eren wanted to say something but his mind suddenly went back to the moment Hanji told him her math mark and remembered something… "Hanji, you said you go 95.5? How the fuck do you even get the 0.5 in a math test. From what I remember, we have the same math teacher and…he only gives 0.5 marks when you get basically everything in the question right but did some stupid addition or subtraction mistake… Please don't tell me you lost the bet due to some stupid addition or subtraction mistake." Eren narrowed his eyes and looked at Hanji suspiciously. "Ahahaha… well you see Eren, I kinda um…gotta go somewhere so...AHH WHAT ARE YOU DOING DON'T FLIP THROUGH MY BAG GODDAMIT… NO NOT THE MATH TEST PLEASE EREN!" Eren was holding the math test above his head scanning through the test quickly as Hanji tried desperately to snatch the test away from Eren's hands. His eyes stopped at the last question and… "Hanji honestly, do you even know how to add." Someone please tell him, how do you mess up 1+1. Eren burst out laughing while Hanji finally succeeded in snatching her math test back and stuffing it back into her bag. "Yeah 1+1=1 aye Hanji, maybe someone needs to redo year 1." Eren said between laughs. Hanji's face turned bright red as she shouted "WHATEVER EREN DON'T FORGET THAT STUPID BET." Eren's laughing stopped and it was Hanji's turn to laugh "Hahaha don't worry Eren I will be paying for everything. Including your dress and shoes and stuff." Eren wasn't sure, but he thought he saw some kind of eagerness to try out something in her eyes. "And why do I have to do it. I'm pretty sure I could reject you and you could get beaten up by Petra." Eren said darkly. "Well if you do Eren…" Hanji smirked "I won't be performing with you this Sunday at the hospital, you can't possibly play that piece on your own can you. It's too late to find someone else at this time and you can't change the piece because you already registered with that piece." Eren knew she was right, but he still had to say something "Well you never know, I might just be convincing enough to convince them to allow me to change my piece you know." He knows that's impossible but says it anyway.

Hanji just shrugs and said "I can imagine your parent's expression if they don't let you change it and you get disqualified." Eren sighed "Alright Hanji, what's your plan." Hanji's lips stretched into a victorious smile "The ball is next Friday, we go shopping on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'll go pick you up and tell your parents about the dress with Petra. Then on Thursday you come to my house to try everything out and stuff. Petra will be there too, to help out." Hanji paused and tilted her head a bit thinking "Then on Friday, Petra and I will go find you, get you prepared and ready then we go together. I think it starts at 7pm to like 3am or something because they have a Christmas thing going on as well, don't think of running away because it's compulsory and if you don't go the teachers would probably hunt you down." Hanji said answering all of Eren's questions in one go. "I see you already planned everything out for me from the start. You never really had a backup plan if I said no did you." Eren sighed again. "Of course I didn't! You are the perfect choice after all… oh shit." Hanji clamped her hand over her mouth realising she said her thoughts out loud. "You're the best Eren ~ I gotta go now byeeee!" she said as she sprinted away from Eren. Eren rubbed his temples while walking back into the music room. He didn't really feel like practicing anymore so he just sat down on a chair and stared into space trying to process what Hanji had just thrown at him. Realising that it only made him even more frustrated, he grabbed his bag and went in search to find some food.

He headed towards the cafeteria, looking mindlessly at the menu in attempt to find something nice to eat. He settled with a sandwich of some sort and went to sit down in the empty room. Still thinking about what Hanji had said to him, he groaned and started biting on the sandwich, for some reason the food seemed tasteless…but he kept eating it anyway. His phone vibrated and his eyes flicked over to the bright screen.

Armin 1:13pm
Where are you?

He didn't feel like replying so he left the phone on the table for another few minutes before he remembered that Armin would worry and call Mikasa, his other cousin and things would get messy.

Me 1:20pm
Cafeteria.

Armin 1:20pm
Ok I'll go find you.

Eren set his phone down and continued to bite his sandwich. It wasn't long before Armin arrived and saw Eren in a corner of the empty cafeteria, head leaning in one hand and a sandwich in the other staring with a blank expression at the white walls. He didn't even realise when Armin walked behind him. "Eren?" Armin hesitantly called out his friend's name. "Hmm…?" Eren didn't even turn to look at him. Armin grabbed the seat next to Eren and sat down, taking out an apple and examining it before biting down on it. "Is something bothering you?" He tried to ask but Eren only returned with a few muffled no's and nah's which made it even more obvious something was bothering him, but Armin decided to take a break and ask later. The sat in silence for a few more minutes before people started heading in the cafeteria and it only got noisier. "EREN! ARMIN!" two people shouted from the far end of the cafeteria, Eren didn't move as if he didn't hear anything and Armin stood up and waved. Connie and Marco walked over to the table Armin and Eren were at and sat down, "Sasha and Jean went to buy food, they wanted to see who could be the first one to order." Connie provided them with information where their two other friends went, Marco nodded and said "Mikasa and Krista will come a bit later. Reiner has detention and Annie is attending science tutorials." Armin nodded and smiled as he saw Jean and Sasha fighting over who is getting what food. Their table instantly became noisy, but that didn't really seem to affect Eren. He still sat there finishing off his sandwich with a blank expression.

"What's up with Eren?" Sasha asked when she got to the table "I dunno, he was like this when I got here." Armin replied with a worried look. "Oh come on you freakin nerd, cheer up bro." Jean joked as he slapped Eren's back hard. Everyone held their breath to see what was going to happen, but Eren only continued to eat his sandwich as if nothing happened. "Ok we need a fucking doctor here right now this instant, the nerd isn't well, Mikasa's gonna kill us all." Jean said with a slightly concerned tone. "Agreed." Marco said. They all stared until Eren finally finished his sandwich, suddenly Eren looked around as if he didn't know why he was here, and everyone looked back at him waiting for him to say something. Eren frowned and then smiled, his lips parted and he was about to say something. Everyone waited in complete silence and... "Oh hey guys."

…

…

"What the fuck." Connie was the first one to make a reaction, although he swore, the whole table could hear the obvious relief in his voice. Right after, Mikasa and Krista walked in, Eren smiled and greeted them. The rest stared at them and decided among themselves to keep this a secret from Mikasa, because they still wanted to live to tomorrow.

The rest of lunch went well, Eren talked about the math test with his classmates and joked around with Jean as usual, but something just didn't seem right. Armin observed Eren and his actions, he noticed that Eren wasn't paying as much attention as usual and his mind seemed to wander off every once in a while, when they started talking about the ball that was going to happen next week, he wasn't sure but he thought he saw Eren jump a bit. It was too late to ask now since it was time for class. The whole table had English next together, so they walked together towards their next English class. Eren looked around his group satisfied, most of his friends were in the top 10, although sometimes every now and then some grades go down and some grades go up, the top 10 were mostly the same people just in different orders. The only people that managed to always stay in the same place were Eren and Levi. Levi would always be first and Eren second no matter how hard Eren tried, he just couldn't pass Levi. He looked around at his friends and remembered their places, Mikasa was 5th, Jean was 6th, Marco was 7th, Connie was 8th, Sasha was 9th and Krista was 10th. He knew that Annie and Reiner weren't far behind either. He smiled as they approached their English classroom, dressing up as a girl? Screw that, he can't be stuffed thinking about that shit at the moment.

English went quicker than usual, Connie managed to get told off 3 times for falling asleep in class and Sasha 2 times for secretly eating in class. Jean tossed a scrunched up paper ball at Eren while the teacher wasn't looking, he opened it and looked inside. There was a whole conversation written down.

Jean - Wanna go to city afterschool and have dinner?
Marco - I'm free
Armin - I need to ask my parents but it should be alright.
Mikasa - Is Eren going?
Marco - I don't know, ask him.
Jean - I'll chuck it at him, Eren ask Connie, Sasha, Annie and Reiner after you reply.

Eren read it, quickly scribbled down something and chucked it to Connie and Sasha. A few minutes later, the paper ball landed back on his table. He opened it and took a look.

Eren - I can't go sorry, mum needs me back.
Connie - Yea I'll be goin if someone pays for the food, im broke.
Sasha - IM GOING! FOOD OMG HERE I COME.
Annie - I have a lesson afterschool, next time.
Reiner - I'll go, just need to let my parents know.

He tossed it back to Jean when Jean wasn't looking and hit his head, he glared at Eren and Eren pulled a face at him not really caring and turned back around. Class ended and everyone gathered around Eren's table. "So only Eren and Annie aren't going?" Armin asked, "Yeah" Jean replied. "I'm sorry, mum needs me back home tonight haha." Eren smiled scratching the back of his neck, Annie just shrugs. "Well see you two tomorrow, see ya." Reiner laughed and waved, they separated at the school gate and Eren slowly made his way to the train station.

Since it was afterschool, there were quite a lot of students from his school boarding the train. He quickly got on the train and looked around hoping to find a seat for once. His eyes landed on an empty seat next to a student, which judging from the uniform was also from his school. Eren didn't really care though, he was just happy he found a seat. He quickly walked over and sat down, as he did so, he took a quick look at the guy next to him. His uniform was clean and ironed, shoes polished. The guy had good looking but cold features, thin lips that seemed like they never wore a smile on them, fair skin that every girl would kill for and his slim grey eyes looking straight at him…

…

Looking straight at him? Eren realised the guy he was observing was also looking at him. "Oh uh-h I'm sorry, I didn't m-mean to be r-rude." "It's ok." Far out, his voice was perfect too. Eren nodded and decided to listen to music. He closed his eyes and as the familiar tune played he started to relax and think about the news Hanji told him. What colour dress should I buy? He thought to himself. No wait, I shouldn't be thinking about that. He shook his head in frustrated and covered up a small yawn. He was tired and that was the only thing he thought of before he fell asleep.

He woke up with a start as he heard the name of the station he needed to get off at being called. He lifted his head up from the place it was sleeping on and rubbed his eyes. The train was slowing down and he looked around to realise he was sitting in a seat and a pair of cold eyes were staring from above…above? I SLEPT ON A RANDOM STRANGER! A voice screamed in his head. "Ah-h I'm so s-sorry!" Eren jumped up from his seat and ran towards the opening door, his face was burning from embarrassment as he tried to get the cool air outside to cool his burning face down. He missed the pair of amused eyes that stared after him as he ran out of the train. Eren sprinted all the way home with only one thought in mind. HOW EMBARRASSING.

Note:

Well here is the 2nd chapter already… I'm overseas and there is nothing to do so I'm hoping to update quickly if I don't run out of ideas haha. Please leave a comment or something if you like the story so far or if there is anything I should improve. Thanks