Day 3
Alfred trudged over to the table, he sniffled and plopped down. Coughing loudly he put his head on the table and closed his eyes.
"You look like death…" Francis commented, frowning slightly and moved away. He looked at his friend who moved his head slightly to glare at him. Unfortunately the effect was lost when he sneezed with all his might, mumbling an 'ow' after words.
"Yeah I know…" He rasped and pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up. "The whole team's got a cold, except for the damn freshman QB. He should just get sick and suffer like the rest of us!" Alfred whined and hacked away, barely attempting to catch his cough, clearly not caring if anyone got sick from him or not.
"Yeah… maybe you should have stayed home," Francis said and put his hands on his lap avoiding the germs as much as he could. "I mean most of the football team is home and you've chosen to infect the school. If you don't do it on your own I'm sure a teacher will make you."
"I need to come for chem…. If I don't pull a high C in that class I'm off the team," He said and sighed. "But of course Matthew got to stay home because that weird guy threatened to beat him up again because he thought he was me! Can't my mom just side with me for once?"
"Surprised you remembered he even existed today."Francis remarked, honestly surprised. There weren't many days when Alfred, let alone anyone in the school remembered Matthew's existence besides him. He always felt bad about this. It's not like he never tried to get noticed.
"I sneezed in his oatmeal and he freaked out then mom yelled at me…."
"Oh…" Francis nodded and pulled out a fat daily planner. "So I made a group on face book for this. You need to fill out what happens so I can update it."
"Is it one of those secret ones?" He asked, taking the book with a skeptical eyebrow raised.
"Yes, yes. No one but the people in it can see it. I also coded the name just in case," He smiled, pulling out his cell phone. "Feliciano wants to double his bet… and tell us his lit teacher looks mad at him and he wonders why."
Alfred rolled his eyes and took out a pen. He clicked it open and looked for the correct date.
'Thursday, November 5th 2009:
Last night nothing notable happened. I went to get Chem help and get my quiz back.' He shoved it towards Francis, his hand writing almost illegible and hoping he wasn't going to be bothered until he would have to write more. There was about an eighth of the half a page for the day with his writing on it. Francis looked up giving him the look that always made him look back on to his childhood and think about the angry librarians that showed up in cartoons when the characters went to the library 75% of the time.
"You can't just give me that! Do you think that the people in the group will leave you alone if that's all they see on the page. You two are an item already so start spilling your guts." He said obviously getting upset with the lack of enthusiasm over the ordeal.
"Fine, I don't see what the need for more is all about. Why can't they just appreciate what I give them?" He snapped, taking it back he glared at it.
'Then I got an insane amount of texts w/-'
"Don't cut off words it'll look bad and it's tacky."
'WITH (there you go Francis now leave me the hell alone about it) bets. Arthur got upset over it and claimed that it was taking up my time and "ruining my studies" Then I had to go home. Nothing happened, okay?'
"There now that's all you're getting. I feel like shit walking." He snapped and rummaged through his back pack for a tissue settling on using his sleeve halfway through and slumped back down dropping his backpack with a loud thump.
"Yeah, yeah."
"Where're Yao and Ivan?"
"P.E. So you've forgotten about it again," A nod. "You actually got your chem work done," Another nod. "Wow… or did you just trick poor Arthur into it?" A third nod.
"I told him it was extra credit. He practically did the whole damn thing no questions asked. But it was weird… cause I felt bad about it later… or that was just me getting sick," He sighed and crossed his arms on the table, resting his forehead where they met. "I'm gonna go home early I think. Maybe the spawn of Satan will give me a break for once." He mused in foolish hope.
"Yeah I don't think so, not if you act the way you do around me in her class. " Francis teased with a smirk.
Alfred rolled his eyes but kept quiet. There was always an expectation of him. He had to be the goofball who was always smiling. Being obnoxiously loud and other peoples source of amusement.
"I'm not. I'm quiet and respectful in there okay?" He snapped. Something in the back of his mind nagged at him, it was Arthur. Why, why was he always in his thoughts nagging him? 'Is he secretly my conscious coming to yell at me about not doing what I should?' He asked himself and closed his eyes again.
"Jesus Christ, just asking." Francis said and looked over to the seat where Matthew had always sat, like if he stared at it hard enough the quiet boy would appear and save him from Alfred's second phase of being sick which he found much like the five stages of grief. Denial and anger were down now all that was left was bargaining, depression and acceptance.
"Yeah I know… I would just sell my soul to get better and play in the game tonight. Do you know who we're playing?"
"No…"
"A division one team. It'd be so intense I –" He continued to hack up a lung.
"Staple face," The study hall monitor barked. "Go to the nurse!" Alfred looked over at Francis and gave him a look like 'mom's gonna kill me' and picked up his stuff, leaving.
A/N Cork here! Apolgizing in advance for… NaNo WriMo. Yes yes this means a hiatus for all my stuff. If I'm in a position where I have some free time I'll try to get stuff done. So on that note here's the third chapter and what is this I suspect… MURDER? No… no wait… it's just guilt. Till next time Cork OUT!
