Maybe Eren should've tried to stay calm whenever Jean grated on his nerves. After all, he did it so often, Eren should have been used to it by this point. No matter how many times Jean had pushed his buttons and aggravated him to the point of yelling before though, nothing Eren had ever said before this Tuesday had ever shut him up so quickly and completely.

The two-toned haired boy had been repeatedly poking Eren in the ribs and asking him annoying questions. Each jab from his index finger and question that Eren tried to tune out brought Eren closer to boiling over with anger.

"Eren," poke. "Eren what's yesterday's chemistry homework?" Poke. "Can I just copy yours?" Poke. "Are you even good at chemistry?" Poke. "I mean, you're definitely not good at art," poke, "but that doesn't mean you'd be bad at chemistry." Poke. "What subjects are you good at anyway, Jaeger?" Poke. "Obviously not health." A poke and a chuckle at his own joke. "Get it?" Poke. "'Cause you were sick the other day?" Poke.

Eren gritted his teeth and pressed his tightly-clenched fists down on the table. "Jean, can you please stop that?" he hissed, eyes screwed shut and brow furrowed.

Jean smirked and picked up the pace. "Why, Jeager? What are you gon' do about it?" He laughed again.

Although Eren didn't believe in a god of any kind, he sent a silent prayer up to every god of all kinds that Marco would notice Jean being obnoxious and make him stop before Eren literally bit his head off. "Jean," he began slowly, "if you poke me one more god damn time, I'm going to break your fucking finger."

Jean, of course, ignored his warning. He raised his eyes to stare directly into Erens as he slowly moved his finger closer to Eren's ribs. Poke. Poke, poke. Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke poke poke poke pokepokepokepokepokepo-

"OW!"

Jean tried to yank his hand out of Eren's grasp, but Eren held tight. Eren drew his arm back and punched him squarely in the chest.

"You wanna know why I was gone, Jean? You wanna know why I wasn't in school last week? I fucking tried to kill myself. I tried to get rid of this all, of me. And you just fucking live like the whole world is yours, like you're the only thing that matters. You're completely oblivious to what it's like, aren't you? You can't possibly fucking grasp just how shitty the world is, can you?" Eren thrust Jean's hand back at him. "I'm done. I'm gone. See you tomorrow. Maybe." With that, the boy stood up and walked away, holding his middle finger up behind him.

Jean sat in silence, completely stunned for a few minutes. Eren had been loud enough for the whole table to hear, and they joined Jean in his shock. Armin and Mikasa kept their eyes glued to the table, quietly harboring their guilt.

It was Connie that first broke the silence. "Oh my god," he murmured, gaze still blank and brain still processing the situation.

"Yeah. That's... That's, um..." Marco trailed off.

"Did you two know about this?" Jean inquired, gesturing between Mikasa and Armin.

They both stayed silent for a moment before Armin squeaked out a small, "yes."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"It-" he swallowed hard, "It wasn't our place. It was his decision to tell you guys or not. And believe me, we did want to tell you, we really did. It's just, this is not something that we have the right to talk about to other people without his permission."

Jean nodded in understanding. The table remained quiet for a moment and he swept his eyes over his companions. Armin and Mikasa were still staring at the table guiltily. Sasha was wringing her hands next to Connie, who was staring off into space. Marco looked grim, brows knitted and mouth set into a deep frown. Ymir's face was dark and a bit disturbed; her arms were around a shaking Historia, whose face betrayed her horror.

"Is he okay?" Sasha inquired, hands clasped together and eyes wide.

Mikasa turned her head sharply to look at her friend. "No, how could he be okay? He tried to kill-" her words caught in her throat and she swallowed down the rest of her sentence. She fidgeted with her scarf. "I'm going to go find him." She swung her leg over the bench they were sitting on and sprinted off in the direction he had gone in.

"I can't believe he would... I mean, out of everyone here, he's the last I would pick to try and off himself." Jean gulped and looked to Marco for some sort of hold.

"Yeah," came Connie's ghost of a voice from his right. "I didn't peg him to be that kind of person."

Marco nodded in agreement. "Eren always seemed so normal, if a little angry."

"Shut the hell up."

Everyone turned their head, surprised to hear that kind of language and such a sharp tone coming from the mouth of the Goddess Historia.

"Excuse me?" Jean replied, a bit astonished.

"I said, shut. The hell. Up. If you guys don't know what it's like, then just shut your mouths. Don't call him 'that kind of person' and don't imply that he isn't normal just because it got to be too much for him. You have no idea what he's going through, so fucking zip it." She shuddered a little, breath coming out too sharply and too quickly through flared nostrils.

Ymir put her hand on the back of Historia's head and rubbed her thumb back and forth soothingly. Historia remained livid and glared at everyone until they stopped staring at her, eyes bright with anger. Her shoulders relaxed somewhat and her fists unclenched and she leaned into Ymir, still breathing heavily and trying not to let the sobs come. Ymir wrapped both arms around her, rocking her gently and resting her chin on Historia's head. She knew exactly why Historia had spoken so harshly towards the others and she wasn't about to let them disregard what she had said. Any time somebody so much as opened their mouth to speak, the look she gave them should've been enough to shut them up for the next year or so.

About five minutes after the scene, Armin got up and walked out in the direction both Eren and Mikasa had gone, no doubt going to find them both. The rest of the group could only assume that they had all ended up in the same place, because none of them returned in the 15 minutes left of the lunch hour.

Apparently, Eren had decided to stay in school rather than leave, because when the bell rang, he was already headed to French class with Armin. He awkwardly avoided eye contact and talking with everyone for the rest of the school day. Knowing that he had yelled what he had at them was humiliating and he would rather not deal with their pitying looks at the moment.

If he had looked at them, what he would've seen was love and concern in Historia's gaze and respect in Ymir's. He would've noticed Sasha's worried expression and slightly nervous glances and Connie trying to make sure he was alright without actually drawing any attention to him. Jean's quiet and (what he thought was) subtle attempts to get his attention and Marco's keeping Jean still and smiling reassuringly at Eren went unnoticed and unappreciated.

When the final bell rang, Eren was the first to stand out and make his way out of the school as fast as his legs would carry him without breaking into a run in the middle of the crowded hallway.