Tom layed in his room staring at the ceiling. He gazed over at Susan, his base before deciding not to play. He didn't feel like it today. He didn't feel like doing anything today and he could figure out why. Just something ached in his bones and he wasn't sure when it started or why but he hoped that one day it wouldn't hurt anymore. Maybe it started when his dad left, but that didn't seem right because he was just some drunk asshole anyway. He had good friends, I mean sure, sometimes they hung out without inviting him but that was fine, he didn't care, right? He remembered his dad slurring drunken words "Trios never worked out." But who's to believe the drunken words of an alcoholic anyway?

He turned over trying to find a comfortable position but no matter how he moved he still felt the weight of his body on his bones. He thought about putting on music but the chill from the September air made him decide not to, so he rotted, like any day after school, he rotted. He closed his eyes, trying to rest. He hoped that while he slept, things could be more peaceful for him, but he was still restless. The ache in his chest turned into a fire and he found himself angry for a reason he was unsure of. Why should he be angry? Nothing happened. Maybe he felt this way about himself for being so restless, for nothing being able to calm him down long enough to even nap. He wanted to get up and do something, he really did, but the executive dysfunction in his little teenage head stopped him. Why couldn't he do anything right?

He stared out the window and tried to tell himself everything would work out; maybe things would be all right. "Pssh. yeah right," he said to himself rolling his black eyes. He rolled over again and took a deep breath. He took another look at Susan. Maybe he should just get up and do it, yeah, he could just get up and pluck her strings and everything will be fine, he just has to get up now.

Now!

Right… now!

He found himself still lying in his bed and he let out an aggravated groan. "Why's it so hard to just get up and do something!" He thought to himself putting his hands over his face. It's all so shitty. Can't even get up when he tells himself to. Stupid, just so stupid. He decided to take a drink of water and got up to sit on the edge of his bed, taking a drink of water. "This is your chance," He thought, "You're halfway there, just get up and play Susan!" He felt himself lift off the mattress at the thought and start walking towards her. "Yes! Yes!" At the last moment, he turned and walked out the door and headed towards the bathroom instead. "No! What are you doing! You don't even have to use the bathroom!" His internal argument wasn't at all visible on his face and when he got to the bathroom he just stood there for a minute before looking in the mirror and splashing water on his face. "Fucking loser," He thought to himself. "Now you're going to go in there, and you're going to play your bass!" he walked back to his room, and of course, he just sat on his bed again. The boy groaned loudly. How fucking hard is it to do one thing? He grew frustrated with himself, but there was no point. The boy finally just gave up and went on his phone instead, no new messages of course. Stupid.

The boy's self-critical thoughts continued well into the evening and even after his mom called him down for dinner. Like any other night, they ate in silence, usually due to Tom's unwillingness to talk. He dragged his feet back up to his room and practically threw himself on the bed, hoping to sleep peacefully but instead it felt like he closed his eyes and a minute later woke up to his alarm blaring.

He sat up and rubbed his face, being mindful of his piercings, and slapped his alarm to turn it off. He didn't want to get up, but it was something he had to do, so he made his way to the kitchen, finding that his mom had already brewed coffee. He poured himself a cup; black, of course, and took it with him back up to his room to sip while getting dressed. He changed into plain black pants and a band T-shirt before pulling a blue hoodie over his shoulder and pushing his arms through he sleeves. He put on some deodorant, finally decided to enjoy his coffee, and took sips of the beverage that had now cooled to the perfect temperature. The short moment of drinking this in the morning has to be his favorite part of the day, nothing beats black coffee while sitting on your bed, knowing that you've already done what you need to do in the morning.

In reality, there were a lot of things he still needed to do, like brush his teeth, wash his face, and make his bed, he just didn't partake in those rituals. Instead, he silently enjoyed his beverage until the cup was empty, then continued to put on socks and a collection of checkered, black, and chain bracelets. He took his phone off the charger and put it in his pocket. In the moments he had to spare he went to the bathroom and looked at himself, really just taking in what he loathed about the boy in the mirror. He hated how the hoops of his helix didn't fit his ear quite right or how his snakebites weren't perfectly symmetrical. He hated how he wasn't allowed to stretch his septum or how he had two extra piercings on one ear; an orbital and flat; that made his other ear look bare in comparison, and most of all, his eyes. He hated those eyes that looked back at him in the mirror and how they reminded him that he was just some freak.

He was pulled away from his thoughts when he heard his mom call him to meet her at the car so he went back to his room and put on shoes, his checkered vans, and picked up his backpack and mug, then walked to the car, leaving his cup in the sink on his way out.

He got in the car and closed the door behind him, putting his backpack on the floor next to his feet, and fastened his seat belt. As the car turned on so did the radio so instead of saying anything, he just looked out the window. Like he had anything to say in the first place. They were almost at school when his mom decided to say something.

"You know, school might not always be the same every day. It wouldn't hurt to maybe get excited for once," She said in a kind tone but it felt like venom being spat, to Tom at least.

"Yeah, right, like anything interesting ever happens here," He rolled his eyes.

They pulled into the drop-off area and his mom sighed, "I'm just saying, great things happen when you least expect it. Have a great day dear."

Tom let out a "Tch" sound before getting out of the car and walking towards the school. "Yeah right." he thought to himself while opening the door to his homeroom and sitting down in his usual seat. Edd and Matt walked in a few minutes later, giving each other noogies and shoot the shit which made it obvious they hung out together yesterday. He didn't care, why should he? He was perfectly fine on his own yesterday.

Yeah right…

Within the next 5 minutes everyone was in class and the bell rung, prompting the teacher to stand up from his desk and silence the class. "I know it's early and you all are tired but I need your attention. There will be a new student joining us today, all the way from Norway," he prompted to a student to was standing against the wall on the far side of the class and called him over. The boy seemed shy, almost pensive as he walked over. His orange-brown hair curled in a way that almost resembled horns. When he stood in front of the class he didn't look in any particular direction but clearly trying to avoid eye contact as he scanned the room. "Why don't you introduce yourself?" Said Mr Durby. The boy hesitated, almost as if he didn't hear what the teacher said. "My name is Tord," He said slowly, "English not well," He said softly before he looked down and the teacher, Mr Durby, spoke again, "Let's make sure Tord has a warm welcome here, okay?" He then tapped the boy's shoulder and gestured to the far corner of the class, the empty desk, right next to wear Tom was sitting. Shit.

The boy cautiously walked over and sat down and looked over at Tom, giving him a little wave but he just looked the other way. Edd, who was sitting behind Tom gave me a small wack which made the emo whisper yell "Hey!" At him. Instead of acknowledging his response he leaned in towards Tord and said, "Hi, I'm Edd," Softly before gesturing to Matt saying "That's Matt," And finally introducing Tom with the very-so-kind words: f "That dick-wad is Tom."

Tom said nothing in response and instead started counting down the minutes for class to get out while Matt and Edd asked to see Tord's schedule and started comparing.

Edd nudged The boy in front of him, "Hey look at this," and showed Tom Tord's schedule, "You guys have almost all your classes together!"

"Cool, what do you want me to do?" The black-eyed boy said nonchalantly.

"I don't know, something. Typical stupid Tom," Matt chimed in.

Tord looked puzzled, "Stupid Tom?"

The two giggled, "Yep that's him, stupid Tom."

Tom's lips pulled a frown before angrily turning to Tord, "Do NOT Call me that!"

Tord seemed to understand the joke better and snickered, "Ja? Stupid Tom?" He pointed and started laughing as he saw how upset the blue-hoodied boy became.

"That's enough boys, I know you're excited to meet the new student but save it for passing period," the teacher hushed them, "Which of you have the most classes in common?"

Tom stayed silent while Edd and Matt quickly perked up, "Tom does! Six out of Seven!"

"Alright, You'll be showing Tord around," Mr Durby said blatantly before going to the front of the class and began yapping.

"This is gonna be torture," Tom thought to himself and grabbed at his hair.

The day continued so forth: Tom Guided Tord to the next class and the norsk boy insisted on sitting next to him. The ginger-brunette treated Tom almost like a translator as if he knew a lick of Norewigan. Then the black-eyed boy had to figure out where the hell the ELA class was during the break while the slightly taller boy yapped border-line nonsense in broken English, and even had the audacity to ask for a way to contact him and to hang out. Tom agreed out of frustration and wrote his Instagram on the black of Tord's schedule which seemed to get him to shut up, and then dropped him off in front of his next class like a discarded puppy before the Norsk hurried back to Tom's side and asked what class he had. "Band," The emo boy hissed before the bell finally rang and Tom managed to slip away.

He hurried to band, which wasn't a very traditional one. It was small, with only a couple of kids with a variety of interests so it became more of an independent practice class. Tom walked in, setting down his bag down next to his seat, and waited for the teacher to explain the exercises before he went to grab the guitar from the corner and started fingering chords. He loved his bass, but he'd had been wanting to save up for a guitar recently. You can play more variety of songs and if he got a looper then he'd be able to play bass with his guitar. Sounded pretty cool to him.

The boy fingered a couple of licks by the Beatles before improvving something of his own, flinching whenever he plucked a note that didn't fit quite right, but still carried on knowing that he'd come up with something soon. He just has to hang in there. Tom may have trouble getting up to do something but when he's determined he'll never give up. He's quite hard-headed with things like that. The dirty-blonde boy tried another chord progression and found a lick he liked and continued to pluck away.

Before he realized it, the class was over so he set the guitar back down to its designated corner, picked up his bag, and walked out the door. He waited until he was in the hallway to pull out his phone and checked his notifications before going to his next class. Of course, Tord was there.

Tom rolled his eyes as he entered and sat down. He practically threw his stuff on the ground and before the bell rang the Norsk came up to him.

"Kan u helpe me wift.. um.. pevious worke?" He said in a heavy accident. "Yeah, sure whatever," Tom said dismissively, "just go sit down." He waved his hand and the taller boy left to his seat on the other side of the room. "Finally, some peace," Tom thought.

The rest of the day played out like this, Tord followed him around like a lost puppy and seemed shy yet excited at the same time, waving at Edd and Matt whenever he saw them. After school, they went their separate ways while Ed and Mat walked home while Tord and Tom got picked up.

Tom walked through the door of his home and threw himself on the bed. Thinking that now he might have a moment to himself, and for an hour, he did. He spent the hour playing Susan before the doorbell rang. The blonde boy was home alone since his mom went back to work so he hesitantly headed towards the door. To his horror, it was Tord.

The boy groaned while answering the door and quickly asked "How did you find where I live?" to which the boy pulled out his phone and said with excitement "Edz told me!" Before putting his phone away, "You Zaid you helpe me with maths?" Tom just rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure, come in," and fully opened the door while gesturing for Tord to come inside. The boy seemed amazing by the house which made the emo boy uncomfortable, it wasn't anything fancy after all.

He led Tord to his room and sat on his bed, "alright, math? Let me see," he said, patting the section of the bed next to him. The Norsk sat down and pulled his backpack off to open it, taking out a folder with various papers in it. He takes out some Algebra 2 work and gets it down before getting pencils.

"Really? You need help with Algebra 2?" Tom said almost mocking him and the taller boy nodded. The blonde rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Whatever, you took Algebra 1 right?" He says looking at the paper, "It's basically the same thing, you're building off the same fundamentals."

"Fun-a-men-alls?" The boy responded in an accent.

"Like, it's the same thing, just more steps added," the British boy clarified and Tord responded with a nod.

Tom started to explain the work to Tord and walked him through several problems. It took 20 minutes for the boy to realize the Norsk was faking it. Tord chuckled as he saw the emo get riled up, upset that the foreigner has wasted his time. "You think this is so funny? Yeah?" He said upset. "Ja!" Tord responded giggling.

"Why did you make this shit up? You like wasting my time? Annoying the fuck out of me? It's bullshit!" Tom jumped up from the bed and was practically yelling. "no- I," he continued the sentence in Norwegian, unable to get his words out.

"You want help with something? Fine, let's work on something you actually need fucking help with," Tom said getting a blank notebook and mumbling to himself about how all Tord speaks in gibberish. The boy wrote out the alphabet on the paper and pointed at A saying its name.

"This is A," and under it, he wrote the spelling of how you pronounce it, 'Aye'.

"thiz dumb, I know afabet!" He said, feeling like he was being treated like a toddler.

"Please, you can barely pronounce this shit. Try." Tom said in a pissed-off voice. Of course, Tord couldn't say A clearly and the boy teaching him scoffed. "See? You wanted help. Let's work on your phonetics," he said as he wrote the pronunciation of the Letters under the symbols.

"I'm gonna say the letter and you're going to watch my mouth and try to say it the same way, okay?" The blonde said lifting the notebook for Tord to see.

"A," the brit said clearly.

"ahye," it was almost there but rounded out.

"No, you have the basics but you have to put it together more like it's one sound."

Tord's brows furrowed like he was trying to figure out how that would sound altogether. Tord repeated the same sound he made before "Ahye?"

Tom looked away trying to figure out how to explain it, "It's toe breathy, say it without breathing out, just make the sound," the Brit tried to explain, which seemingly worked as when Tord said "A" This time it was a lot clearer.

"Good, that was good, say it again," Tom said, honestly, dissociated to try and not think about the situation too hard, just separated from real life to follow through with the plan he made. He realized this was strange, and what was the point of teaching Tord English out of spite instead of just kicking him out for lying about needing help? Tom didn't want to think about it and instead straightened his septum as Tord repeated the "A" sound again.

"Yeah, that's good," Tom said running his fingers through his hair, "Let's move on to B."

This continued for almost 2 hours, Tom helping him through the letters before they finally turned to apply those skills to pronouncing words from a book Tom had sitting on his shelf: The Boy Who Killed Grant Parker. The emo guided the Norsk through, letting him read slowly as he sounded out the words, and stopped to teach him about how certain letters together make the words sound different. At some point, it turned into Tom reading to Tord who turned his attention away from the pages and instead gazed at the Brit's face, taking in the details on his face. Although piercings weren't necessarily uncommon in Norway, he'd never seen so many on someone his age. The taller boy admired the way the black horseshoe jewelry hugged his lips and nose, almost making them look fuller. It took a moment for him to realize they were uneven which only made him grow more fond of them, he thought the uneven placement made it look more human against his face. His septum peaked out under his nose with spiked balls. Funnily, it reminded him of a door-knocker which made the ginger-brunette smile to himself, amused by his thoughts. His attention switched to the boy's ears which had several piercings on either side, although he could only see one. On his left ear, he had double lobes, the first stretched to 2g with a black silicone tunnel– all of his jewelry was black which complimented his pale complexion. He also had an off-center orbital that carried itself slightly lower than typical placement which was accompanied by a flat with small spider jewelry in it and 2 helix piercings. Tord shifted himself to try and see Tom's right ear.

"Hey, have you even been listening to me?" Tom said with a small hiss in his tone.

"Oh, uh, Ja- Yes," Tord responded caught of guard.

"Really? Then what was just happened in the book?" The emo looked at Tord who was rubbing the back of his neck.

"Uh, he- he was.. In trøbbel, for ah.. The, what was.. 'Death Cab for Cutie' shirt?" The horned boy stammered.

Tom did not look pleased, "That was 4 pages ago Tord." The shorter Brit handed the book to Tord, "It's your turn to read now." He said plainly and the Norsk followed the request, reading out loud slowly.

As the afternoon went on Tord eventually decided it was time to go home and on the surface, Tom acted relieved, like spending hours with the new transfer student was a bother, and happily ushered him out the door. Tom closed the door on the Norsk after muttering a goodbye, leaving Tord to stand outside a second longer before he shoved his hands in his pockets and began walking home. The Norsk tried to wrap his head around Tom's faltering behavior, trying to understand how he could seem so sick of his presence while also offering to help. It made Tord smile, perhaps that's just who Tom was; a guy who would act like he hated something every single second, not wanting to seem anything more than aloof.

On the other hand, Tom was walking back to his bedroom: muttering to himself about how he can finally relax without being bothered. As he laid on his bed, he couldn't shake an empty feeling. Not like he felt alone per se, but that Tord's absence was more notable than he originally thought it'd be. The Brit was now left in silence, a silence that he ached to fill. Instead of distracting himself in a more convenient way, like watching TV or playing Susan, he decided to pick up the notebook he had been using to help teach Tord English and write out what to teach Tord next; like English metaphors, similes, and other literary devices. The emo found himself writing phrases and explanations until his mom came home and called him for dinner, which he still had to pry himself away from the notebook. He ignored his feelings, not wanting to even entertain the idea of how he felt.

This is a song fic btw, so here's a link to the spotify playlist! https/open./playlist/501MmKWlijrOadslkk9rjp?si_vkzr8FCS2aGhrJ95PGBlw