Yesterday, Morrow spent almost all evening convincing Felix to come to school. He had refused, of course. Not wanting to cause any disturbances by showing his beaten face. She had rolled her eyes at him but was more serious when she saw he really meant it.
'Fine.' She had said. 'I'll go to all of your classes until we run into your bullies, and we smash their heads in.' Okay, fair enough she wouldn't actually do it, but if Morrow had super strength and there would be no rules, she would do it without a second thought.
So, here she is. Standing in front of the class, talking to the teacher. She's saying something about transferring classes, and of course, the teacher says she's not on the list yet. Morrow's making up a story where she was just told go here and ask the headmaster if you want to know more. With a doubtful look, he eventually let her join the class. It doesn't really matter whether or not he believes her; as long as she's in.
Felix walks into the classroom, still looking rough but smiling once he spots Morrow on her seat. Morrow waves to him and watches him as he walks over. He's slightly limping, anger and irritation are rising but she puts it deep down. Now, was not the time, hopefully, later.
'Hi.' She says.
'Hi.' He answers.
His voice is softer now, different than what's she's used to. It lacks the hint of arrogancy or self-confidence.
'How are you feeling?'
He scoffs. 'How do you think?' He gestures to his face. 'It still hurts and to be honest I'm kind of embarrassed.' His cheeks have a pink hue to them, something Morrow is also not used to. Not that she minds.
'Why are you embarrassed? Is it because I'm here?'
'Maybe?' He sighs and hides his face in his hands. 'I'm really sorry. I sound like a horrible person right now…'
Morrow snickers. 'Please, don't worry about it. But also, don't be embarrassed about me being here. I'm not gonna go against them, you are, remember?'
He nods. This was another thing they've discussed yesterday night. She wouldn't interfere, although Morrow really wants to, they both agreed that having Morrow stand up against Felix's bullies wouldn't really help in the long run. The only that would've been achieved with that is that they become more careful and out of sight of Morrow.
So, the plan is that Felix is going to show his bullies he's not afraid of them anymore. Sitting next to Felix, she can make out his nervous energy but not too much. She watches him silently. It's almost unreal how fast their connection grew. From the "Uber Incident" to Felix having a panic attack to here, in the classroom sitting next to each other and supporting each other. He saved her life all those years ago, now it's her duty to help him. She looks away to grab her books from her bag, and she knows it's not just her duty that makes her help Felix. It's also because she wants to.
She also wants to, really wants to help him. No one should go through something like this on their own. Morrow smiles by herself. He's so embarrassed but it's almost cute how he reluctantly but still accepts her help.
'What's so funny?' Felix asks, but she shakes her head.
'Nothing, just something funny I thought about.'
'Like what?'
She looks at him and just smiles. 'Don't worry about it, really.' She's not going to tell him she thinks he's cute. Not yet anyway.
The teacher walks into the classroom and class starts. The bullies don't show up. Not Ben, not T or Oliver. Felix told her yesterday that they take the same classes he takes but for some reason they are absent.
The second class comes and goes and so does the first break period. It's not until the lunch break that all three of them show up.
Morrow and Felix just sat down and have started to eat lunch when they arrive. Felix has been a big ball of nerves since the morning, so although it sucks the bullies are here, she's also kind of glad since they can finally act on those nerves.
Ben looks in their direction and he looks almost surprised to see Felix at school. He doesn't even give Morrow a single glance. As expected, they do come over. Ben in the front and T and Oliver at his sides.
'Hi, pipsqueak. How's your face?'
Morrow struggles to control herself, while all she wants to do is smash his stupid face, but she clenches her fists in her lap. This was not her job to do. It was Felix, so she should just be silent and support where she could.
Morrow glances over to Felix and he clenches his hands and his jaw. Now it was his turn to say something.
----
Morrow and he had practiced what he should say and most importantly, how he should say it. According to Morrow, they love confrontation or in her words: "They are attention wh*res". So, if there was one thing, he should avoid is attention from other people. Of course, that's already a difficult task to obtain but Morrow had some pretty good ideas on how to execute his "battle" as she called it.
He stays seated and says the words he had practiced with Morrow the night before. 'Hi, guys.' His voice is neutral, and he doesn't look them in the eyes. Not that he dares to. He may sound confident, but he doesn't feel like that at all.
Ben scoffs and sits down right across from him. 'What's with the reaction? Scared?' T takes his place down next to him, but Oliver remains to stand, not showing any particular interest in the conversation.
Felix puts his sandwich down and lays his hands down on the table to stable them so Ben and none of the three can see his hands trembling. 'Of course not.' He now looks them in the eye. 'Just because you beat me up, doesn't mean I'm now scared of you.'
Ben stays quiet for some time and Felix can feel himself growing antsier with each passing second. 'You know,' he says, looking at Felix like he is a puzzle to solve. 'I can't tell if you're stupid or just crazy.' T snickers next to him.
Although T was the one who punched him the most in the bathroom, he isn't really scared of him. He's just a lapdog of Ben. If Felix got Ben, he got all of them. Felix smiles. 'I'll let you decide on that. I don't really care what you think of me.'
Morrow next to him stirs but doesn't say anything, as they had agreed. He feels her hand on his back, hidden for Ben but strengthening for Felix. 'Also, while we're on that topic: I think the principal would be very interested in how I got all these bruises.' Ben's facial expression changes from feeling like on top of the world to irritated. Felix smirks. 'You weren't here this morning so you couldn't see the faces of the teachers. They were very eager to talk to me. I wonder what will happen if I do end up telling them how it happened.'
'You don't have any proof! You can talk big all you want, but if you can't prove anything, nothing will happen. Also, do you know what our agreement was?'
Felix shrugs, an action that costs him a lot of energy and courage, but he does it anyway. According to Morrow body language is important as well, maybe even more so than verbal language. 'I'm either stupid or crazy like you said. Enlighten me.'
'Your mother has a precious job, doesn't she? You don't want anything to happen to that, now do you?' He looks smug like he has all control. Except that he doesn't, but how could he know everything?
'Is that really all? Just my mother? If that's all, then I really don't know why I let you bully me for so long. I guess I'm really stupid after all.'
Ben looks stunned for a second. He leans slightly back and studies Felix like he is seeing someone else. 'You've changed quickly. How come?' His eyes dart to Morrow. 'Because of cotton candy? Don't tell you guys…' His eyes flicker between the two of them.
Felix doesn't like where this is going, as he felt he is losing control of the conversation. Morrow had said to keep his own emotions in check, that was a very important part of this whole "battle thing". But this is his own battle. Not Morrow's.
'Leave her out of this. This is between you and me, Ben.'
'Oh please. You don't fool me, pipsqueak. She's your girlfriend now, and last night she turned you into a man, huh?'
Felix's ears get red and he feels the rest of his face heating up as well. 'That's not…!' It's crazy what Ben is saying. Felix tries to recall the plan, the words he needed to say, the actions he needed to do, but all he now wants to do is to protect Morrow from this embarrassment. 'Listen here you little shit…'
'Little shit?' Ben's eyes grow big, and an eyebrow rises. 'Excuse you? You dare call me what now? You really want to have a big issue here?' He sighs melodramatically. 'And here I thought we could work this out as two men. Apparently not.' He rises, and Felix rises with him, his hands clenched into fists, wanting to punch Ben.
Ben leans over, close enough for Felix to hear his soft-spoken words. 'Don't worry. I won't do anything here. We will come for you for this when you least expect it of course.' He leans back and raises his hand.
Felix hates how his body flinches out of reflex, he hates how he can't seem to come into action, and he hates Ben the most.
Ben simply pats his cheek. 'Take care.' Then he turns around and drags T with him. Oliver goes with them, having said not one word. He leaves Felix behind, trembling and filled with rage.
'Felix…' Morrow's voice draws him back to where he is now; still standing up and his hands still clenched tight. He sees several students looking at him, some of them worried, others suspicious of the conversation he just had. 'Are you okay?' Some of the blurred edges fade away as Morrow touches his arm and sits him down. 'Are you okay?' She repeats. When Felix looks at her. She looks worried for him. He hates that too and he hates that Ben got to him like this in the first place.
'I'm fine, really. He just pisses me off.' He pats her hand to assure her that he's really fine and he wasn't seconds away from punching Ben in the face. He can almost feel the satisfaction already.
'Well, that makes two of us.' She scoffs. 'That bastard. Honestly, the whole time I want to just smash his face in.'
Felix looks at her and he can feel the anger leaving his body and replaced with pride and fondness. Before he can say anything, Oliver stands before them. This time he's alone.
Morrow is the one to speak up first. 'What do you want? We don't want you here.' She musters the coldest tone Felix ever heard from her, and the pride he felt earlier doesn't go away but grows stronger by the second.
'I'm not here for you, Morrow.' He directs his attention to Felix, and he can feel his body growing cold. Although Oliver didn't do anything to him, physically or verbally, he was always surrounded by a cold air that feels suffocating. Maybe he was the one Felix was the most scared for after all. 'Felix, do you perhaps work tomorrow?'
Whatever Felix thought Oliver was going to say or ask, it wasn't this. It takes a second for Felix's brain to catch up. 'Uh, yeah.'
'Mind if I stop by? What happened the last time we saw each other won't occur again. You have my word.'
Morrow wants to say something, probably something like "Yes we do mind. A lot actually!" but she holds herself back. Felix's fondness grows and grows. 'Why?' he asks. 'I don't really want to see you when I don't have to.'
A painful expression spreads across Oliver's face. 'That is understandable. However, I do think the reason is good enough to talk to each other somewhere else than school. So, please, I hope you can take some time for me tomorrow. Five minutes at the most.' With that, he leaves quickly, almost like he's in a hurry.
Felix and Morrow both look at each other. 'Well, that was unexpected…' Morrow says. 'Not to mention that he almost looked like he felt sorry for you.'
Felix doesn't comment on that but can't agree more. He's already anxious for tomorrow and probably won't sleep properly tonight.