Chapter 5 (Quince Titus)

It's been 3 days since Tobi left. It's been as quiet as before he left. I forced him to call me about 10 times over these 3 days. He is still not talkative. I asked about how school was; he hates it. I've tried to tell him to make friends with other people, but he refuses. He hates talking to other people, even if he's forced to. The most he will do is acknowledge them.

I've got to school again. It's boring without Tobi. Yes, I do have other friends, and yes, I do hang out with them. But it's different, Tobi would always be there with me while I was talking to my friends because he hated leaving my side. Whenever I'm talking with my friends now, I always ask "Tobi" to come with me when I leave, but when I turn around, I realize that he's not actually here. I hate not having him here, but I can't admit that to him. Not now, not ever. I don't want to guilt-trip him into coming back and living with his mom, only for him to get bullied again. I guess ill just have to live with him not being here every school day.

I walk out the door and wait at my bus stop. I know the people at my bus stop, but I've grown a habit to wear my headphones now. I used to wait for Tobi at his door, and we would walk to the bus, but since he left, I would just listen to music. Whenever anyone tried to talk to me while I was on the bus, I would just ignore them. After a while, they figured out that I didn't want to talk to anyone in the mornings. I mean it's normal for me to ignore people when Tobias was here but back then I would acknowledge them, now I just look at the ground until the bus gets here.

At 8:15 my bus gets here. About time, it's 5 minutes late. I wait for everyone else to get on the bus, then I get on the bus. I hate fighting through the crowd, so, I just wait for everybody to get on. I pick seat 4 cause that's where Tobi and I would always sit.

It feels like hours until I'm finally at school. I walk straight to my class because the class is about to begin.

"Yoooo, Titus is finally here!" One of my classmates says loudly. I cover my ears, not ready for someone screaming. Most of my classmates have grown to call me Titus; my last name; because Tobi used to call me that in front of people when we were younger. He's always said Titus up until we were 12. I told him that he could call me Quince. He hated the idea, but went with it. Even now, he sometimes calls me Titus. He normally calls me Titus when we haven't seen each other, and he's missing me, or when he's jealous. He doesn't realize he does it, but I do. I think it's cute that he doesn't know he does it.

"Everyone, sit down, class is starting!" My teacher calls out. I head over to my seat and get ready for the lesson.