"I'm tired of getting bullied for shit I didn't do," Miles sighed as the spray paint had yet to be cleaned off of his locker, "but at least no new rumors have started. Looking at the bright side, right?"

Claudia shrugged, doing her best with a tissue and some hand sanitizer she had in her backpack to get the paint off. Her face was scrunched up in focus and frustration, but still," she responded, "I mean, it's still kind of ass that this all happened to begin with. What happened when you guys talked?"

"I broke up with him, officially," Miles spoke boldly, but Claudia looked at him with bewilderment to which he sighed and admitted, "And then I cried for hours and watched 10 Things I Hate About You because as you know --"

"Heath Ledger was your gay awakening, I know," the girl said with a laugh, sighing as she handed the tissue to Miles and tying her hair back before grabbing the tissue back and continuing her attempt. However, the bell rang which disrupted her venture. With a groan, she took the tissue and tossed it in the trash can, staring at the locker with displeasure. "Where the fuck is the janitor? Can she fix this? Ma'am?"

The boy just grabbed her arm and tugged them in the direction of their first class as he looked away from the monstrosity that was his locker. "It's fine, it'll get cleaned eventually, I'm sure. Let's just get to class and deal with everything later. By later, I mean never. This will go away as soon as some new Midtown drama comes up, I promise you. Worse things can happen to me. I mean, I could be, like, getting murdered or some shit."

"Just because it's not the worst thing to happen doesn't mean it's okay, Miles," Claudia argued back with a small sigh as she crossed her arms while they walked. "I don't know how you're not more pissed off about this."

"It's something I'm going to have to deal with my entire life, I might as well get used to it young."

"That is a shitty attitude to have, Miles, and you know it," the blonde sighed, a resigned look on her face as the two settled into their seats in their first class of the day. The teacher was preparing her lecture as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the class.

Clearing her throat, Miss Langford spoke, "Good morning, today we start the hundred year's war! Who's excited?" No one budged. A cheeky smile took over the teacher's face as she expected this. "Ah, you guys never fail to amuse me. All right, get out your notebooks, I want you to jot down what I tell you too, but writing everything will jumble up what will actually be on your tests and quizzes so please pay attention."

She moved to pull down the projector and suddenly, everything went into slow motion. Painted onto the projector in what was likely acrylic stolen from the art classrooms, were the sloppy words "Miles Hemming is a stalker!"

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Miles muttered as he let his head fall against the desk with a soft bang.

Miss Langford looked pissed as did Claudia as the blonde stood up and shouted at the classroom, "All right, whoever the fuck is torturing my best friend -- sorry, Miss Langford -- needs to cut that shit out right now before I start throwing hands --"

She might have said more, but Miles wasn't listening since he was already running out of the classroom. He hadn't run properly in God knows how long, but he slammed open the door to the boy's bathroom and threw his back against the wall as his breathing did its best to even out. Of course, since Miles has the worst luck to mankind, Flash Thompson happened to be washing his hands at that exact moment.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me," Miles groaned as he closed his eyes and banged his against the wall as hard as he could without doing any real damage. He didn't want to hurt himself, he was just frustrated and frankly, fucking pissed.

"What's going on?" Flash asked, stepping closer to Miles.

The boy, however, was not having this as his eyes snapped open and he shoved Flash away from him, "No, no, no! Get away from me, this is all your fucking fault."

He was careful not to yell at Flash. Even when he was angrier than he thought he ever had been, he couldn't do that to him. That was crueler than he ever wanted to be. Even without yelling, he could still see the hurt in the boy's eyes. No, Flash didn't get to be hurt by Miles rejecting him. Not when he's the reason all of this bullshit is happening. Bullshit Miles does not deserve.

"Miles, just calm down, what happened? Why are you acting like this?" Flash asked gently, his expression soft and caring. Miles hated it when he looked at him like that, it was one of the reasons he started liking the boy in the first place.

"You and the stupid rumors you spread are ruining my life, I swear to God I will push myself back into the closet and go to the school on 44th just so I never have to see you or any of your goddamn cronies ever again," Miles seethed, but there was more sadness in his voice now than there was anger. Deep down, he wasn't angry. He was just upset things had to happen the way they did. He and Flash had once been so much more than frenemies standing in a school bathroom. Miles longed for the way things had been. God, how he wished they stayed that way.

Flash took a deep breath, stepping away from Miles to give him some room to breathe. Of course, Flash would do exactly what he wanted instead of pushing and pissing him off more. He just had to care like that. It was utterly ridiculous and Miles hated it. He hated pretty much everything in the world right now.

Neither boy spoke, so Flash decided to break the harsh silence, "I understand if you hate me and want nothing to do with me, but I can't sit by and watch you fall apart and get harassed. I still care about you, a lot, Miles. I never stopped."

Miles wanted to hit him, to yell, to cry. He wanted to do a lot of things. However, he was frozen against the wall while small tears silently fell down his fair cheeks. He was utterly unprepared for such gentle words to leave Flash's lips and he had no idea how to react to them. If things were different he would have kissed him. But things weren't different. This was how things were now.

So, instead of doing all of the things Miles wanted to, even the things he hated himself for wanted, he simply said, "I never stopped, either."

With that, he wiped his tears and left the bathroom. He didn't know where he was going, but he couldn't go back to class. He couldn't. He didn't know what he was doing at all anymore and boy, was that taking some getting used to.

this update is tiny but i just wanted a lil moment between flash and miles god i love their tension so much i just ahhh!!