Trigger Warnings: homophobia
Orville follows behind Ms. Meredith calmly, though the same can’t be said for PB.
“This is bullshit!” he shouts, trying to twist his arm away from the teacher. “I didn’t do anything!”
“I highly doubt that, Mr. Jones,” Ms. Meredith hisses. “Exactly how many times have I caught you in this exact position?”
“Like, three times tops!”
“That’s a blatant lie and you know it.”
The two teens are taken to the dean’s office and placed in front of the man himself, Mr. Parlett.
“And to what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Meredith?” he asks, glancing up from his book. He looks down at the students and his eyes widen in surprise.
“Mr. Jones, this is no surprise, but you, Mr. Squeeze? What are you doing here?”
Orville goes to explain, but Ms. Meredith beats him to the punch. “They were fighting in the cafeteria,” she informs. “Both of them.”
“I wasn’t fighting anybody!” PB swears. “It was his crazy ass who up and attacked me!”
“Language,” Mr. Parlett says before lidding his eyes. “Now, I won’t lie Mr. Jones, you’re quite the bully.”
“I’ve never done anything else than self defense.” It’s such a lie even Orville can see through it.
“Right,” Mr. Parlett says blandly. Turning to Orville, he asks, “Would you like to tell us your recollection of what happened?”
Orville nods. “Of course. PB here threatened my friend Paige Woods—”
“You mean your little boyfriend?” PB laughs, causing Orville to frown.
“He threatened my friend and I couldn’t sit idly by. So I stood up and defended him.” He turns to the other with an annoyed expression. “I then acted in self defense after he swung at me.”
“‘Cause that little twerp was going to ruin me!” PB shouts. “I had to fight him, I—” He blinks. “...I mean, I wasn’t going to fight anybody. At all. Ever.” He smiles sweetly. “I’m an angel.”
“What you are is suspended for three weeks,” Mr. Parlett says without missing a beat.
“Aw, what!?” PB groans. “I didn’t even do shit!”
“You tried to attack me,” Orville says deadpanned.
PB crosses his arms and slumps into his chair. “What the fuck ever.”
“Language,” Mr. Parlett stresses. “Or we could talk about upping that suspension into an expulsion. You’re about one fight over your allowance, Mr. Jones. I will not hear another word from you on this matter if you wish to stay in this school.”
PB growls, but says no more.
+++
As it ends up, Orville simply has a mark put on his file. He’s assured should he gain no more, it’ll be erased before he graduates.
He texts with Paige all night, doing all he can to ease the other’s mind. It takes a little convincing, but eventually the two of them are able to ease into more mellow topics.
Eventually, it’s time to sleep. Orville bids Paige a goodnight before plugging his phone in to charge and climbing into bed proper.
He’s ready to sleep, but the scenes of him fighting PB and then being in the dean’s office keeps replaying in his head. Both times PB had mocked the idea of Paige and him being together…
While that was… unsurprising for someone like him, Orville worries about it regardless. The way he’d spit it out like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard…
Well. Orville could only hope nothing else came of it.
He rolls over and soon falls into a fitful sleep, feeling unprepared for the next day.