brooks & hale ✔️

hale

twenty five ;
h a l e

BROOKS WASN'T IN SCHOOL on Monday.

Hale had strolled into chemistry, late as usual, only to see the seat where he usually sat was empty. In all the months they'd shared this class together, Brooks had never missed a lesson. Not even once. Hale remembered thinking he must have had some kind of invincible immune system, and yet here he was, absent from school. He even checked with Mrs Mulligan to make sure he was actually off and not just late.

Hale barely heard anything Mrs Mulligan was saying that lesson, even less than usual, too worried about Brooks. They hadn't been able to see each other yesterday because he said he was ill, although he'd seemed fine on Friday. Brooks had also ignored his texts, although Hale had tried not to dwell too much on that. He was probably just sleeping and hadn't seen them. Or too busy resting to reply.

Or he was mad at Hale.

But why? Even as he racked his brain, he couldn't think of anything he might have done. The most likely explanation was just that Brooks was genuinely ill and couldn't come in. He wasn't like Hale; he wouldn't skip school for petty reasons such as arguments or late homework, because he actually cared about school.

While Mrs Mulligan jabbered on about halogens, Hale slipped his phone out under the table.

hale :
you're still ill? you must be seriously dying if it means you're willing to skip school

Hale regretted it the moment he sent it. What if it was true? It really had to be serious if Brooks wasn't in school. He was distracted for the rest of the lesson worrying about it, and it didn't help that Brooks still hadn't replied by the end of chemistry. Or by lunch. It had gotten to the point he was checking his phone so frequently he just kept it in his hand, growing more and more restless when a new text or notification wasn't from him.

"Hale?" Will waved his hand in Hale's face. "The line's moving, mate. You need to get your food."

He realised he'd been holding up the queue and moved forward, taking the bowl the dinner lady offered him. He frowned at the contents. Sludge, sludge, and more sludge. No surprise there. He was still waiting for the day this school actually figured out that to make food, the ingredients used had to be food too. Whatever this was looked like it had been made from blended grass and crayons.

"What's so interesting about your phone, anyway?" Will asked, sidling up to him with his own bowl of sludge. "You've been staring at it way too much to be healthy. I know they say our generation is obsessed with technology and all that, but this is taking it one step too far."

"I'm just waiting for a text."

Text, call, snapchat, whatever. He'd take anything at this point just so he knew Brooks was still alive.

"Oh, I see," Will said, and he was grinning slyly now. "It wouldn't happen to be from a certain red-haired MJ, would it?"

Hale was momentarily distracted. "Who said she was a redhead?"

"I don't know, she just sounds like one."

"Just because MJ from Spider-Man has red hair doesn't mean they all do," Hale said, rolling his eyes. "And for your information, she has brown hair, actually."

What was he doing? It had all been fun and games at first, but he seriously needed to shut up about this MJ before he got in too deep over his head. The more lies he added to the growing web, the more he'd have to keep up with and the more likely he'd be caught out.