Chapter Text
Shadow Milk didn’t waste time as he rushed through the halls, several people shouting at him as he rammed into them trying to get into the next class as quickly as possible. Shadow Milk’s sneakers squeaked against the floor as he raced to English, one girl was blocking the door as she laughed with her friends; Shadow Milk squeezed past as she tried to scold him, in response Shadow Milk flipped her off, they didn’t have time for anyone’s bullshit right now.
Shadow Milk slowed his pace as he made his way into the back of the class taking a seat by the window. Barely anyone was here yet despite there being barely anytime before the next bell rang, well, there was another guy in the front of the class sitting patiently, but Shadow Milk knew who that was and he wasn’t even going to acknowledge him. Slowly soft murmurs filled the class from the door-blocker and her friends before the other students slowly started filing in, the chatter growing louder as more people entered.
Shadow Milk had put his head down on the desk as he watched the outside world, school sucked and so did his home. The bell jolted Shadow Milk up as the seemingly endless chatter began its death as the professor cleared his throat. The sound of shoes racing to seats was persistent as Shadow Milk checked the seat behind him, empty as always, despite this being the one class without a seating chart no one ever sat near him, to be honest, Shadow Milk wouldn’t want to sit by himself either.
The professor cleared his throat again (did he need a cough drop?), “Well, since the homework was to finish the final act of Romeo and Juliet today we will begin going over a group project over the topic.” Groans and complaints broke out from the class, “Now, you will be able to work in a groups of three maximum. Now as for the rubric, this will be an essay on if true love exists and if Romeo truly loved Juliet-“
Shadow Milk rolled his eyes as papers containing the instructions were passed out, did he have to work with someone?
The teacher coughed and finally began the ending of his monologue, “Now, do we have any questions for the project?” About half the class’s hands went up, “You will have time to work in class over the week, however it should be done at home too, this is a large project.” Almost everyone put their hands down in response.
Shadow Milk raised his hand as the teacher raised an eyebrow and sighed, “Yes, Mr. Mays?”
“Do we have to work with a partner, or can we do this solo?”
The teacher sighed and replied in an exasperated tone, “Yes, you have to work with atleast one other person in this room.” He directed his attention to the entire class, “Now, any other questions?”
Silence. Stillness was prominent and everyone watched to see if anyone would have a question, not to see if they would have to ask, but to see if anyone would take up anymore time from talking. Shadow Milk could feel eyes on him as he covered his face with his hands waiting for the class to be set free and everyone to settle into chatter disguised as ‘working’.
The teacher cleared his throat again, “Well, you may all get into your groups, remember no more than three people in each group!”
Everyone began gathering and chatter became intolerable, Shadow Milk rubbed his temples and waited, even though he knew that no one would ask to be his partner he still held out hope, after five minutes of nothing Shadow Milk sighed and put his head back on his desk, he might as well do something else, and what better than sleeping?
The endless chatter that most definitely wasn’t about the project was white noise to Shadow Milk as he slowly began to shut his eyes and when he finally began to fall asleep two hands that fell on his desk snapped him out of his daze as the teacher’s voice filled his ears, “Do you have a partner Mr. Mays?”
Shadow Milk shook his head as he tiredly replied trying to figure out if he was getting paired with some poor sap or if he was working alone, “No.”
“Well neither does Mr. Pure, everyone else has a full group of three, surprisingly,” his tone was hushed at the last part as if he was speaking to himself, “so you two will be paired together.”
Shadow Milk’s gaze shifted as he laid eyes on who he would be partners with, who this ‘Mr. Pure’ was. Shit. Shadow Milk laid eyes on this blonde boy and found it was Pure Vanilla, the student council president and notorious straight-a student. Pure Vanilla pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes as he gave a soft smile, “Thank you, Mr. Brown.”
Mr. Brown smiled, “You’re welcome, Vincent.” Mr Brown placed a hand on Pure Vanilla’s shoulder, “Do tell me if you have any troubles with the… project” Mr. Brown was definitely referring to Shadow Milk as the project.
Mr Brown walked away leaving the two boys to work on the project, which admittedly, Shadow Milk didn’t even bother listening to what he was meant to do. Shadow Milk yawned as he tried to ignore the boy who now sat next to him. Suddenly all the noise became unbearable, everyone was loud and a sunny, teacher’s pet was sitting right next to him.
Shadow Milk took in ten big he had grown familiar with when passing him in the halls, he was sure that Pure Vanilla never noticed him, but Shadow Milk noticed Pure Vanilla, Shadow Milk’s eyes flicked upwards and then down, taking in his partner, his hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but his front bangs remained out of the ponytail, a tan sweater vest decorated with pins of all ten clubs he was in, all sitting atop of a white dress shirt.
The blonde boy cleared his throat as he fixed his glasses start sat askew on top of his face, “You’re Mason, right? I’m Vincent,” Pure Vanilla smiled gently as he shifted in his seat, “so, about the project… what do you think?”
“Huh?” Shadow Milk didn’t rubbed the bridge of his nose as he scanned Pure Vanilla’s face watching for a sliver of what he meant, sure he could’ve fully listened to what Pure Vanilla was saying, but he was tired as shit.
“Well, do you think Romeo loved Juliet?” Pure Vanilla shifted uncomfortably as his gaze shifted to his feet as he waited for Shadow Milk’s answer.
Shadow Milk cleared his throat and dropped his gaze to the desk where his hands rested, “I may have not finished reading the final scene…” Shadow Milk confessed, moving his hands to rub the back of his head.
Pure Vanilla’s face dropped as his shoulders fell slightly and a small exasperated sigh fell from his lips, “Well, then, do you want to meet at my house or yours after school?”
“Huh?”
Pure Vanilla’s smile tightened, “For the project, you can borrow my book if you lost yours, we can meet and you can finish reading and then we can work on the project so do you want to meet at-“
Shadow Milk blocked out the rest of his words, but holy shit was this kid mansplaining, talking to Shadow Milk as if he was a child who needed pristine and clear instructions. He could fill in the gaps when he wanted to.
“So, my place or yours?” Pure Vanilla managed a smile the whole time he was with Mr Brown and even now his smile didn’t falter, Shadow Milk felt his cheeks hurt for him.
“I don’t care.” Shadow Milk shrugged as he gazed back outside, he was so fucking tired.
“Then can I go to your place? Mine is kinda messy… it’s embarrassing.” Pure Vanilla’s smile shifted into a more sheepish grin as he fidgeted with his hands.
Shadow Milk sighed, “Fine, my place. Meet me at the fountain by the main entrance, okay? Three-thirty.” Shadow Milk wanted to add that he would leave Pure Vanilla behind if he was late but he didn’t feel like getting in trouble today.
Pure Vanilla’s nodded as his grin shifted back into a more normal, confident expression, “Thank you.”
“Whatever.” Shadow Milk rolled his eyes and bit back an exasperated sigh.
Shadow Milk tried to lay his head down to rest as he silently prayed that the golden-boy would leave him alone for the rest of class, but of course, he didn’t, instead he tried to chat with him for the rest of class, you’d think he would plan out the essay or start working on it, or maybe that was wishful thinking.
“So… what’s your next class?” Pure Vanilla was obviously trying to make small talk and trying to get to know Shadow Milk, which was annoying because he knew that Pure Vanilla was only doing this because he was paired with Shadow Milk; he wouldn’t be doing this if he wasn’t stuck with him.
Shadow Milk desperately wanted Pure Vanilla gone, but he sucked it up, “I have art next period,” Shadow Milk begged himself to not ask but he found himself asking, “what about you? What’s your next class?” Shadow Milk’s tone was disinterested, but Pure Vanilla didn’t seem to care as he smiled brightly.
Pure Vanilla paused for a moment before answering, a bright grin still sitting atop his lips, “I have home economics, but we mostly cook in that class. I really like it.” Pure Vanilla’s face was dusted in red as he smiled back at Shadow Milk, “How’s your art class? I was tempted to take it I’ll admit…”
Shadow Milk shrugged, “Yeah, it’s fine, right now we’re doing portraits and it’s of a partner, but I don’t have one so… I just did myself.”
“What’s your next project?” Pure Vanilla seemed really intrigued by Shadow Milk’s life which was quite annoying, maybe a little nice but he was mostly annoyed by a prying pretty boy, still he would be nice, he wasn’t given a reason to be rude anyway.
“I dunno, I finished mine and we still have a week left, so I’m just drawing whatever in that time.”
“Ah, well, will ya let me know when you find out what project you’re doing? I want to take art next year so I wanna know what could be done in that class.”
Shadow Milk nodded, “Sure, I’ll let ya know.”
Shadow Milk had no intention of letting Pure Vanilla know what was being done in any other class of his, they only had one class together and he didn’t need to discuss anything more with Pure Vanilla; the only thing that mattered right now was finishing the newly assigned assignment.
Pure Vanilla had opened his mouth to presumably ask another question, but the bell rang out before he could speak, Shadow Milk shot up from his seat, grabbed his bag and rushed out of the English class before Pure Vanilla could speak to him.
— —
The sound of endless laughter, lockers slamming shut, and shoes scuffling on the floor as people walked down the halls, Shadow Milk, like usual, was racing down the halls to get to lunch, he didn’t want to run into anyone… unpleasant. Shadow Milk turned down a less frequented hallway as he raced to the cafeteria.
“Shit.” Shadow Milk cursed under his breath as he saw a group of boys at the end of the hall walking towards him.
Shadow Milk turned in his heels and ran to the busier hallway, but most people had already left to lunch, Shadow Milk slammed his eyes shut and took a breath, he was fine. Shadow Milk felt a hand fall on their shoulder as he was slammed into the wall.
A gruff voice laughed, “Milk boy!”
Shadow Milk struggled against the man in front of him, “Get off me!”
“C’mon! We’re just playing around! Besides, it’s not like anyone cares what happens to you! Mommy still too busy to care about you?”
Shadow Milk paused and gazed downwards as he felt tears flood his eyes, “Shut up Bryce.” Shadow Milk muttered the words, if he wasn’t so he close no one would’ve heard him.
Bryce slammed Shadow Milk against the wall, Shadow Milk coughed as he gasped for air, “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
“F-fuck yourself.”
Bryce slammed Shadow Milk into the wall again as he tried to get more air. Footsteps came down the hall as a beautiful girl passed them, Eternal Sugar eyed the scene and gave a pitiful look to Shadow Milk as she shook her head and continued to lunch. Everyone was gone now and Shadow Milk was screwed.
Shouts and laughter could be heard from the cafeteria, Shadow Milk wasn’t that far from the lunchroom, if he could land a decent hit he could sprint, but let’s be honest, Shadow Milk wasn’t a strong guy, hell, he could barely make a high-five sting. Shadow Milk let out a shuddering breath as he watched the man in front of him, slowly Shadow Milk shut his eyes and anticipated the first blow, but it never came. Slowly Shadow Milk opened his eyes and watched, waited for anything to happen.
Bryce scoffed as he rolled his eyes and punched Shadow Milk in his stomach and watched him double over in pain as he spoke in a low voice, “Don’t fucking try me again. Do you hear me? And don’t flirt with my girlfriend again.”
Bryce walked off as Shadow Milk clutched his stomach, “What the fuck is he talking about?!” Shadow Milk muttered as he tried to stand straight.
A deep breath and Shadow Milk stood, he slowly made their way to the cafeteria, originally he had intended to buy some lunch, but now he just made his way over to the only empty table and sat, there was no point for him to eat after getting beat up. Shadow Milk shuddered and laid his head down, waiting for lunch to be over. In classic fashion, just when they began to fall asleep the bell rang and Shadow Milk was off to the next class, but Shadow Milk was too tired to actually go to class, so in a recurring wave of genius, they skipped class.
Now Shadow Milk used to never skip class, he would’ve ratted out anyone who he knew was skipping, but he stopped and began to skip about two or three years ago, he was a top student once, but he let that go. Does he still have good grades? Yeah, his mom would kill him if he didn’t have halfway decent grades, but he never studied, and it wasn’t like his mom noticed all that much, as long as his grades were acceptable she didn’t give a shit.
Shadow Milk sat in the men’s restroom as he drew in one of his notebooks, he had decorated it recently and he was very proud of how it turned out, it had stars and constellations spread out on the cover, he had stolen his little sister’s art supplies to decorate the book, but he didn’t care, besides she didn’t even notice.
— —
Shadow Milk had managed to get through the rest of the day without too many issues, he had signed up for a new club at Eternal Sugar’s request, more like her berating, something about how Hollyberry would be there and she wanted a ‘wingman’ to get her, so Shadow Milk found himself in cooking club. He did enough cooking for Black Sapphire and Candy Apple when his mom was out, he didn’t need to cook for fun. Shadow Milk was complaining about it over text to Burning Spice while waiting for Pure Vanilla, and while he knew Burning spice wouldn’t care, he knew that at least his messages would be read, unlike Eternal Sugar who ignored every message sent form Shadow Milk.
Small groups of people were leaving, the sound of water falling from ten fountain Shadow Milk sat on blocked out any conversations around him by the groups of people still heading home, who long had it been since school ended anyway? Shadow Milk checked the time, 3:24, any longer and he would be leaving without Pure Vanilla, he didn’t want to take him back to his house, especially for working. If he was going to bring a guy home it wouldn’t be for school work, to put it lightly, and it wasn’t like he would bring a guy home with his little siblings around.
“There you are!” Panting came from the voice who called out as the blonde boy stood by Shadow Milk, “I’m so sorry I was so close to being late Mason! I got caught up with my friends and totally forgot to meet you!”
Shadow Milk rolled his eyes, “Yeah, it’s fine. I get it, you got friends you wanna talk to… let’s just get going.” Shadow Milk’s tone was filled with sarcasm as the words dripped from his mouth.
Pure Vanilla nodded as if he didn’t hear Shadow Milk’s sarcastic tone, “Thank you for understanding!”
Shadow Milk walked a few paces ahead of Pure Vanilla on their way back to his house, and being honest, he was hoping Pure Vanilla would get lost and Shadow Milk could go home without a guest.
The walk home was… longer than normal, Pure Vanilla slowed Shadow Milk down greatly, not to mention Shadow Milk waiting for Pure Vanilla set him back in time, typically Shadow Milk raced home to avoid Bryce and his friends and then he would go out to avoid his family, that was it.
“So… how far are we?” Pure Vanilla gave a sheepish grin to Shadow Milk.
“Barely five minutes away, why? You tired?”
Pure Vanilla shook his head, “No! I’m just not sure where I am and well, I’m not used to this part of town.”
Pure Vanilla’s footsteps were light and Shadow Milk could barely hear them behind him, “Well if you sped up we’d be there sooner.”
Pure Vanilla nodded and soon Shadow Milk found his classmate right next to him as he turned to his shabby apartment complex, “Here we are.”
Pure Vanilla slowed his pace and stopped outside the door to the complex, “I’ve never been in an apartment before…”
Shadow Milk sighed and grabbed Pure Vanilla’s hand, “Then let’s go, I’ll show you around princess.”
— —
Shadow Milk ushered Pure Vanilla into his apartment as he scanned the house for his mother, nothing. As usual. Shadow Milk sighed as he took off his jacket, his mind going over what he said to Pure Vanilla, princess? Dear god, someone kill him! Shadow Milk tried so hard to shove it down but he cringed at the thought of what he just called Pure Vanilla… disgusting.
Shadow Milk yawned as he shouted to his siblings if they were home, “I’m home! And I have company so do NOT be little weirdos!”
Pure Vanilla giggled as Shadow Milk tossed his school bag on the couch and a small yelp came back as it landed, Black Sapphire sat up right, “What the hell was that for?”
“Didn’t see ya. ‘Sides you didn’t respond so I assumed you weren’t home.”
Black Sapphire rolled his eyes as he grumbled, “Go fuck yourself, oh wait you already-“ Black Sapphire looked behind Shadow Milk and stopped his sentence when he saw Pure Vanilla, Black Sapphire raised an eyebrow, “Who’s this? Your boyfriend?”
Shadow Milk felt red creep onto his face, “Don’t you have something better to do? And no he isn’t my boyfriend! Go away.”
Shadow Milk grabbed Pure Vanilla’s hand and headed towards his room as Black Sapphire called out, “If he isn’t your boyfriend why are you taking him into your room?”
Black Sapphire burst out laughing before Shadow Milk turned around and flipped him off, second time today, maybe he should start counting and make a record. Black Sapphire scoffed as he shouted once more, “I’m telling mom that your fucking guys in the house!”
Shadow Milk didn’t respond as he slammed the door once Pure Vanilla was inside his room, “I am so sorry about my brother- he’s a dick.”
Pure Vanilla laughed as he gazed toward the door, “It’s fine, I think it’s cute, I always wanted a sibling I think you’re lucky.”
Shadow Milk rolled his eyes as he made a face of pure disgust for his siblings, “Yeah, lucky. I’m just lucky Candy wasn’t home, she loves messing with me.” And making fun of anyone I take home even if they’re just my friend, Shadow Milk didn’t add that last part though, it was too much and Pure Vanilla had already heard more than enough from his family.
Pure Vanilla sighed as he pulled out his copy of Romeo and Juliet and passed it over to Shadow Milk, “Here, you should probably finish it before we start working on the project.”
Shadow Milk grumbled as he took the book and began to read, god he hated Shakespeare.