"What're you listening to?" Achilles sits down beside me with no warning, and Briseis and I both cast him a suspicious and surprised look. After a few seconds of silence, he says "well?" Still confused by his presence, I hand Achilles my phone. He looks at it, nods, and hands it back. "Good choice." He says.

"Why are you here?" I ask.

"What a nice welcome." Achilles rolls his eyes. "I'm here because I want to talk to you." I look around. People are staring.

"What about your reputation?" I ask, only half sassing him. I still feel awkward over what happened last time we spoke. Achilles practically spelled all his feelings to me, and then a spontaneously hugged him, which just made both of us feel awkward. Just thinking about it makes me want to cringe.

Achilles sighs.

"I've figured it doesn't matter now." He says dejectedly.

"What?" I realise I'd zoned out.

"My reputation. It doesn't matter now." He looks at his feet. Before I can attempt to reassure him, Paris interrupts.

"Hey, faggot, who's your boyfriend?" He calls to us. I'm not sure if he's talking to me or Achilles, but Achilles gets defensive anyway.

"I'm not gay!" He yells.

"Who said I was talking to you?" Paris turns his attention to me. How does he know? I've only told Achilles and Briseis! For a moment I suspect that Achilles said something, but from the way he's glaring at Paris, that seems unlikely. He's probably just saying it to get to me. He doesn't know... I tell myself.

I'm too busy thinking to notice Paris and Achilles arguing, then Achilles is on his feet and in Paris' face. Briseis gasps, and I notice then that they're fighting. Paris manages to pin Achilles under him and get in a few good punches, but then Achilles rolls so he's on top of Paris and he's punching him and yelling so loudly, he draws a crowd in seconds. My body reacts before my mind does and I run over to them and try to pull Achilles off Paris, but I'm not strong enough.

"Don't you dare talk shit about my friend!" He shouts. Friend?

"Achilles! Stop!" I plead. "Stop it! You're gonna kill him!" I'm close to crying. A teacher starts running towards us as I finally manage to pull Achilles to his feet. Briseis joins me as we drag him, kicking and screaming, into the school. We rush through the hallways and into the bathroom, Briseis stopping outside to guard the door.

"I'll kill him!" Achilles yells. "I'll murder him! He's-"

"Achilles, please! The teachers are gonna find us! We don't want to get into trouble!"

"-fuck him up!"

"Achilles!"

"-actually murder him, and all the other-" out of sheer desperation to shut him up, I kiss him. It's a terrible first kiss, but it works. Achilles freezes, so I pull away, feeling my cheeks starting to burn.

"Thank you." I sigh. Achilles stares at me, dumbfounded, and I feel my face turning even hotter. S-sorry... I- I just needed to shut you up... I couldn't think of anything else to do... Sorry... It didn't mean anything. I know you're straight and we're barely even friends and... Sorry." My face probably can't get any redder.

After a long, awkward silence, Achilles murmurs

"It's okay..."

I nod, still flustered, then rush into a toilet cubicle and grab handfuls of toilet roll before hurrying back to Achilles, who is sitting on the floor. I wet a handful of tissue then crouch beside him and carefully clean a cut on his forehead.

"How did you even get this from punching?" I ask gently.

"I think he scratched me." Achilles replies. I wince.

"That guy must have killer nails."

"He fights dirty." Achilles shrugs. I dry the wound with the dry tissue then see his knuckles, which are bleeding.

"Don't do that again." I gently take his hand and start cleaning it. "Don't fight for me. I'm not worth it." He hangs his head.

"But-"

"I'm barely your friend, Achilles. We've only known each other for a few weeks."

The silence that follows is long enough for me to finish cleaning his right hand and move on to the left. I'm nearly done when Achilles lifts his head.

"We've known each other for way more than just a few weeks." Achilles says. "We were friends for years."

"And you left me for a bunch of assholes the minute they showed an interest in you." I try not to sound bitter, but it's difficult. Every time I think of when we used to be friends, my chest feels tight and painful.

"You said you were okay with it!"

"I was blatantly lying and you knew it!" I thought I was over this, but obviously not.

"You still said it was okay! You said there would be no hard feelings!"

"There wouldn't have been, if you'd bothered to even try talking to me ever again, just once!"

Achilles has no answer to that.

"You're a shitty friend." I throw the tissues in the trash and leave the room. I never should have gotten involved with him. I should have just left him to live without friends, the way he did to me. As I open the door, Briseis looks at me questioningly, worry clearly written on her face. I just shake my head, already exhausted, emotionally and physically. As the door swings closed behind me, I faintly hear Achilles say

"I know."