Three Crabs In A Trench coat

“RUN, FIGHT, HIDE” Those were the words displayed across the screen during the morning school news show. Of course, Jonah figured the actions would never be used, at least not in the time period of his high school years. It was all preliminary preparation, only done out of caution and the fragile existence of humanity.

This, Jonah would later discover, was the wrong assumption to make.

Jonah’s best friend, Travis, was staring at his phone, a clear technology violation but the teacher didn’t seem to care. The teacher, Mrs. White, was one of those laid-back teachers who probably had too much experience with childish teens and not enough drugs to balance her out with. Her name fit her hair color, which in turn made her blue eyes stand out violently against her pale complexion. She generally wore t-shirts paired with long maxi shirts and this particular day was no different. The shirt she wore was stained a deep navy blue and her skirt was an off-white, the colors that perfectly matched the school’s colors. On purpose, most definitely, there was a school rally today, not that Jonah or Travis would care, they never went to school events, especially not ones that involved a lot of people.

Mrs. White glared at Jonah from her perch on the desk in the corner, and he realized that he had been staring far too much. It would be a long day.

-+-

Travis and Jonah had met through mutual friends in middle school, and at the time they didn’t know much about each other, only hanging out together when in the group. It was like that for most of Jonah’s friends up until Travis.

What one first has to understand about Jonah Hawkins is that he came from a very lonely home. Oftentimes, it was that his parents were working and they produced no other offspring aside from himself and his cousins lived too far away and were far too old to give the enrichment at home another child could so, all in all, it was a moot point. The friends Jonah had made before Travis were unpredictable in their drama, and unstable to the point where it made Jonah feel as if he himself were unstable. Conforming to their ways was emotionally draining.

That was up until Jonah met Travis in middle school history class. By this point, Jonah had had a few scrapes with depression and was still coming out of the end of that nearly ceaseless battle while dealing with the effects of having no one to rely on and an increase in anxiety.

So Travis collided into the orbit of Jonah’s life at a great time.

It was mid fall when they first met, just a few days into the beginning of the school year and Mr. Stanski had allowed them to pick their own seats while he got to know everyone. It was a good system, really, see who's friends with who and who can actually work with their friends and who would cause too much disruption. It worked well to get a gauge on how his new students would behave. Jonah sat down in the very back, not needing glasses at the time, with his barely-known friends. Travis sat down diagonally from him and it was at that singular action that a chain of events started, one that could have not been known, and one that would destroy lives.

“Hello, Jonah?”

“Ah, um, yes that would be me. I’m afraid I, however, do not know your name..?”

“Travis. Nice to meet you!”

“Yes, you too.”