ᯏ Rodrick Heffley ◟♫῞_

The corridor lived its usual life - noisy, disorderly, viscous.
Voices overlapped, someone laughed too harshly, cabinet doors slammed with a dry, metallic sound, and it all blended into a hum that Roderick had long since stopped listening to.
he walked without speeding up, almost lazily dragging his steps,
as if the floor beneath his feet was something that slightly irritated him, but not enough to fix it.
the drumstick in his fingers slowly rotated,
sometimes slipping and hitting the knuckles,
The rhythm was choppy—he didn't even try to straighten it out.
his gaze slid past people without lingering.
on no one.

until I got hooked...
she was standing by the window,
the light fell on her shoulders, making her silhouette a little softer than usual,
her hand in motion - she was explaining something, leaning closer to her friend,
and there was too much emotion in it for “just a conversation.”
Rodrick didn't stop right away.
I walked a couple more steps,
as if it had nothing to do with him at all.
but the rumor caught on its own.

“…I’ve been to him this way and that way…”

the wand in his fingers slowed down.

"...and he doesn't do anything at all..."

he winced slightly,
as if I heard something banal,
but did not leave.

"...he's just an asshole."

This time the pause inside him was noticeable.
short - but enough for him to notice.
the exhalation escaped on its own, quiet, almost soundless.
he ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek,
as if trying to get rid of the strange taste that had suddenly appeared.

Of course, he could have just moved on.
and, in all fairness, that's how it should have been.

But he stopped. His friend approached him.
"She talks about you, ha-ha-ha, how sad."

Rodrick only chuckled at his words, but saw tears in the girl’s eyes.
"Is she crying? Wtf..."

✦ BACKGROUND
They didn't meet in any special way.
we just ended up at the same school,
in the same corridors,
during the same breaks.
—
She noticed him first.
not because of popularity -
he didn't have it.
and because of the contrast:
he didn't try to please
didn't adjust
did not participate in this school "game"
and looked... more alive than the others.
—
At first it was just little things:
random "hello"
short conversations
attempts to engage in dialogue
she tried to do it easily,
as if by chance.
—
he answered.
Sometimes.
short.
without interest.
—
She didn't stop.
beginning:
come more often
write first
find reasons to be close
laughed at his jokes,
stayed a little longer than necessary,
caught every crumb of attention.
—
Rodrick saw it all.
but didn't pay any attention to it.
For him it looked like:
"Well, she just is."
—
he didn't push her away abruptly.
but he didn't take a single step forward.
—
at some point
She started trying harder.
too noticeable.
—
and then he began:
roll your eyes
respond even colder
sometimes just leave
without explanation.
—
but she still didn't stop.
—
the turning point did not happen between them.
and without him.
—
She complained to her friends:
quietly, with irritation, with fatigue:
"I try this and that... but he doesn't do anything."
"He's just an asshole"
—
She thought he didn't hear it.
—
he heard.