" ...Hey."

William heard a voice, familiar, but he couldn't place it; at any rate, it was not Kirie, so he was immediately on alert. He whipped around, razor blade brandished.

... The upperclassman, the punkish one.

" Why did you follow me up here?" he demanded, on high alert.

The older boy looked surprised, a bit shocked by the fact that he had a knife pointed at him.

" ... You ran by in the hallway, and that one skeezy loser from Class 3-B..."

" Did you tell him where I went?"

Hands in pockets. Did he have a knife of his own? William evaluated him with caution, ready to pre-emptively strike.

" I'm not a fuckin' snitch," he said, offended. " You cut him or something, right? He was holding a hand to his face."

William stared him down for a moment longer, and then lowered his blade. Cast his eyes to the side.

" ... Will you go down to 2-A and get Kirie for me," he asked.

" What? I'm skipping class, I don't wanna get caught," the older boy complained back at him.

" Why?" William asked.

" Why the fuck not? Not like I wanna be here."

He slung himself against the roof's railing and took a cigarette from his pocket. Lit it.

" ... You should be more grateful," William said.

" The fuck for?"

William watched the smoke rise in lazy plumes. He folded his blade, put it back in his pocket.

" There's free food here, safe places to sleep... Aren't those valuable things?"

...That upperclassman was giving him a look.

William didn't understand his expression.

He sat down, knees curled against his chest.

" I can sleep with anyone I want to, and I can even turn the ones I don't like down, too."

" ... You're sort of a little freak, huh."

It didn't sound especially negative, more like a passive observation.

" I don't understand what's so strange about me," he replied. " It's more like everyone and everything around me is incomprehensibly bizarre."

" ... Big words-usin' ass."