The New KISS High School

Ch 5: Week One Done (Eric S)

The final bell rang and I gathered up my notebooks, jotting down the homework off the board and walking to the parking lot. "Hey Eric!" a voice called, and I jumped, whirling to find Tommy walking toward me with a smile. "Oh! H-hey, Tommy, what's up?" I asked, hoping my voice didn't sound as shaky to him as it did to me. "Did you write down what the English homework was? I totally forgot to but I know we had homework," he said, falling into step beside me. "Y-yeah, I got it, here hold on let me grab my English notebook from my backpack, I know I wrote it in there," I said. 

"I'll hold these for you," he said cheerfully, taking the notebooks from me, fingers brushing against the backs of my hands. I blinked, staring at him for a second before snapping out of it, opening my backpack and pulling out my English notebook, flipping it open. "Oh we just had to read the first three chapters, that's all," I said. Smiling, he put the notebooks in my backpack for me, ruffling my hair. "Sweet, thanks! I'll catch you Monday then!" he said, walking off with a parting wave. I stared after him for a moment before finding my voice. "Bye Tommy," I said softly, returning his wave, but he had already rounded the corner.

"Geez Eric, that could've gone better," Bruce said, falling into step beside me and nudging me with a grin. Face burning, I pulled my bandana out of my backpack, finally putting it back on. "Oh shut up. It could've been worse." "You could always just--" "I am absolutely not going to tell him. Now come on, you're supposed to be spending the night at my place, hurry up and get over there!" I said, giving him a playful shove. "Bet I'll beat you to your house," he said, walking across the parking lot to his car. "Bet you won't," I said to myself with a smile, trying to speed out of the parking lot, but that plan was quickly complicated by Ace nearly t-boning my car.

So of course, Bruce was waiting expectantly in my driveway by the time I made it home. "Don't say it," I grumbled, walking past him and opening the front door. "I win," he said gleefully, before giving my mom a smile. "Hi Mrs. Singer! Good to see you again!" "Hi boys! How was your first week of senior year?" "It was fine," I said, and Bruce nodded. "Yeah, it's been nice going to school with Eric again," he said, smiling at me. "Oh I'm sure! He was so excited when you told him you were going to be going back to Lester High. If you need anything while you're over here don't hesitate to let me know!" "Thanks Mrs. Singer," Bruce said, walking upstairs to my room with me. We had barely managed to set down our backpacks and grab a few snacks before his phone started to ring.

"Oh hold on my brother's calling, gimme a sec to grab this," Bruce said with a sigh, answering his phone. I sat fidgeting with the ends of my hair as he talked with his brother before hanging up with a sigh. "What's up?" I asked, and he ran a hand through his hair. "Ah, he was just letting me know that his girlfriend's family invited us over for dinner tomorrow night," he said with a shrug. "Oh, who's he dating?" A frown spread across his face. "Hm...some girl who goes to college with him, her name's...shit, what was it? Oh! Loretta Caravello," he said, and I choked on my soda. "Shut up. You're kidding, right?" I cried.

He gave me a bewildered look before shaking his head. "No? Why, do you know her?" he asked. Barely biting back a grin, I nodded. "Dude, that's Eric's older sister. Eric Carr? From our class? The guy you sit next to in math?" I said. "And the one who can barely keep his eyes off you," I added to myself. There was a pause as Bruce stared at me, eyes wide. "You're...Eric Carr? You're positive?" he asked, and I nodded. "Mhm. I've met Loretta before, she's super nice! His other sister Marie is nice too. And I mean so is Eric. That whole family is just so sweet," I said absentmindedly. 

"Oh. That's...oh. Huh," he said, face growing a touch pink. "What's wrong?" I asked, hoping he'd confess he had a crush on Eric so I could tell him the good news of Eric also having a huge crush on him. But he just shrugged. "I dunno. I don't really know him, I'm just worried it'll be awkward. Damn, why couldn't Bob be dating one of your sisters?" "Well probably because I'm an only child, so they don't exist. But it'll be fine! Eric's seriously super nice, it'll be a good chance for you to get to know him! That way you can know more people in school besides just me," I said with a grin. He rolled his eyes, giving me a shove. 

"Aw what, sick of me already?" he teased. "You know I could never be sick of you! But I want you to make other friends too." "I went to school there for two years," he said, and I let out a sigh. "I know. But I mean...there was the whole reason you left," I murmured. His smile vanished and I instantly felt bad for bringing it up. "Yeah. But you said people don't remember," he said, giving me a desperate look, and I nodded quickly. "They don't! Trust me, they don't. I haven't heard any other person talk about it after sophomore year, I promise that no one remembers," I said. There was a pause before I looked at him. "Have you talked to him about it?" 

Bruce frowned, chewing on his lip before shaking his head. "No. Not yet. I probably will though. I know he still remembers it." "Well, it's kinda hard for him to forget," I said under my breath, and to my relief he laughed. "Yeah, you're not wrong. I really need to get around to talking to him about it, just at least to tell him I'm not mad anymore." "That'll be nice. I know you two were close before...things happened," I said, and a faint smile spread across his face. "Yeah. We were. But anyway! I'm here to have fun with you, not reminisce about the end of sophomore year." I grinned, grabbing one of the Oreos from the package that laid on my bed. "Hey, any time with you is fun," I said, and he smiled. "You're not wrong." 

I made a mental note to text Eric a warning about tomorrow in advance, wishing desperately I would've been invited just to see how desperately Eric tried to hide how big of a crush he had on Bruce.