Beware The Water

The Mural

"Whoa, you actually came." Shorter cheered seeing Lux as she made her way towards him. "I was prepared for you to ditch me."

"I'm not that mean."

"Can I carry your bag for you?" He politely offered. Lux hesitated but his soft grin showed that it was okay.

"Thanks." Shorter threw the bag over his shoulder and escorted the girl off campus. She noticed some people staring while passing whispers and turned her head to the side to avoid eye contact with anybody.

"You seem popular." Shorter commented, "Not in a good way though."

Lux rolled her eyes and sighed, "It's whatever. People just like something to talk about. Guess when they see "Miss.Goody2Shoes" talking to boys, it turns out to be huge news." There were new rumors going around about people everyday. Just turned out that Lux was this weeks hot topic. It didn't bother her much at all. People would eventually get bored and move on to the next thing.

Shorter noticed how Lux was walking on the side closest to the street and switched places with her so she was on the safer side. He didn't bring much attention to his action though, but she noticed and the kind move almost made her smile. "So you 17 or 18?"

"I'm 17. I'll be 18 a month after I graduate. You?"

"19." Shorter answered.

"Oh so that means you graduated not too long ago, but I've never seen you before." Lux has gone to this school since freshman year and she was positive she'd never forget a guy with a purple Mohawk. 

"Yeah, y'see I wasn't the most behaved kid."

"I figured that."

Shorter chuckled, "I was sent to an early finishing school cuz they wanted my ass out. Same with Lao."

"So you both were like Team Rocket?" Lux joked.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"Make it double!" They both laughed. "So, I'm taking it as you're not in school now?"

Shorter scratched his head, "Uhhh I'm kind of taking a break from it all. Right now I'm focusing on helping my sister out, taking care of the kids and what not."

"You're an uncle?"

He shook his head, "Nah. Just have a big family. Cousins and stuff. My parents aren't in the picture anymore so it's just me and Nadia. She takes care of the little ones when their folks are busy doing whatever it is they do."

"Well that's sweet. You definitely seem like you're good with kids too considering you act like one." Lux playfully teased, "They must love you."

"They know who's boss."

There's that word again. "Why does Sing call you Boss for?"

"His family and mine used to be close." Shorter explained, "He's just another kid we look after. I'm the oldest meaning I'm the boss." Lux didn't know how honest she could be with this guy so she held her tongue. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She lied.

"Doesn't seem like nothing. Your tone changed when you brought up Sing." He mentioned, she wasn't aware that he would have caught onto that subtle detail.

"It's not my place to give my input." Lux wouldn't go as far to say that she and Sing were friends, but she did want the best for him. Unfortunately, she began to wonder if Shorter was the actual reason for Sing's slacking instead of him just being a brat.

"Think I'm a bad influence, huh?" He guessed. By Lux's lack of response, it already told him what she was thinking. "I'm not his dad. I'm just here to make sure he doesn't go to jail or anything."