Summer Vacation is Cool

Travis's New Friend

After the bathroom talk Travis tried to avoid Sally Face. Even though Sal had said he wouldn't tell anyone and even offered to talk Travis would never accept. He wanted to at least keep a shred of his pride. While he was walking down the hall someone stopped him. "Hey, you're the guy who punched Sal Fischer a while back right?" Travis was scared to answer, would this person punch him? "Uhm yeah I am" The blonde braced himself "So you wanna be friends?" The boy was shocked. Who would wanna be friends with the school bully? A "cliche" one at that. "Why would I be friends with a freak like you" the other faltered a bit "Well I mean, you did say that you had a lot of friends before you punched Sally Face right?" Travis slowly nodded "So before Larry can start making fun of you for lying about having friends I'll be your friend" The boy was confused, this person wanted to be friends with the school bully just so some metal head wouldn't laugh at him for a lie? "What makes you think I was bluffing?!" "You sit alone and I never see you with anyone"

Travis started to walk away, yet the person followed him "I'm not gonna stop following you, my name's Sara. I though your sweater was nice and heard that you punched someone so I wanted to be friends with you. I just needed a reason to convince you to let me hang around" The blonde was confused. "Whatever just don't drag me into stuff and I'll let you stick around" Travis couldn't believe he was getting a friend. One that his father would approve of. The person had wavy short brown hair with bangs, they had long eyelashes and lips that were similar to his. Travis never saw anyone with lips bigger than a caterpillar at the school. While he didn't like to assume, he assumed it was because they were mostly white.

"So what's your first class?" Sara ran up a little bit more so that Travis could hear them better "Ms.___ English" "Same" while the rest of their walk was silent many students noticed Travis looking slightly happy walking with the new-ish student. "Does anyone wanna come to my apartment after school" Larry brushed his hand through his hair. "I can" said Sal "I'll come too!" Ash smiled "I suppose I could, we live in the same apartment complex anyways" Todd responded. "Hey guys look!" Chug was pointing at Travis and his new friend. "Is that Travis walking with the new kid?" "No way" Ashley's jaw was in the floor "Well that's good for him I guess" Sal couldn't help feeling upset. He had been the one to try and comfort Travis in the bathroom yet Travis never took his offer. Instead he was walking around with a kid he had just met? While he had nothing against them he was a little jealous that they were the one next to Travis.

But what was the use in getting jealous? Travis would never look at him like that. He probably thought Sal was ugly and just lied to him. "Hey Sal snap out of it we gotta get to class" Larry knocked him on the head softly. "Alright" The two headed off. But of course the second he walked into class he spotted Travis and the new kid talking, he wondered why he just noticed them in his class. They're name was Sara, he'd overheard that they were non-binary but didn't care what you used for them. I had Todd look it up for me. It shocked me with how androgynous she could look. I sat down in my seat already feeling miserable from watching the two talk like they've been buddies for years.

Soon class begun. Everyday from then on Travis and Sara were glued to each other. At lunch they talked. In classes they talked and worked together. They hung out after school. Some people had even asked Sara why they stuck around. In Sara's mind Travis was a great friend. But as much as Sal was jealous he couldn't deny Travis's personality change. He stopped calling others slurs and helped others. He still came to school with scars but Sara would patch them up. Even after all the months of Travis no longer paying much attention to him except smiles. Sal still found himself crushing on the blonde.

Perhaps part of it could've been the one night Sal found Travis crying outside the church. Sara had gone on vacation to visit family for 2 weeks and Travis hadn't taken it well. He moped around and was irritated often. On one of the last days Sal rode his bike down a new route and heard the loud sobs of the teen. He hopped off quickly with no hesitation searching for whoever was crying. He was almost positive it was Travis. "Travis? What're you doing out here" The blonde choked back his sobs and tried his best to hide his tears. "Get the fuck away freak!" He kicked a bit. "Calm down Travis! What's wrong why're you sitting here all alone at night?" "None of your business Sally Face!" The boy couldn't hold back his cries for long.