Loving Brandon Gray

3- Riley

Riley's P.O.V.

I watched as he walked past everyone, ignoring everyone's stares. It was now obvious what the whispering was all about.

No one has seen him since Sophomore year, it was rumored that he had killed himself after the death of his mother. Then there were those other rumors circling around the high school after he disappeared saying he's the one that killed his mom, he ran away and joined a gang and the list went on.

I never once thought any of this was true until cops came to school to question some of his teachers and some students. It was a waste of their time because Brandon didn't talk to a single person here.

I've always had this insane pull towards Brandon, I wanted to get to know him and wanted to be his friend but he never gave me the time of day. We would share glances every once in a while but that was it.

"I thought he was dead?" Kira whispered.

"Well if he's dead, that is one fine looking ghost." Brynn nudged me.

Brynn always teased me, saying I had a crush on him, maybe I did a little bit when we were younger but if I was being totally honest I just wanted to be his friend.

He was bigger now, his hooded sweatshirt didn't stop me from seeing how much stronger he had gotten. He had a few more tattoos on his hands making me think his sweatshirt was coving up a few more.

"He's such a freak and scary as shit. I was hoping he did kill himself." Josh said.

I gasped, hitting Josh's arm. "Why would you say something like that? He's never done a single thing to you or anyone else here so knock it off."

"Babe, why are you being like that? Plus I don't like the way he looks at you."

"You don't know what he's been through, leave him alone and he doesn't give me any looks, he just walked by with a stone cold look on his face and that was towards everyone."

"I'm sorry, that was mean... I shouldn't have said it." Josh said, I didn't really believe him, not even for a second. He was always throwing out stupid remarks like that. "Babe, I'm sorry."

"I know. Just be nice to people."

He made a cross over his heart with his finger. "I forgot something at my locker, meet me over there in a few minutes and we can walk to class together."

"Okay." Josh gave me another kiss and smacked my ass before walking away towards his locker.

"He was right you know?" Brynn leaned in, whispering to me and Kira.

"Brandon's not a freak-"

"No, not that. He didn't make eye contact with anyone else here... except you for a split second."

"Oh please!"

"I'm serious."

"Anyways," Changing the subject. "I've got to go. I'll see you chica's in second period."

"Bye!" They both said simultaneously.

Walking over to Josh's locker, I was greeted by Paul and David.

After the incident with Brandon in the fourth grade, Paul, David and I actually became really good friends. They were cousins and their parents were really good friends with my parents so we hung out a lot growing up. After I got them in trouble for being mean to Brandon, they were no longer allowed to hang out with Tommy and the three of us became even closer. Thankfully Tommy moved away two years later.

David put his arm around my neck, "Hey darlin, so, I've been here five seconds and I heard he's back."

I mentally groaned. Is this seriously how senior year is going to go? "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well I'm guessing he didn't kill anyone because they never would have let him come back here." Paul was saying as we got to Josh.

"Maybe there wasn't enough evidence?" Josh said in a creepy tone as he shut his locker.

"Oh my God, I'm going to class." I turned around and walked away. I wasn't going to listen to all this over again. Sophomore year that's all anyone talked about, nobody knew what really happened but that didn't stop all the unnecessary talking and it was frustrating.

Walking into class I noticed Brandon was in this class too, sitting in the back by himself. He watched me as I walked his way. Smiling his way again I sat down in the middle of the classroom hearing Josh come in.

"Babe, why did you just leave me like that?" Josh asked, storming into class.

"All that is seriously annoying and I'll talk to you later about it."

Josh looked behind me, no doubt looking at Brandon. Rolled his eyes and sat down next to me.

****
The day passed by with minimal gossip about Brandon, which I was happy about. Hopefully the shock wore off and we could finally move on with our lives.

I was sitting at the table finishing up my homework, still smiling ear to ear. I got my acceptance letter back from the University of Chicago today. I haven't decided exactly what I wanted to do just yet but I was working towards a degree in English and communications.

I heard Josh pulling up in his truck, getting up I went over to the door, unlocking it for him.

He walked in, wrapping his arms around me. "Hey baby!"

I started laughing as I kissed him back. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes! I'm about to devour you."

"Not yet. I haven't eaten yet and I'm starving, I was waiting for you to get here. Then you can have your dessert."

"Fuck yeah!"

He helped me get the dishes out and brought the hotdish over to the table.

"How was practice?" I asked as we sat down.

"Good, coach ran us hard in practice today because everyone kept talking about the freak."

I put my fork down, "Why do people care? He literally doesn't talk to any of us but he's the most talked about kid in school. Why is that?"

"I wasn't talking about him. I mean I get it, everyone's scared he's going to go off and kill someone at school."

"That's ridiculous. He doesn't talk to anyone and if people are that scared they should stop calling them names and gossiping about him."

"You're not the least bit scared he's back?"

"Honestly, not really. It would be different if he caused trouble but he doesn't. No one really knows what happened, but calling him names sure as hell isn't a good idea or nice."

Josh nodded like he finally understood me. Luckily we talked about school and the party this coming weekend the rest of the time we ate. After cleaning up the dishes he came up from behind me, scooping me up into a bridal position.

"Now, it's time for our dessert."

I laughed as he sprinted up the stairs, kicking the door shut behind us.