T.R.A.C.K: Debut Single

Chapter 4: Caelan

“Hey, Cal?”

            I finished shading in the petal I was drawing, carefully put aside my charcoal and closed my eyes, bracing myself for a second. “Yeah?”

            “Where have you been these days? Haven’t seen you around lately —we miss you, dude.”

            I smiled a little nervously at the big, burly boy addressing me. Richard had been my classmate for almost ten years now. I knew his middle name, his birthdate, his horoscope, how many siblings he had, what his parents did for a living, and even, by some strange coincidence I would not care to retell, what he had for breakfast on the day before his 11th birthday.

            But somehow none of that mattered. They were all the same.

           “…You know. Doing my own thing.” I gestured vaguely at my sketch. Drawing had been my “thing” for almost my whole life. That was the one thing everyone who knew me knew about me. And as far as I was concerned, that was all they needed to know about me.

            Richard was looking uncomfortable, shifting on his feet. I saw him cast a frantic look at a bunch of others who were obviously eavesdropping on us. I could already hazard a guess at what was happening here. The others were worried about me, but they knew me well enough to know that approaching me as a group would only scare me off. So they had voted, and decided to send him as a representative.

            I would have been almost touched, if it were not so futile.

           

            As it was… it was almost a little funny.

            “Thank you, really,” I said sincerely. “But I, uh, got to know some new friends recently, and, um--”

            “Oh, I don’t mean to snoop,” he said hastily. “It’s just that--” He glanced back at his friends again and a mischievous glint crept into his eye. “—some of the girls have been wondering about the pretty boy who’s always waiting for you at the gates these days.”

            For a moment I was taken aback. He was obviously referring to Ashley. Then again, why should I be surprised that my classmates had noticed him? Ashley was a very noticeable guy, no matter how you looked at it.

            “Is he your brother?”

           I wish. “No, just a friend.” And then, after a second’s hesitation—“I could introduce you, if you like.”

            He made a face and jabbed a finger back at the girls of the group. “Wouldn’t they like that,” he said with a sardonic grin, “but I think I’ll pass. We guys really don’t need the competition.”

            I tried to grin back, the free, easy grin that these boys and Ryder always seemed to manage. Mine probably looked a bit shaky. “Point noted. He would be disappointed, though.”