His Scars

15. Friends and Enemies

I have plenty of words for her. None of them kind. 

But my mum will read this book when it's finished so I will refrain from using them. 

You'll know who I'm talking about.

---

KANE 

Weeks passed by in a blur.

I could feel my bond with my new found friends getting stronger. Matt and I had begun hanging out at his place or mine. Gina and I often sat together at lunch when Matt and Sage couldn't make it.

She would unload all her boyfriend drama on me. She asked me for advice and I helped where I could, although it wasn't much. The four of us had a WhatsApp group, the name of which kept changing.

When Sage made it, she called it MGKS. Gina changed it to Friends 4 Eva which was vetoed immediately. Sage then changed it to Sage's Bitches. Matt then changed it to Motley Crew. And since then, whenever Sage wanted our attention, she'd text "Louis! Louis! Louis!"

I wasn't very active on the group but I read all the messages and internally appreciated all the silly memes. I only responded to the ones that called me out directly or needed me to confirm a plan.

Nobody minded. Nobody minded that I didn't talk much or didn't get overly involved. The three of them just let me be. They were as protective about me as they were about each other. They were becoming a fixture in my life that was now starting to be undeniable.

I enjoyed the company of each of them.

They took a dog that was abused and feral and adopted it. They healed it and protected it. In turn, it gave them its loyalty and trust. And that dog was me.

My Instagram now had many new followers. Classmates and people I met at parties had begun to search me out and follow me. But I knew for  them it was fascination. I wasn't blind to the fact that they thought that I was some bad boy type. I was starting to be accepted...or tolerated. But none of them really saw me. There were only three out of all of them that I followed back.

Once she saw that I didn't have any pictures on my phone other that those of my family, and any of myself that my brother took, she began to take lots of pictures of the four of us. I had pictures with each of them.

She made one of four of us my phone's wallpaper. It had been taken when we had gone out for brunch, all of us hungover but happy. We had, had an all day English breakfast that day. She stole my Croissant.

There were pictures of us during the weekends at lunch, there were pictures of us at parties that the four of us had finally attended together. Matt was right, Gina and Sage really were the life of the party. They danced, they did shots and got piss drunk. They danced on tables and mingled with everyone. It was a sight to see. Everyone lit up when they walked in. Matt would be pretty drunk himself but would stand near whatever surface they danced on to catch them in case they fell. His eyes were mostly on Gina though. Now that I was there, he was less stressed.

They never fell though, and both of them were amazing dancers.

It was well-known that Gina had a boyfriend so most of the guys just contented themselves with looking. Not even that much when he came to one of the parties. His name was Dom and he was a few years older than us. He didn't drink when he was around her. He watched her like a hawk while she let herself run wild. He watched her like a hawk in love. He seemed like he was a pretty good guy and it was clear that they were desperately in love with each other.

When a guy walked up to Sage, she would tell them dramatically that her heart belonged to another. Sometimes they would play along, and sometimes they would regretfully walk away.