Wanting Approval

Chapter Six

Everyone always says Mondays are the worst. How can anyone argue this, after a relaxing weekend spent with his friends and family Lewis is now going back to school. Plus he was woken by the smell of toast which means his mom is downstairs cooking breakfast. He can't avoid it because she offered to drive him to school today so he can't use the excuse of running late. With a bit more effort Lewis finally gets himself out of his warm grey blanket cocoon he had made himself in his sleep last night and gets ready for the day. Picking out a pair of light wash baggy jeans and a dark purple t-shirt. Before leaving his room he grabs his safe sweater which is just an old dark grey hoodie that swallows all his insecurities because it is quite big on him.

Running down the stairs and straight into the kitchen trying to sound excited for his mom to have generously cooked him breakfast. Lewis felt really guilty for not feeling grateful that he had a mother that cared enough to do this for him some mornings. He just wished he could skip a couple meals without his parents being worried, but how is he supposed to explain to them that this was his only way to make them proud.

"Hey sweets, how did you sleep?" his mom asks with her back turned to him shuffling scrambled eggs in a frying pan on the stove.

"Meh, pretty good. Thanks for breakfast" Lewis responds, already preparing himself for what he will have to stomach very very soon.

"Oh, no problem. Can you call your brother cause this is ready" his mom asks, gesturing to the stove and turning it off to put the eggs on the plates she had laid out on the counter.

Uh oh, she is creating the portions so Lewis can't even make his own smaller than normal.

"NATE!! FOOD!!" Lewis screams from his spot leaning on the counter, startling his mom in the process.

"Well I could have done that" his mom scoffs and rolls her eyes at Lewis just as Nate comes flying down the stairs nearly slipping because of his socks.

So, they all sit down to eat except his dad because he has already left for work by this time every morning. Gwen is sitting doing something on her phone, probably scrolling instagram for a little bit before their mom gets her into the conversation by asking her about her school project, making Gwen launch into a whole tangent about every elaborate detail she has planned out. This takes up most of the dialogue for their 'family breakfast' and for that Lewis couldn't be more thankful. It is taking everything in himself not to freak out about how greasy and heavy these eggs are feeling in his stomach. 

Finally they are finished and each bring their plates to the dishwasher and grab things for lunch, but Lewis has to grab more than necessary because his mom is just standing there in the entryway watching all of them scurrying around her kitchen. He quickly puts everything in his backpack and makes his way to their car waiting for everyone to make their way out to it and join him. He obviously takes shotgun and as soon as Gwen sees him sitting in that seat she flips him off and rolls her eyes. They drive to school mostly listening to music and occasionally Nate will pop in with a weird observation about the house they just passed.

The first half of the day goes by pretty fast for Lewis. He can fully say that this morning's breakfast fiasco might just be the only thing bad about today. That is until he is sitting down for lunch and Charlie is beaming while walking up to their table with another boy trailing slightly behind. Strike that, with a gorgeous boy behind him. They are approaching really fast and Lewis has next to no time to prepare himself for a new person. Luckily Dylan notices that this must be the new kid and that Lewis is not always great with new things so he grabs his hand under the table and makes sure to squeeze it really hard letting him know to breathe and keeping Lewis grounded. However, lovely and caring his friends are, he wasn't supposed to be blindsided by the new person, this could be on him though because he hasn't checked his phone since he woke up this morning. This new person wasn't supposed to be pretty either. He has floppy dirty blond curls and tons of freckles and dimples! How is anyone ever going to compete with this monster of perfection in their friend group? There is no chance that Lewis's friends will want him after they've gotten whomever this is locked down. Just as Lewis is about to spiral Dylan gives another particularly hard squeeze to his hand to bring him back into this reality. Just in time since Charlie is now sitting in front of Lewis, beside Callie on the other side of the cafeteria table.