angel baby (heavy editing)

26

     Oliver stood at the corner staring (glaring) at the oblivious boy who was smiling at his friends.
He never smiled with me.
Oliver fought the urge to hit himself.
“Fuck”
He took a sip of his drink and
“Who are we staring at?”
He heard the voice before he felt the person’s presence.
He scowled and gave a side way glare to Jacob. This was the first time they had spoken since the news about Oliver and Chris broke out. He was almost certain Jacob spread the news. He didn’t have any proof but he just knew.
“Fuck off, Jacob”, he didn’t have the time or energy to give him any attention.
There was silence afterwards but Jacob still didn’t leave. Oliver couldn’t care less. If Jacob couldn’t take the hint that he wanted nothing to do with him, then that was Jacob’s problem.
“You know your mother, your real mother works as a cleaner at the arcade downtown. Did you know that?”
Oliver couldn’t care less what Jacob was saying. He heard, sure. He knew Lia was poor, well poor according to his and everyone’s standards in this godforsaken school but right at that moment, Oliver didn’t give a shit.
“Your point being?”
“I’m going to tell everyone and you’ll be a laughing stock like you deserve”
“Fuck off, Jacob. I’m telling you nicely. I won’t be if I have to say it the third time”
He looked in that direction again but he was gone.
Fuck.
“Or what? You’re going to beat me up? You’re going to threaten me? Make fun of me? You aren’t shit. You’re nothing. You’re-”
Oliver landed the punch on his nose before he could control himself.
He wasn’t even angry at Jacob or his words. They were without value. He was talking too much which was fucking annoying and he had wanted to hit something all week.
Jacob’s constant yelling attracted stares. Most people in the cafeteria had their eyes on them.
“You’re sick in the head. I’m going to sue. You’re going to jail” Jacob was saying as he clutched his bloody nose. Oliver wanted to smile. He was really mean when he wanted to be.
“What’s going on here?”
Oliver groaned.
Fucking Drew.
“He hit me, unprovoked. I was just trying to have a conversation. I demand to speak to a lawyer”
Oliver rolled his eyes. Rich kids were spoilt rotten. They wouldn’t last a day in the real world.
“You, take him to the nurse’s office”, he heard their teacher say to a senior student nearby. 
“Fuck off, I’m not an invalid. I can go myself”, with one last death glare in Oliver’s direction, he stormed off.
“Oliver, come with me”, Drew said to him.
Fuck my life.
Oliver knew if he didn’t follow, he would be in bigger trouble. He was his mother little assistant’s brother.
Begrudgingly, he followed.
       It had been a few minutes since the commotion caused by Oliver and Jacob ended and everyone had gone to minding their business.  At Chris’s table, he sat with his friends. It was pasta Monday and one of the good things about the school was that the cafeteria dish was top notch. Well, it had to be with the amount of money that was collected.
“The school is so weird, bro”, Vivi started to say and since they had all been cracking their brains for a topic, they all turned to face her.
“So, we’re all in our final year except Kathy of course, yeah? In like five or six months, we’ll graduate, yes? But people like Chris with special art programmes have to remain at this mess of a school for two or so more years, yes?”
They all nodded in agreement waiting for her to continue but she didn’t for the next few seconds.
“Well?” Barkis prompted.
“Nothing, that’s it”
Most of them groaned rolling their eyes.
Barkis spoke next, “Ugh, come on, we need to talk about something. Now that I think of it, we’ve never hung out outside of the school’s premises and the term started ages ago. That needs to be rectified immediately”
“Wait, that’s actually a great idea”, Vivi said.
“Yay, so, how about this, this Saturday, we throw a party, just us six or we could invite friends”
“Nah, it should be just us six”
“Fine, fine. We could hang out at my place. My parents are going out of town for this fundraiser thing. I think all our parents might be out of town so that’s actually perfect. So what do you say?”
Scattered agreements went through them. Chris caught Kathy’s gaze and something flashed in her eyes that Chris didn’t understand. He would ask later.
“Orrrr, we could hang out at Chris’s. I’ve been dying to see that Borghese’s mansion. You live there now, right?” Ken asked him.
“Ken, don’t be a dick”, Vivi said.
“It was just a question, jeez, stop being anal.  How does the switched at birth thing even work? What about Oliver? Does he live with you? Does he even speak to you?”
“There it is”, Viv said rolling her eyes at him.
“Excuse me?”
“You only interrupted because you’re an attention seeker that wants everyone to remember you have a massive crush on Oliver”
“Wha-”
“Just get over him. It’s embarrassing at this point”, Charlie said. He hadn’t spoken a word since thy arrived at the cafeteria.
“That’s reach coming from someone who has pinned over waste of space Jacob for years”
Charlie eyes widened so much.
“What the fuck? I told you that in confidence”
Everyone at the table was surprised for another reason. Crushing on Jacob was reason enough but no one had heard Charlie curse or speak that loudly.
“That’s tragic, love”, Vivi said.
“Um, you have a crush on Chris who is gay. That’s tragic”, Kathy said to her.
“Chris is gay?! Is everybody gay these days?”
“Hey, I’m bisexual”, Ken said.
“It’s literally the same thing”
“No, it’s not!”
“I meant it as an umbrella term, calm down, twink"
“Don't call me that. That's  not even funny. And no, most people in the world are straight, you just happen to the straight token friend  who hang with a group of queers, you and Barkis and Kathy. You’re straight, right?” Ken asked Kathy.
“Who the fuck cares?” Kathy rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe they were having this conversation.
“Though technically, it balances itself out, in a way. The girls are straight; the boys are gay or bi”
“It’s still sus”
“Wait, where’s Chris?” Charlie called their attention. While they were arguing, Chris had slipped away.
Kathy groaned, “Just perfect. God knows where he ran off to. God you guys are annoying as hell. I don’t know what Chris sees in any of you”
She grabbed her tray and walked out of the cafeteria dumping her tray on the way out.
“Fuck it, my day is ruined”, Vivi also stood up. Charlie followed, and then Ken until Barkis was left.
“We’re still on for fri- oh whatever”
She took a sip of her drink sulking.

Oliver nursed his bruised knuckle. He frowned. It didn’t even hurt that much but he bruised like a peach.
“You should visit the nurse later on”
The obnoxious voice of his science teacher snapped him out of his thoughts. Right. He was still in Drew’s office. He had been seated there for at least ten minutes while Drew wrote something. He considered walking out. On a normal day, he would have but his life had not been normal  in a while.
Drew continued a minute later, "When you rebel like this, how do you think your mother would feel?"
Oliver almost scoffed. It seemed not everyone had heard the news.
"She's had a tough life as it is, she shouldn't have to worry about her son punching  random people"
Oliver looked up hastily at that comment. His mother, Jessica had a tough life growing up but marrying a billionaire made her life easy but his other mother, Lia still didn't have enough. She was a single mother as far as Oliver was aware. His teacher knew his mother. Oliver had an awful feeling in his gut but he wouldn't put it into words. He wouldn't even think about it.
"You know my mother?"
Drew just stared at him for a few seconds before nodding.
The awful feeling increased. He didn't like this. He didn't like this at all.
Drew stood and walked a few feet until he stood in front of a mini fridge. Oliver watched him curiously. He opened and grabbed something, closed it and came back to his seat. He stretched out  the frozen package towards Oliver who was swimming in confusion.
"For your knuckle"
"Oh"
Rather suspiciously, he accepted it. Able to see clearly, it was a pack of frozen blueberries. Oliver didn't want to think about why he had it school in the first place or how blueberry was his favorite fruit (berry). He fought at the nausea that was threatening to hit him.
"Your mother and I were good friends when we were younger, best friends even. She was my everything really"
Oliver wanted to punch the smile off his face. He didn't want to hear this. He didn't want his suspicions to be correct.
"I would do anything to change the past and take back the night I left"
"Can I go now? I have a class in five minutes", Oliver interrupted before he could go on. What he didn't hear could not affect him.
Drew stared at him again for a few minutes. Oliver hated that look.
"Sure but first, this school has zero tolerance for violence but I'll let you off this one easily. I can't be sure of next time. Is that understood?"
Oliver nodded, dropped the frozen pack on his table and hurriedly left his office.
He barely reached the restroom before he threw up his stomach's content.