The Prince

Part 5

Noah grabbed his schoolbag and dashed to the bus stop, as usual on Friday morning. When he arrived, he was out of breath and raised his backpack higher on his shoulder when he heard a tearing sound. Before he could turn around to see where the noise was coming from, his schoolbag dropped from his back, spilling his books everywhere.

"Oh, that's terrific", he mumbled to himself. This was going to be another one of those days. Bending down, he began collecting his books when he noticed a pair of sneakers stop in front of him. His eyes widened in surprise as he looked up. Not again, please, he thought in distress as he glanced up into the blue eyes that were staring at him, holding him captive, as if they were seeing into his soul, his face turned crimson red.

"Hey Toady," Archer came up to Skye, bumping his shoulder. "Why are you standing there, help him up." She said when she saw Noah on the ground clutching his schoolbag red-faced.

"No, no! That's okay, I'm fine. I'm really okay, see?" He quickly jumped up, sure his face must be glowing. Why did he have to meet the same guy again? And he was a hot guy too!  He groaned inside, he still hadn't recovered from the phone incident.

Skye nodded, seeming uninterested and moved away, turning his back to Noah to get back in line, when a younger girl came up to him,

"Hey, Skye. I was er wondering if... I was wondering if you would come to a party we're having?" She blushed, not quite meeting eyes.

"No." He turned to walk to the back of the line, with Archer following close by.

Noah was paying close attention to the conversation. He had to appreciate the girl's guts for approaching the most popular student at school. But Skye's response surprised him; he appeared to be a really nice guy, but maybe hot guys were all assholes, he reasoned as he gazed at the tall youngster with the deep blue eyes, freckles, and strawberry blonde hair that burned red in the sun.

"That was a bit harsh mate." Archer looked sideways at Skye. "You could have said no nicely, then she wouldn't be crying right now." She looked over to the group consoling their friend.

"If I don't do it now, then she'll never stop." He flashed a quick glance in their direction, hoping that his unwanted popularity would take a dip.

"Still, you...",

"Hey, Skye. It's so nice to see you again." A teen boy with blonde hair and a perfect white smile invaded his space. "I understand why you turned her invitation down. I wouldn't go with them either." He rolled his eyes and placed his hand lightly on Skye's arm.

"Well, I'm sure that you're wondering where I was yesterday," he prattled on as if he wasn't being ignored.

"I'm not," Skye removed his hand from his arm with a stony face, proceeding to pretend he didn't exist. 

"Anyway, I tried to call you in the evening so that we could go out, but you never answered.

"My phone broke and I don't have the money to replace it," he made up on the spot.

"Let's meet up this afternoon, then we can go looking for new phones, my treat!" He was excited by the prospect of spending time alone with him. He never accepted party invitations or hung out with anybody after school. Maybe he was going to be the first one.

"I don't think we know each other well enough to have this conversation," he pushed past the boy when the bus pulled up, noticing his scandalous look as he got on.

At this point, Noah stopped listening. Did Skye really say that he didn't have the money to replace his phone? Now he felt ten times worse at what he'd done, but he also didn't have the money to replace it, so thought it best to stay out of his way in case something else broke.

--

That evening, Noah sat in the kitchen with his books, trying to absorb the masses of information in front of him. He tried to cram the embarrassing events from earlier into the back of his mind. He wondered why Skye acted so strangely. He didn't think he could be so cold-hearted and arrogant as he was this morning. It was hard to imagine what sort of problems he would have, being so popular that he almost had his own official fan club, so there couldn't be any reason for him to be like that.

It was a pity he thought, he was really hot, but his personality left a lot to be desired. While he was chewing this over, he heard a crash as the front door opened and his brother fell in with a group of his friends, all visibly drunk. With a sigh, he started packing up his books to go and hide in his room, in the hopes that the party would stop before he had to go to school.

"Hey, shithead!" His brother shouted when he spotted Noah going up the stairs. "Where do you think you're going?" He swayed slightly as he held onto the bannister.

"To my room, to be quiet and pretend that I was never born," He sarcastically parroted what his brother always told him before he had his friends over.

"No, get out. I'm not having you ruin our night out. Get out right now!" He pointed to the front door, threateningly taking a step closer.

"It's dark out, where do you think I should go?"

"Who gives a fuck. You're lazing around this place, breathing the air that I pay for being good for nothing. Now get down here and get out of this damn house or I will throw you out!" He shouted.

Knowing that there was no point in arguing, Noah went to the door, grabbed his jacket and left. He stood outside the house for a while, wondering what to do. There was nowhere he could go. Travis lived on the other side of town, but he wouldn't go to him anyway. There were some things he didn't want to share.

With a sigh, he walked to the wooded area. Maybe he can hide out in the tree house he thought, shivering slightly in the cool air. He looked at the darkening sky above and slowly felt his way through the trees while his eyes grew accustomed to the dim light. Shivering, he climbed up in the hopes of finding a warm spot somewhere to hide out until he could go back home.

When he heard the snap of a branch nearby, his heart nearly stopped. Who could be walking around here at this time of the day, he wondered not daring to move, but dying to look over the ledge to see who was near. He heard the leaves rustle as whoever was around walked nearby. Oh god, he was going to die here with some serial killer burying his body in a shallow grave nearby.

"Who is there?" He heard a disembodied voice call. It seemed close to him and his heart started pounding faster. He didn't want to die like this. He had to find a way to get down and away from whoever was stalking him. He shivered again, but this time out of fear. Listening carefully, he tried to hear whether the person was moving off, but the night had gone deathly quiet again, with the light of the moon coming out to illuminate the trees.