I'm Scott Malkinson

20- Breakup

The next night was Tolkien's Halloween party. Even though practically the whole school was invited, Scott was still surprised when at breakfast Tolkien asked him if he wanted to come. He couldn't even remember the last time Tolkien had even spoke to him, and now he was getting invited to his parties. Now that he was friends with Clyde was Scott considered cool? The thought seemed impossible to him.

He almost found himself turning the offer down until he saw the excited look on Clyde's face. "Uh, sure sounds fun Tolkien," he replied.

"Hey Scott, want to come over and hang out with me today? Later we can head over to Tolkien's party together." Clyde had a very hopeful expression on his face as he asked. Scott couldn't bear to disappoint him. Lord knows upsetting Clyde was an easy task, he was a very sensitive guy. Scott was actually a little scared that if he said no Clyde would burst into tears on the spot.

"Yeah, that would be cool," he agreed.

"Awesome!" Clyde replied, as he shoveled pancakes into his mouth.

After breakfast he and Clyde packed up their things, said goodbye to everyone, and headed on the walk towards Clyde's house. "I can't believe we didn't get caught for any of the craziness that went down last night," Scott commented.

"Yeah," Clyde agreed. "I hope they don't notice the missing bottle of wine."

"Kenny refilled it with watered down grape juice from the kitchen. I doubt they'll really notice a difference with how much they dilute it before putting it in the cup for communion."

Clyde laughed and said "yeah," before making an awkward transition to a new topic. "Soooo, I broke up with Millie," he said.

"What?" Scott asked, confused as to when this could've happened. He'd been with Clyde all last night and he and Millie seemed fine. "When did you do that?"

"This morning, while you were helping Father Maxi make pancakes," Clyde replied.

It was strange. Scott thought Clyde would be more upset if he and Millie broke up, but he honestly seemed fine. "What happened?" He asked.

Clyde shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I just wasn't that into it. I was at first, but I kinda like someone else now." That made more sense. Clyde wasn't beat up about this breakup because he had gotten emotionally invested in someone else.

"So who is this mystery girl?" asked Scott curiously. He saw a flash of a look in Clyde's eyes that he couldn't quite identify the meaning of.

"No way, I'm keeping that one to myself," Clyde replied, laughing awkwardly.

"Wow, is it really that embarrassing?" Scott didn't think Clyde seemed like the kind of guy to have secret crushes. Clyde always seemed so confident with girls, the kind of guy who was direct and honest about what he wanted. Then again, if you asked him two weeks ago he would have said Clyde wasn't the kind of guy to pay Scott a moment's notice, so maybe he really didn't know as much about Clyde as he thought he did.

"Nah, I just don't wanna jinx it," Clyde told him with a half hearted laugh. "Speaking of girls, are you and Sophie like a thing now?"

"Not officially," Scott answered. "We haven't really talked about it or anything, but I think I might want to."

      "Oh, cool."

They walked the rest of the way in silence