Secrets

Bruises and Makeup

Kaden stared at Jasper from across the hallway, watching Calvin approach him. Jasper smiled at his former best friend, a sad, grateful look slapped across his face. 'Pathetic,' he sneered inwardly. 'To think that Cal stopped hanging out with me so much to be friends with this bitch. Who the fuck does this kid think he is? I can't believe they're actually--' His thoughts were interrupted by the bell, and he looked at the speaker that they came from disdainfully. 'Stupid bell.' He slammed his locker shut and cast a sideways glance at them before walking into class. He scoffed and stepped through the door.

Calvin kissed Jasper goodbye at his locker, and they split into opposite directions to their classes. Calvin had his first period class, which was Language Arts, with Kaden, and sat down at his desk beside him, saying hello.

"Hey," Kaden replied, a tone in his voice that said he wasn't too happy to see him.

"What's with the tone? God, someone woke up wrong this morning," Calvin shot back as he opened his notebook.

"I didn't wake up wrong, damn it," he replied sharply. "Why do you even hang out with that kid? He's fucking worthless. Drag him into your life, and what happens? You lose your girlfriend and your best friend and gain a trembling little girl."

"Fuck off," Calvin said, clenching his pencil in his hand as he wrote down the date on his notebook paper. "You're just being a jealous shit."

"I have nothing to be jealous of!" Kaden protested. "You're setting yourself up for public ridicule. Everyone has been talking about you, you know. They say you threw away your popularity and the path you were making, and for what? A little bitch?"

"He is not...a bitch," he answered as calmly as possible, his temper starting to get to him.

"Have you seen him? I mean really," he replied, tapping his pencil against his desk. He laughed. "It's like you're actually standing up for the kid."

Calvin threw his pencil down on his desk, and it bounced off onto the floor. He glared at Kaden. "You know what, maybe I am. What the fuck is it to you, huh? Why does it matter? You're not throwing away your own popularity, or walking off your own path, like you say I am. So why bother with me now? You're being a fucking shit begging me to be friends with you again. Now that I see what kind of person you are, I don't want anything to do with you. I see my old self reflected in you, and I feel sorry that you've decided to take my old mirror image and paint yourself in it. Fuck off, I don't want to talk to you."

"Well, shit, man," he said quietly as the teacher walked in, "that's your loss. Fall down that hole if you want to. Hell, you could fuck the little bitch in the ass if you wanted to and I would be the one laughing as your social world collapsed. Keep your bitch, lose my friendship, see if I care."

"He's not a bitch!" Calvin shouted, standing up from his seat. "And you were never much of a god damn friend anyway!" He grabbed Kaden by his shirt and threw him out of his seat onto the floor. As Kaden got up Calvin pushed him.

"Calvin! Kaden! Sit down now or you're going to the principal!" yelled Mrs. Taylor, the Language Arts teacher. "Sit down!"

They paid her no attention as Calvin glowered at Kaden, backing him out of the classroom saying, "You know what it feels like to be harassed by someone bigger than you? You want to know?"

Kaden nearly tripped backwards as they entered the hallway. They both heard the phone in the classroom being picked up, the teacher speaking to the office. "Hi, I've got a problem in room 503, there's a fight between two boys here..."

"C'mon, man, t-take a joke! I was just mad, okay! You were right, I was jealous!" Kaden spluttered, backing into the lockers.

Calvin took a handful of his shirt in his fist, dragging him against the lockers then holding him up off the floor. "You should watch what you say then," he snarled, slamming him against the metal and throwing him down. "Show some respect to a human being, fucker!"