He's Just a Kid (Marcus Davenport X OC Book 1)

First Impressions

The sound of the electric guitar fills my ears. It's a pounding feeling that fills my bones, and the overly loud shredding makes my hyper-sensitive ears ring. I clap my hands over them and grimace.

"What the--?"

The rest of the school begins to congregate inside the main foyer, making "oo's" and "ahh's" about whatever could be the source of the music. Of all the places to have guitar practices, why choose Mission Creek High in the middle of the day while school is in session?

Rounding the corner, I find the source. There's Chase and Adam, both of them sitting on the weird, circle–table thing in the school lobby. Chase has the guitar in his hands, playing it like he's practiced all his life. His spiky brown hair darkens a bit with sweat as the playing gets more serious. To be honest, seeing the small, nerdy kid playing a guitar so well was not what I was expecting.

Adam's hulking figure is peering at Chase from the other side of the circle-thing, a big smile plastered on his face. He looks at his brother with stupid admiration while the guitar playing becomes more serious. He's talking excitedly to someone else I had never seen before.

He's a sophomore, like me, and tall. Pretty brown hair, matching eyes, and a kind face. He has his arms crossed and he's leaned over to listen to whatever nonsense Adam is blabbering into his ear. He's watching Chase closely, nodding in approval at the technique he's using. Who is he?

Chase is shredding on the guitar when I walk up to them, the getting down on his knees and leaning back like he's Slash from Guns 'N Roses or something and I cringe a little bit. I know he's never played guitar before in his life, and I also know how he figured it out so quickly, but that doesn't mean I can't think his behavior is a little bit embarrassing.

Yeah, he's my best friend. Doesn't mean I can't find some of the things he does a tad embarrassing.

When he ended and stood, handing the guitar back to the new kid, I looked him straight in the face. "Since when can you play guitar, Chase?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Last week you were complaining about how noisy the marching band was and how 'playing an instrument has no purpose whatsoever—'"

"Well, I picked it up a year ago," Chase interrupted, running a hand through his hair. He looked . . . nervous. "I was just embarrassed about it because I didn't think I was good at it."

"Chase, you know that's not true," Adam jumped in. "You haven't ever played guitar"—Chase shot him a look—"this good before," Adam finished. "You've always been really good, I mean, like but not this good."

"We get it, Adam," Chase snapped.

We all stood around staring at each other for a moment. It took me a moment to realize Leo, Chase and Adam's stepbrother, was standing off to the side. He was looking at Chase with wide eyes. I chose to ignore him.

With Leo, you never knew if he was going to flip out on you or with you. Either he's gonna go full geek mode with you on something or threatening to "tell his mom" like a 12 year old. Regardless of that fact, he was a fun person to vibe with. But if you don't want him to be encouraged by your reaction to his facial expressions, it was best to just ignore him.

Before I knew it, the new kid was talking to me and I eyed him suspiciously.

"Hey! I'm Marcus," he said with a smile. He had his hand extended for me to shake it and I accepted, smiling to myself. His hands were cold. Really cold. Almost like they were . . . dead? "What's your name?" he asked me.

I tucked a lock of blond hair behind my ear. "I'm Abby," I said, looking him up and down. "I'm also sorta new here. I've only been coming here for a year."