A Match Into Water (Fuenciado)

Chapter Three

I had a friend. It was weird to think, seeing as though I'd never really had one before. It was nice, actually. Having someone to sit with at lunch. Not being completely alone in every class. Talking to somebody in the hallways. Struggling to my feet with the help of somebody else's strong hand.

With Jaime in it, life seemed like it might really be bearable.

Not that he was always there. Because of our age difference, not even his genius smarts could keep us in all the same classes. And it wasn't really like he could prevent Ben from picking on me. Even though he was taller than me, he was still small by any regular standard.

Besides, nobody could ever be there for me in the middle of the night. When the darkness overcame me and my head was enveloped in shadows. At that point, only the steel could be of comfort.

Yet Jaime was as good of a distraction as any, and as we worked through a page of equations in geometry, I was glad for his company. I still didn't really understand all the formulas, but Jaime breezed through them all. Yet when he saw my confusion, he stopped and helped me to work through them.

He was patient with me and my nonexistent math skills. The kid was a genius, but he gladly slowed to my pace. I knew we weren't even working at half his usual speed, so I tried to work as quickly as I could. Tried not to feel too embarrassed when he corrected yet another one of my failed attempts at finding the solution.

"You're getting better at it," he told me, eyes filled with encouragement. "You just forgot to factor it, that's all."

As he explained the formula, I found myself paying less attention to his words, and more to the subtle curve of his jawline. I watched his lips as he talked, and it took me a few seconds to even notice that they were saying my name.

"Vic, are you even listening?"

"Wha- yeah, of course. Let me try it again." I grabbed my paper back from in front of him, erasing my previous attempt and trying to decipher his scribbles so that I could at least be closer to getting it right this time.

When he rejected my answer once again, I moaned in defeat. "I'm going to fail this test."

Jaime shook his head. "No you won't. I'll study with you after school, okay?"

I was a little shocked at his offer. Nobody was ever that nice to me. "Okay, um, thanks."

Noting that class was about to end, Jaime began stuffing his books back into his bag. "So, er, where should we meet then?"

Jaime glanced up. "I'd rather go to your house, if that's okay."

"Sure, that works," I said, and he returned to packing up his stuff.

The bell rang, and we walked together down to the cafeteria, thankfully avoiding Danny. I stopped at my locker and Jaime continued on to the lunch line since he knew his way around the school pretty well now. After all, he'd been here for nearly a month now.

When I was done at my locker, I went to the table in the back of the cafeteria that we seemed to have claimed as our own. Jaime was still buying lunch.

He smiled at me as returned a few minutes later, tray loaded with whatever they were passing off as food for the day. He slid into the seat next to me, digging into his plasticky pasta.

"How can you even eat that?" I joked, and he shrugged and gave me puppy-dog eyes as he stuffed another forkful into his mouth.

"I'm hungry," he said through another mouthful.

I laughed at his bulging cheeks. "It's like you haven't eaten since yesterday."

Jaime swallowed. "Yeah," he chuckled weakly, eyes downcast.