Boys, Boys, Boys.... [boyxboy]

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Aiden-

It was the first interesting thing I heard when I returned to school the next day.

"Did you hear about Rutherford?"

"No, what happened?" I asked, touching the still new bruise that covered a good portion of the left side of my face.

The swelling was gone, thanks to Ashley's magical peas, but the tenderness was there, ripe and disconcerting.

"Well, someone keyed his truck yesterday. His huge black GMC that his dad got him for his birthday," All this was said by the boy at the lab table next to us.

Simon's eyes widened, and then he whistled. "Bet Daddy dearest is pissed at that one."

Samantha looked worried. She glanced over at Caleb and then back at me. I looked at her questioningly, and her innocent eyes looked wary and suspicious.

"Yeah, I saw it," Said the boy. "A real mess. Someone was pissed and did a real number on it. Fucker was scratched into the side body work."

I was shocked, yet not upset by the news. "Well who did it?"

"No one knows," The guy said, shrugging and turning back to his own lab table.

The look on Samantha's face was not forgotten, and I took a turn to study Caleb myself. Did she think he did it? Granted, he was crazy, but crazy enough to...? Alright, he was crazy enough. But did he really do it? Why would he?

Today, he wore a plain white t shirt and a pair of black jeans. His ever present combat boots were scuffing up the Biology classroom floor and he had his leather studded bracelet on just as when I first met him. But what I noticed for the first time was something around his neck. A black string made probably of leather itself. It looked to be a necklace but I could not see the end of it clearly, for it was tucked into his t-shirt.

Caleb noticed me staring at him and he looked at me out of the corner of his eye perceptively. He looked defensive for a quick moment, and then his face turned to a small smirk. He winked at me and turned back to the starfish on our dissecting dish.

I looked away too, to the other side of the room. Anywhere but at him.

As the bell rang, Simon and Caleb went on but Samantha and I loitered behind.

"What's up, Sam?" I asked.

She gripped my arm as we walked out of the room.

"I saw Caleb in the hall yesterday, when he heard you were attacked. He was furious," She said.

For some reason, the news did something to me. It elated me. Something weird was happening in my intestinal area. That's for sure. Or maybe it was the bean burrito I had at lunch.

"So?" I asked.

"So," She whispered, "Right after that he stormed out of the school...towards the parking lot."

She put lots of emphasis on the words parking lot. I looked at her as she rested against my arm in a concerned, friendly fashion.

I watched Caleb's back as he walked further down the hall.

"Do you really think he did it?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know Aiden. I can't say for sure...it just seems. Well, I don't know what to think," she said.

Samantha always seemed to try and see the best in everyone.

"I'm just worried is all. I mean, he could get in serious trouble, and I'm pretty sure you care for him, at least a little," She trailed off.

I nodded. She obviously had somewhat of a sense of his reckless behavior. She perhaps thought he was a bad guy for me, in a way, to even be near.

The keying of Lance Rutherford's truck was very monumental. He more than likely deserved it. But the consequences of such actions....

I remembered back to the first day of school, when I had skipped with Caleb and even smoked pot for the first time. He definitely was an influence on me, whether I liked it or not.

And I didn't know if I could ever get rid of him. Caleb seemed like one of those people that once you meet, you can never quite shake. They're always in your head.

Whether you want them to be or not. And I couldn't decide which for myself. Did I like Caleb around? A big part of me screamed no. There was something off...A bigger part of me felt excitement around him. Never a dull moment with Caleb Snider around.

Samantha was looking at me with pleading eyes. I knew that even though she wanted to see the best in people, she wasn't all that favorable of Caleb and I.

Caleb and I? Where had that come from?

I shook my head to myself and wrapped an arm around Sam. She was a great friend, a great girl.

Wouldn't things be so much nicer if I could forget about Caleb, even Simon, and focused on someone like her?

But life just isn't easy, now is it?