Trust the Boy |River Phoenix|

Chapter 5- Hell High

Leslie's POV
The next day at school, I felt like everyone and everything was staring, judging. I gulped as I opened my locker door. To my left, I saw two familiar people pushed up against the lockers. I made them out to be Corey and Kathleen. They were kissing like there was no tomorrow. I was wondering why this bothered me, because it did. For one, my two best friends were kissing. Two, because I did have a tiny crush on him and Ralph told me that he thought Corey liked me as well. I guess not. I slammed my locker door shut so hard, that it swung open again- causing all my books to fall out. I didn't pick them up, my brain wasn't thinking straight. I just knew that I needed some fresh air. My pounding heart overpowered the mutters and calls I heard as I ran away. My hope and confidence trickling out of my heart with every step.

River's POV
Walking to my locker, I witnessed Corey and some girl that hung around Leslie a lot making out against a locker. I rolled my eyes and ignored them. However, what I saw next worried me. Leslie took one look at them and the next thing I know, her books were scattered everywhere and she was running down the corridor. I shouted after her. Corey had broken from the kiss and shouted too. The girl he was kissing went back in, but he pushed her off.
"Why do you do stuff like this?" I muttered to Corey before taking off after her.

I ended up outside the sports hall- she was sitting on a rotting wooden bench- head down.
"Les?" I crept over to her- sitting on the miserable slab of wood.
"Cigarette?" I held out my pack out to her and she smiled uncertainly- taking one. Bringing out her lighter, she lit it and took a long, deep inhale. I lit my own and we both breathed out at the same time- our smoke meeting and swirling.
"C...Corey kissed Kathleen."
"I saw." Wow River, that's comforting. Try saying something else.
"I... I mean, you, uh..." I scratched my head awkwardly.
"Its ok River, you don't have to try and comfort me. But nice try." She chuckled a bit, before taking a long puff of her cigarette.
"So, uh, are you good?"
"I definitely won't be after Mrs Rodriguez shouts at us for being late." I let out a small laugh and we stood up. "Thanks River, you were the only one who cared enough to see if I was alright." And then she kissed my cheek. She kissed me. Her lips lingered a second too long before she pulled away- mumbling profanities to herself.

Leslie's POV
We walked into class fifteen minutes late.
"Miss Macchio and Mr Phoenix, I do not appreciate you coming to my class late."
"Something came up," River spoke in a rather bold, yet uninterested manner.
As I walked past Corey, I blew out my smoke at him- sending him coughing.
"And Miss Macchio, I certainly do NOT allow smoking in this classroom!" Mrs Rodriguez's voice had raised about three octaves.
I ignored her and slung my bag onto the desk- flicking the cigarette butt at Corey- causing him to give me a confused, yet sympathetic look- I just glared death back at him. River noticed and flicked his at the pissed off teacher.
"Oops," we said in unison.
"That's it! To the principal's office, both of you! I don't know what's got into you two!" To be honest, neither did I. She handed us slips and sent us to the principal's office.
"Shit, if they call my parents, I'm done for," I mumbled as we approached the door.
"Same with me, my parents are on a spa trip for a couple of days."
I knocked loudly on the door, having been here a few times before. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some kinda bad girl. I can just get hot headed and do some stuff I wouldn't normally do- hence why the principal now knows a lot about me and I have a seat in detention with my name on it. Now River's a different story. He cares so much about so many things, I've noticed. But his attitude to school is nowhere near as good as his attitude to nature and animals. The only class I have with him where he seems even somewhat interested, is music. However, like me, he was passionate and protective of what he thought. I don't know why he threw the cigarette butt though. Maybe he was being protective of me, or maybe it was because of that one time she shut down his animal activist campaign. Now that was a sight. Probably a mix of both. I was interrupted from my thoughts when the door opened and a wrinkled, tired face appeared in the doorway.
"You..." he glared at me, before turning to River. "Phoenix? I told you, I don't have any more money to donate!"
"Uh, we were kind of sent here," River explained as I handed him the slip of paper the teacher gave us. His brow furrowed as he scanned through the crumpled paper.
"Smoking in class, throwing cigarette butts at a pupil and teacher. That's new for you," he said bluntly- no emotion in his stiff face. I chuckled.
"Ha, I know right?" I said. River didn't find it so funny however and nudged me to shush.
"I don't want any cheek from you Miss Macchio. I'm not even gonna ask why you did it- there's no excuse. Three weeks detention. Now get out." He signed two detention slips and handed them to us.
"See ya Mr Flatman."

Finally, the school day had finished; I walked out the school gates, only to see Corey. I tried to cover my face with my hoodie, but to my dismay, he caught sight of me. He gestured for me to come over- I reluctantly did.
"Hey Les, what was all that about today?"
"Nothing..." I held my arm- rubbing it slightly.
"It wasn't nothing. I've known you for 14 years Les, you can't lie to me. I think I know though." I inwardly admitted that he was speaking the truth and gave up on lying.
"Uh, well, I was just bothered by the fact you were kissing Kathleen," I twirled a piece of hair around my finger- something I do when I get nervous.
"Really? I didn't know you felt that way, and Kathleen was just a one time thing, she just kind of came onto me and we took it too far. I'm really sorry Les. I like you too I guess, but it's normal in a frienship, right? Look..." he grabbed my hands and stared deeply into my eyes. "I don't wanna lose this friendship we have Les, it's the most important thing in my life, and I mean that."
"Me too Cor... I guess, we should just act normal. I just felt kind of humiliated..."
"I'm so sorry Les, I should've known better."
"No, I was over-reacting... friends?"
"Best friends," Corey pulled me into a tight hug. We pulled away and I ruffled his hair- he ruffled mine in return- causing it to cover my face, blocking my vision. However, moments later, it was pulled out of my face and tucked behind my ear. I rubbed my eyes and saw River smiling at me.
"So I guess you and Corey made up then?" he asked, smiling sweetly down at me.
"Yeah." I grabbed Corey's hand-earning a subtle, disappointed look from River. It wasn't from his expression, it was his eyes. Did that mean he was jealous? It couldn't... I've got to stop thinking so self-centeredly.
"Lets go home then," Corey said, slightly uncomfortable in the silence. Corey was like that. He dropped down his skateboard and started riding out the gates. River let his down too, and followed suit. I attempted to go as fast as them, but ended up failing. I had only learnt how to skate a month ago, Ralph had taught me the basics, and I had developed them. They noticed my struggling, and dropped behind. I looked behind to see them coming up to my side, however in the process, not seeing the speed bump until I went over it- knocking me off balance. I wobbled to my left and grabbed the nearest thing to me to prevent myself falling. It turned out to be River, and he grabbed my arm back to stop him from losing his balance too, leading us to finally be stable- and I let out a sigh of relief. Our hands had somehow found each other and we carried on skating. My hand gripped River's whenever I felt I was losing my balance. Still not fully trusting Corey yet.

Corey's house was closest to school so we dropped him off, before going a few houses down the street to mine.
"I'll walk you to the door."
"You don't have to."
"I want to."
"Whatever you say." I picked up my skateboard and we walked up my drive. I stopped outside my door. "You really have changed a lot, you have way better manners for a start," I said out of the blue. I was eyeing him as I saw his calm expression turned almost stunned. He gulped before turning to me.
"Uh, yeah. I realised something about myself." His expression softened and looked as though he was thinking deeply. Himself?
"What?"
"You'll find out when the time is right- if it ever comes." This left me puzzled but I tried to shrug it off as I knocked on my door- having forgot my keys. Sebastian opened the door before his eyes diverted to River standing behind me.
"Bye River."
"See you," he spoke as he got back on his skateboard. I turned back to Sebastian.
"How come you're home so early?"
"Mom said I could stay home today. Why were you with River?"
"I... it's complicated..."
"Too complicated to explain to the brother you tell everything to?"
"Yes. No. I don't know? It's all so confusing, I haven't even figured it out yet." A hurt expression flashed across his face as he walked to the kitchen.
"As long as you aren't dating..." I sighed heavily and traipsed to the living room- me close behind.
"Not exactly."