Chit and Jake

Chit

The following week did not go as I had expected it. Levy and Chris came to sit with us during breaks and Jake got snarky. I tried to ask him what was wrong, I tried to talk to him but I got nothing except snide comebacks and constantly being pushed away. The others offered to go back to their old groups if that would help but Jake refused to let that happen. Halfway through the week we divided. Chris occasionally added to a conversation but generally sat sketching while Levy and I spoke about whatever we felt like talking about and Jake sat against the tree morbidly. That is what our group had turned into. Levy got picked on quite a lot by her old group of friends for sitting with us. It wasn't really bad though, there's a line where occasional cruel jokes and meaningless whispers turn into constant harassment and nonstop bullying. While I didn't like what was happening, Levy had asked us all to just leave it and ignore them. She knew them and knew that once they got bored they'd leave her alone. On Wednesday, Jake asked to see Chris' drawings and Chris looked very taken aback, but after about ten minutes of non-stop bickering, begging and bribing Chris caved to the promise of one thing; one favour, one secret, one gift. That was their terms and it was a long term deal, Chris could cash it in at any time before Jakes, Levy's and my graduation. There was a wooden bench, about five meters from our tree on the grass so Chit took Jake over there and handed him his sketchbook. I had no idea what had happened during that ten minutes that Jake took to go through the sketchbook but they didn't come back to sit with Levy and I for the rest of lunch. Nor did they the next day, or the day after that. I tried asking why but Jake only responded with vague answers and when I asked Levy what Chris had said she told me that she'd gotten the same response. I thought I'd brought everyone together that weekend but it only seemed to be driving people apart.