The Three Brothers

Chapter Two- The First Evening

The cafeteria- otherwise known as 'the mess'- was just that, a mess. It was crowded with people, who all turned to stare at Boston as he passed. He noticed how diverse the groups of people were, far from the group of stereotypical skin-heads he had imagined would be locked up a place like this.

There must have been over two hundred people crammed into this one room and this left Boston feeling uncomfortable. This was because of one simple fact- Boston didn't like people. Due to his upbringing he found not only trusting people to be impossible, but also being near them, never mind being the centre of attention. He hated being put in situations that he couldn't escape from easily and this was one of them...

He had had stares all the way down to the 'mess hall' as Harper called it- he could cope with a few curious glances, but hundreds was another matter and Boston was -by now- reluctant to follow Harper any further. Harper seemed oblivious to his discomfort and kept skipping down the hall, before coming to a stop at a table near the far end. She started greeting people and Boston realized that he had been brought to meet her friends, something he had no intention of doing. He was about to hightail it out of there when Harper decided to introduce him.

"Everyone, this is Boston." Harper said, gesturing with her hands for full affect.

Boston honestly felt like he was some boyfriend out of some cliché high school movie, being taken to meet the parents. The whole group turned to look at him simultaneously at Harper's words, their expressions varying from welcoming grins, to full on glares, which Boston returned with a scowl of his own. He hated the feel of so many eyes on him and felt like he was suddenly buckling under the pressure of such a stressful day. He had started to shake- with anger or panic he could not tell. Boston grabbed Harper's arm and twirled her round, until she was standing face to face with him.

"Can I leave?" He asked. Boston was never normally this polite, but in these circumstances he didn't know what to do.

"But you haven't even eaten yet?" Harper replied, her expression bewildered.

"I'm not hungry."

"Come on, just try something, you never know." Boston felt like she was patronizing him and felt the familiar pump of anger enter his blood.

"I said I don't want anything." He was shouting now and knew he must be causing a scene, but right now he didn't care. He just wanted to get out, out of the hall, out of people's curious stares and out of the stupid school in general. He could feel his panic overtaking him suddenly, the crowds of people covering the exit as he moved his head from side to side, wildly looking for the door.

"Is everything alright here?" A hand was grasping Boston's shoulder and he shook it off aggressively, turning to find a man- roughly mid-thirties- stood behind him. From his attire Boston automatically assumed he was a teacher- a sports teacher- he was wearing a tracksuit and looked fairly athletic, standing just taller than Boston's five foot ten, his dark hair ruffled as if it had been in the wind.

"Everything's fine Sir." Harper replied. Boston felt a sudden surge of gratitude for her, as she hadn't just dropped him off in the deep end, unlike what he would most probably have done.

"And who's this, I don't remember seeing your face before?"

"He's Boston, he just came in today." Harper spoke for him and Boston felt his gratitude ebb away, he didn't like that they were talking about him as if he wasn't there and he didn't like the spark of recognition on the teacher's face as his name was mentioned.

"So what's the problem?"

"I don't want to be here." Boston spoke quickly; effectively cutting off what Harper had been about to say. He could hear some laughs at what he'd said, a few gasps, but he didn't care, he'd been through much worse and done much worse.