Dancing On Ice

Glitter In The Sun

Austin's POV

____

After deciding what story we all wanted to work on and present about, and then dividing the tasks amongst ourselves, I was shoving my notebook back into my backpack. Alan sauntered over to me, his backpack lazily slung over one shoulder.

"What're you doing after school?" Alan asked me. I shrugged, not looking up at him. Why was my Spanish binder choosing right then to not fit into my bag?

"I dunno, you wanna hang out or something?" I asked him.

"Sure. Just us or with the guys too?" He asked me. I glanced up at him.

"It doesn't matter. Actually, I've been meaning to ask you something." I stood, slinging a backpack strap over my shoulder. "You okay?" Alan raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Are you okay?" He asked me. I sighed, knowing what he was actually talking about, and it wasn't about my whole feelings towards school.

"It's hard, but I'm fine, Alan." I told him quietly. We both started walking out of the classroom and to our next class, which we didn't share. The sound of monotonous murmur of surrounding teenagers filled my ears.

"You know, I didn't call you because I wanted to give you space, Austin." Alan spoke, breaking the silence and giving a familiar sound to my ears. I didn't look at him, because I couldn't. No one knows what can happen to someone in the matter of weeks. That's why I always said hello to strangers, and went above and beyond to treat everyone kindly.

Alan and I had been together, and had been pretty serious, but we kept our relationship secret for the fear of how his parents would react to his sexuality. We'd broken up a few days before my life had changed, because he'd claimed that he couldn't sneak around with me anymore. We agreed to just remain friends and that was that. He had no reason to feel guilty at all, but I couldn't say that I didn't still deeply care for him. He was my best friend, and as long as he was in my life, then it was perfectly okay.

"It's okay, Alan. I'm not upset with you." I told him. I gave him a grin and turned. "My class is this way. But I'll see you at lunch, okay?" He nodded, a toothless half-smile on his face, as he went towards his class.

My next class was history, which was one of my favorite classes. I didn't even mind being the first person in class, because that meant I could talk to Mr. Gales about the latest documentary on the history channel. Most people hated him because he was a bit of a sarcastic asshole, and then his accent made everything sound a bit angry.

"Hello, Austin. How are you?" Mr. Gales asked me. I smiled a little.

"Good and you?" I asked him back politely. The door to the classroom swung open then. Odd. We had four more minutes until class started, and no one showed up for class until the last possible moment. I turned a little to see who had come into the classroom, it was Kellin, with Jesse beside him.

"Hey, Jesse and Kellin." I said with a wave. Mr. Gales turned back to his computer. We could discuss the new opinions shown on Great Britian's position in the League of Nations.

"Hey, Austin. I was just showing Kellin where his class was." Jesse said to me. Kellin stared at the floor sheepishly.

"Oh, I could've shown him. Let me see your schedule, I'll show you to any other classes if you need me to." I held out my hand to Kellin. Slowly, he placed the pink paper into my palm. I glanced over the sheet. There was only one more class of that day, since we had a block-schedule, and I didn't have it with Kellin. "Oh, well I can walk you over to music."

"Thanks." Kellin mumbled out.

"I have to go guys, I'll see you around." Jesse turned on his heel and left the classroom, walking hurriedly, so he'd be on time. It was just me, Mr. Gales and Kellin in that room for the next couple of minutes. I went over to my seat.

"You could sit next to me if you want, Kellin." I told him. He wrung his hands nervously.

"Don't other people sit near you though? I don't want to take someone else's spot."

"It's fine. We don't have a seating chart." I patted the chair next to me, inviting Kellin over. He sighed and sat down in the plastic chair next to me. Before I could ask him anything, the bell rung and a flood of people came into the classroom.

Throughout the entire lesson, Kellin didn't look up from his notes. He didn't laugh, or talk. I noticed this when a girl Hannah and Mr. Gales started arguing about how to prove that a chart could be reliable. Hannah was obviously talking out of her ass, and kept having to re-phrase all of her words.

It was odd, being so close to someone so quiet. I wasn't an obnoxiously loud person, but I laughed at things that I found funny. I didn't hesitate to add my two cents about something, and I looked people in the eyes when I spoke to them. But I guess, everyone was entitled to be whoever they wanted to be.

I was walking home after school with Tino, we'd been talking about nothing in particular. The sun high above our heads and the ground beneath us bumpy. We were walking along the edges of the beach that was a block away from my house. I saw something that caught my eye and made me have to do a double-take.

It had a bright, golden light to it as the sun struck it. I stopped walking, staring at it. Tino continued walking a few steps before realizing that I wasn't next to him anymore. I went over to the golden object, bending down to pick it up gently. It was a dog tag. On one side, a quote. 'I will return for you, one day, my son.' The quote read and on the other side were the intitals KQB. Without thinking, I slid the tag into my pocket.

"Do you know who that belongs to?" Tino asked me. I shrugged.

"I'll put up posters. If I left it here, someone else with a greedy heart might've taken it." I told Tino. He shrugged.

"I don't get you sometimes, Carlile." He joked. I punched him in the arm playfully and raced him back to his house to meet Alan and Phil.