The Not So Innocent Boy ~[Completed]~

Chapter 3.

Fuck life. That's all Briar could ever think about. So many thing had gone wrong for her since day one and Friday was just the tip of the iceberg, but now it's Saturday. Big whoop! Maybe today she could avoid being hit with the very sub-par spaghetti from her school cafeteria.

Briar woke up, very slowly, and made her way to the washroom. Switching the lights on left her blinded for a few seconds, before seeing the nest that sat on the top of her head. Nothing a good brush couldn't fix. She proceeded to continue with her morning routine before realizing that the state of her hair had gone back to the way it was before. Maybe a ponytail would work better.

Walking in to the kitchen, she noticed a note left on the counter. Her dad had left early to grab an extra shift at work. He had been working a lot recently. Briar wished there could have been something that she could do to help, but her father refused to let her get a part-time job.

She grabbed a box of cereal and ate right out of it. She didn't see why not? She sat down on her couch and watched morning cartoons, cause there was nothing else that screamed WATCH ME! She would have sat there all day if the doorbell hadn't gone off. She got up and went to the door.

"Of course it's you." She said to Chris who had the biggest smile on his face.

"Come on Bri! It's the weekend. You can't just stay here." He told her.

"Why not? My life isn't going anywhere anyways."

"Come on! I will protest if I have to. At least come outside."

Briar paused hoping to add a pinch of drama, "Chris?" She pretended to be worried.

"What?" He believed it.

"I'm a vampire" She said with a straight face.

Chris gasped and exhaled. "Bri I'm not leaving.",her trickery was no match for him.

"Great we can keep up appearances together."

Chris had had enough and grabbed Briar by her wrist and pulled her outside before she could do anything about it. She hissed at the sun, mimicking a vampire.

"I tried." She said. "Time to go back inside."

"Briar Cole, I will carry you over my shoulder if I have to."

She inhaled. "Fine you win. Now give me a second. You wait here...outside."

She walked back inside, acting like she was going to go get ready. Briar turned around and slammed the door shut and locked it, before Chris knew what hit him. She ran upstairs to her room and opened her window to look at Chris, who she had now outsmarted.

"Now that's not fair!" Chris yelled up at her.

A smirky kind of grin appeared on her face, "Well you were too slow. Maybe next time."

"You're a sore loser, you know that!"

"Well at least I'm a smart one."

"Bri, I walked all the way over here for you."

"Chris, you live down the street. It took you two seconds to get here."

Looming down the street a car was driving towards them. It slowed down when it got close to the house and stopped. The back seat window was lowered and sitting inside were Clarice and Asa. Clarice seemed curious about the situation. Briar rolled her eyes.

"What are you two doing? Chris if you are trying to proclaim your love to Briar, you might as well tell her." Clarice snobbishly implied.

Chris turned to her. "Well if you were a decent human being you would probably know that I play for the other team."

Clarice had an expression on her face like she seemed to be offended. She turned to the front like she was talking to someone, Briar was too far away to hear anything. Clarice turned back quickly.

"May God save your soul." Clarice proclaimed.

As they slowly started to drive away, Briar yelled, "Hail Satan." She tapped the window sil once they rolled off.

She closed her window and finally went to get dressed into something that wasn't smelly. After a frivolous five minutes, she walked downstairs and opened the front door.

"Okay let's go." She said to Chris who was sitting on the front steps.

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah. Where are you taking me?"

"I don't know?"

"So you made me get up for nothing?"

"Yes... Wait no! Bri the spaghetti thing is no big deal."

"You think I'm embarrassed about the spaghetti? I'm just lazy."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't give a shit about spaghetti."

"Oh."

There was an awkward moment of silence. Every once in a while they would smile at each other. This went on for another minute or so.

"Okay let's go before we look more stupid then we do now." Briar said.

"Yeah good idea..."

Hand and hand they both skipped down Briar's front stairs and headed towards the east side of the street, which lead to a nearby park. It seemed like it took forever to get there, but in reality it had only taken them about ten minutes to arrive.

Kids where playing on the jungle gym and the swings, but Briar's favorite spot was up in the tallest tree in the park. When she had figured out this incredible talent of climbing up trees, at the age of six, she spent all her time up there. Sometimes her dad had to climb up and pry her out. Once down he would take a minute to catch his breath and by the time he would look up, Briar was back up the tree.

Briar had, of course, beat Chris up to her favorite spot. No one would ever defeat the undefeated Briar up that tree.

Chris being out of breath could only get out, " God Bri... How... do you... do it?"

"Practice, my friend."

"You might be insane, but it's worth it, being all the way up here."

They both took a moment to take in the air. The sight wasn't much, but the top of that tree was so quaint and intimate.

Snapped out of her trance, Chris was speaking.

"I remember the first time you took me up here." He chuckled.

"I'm not surprised." She was laughing along.

"It was the most awkward moment of my life."

"Really?" Briar turned and looked at him.

"Yeah, you kissed me."

"Okay, yeah, you're right."

Briar had kissed Chris a few years ago, before he came out to everybody. She always told herself that she wasn't really thinking and just did it in the moment. That's when Chris told her that he was gay. She was obviously shocked in the moment , but it made so much sense to her later on. She avoided him for a week or so before finally confronting him about it. They laughed it off and kept going on the way they were before.