Caleb's Neighbour

Chapter 4

When History Class was over Tom brought me around the back of the building. He wasn't smiling like all the other students though, I sort of appreciated it, I was getting really sick of everyone smiling all the time. I had had my fair share of smiling with the office lady, the yellow teeth left me still a bit sick. Tom had yellow teeth and braces, that might've been why he wasn't smiling. People with braces always smiled with just their lips, it looked pretty weird, but when they smiled with their braces they didn't look good either. I had never had braces, I'm always lucky when it comes to that sort of stuff. Never had an operation either, not even a broken bone; and I'm clumsy as hell, so I always found it surprising. Tom had hooked his hand around my arm and was dragging me, I didn't care though, because I had slept a bit in History so his pulling was waking my body up. I still felt spaced out. Like, when Tom was pulling my arm and all, it didn't feel like he was pulling me, it just felt like he was pulling some arm. I get that feeling sometimes, my mom always says its exhaustion, and I agree with her - it's the only logical response. Tom was speaking to me now, and his braces were on show, they had this black lining in them. It made it look like he had food stuck in them. But he didn't, so I don't even know why I was thinking like that in the first place. 

'Where are we going?' I asked, it felt sort of dumb too, asking the question I mean. Asking questions, especially ones like that made me seem like a crying baby or just a baby in general. I like to be in control, and by asking naive questions like that didn't make me seem in control at all. Tom turned his body around, he was wearing this big sweatshirt that hung off of his body, and it had this big print of a lion in the corner. It looked like it was sewn in, but I knew it wasn't. Now everything is done half-assed, I'd be surprised if it was actually made by a person. I used to volunteer in this retirement home as my community service for this project in Indiana, and there was this one guy who spoke to me about stuff like that. What he said meant a lot to me too, because you get that knowledge from no-where else. Everyone's too scared to even mention it, let alone actually give advice on it. That really bugs me sometimes, when people don't have the balls to talk about stuff that actually matters, instead they just dance around the topic without admitting that they are. Grow a pair. That's what the guy in the retirement home  said to me every time I visited, he told me that people needed to, and I was so stupid I would ask why, and he would spit out a different answer every time. That's the thing with old people, they're never consistent. As much as I liked talking to the guy, all the conversations would lead to something irrelevant. I could never show how angry I got from it, because he was old and all. My mom said that that presents itself as an excuse, but I'm young, that doesn't mean I can throw a tantrum all the time. 

'I just told you,' Tom spoke, and I realised I didn't listen to him. I don't blame myself, his voice had gotten real squeaky out of nowhere. It was really annoying, sounded like one of those plastic dog toys being squeezed. I felt like I was being squeezed, we were still in a really dusty area of the school. When I breathed in the dust wrapped around my lungs, I ended up coughing a lot. Maybe I had asthma, or maybe it was because I smoked too much when I was in Indiana.  'We're going to the Math department to meet Anna and Jose.' 

'Who?' I felt really dazed and dumb now, I mean, it not that hard to realise that they're probably his friends, but the second I let that question leave my mouth I felt like a fool. I caught on pretty quick too, but not as quick as my unfiltered mouth. 

'My friends, dingus.' when he said dingus I smiled, my mom called my sister that whenever she did something dumb. But now old Tom had gotten me thinking about my sister, I needed to pick her up after school ended from the day-care or some shit. My mom had just sent me the address, I hadn't really thought about it until now. And I know after school I'll forget - that's the thing, I always think about things at the wrong time. I guess I got pretty carried away thinking about my sister and all. I sort of missed her, she was at that age where everything she does is adorable. I usually hate most kids, I definitely didn't like her a couple years back, but she grew on me. I think that most other kids just look like weird dolls, especially when they carry a doll around with them - like siamese twins or some shit.