broken | shyland ✓

chapter six

s h a n e

'that was... weird.' garrett mumbled, slinging his bag over his shoulder and staring at the doorway as ryland slipped away.

'he's so gorgeous.' i muttered, making garrett's eyes light up as i picked my own backpack up and headed out the door.

'you should give it a go, shane. he might fancy you.' he suggested, stepping into the hallway. i rolled my eyes and adjusted my britney spears tour t-shirt with a small smile on my lips, trying to hide the satisfaction i got from garrett's nonchalant comment.

after pushing past several dozens of year seven and eight kids, we reached the canteen and made our way towards the queue of people waiting for food. out the corner of my eye, i spotted trisha talking to jason. the hunky quarterback was leant against the frame of the glass doors which separated the lower school canteen from the sixth form one, where we all ate.

nudging garrett and gaining his attention, he smiled fondly at trish. her cheeks were blushed as jason spoke to her, a strand of her blonde and pink her wrapped around her finger. she looked anything but heedless, her full attention captivated on his bright blue eyes.

soon, it was my turn at the food window. i picked up some cheesy nachos - of course, they're utter shit compared to taco bell, but i digress - along with a juice box (they didn't allow soda here) and followed garrett towards our designated, circular table.

sat there was joey and daniel with their packed lunches, and with drew was approaching the table, trisha next to him, their food in their hands. the four of us pulled out chairs next to the two boys, digging into our food and discussing our days. five minutes in, a cheesy nacho half the way up to my mouth, i paused.

ryland was sat on an empty table on the other side of the canteen, eating his box of fries and cautiously looking around the hall to see if anyone was staring. i was.

our eyes met and he jerked his head away, pretending to be interested in the half-eaten burger which sat in the cardboard carton beneath him.

'shane!' drew snapped, making me blink rapidly and look towards the long haired boy.

i ate the nacho, which was slightly cold now, and raised my eyebrows at drew. 'yeah?' i spoke softly, biting my lip slightly.

'you were in a daze.' joey grinned, glancing at my eye line.

daniel did the same, eyes landing on ryland with a smirk. 'oh,' he elongated the word, 'someone's in lurve.'

joey and garrett giggled, as did drew, but trisha rolled her eyes and smacked daniel's arm. 'leave him alone, boys.' she said sternly, winking at me. i smiled in reply, stealing one more glance at ryland.

he looked really, really sad.

'i'll be right back.' i muttered, pushing my wooden chair back and letting the metal legs scrape across the plastic floor.

taking a deep breath and reassuring myself that i had walked across this canteen a million times before in the six years i've been here, i paced towards ryland with a soft smile on my lips. once i reached his table, he looked up at me with slight fear in his eyes.

i was tall for my age, already almost six foot at sixteen, so i towered above him. from the look on his face, maybe i was intimidating. i sat down on one of the many empty chairs surrounding him. once we were on the same level, the fear on his face morphed into confusion and perplexity.

'um, hi.' i said awkwardly, offering him a small smile. he placed his food down, setting his hands on the desk. i noticed marks on the insides of his palms, and when he saw me looking he flipped his hands over so i couldn't see them. they looked painful. i couldn't help but wonder how he got them, maybe they were birth marks, i'm not sure.