Touch

Chapter 4

Thursday morning slinked from the very pits of hell. Everyone was in a shitty mood and no one could say why they were. Trevor was missing like he said he would be.

My cheek was sort of discolored from where Dad's ring hit me, but nothing serious.

Nobody would notice.

It's not out of the ordinary for a football player to have some bruises anyways.

I remembered to grab Trevor's work if I was closeby one of his classes. Class was boring. By lunch my brain was numb and I was in an even worse mood. Trevor was missing from the table and I was missing his obnoxious quips.

Lately he was the only one I could tolerate. Mostly because he didn't make dumbass comments about Tyler and I working together.

That's all Dustin can do. I swear he got some kind of sick satisfaction out of bad mouthing him.

"How is it working with the princess?" Dustin asked, chortling at his own joke.

I sent him a dull look, trying to eat in peace. His nicknames for Tyler were getting lamer and lamer by the day. Soon he'd just be calling him that gay kid.

"Like working with you, but he actually does shit."

A vein pulsed in his forehead, looking ready to burst, and the red quickly cascaded down his neck. He looked sunburned. He chose to glare at me, instead of firing back. Probably because he knew he couldn't win an argument without throwing a punch.

Thankfully, he was still on a tight leash for what he did to Trevor at practice. If Dustin fought now and Coach caught wind of it, he'd be benched.

And none of the seniors could afford that with scholarships on the line.

Benji looked up at him, wary of his anger. He turned to me, quickly coming to Dustin's defence. "Why do you keep standing up for that kid," he asked.

"Because you don't know anything about him. You don't even know if it's true."

"And you do?"

"More than you."

Benji was ready to argue, but he couldn't. Dustin did just what I said and Benji––as he always does––followed along with it. I hadn't expected him to this time. This whole repulsion towards Tyler was confusing since Benji's brother was gay and all. But I guess Benji's just like his parents.

I guess most of us are.

Just when he opened his mouth to spew some bullcrap, Trevor sat down with a thud. His backpack hit our trays almost sending them clattering to the ground.

"Watch it!" Dustin growled. His anger at me being redirected to Trevor.

Trevor didn't stay quiet. He bit back, but it wasn't clever. "Leave me alone, asswipe."

Uncreative, unintelligent, un-Trevor.

I stared at him confused and shocked. Usually Trevor let Dustin's comments slide right off of him, making some joke or another. Anyone could see that something was wrong with him. They'd have to be blind not to see. The team had noticed and all of them were about as perceptive as a brick.

That fight with Dustin yesterday was so out of character that Coach pulled him aside. Not that much talking happened. Trevor stormed out of practice, not giving a damn that Coach was shouting after him. He missed the first half of the day. It was all just adding up.

And I wanted to know why my best friend was so angry. Everytime I tried to talk to him though he'd shut me down. Like last night.

"You're the one stomping and throwing shit around!" Dustin yelled. "What's your problem anyway?"