Leo's P.O.V.
Its been a month since school started and it's absolute hell.
I still haven't made any friends and Paxton hasn't come home yet. Shay and Kale are on the football, basketball, and wrestling teams along with a few other sports. They also are on a hockey team outside of school which sucks because I have to get dragged to those games and practices too.
It's lunch time at school and I got my lunch from my locker. I went downstairs and walked outside. I walked up the hill and sat at the top. I opened up my lunch and started eating. I looked out at the town and watched all the cars driving. I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard somebody behind me say "Hey Nerdo."
I turned around to see Shay.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Nothing." He answered.
"So you're telling me, you came all the way up here for nothing?" I asked.
"Well, I wanted to see if you wanted any company." Shay answered.
"No thanks. I prefer my own company." I replied.
"It wasn't really a choice. I'm not leaving." He said sitting down beside me.
"Don't you have friends you can hang out with?" I asked.
"Yeah. Can I not talk to you though?" He answered.
"You've known me for like seven months. You know I don't talk much if at all." I replied.
"Well we haven't been able to get you to say anything in the past month to us." Shay said.
"Why do you care?" I asked.
"Because I care about you. And I hear you talking to Paxton a lot about how much you hate school." Shay answered.
"You eavesdrop on my conversations with Paxton?" I asked.
"Well I'm in the room right beside you. The walls are thin." He answered.
"I don't even want to talk about anything, honestly." I replied.
"Okay, then I'll talk and you can listen." Shay said turning to me.
"Paxton texted me a few days ago and told me he was worried about you. He also told Kale to watch out for you too." Shay told me.
"Hasn't been doing a very good job of it." I replied.
"It might not seem like it, but he does. One of the kids on your locker panel were gonna beat you up last week but Kale told them not to. And he does watch you in the hallways to make sure nobody messes with you. He told his friends to make sure nobody messes with you either. Kale's way of watching out for you is to pretty much stalk you from a distance without your knowledge and make sure nothing happens. He's a prick, but he's got a good heart." Shay told me.
"If he actually cared about me, he wouldn't beat the shit out of me daily." I replied.
"Weirdo, that's his way of showing affection. He will never hit you as hard as he can. He tells his friends about you in the cafeteria. He'll tell them about a funny joke you told or about how smart you are. He doesn't hate you." Shay said.
"I don't believe you." I replied.
"Okay. In the locker room after our last football game, we were all talking about the grade nines and somebody said that you were a loser and that you were a total nerd. When everybody left, he made the kid take back what he said about you. Then Kale punched the kid in the face." Shay told me.
"He did that?" I asked.
"Yeah." He answered.
"Lunch is over in ten minutes. We should go." He added standing up.
I stood up and grabbed my lunch.
We walked down to the school and I went to my locker.
I put my lunch inside my backpack and grabbed my books.
I closed my locker and turned around to go to class but somebody stood in front of me and knocked my books out of my hands.
They pushed me up against the lockers and punched me in the stomach.
I groaned and clutched my stomach then he punched me in the face.
He was about to punch me again but somebody shoved him to the ground.
They started punching the guy in the face and said "Don't ever fucking touch him again."
Everybody stared at them and he turned around.
I realized it was Kale and he walked away before I could catch up to him.
I went to class with people staring at me and whispering to their friends.
After school...
I got my backpack from my locker and went to where Kale parked his car.
It was gone and Shay was standing in the parking spot it used to be.
"Hey. I heard what happened. Are you okay?" Shay asked me.
"Yeah. Where's Kale?" I answered.
"He went somewhere. Won't be back until late tonight. My dad's picking us up in ten minutes." Shay replied.
"Is Kale okay?" I said.
"He's fine. He's just mad. But not at you. At the kid. He's an eleventh grader on the basketball team with us." Shay replied.
Victor's car pulled up and we got in.
We drove home and I went upstairs to my room.
After a few hours, we ate dinner and I started doing my homework.
I was writing my book report when Shay came into my room.
"Can you fix my computer? It won't let me download something." He said.
I nodded and he gave me his computer.
I looked at it for ten minutes and figured out the problem.
I fixed it and asked him "Has Kale come home yet?"
"No." He answered.
"Do you know where he is?" I asked.
"Honestly, no. He's left a few times before when he's angry and upset. And he's usually back late. So I'm guessing he'll be home no later than 1am." Shay answered.
"Really? That's late. Doesn't Victor worry about him being out that late?" I asked.
"My dad doesn't worry about that kind of stuff. He trusts Kale. He knows he will come back. He knows that when Kale leaves it's because he gets really angry and upset. He just needs to blow off some steam and calm down. For him, that's driving to an area that we don't know, but he does, and doing god knows what." Shay answered.
I finished my book report and Shay left my room.
After a few hours, it was almost midnight and I went downstairs to the kitchen. I grabbed a bottle of water and was walking back to my room, when the front door opened.
Kale walked in and quietly shut the door.
He looked up and saw me.
I could tell he didn't know what to do and I hugged him.
He hugged me back, surprisingly, and we pulled away after a few seconds.
"You should be asleep." Kale said to me.
"I was waiting for you. I was worried about you. I wanted to make sure you got home safely." I replied as we walked upstairs.
"I'm fine, bud. You don't have to worry about me." He said.
"Where did you go?" I asked.
"Nowhere. Now you should go to bed. It's late." Kale answered as we got to the top of the stairs.
I nodded and went to my room.
I got into bed and fell asleep.
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