0400

c.2

By the end of the school day, the only other important thing that happened was that I met Dex. You know how some people look incredibly different back in high school?

You would see the huge difference between then and now if I showed you his yearbook picture.

Then again, he'd kill me if I showed you his yearbook picture. A beanie would cover his wavy, shaggy, chocolate brown hair 24/7. He wouldn't take it off for anything. Before he got contacts, he wore these chunky rectangular glasses with thick black frames. I mean, so chunky that if you glanced at him, you wouldn't notice he had hazel eyes. Not to mention that he was a little shy from hitting 5'6". Let me clarify that this is before he had his incredibly late growth spurt. Now look how tall he is. He's even taller than me, and I used to make fun of the guy.

"Dexter Fossey. Dex for short. What're you doing in the halls?" He talked from the floor, looking up at me through those huge glasses. 

"I uh..." I trail off. Shrugging, I told him, "It's incredibly loud in the cafeteria."

"Not your style?"

"I guess," I mumbled. With a half- smile, he patted the floor beside him. A laptop occupied his lap and one headphone was slid back from his ear. It was only later that I realized he smirked all the time. When his face rested, the corner of his lip just stayed up, as if he read some funny post on his phone. Kind of like resting bitch face except he had to deal with resting douche face.

"Grab a piece of floor and join the party." I placed my skateboard against the wall, slide my bag strap off my shoulder, and let the sack hit the ground. He seems nice enough. Pressing my back against the lockers, I slid down beside him. The cold floor felt glorious against my butt (have you ever tried sitting on something really cold? One of the best feelings ever) as I dug around my bag for my lunch.

"So Seth, you new here?" My eyes glanced at his computer screen before I answer, "Yeah. Moved here from Baltimore. You ever been?" A scoff flew out of his mouth.

"My parents and I haven't traveled even two cities away from San Fran. Forget about leaving the state any time soon." And that's when I decided that if I had to hang around anyone, the 'anyone' would be him. My fingers closed around a cold slice of pizza wrapped in foil, and I brought it out onto my lap.

"Is there any like... 'ground information' I need to know around here?" The sight of pizza made my stomach growl. Of course my mom knew how to brighten up my day, knowing that first days of school weren't always the best. I eagerly teared the foil off and started devouring it while Dex pressed his lips together, thinking.

"There's a couple things, but I need to know what kind of person you are first."

"Huh?"

"What kind of shit do you listen to?" A bite of lunch slid down my throat before I asked, "What're you doing, psychoanalyzing me?" My eyebrow lifted as I took another chunk off the pizza.

"Just answer the question." Chewing for a few seconds, I pretended to mull it over in my head. I couldn't talk until I swallowed since I wasn't confident that Dex could decode my words with a mouth full of food the way Marshall could.

"Alright. But I'm just saying, you can't make a lot of friends this way," I laughed, and that managed to get him smiling.

Holding my slice of pizza away from my mouth, I decided to play along and say, "I listen to a lot of quote unquote shit. A lot of punk- anything and alternative- everything."

"Movies or parties?"

"Movies." No question about it.

"Supernatural or Teen Wolf?"