Kent
Nothing changes overnight, and no one can convince me otherwise. People don't suddenly flip, and switches are only for lamps. It's a process. A gradual, excruciating process.
First you pluck the flower, then you watch it slowly die.
My dad says my mom called me her little sunflower. Dad plucked me ages ago.
"You look like you need some company." Valerie says as she places her tray next to mine, taking a seat.
"Why do you say that?" As far as I knew, sitting alone on a table surrounded by solitude with loneliness creeping behind was pretty normal.
"let's call it a wild guess." It isn't wild nor it's a guess. I probably look like how I feel: shit.
It became our usual. I sit at the lunch table and Val joins me, or vice versa. Then we look at the different tables and the different people sitting on them.
They aren't tropes. No table for jocks. No table for jerks. No table for cheerleaders; save for the two garbage ones (according to Val).
People choose where to sit but they don't always fit in. Sometimes they make a room for you to fit, and sometimes you need to move yourself.
"What's so special about Noah Grayson?" Val asks, breaking my reverie. I seriously hoped he didn't see me staring at his table; at him.
"He's different." I say.
"Different how?"
"He's not the hottest, nor the cutest, nor the smartest, and definitely not the most popular. He's not a jock or a nerd, nor a bad boy or a prick."
"What is he then?" she asks.
Noah Grayson is a comet, and I am nothing but a vast space. "He's a daydream." I say.
-
Val and I grew apart very quickly.
A couple weeks pass, and she doesn't come to school. At first, I think she and her brother changed schools. But then I see him during lunch. He sits at my table, actually.
He looks very angry so I don't speak to him for the longest time.
Eventually, I grow immensely frustrated with questions, so I ask him.
"We're still in the middle of moving into town so she's going back and forth with mom to our house," he stops for a bit. "Our old house, I mean."
We leave it at that and he doesn't add anything to the conversation. We just eat in silence then leave to our classes.
I don't know if it's my eyes are playing tricks on me but I think I see Noah Grayson looking at me as I leave the cafeteria.
When the school day ends, the pain in my body from dad's kicks is faded behind the hunger and tiredness.
When I emerge into the parking lot, I stumble upon Spyder, which wasn't his actual name. He was standing with who I assumed was his adoptive father. They looked eerily similar, except his dad's hair was blonder, and he carried a guitar behind his shoulder.
I know Spyder doesn't like me. For some strange reason, he never did. However, as I pass by them, I can swear my name was mentioned in their conversation.
Dad's home when I get there even though he is supposed to be at work. I reach my room and then everything is a blur.
Like every good movie, there's always a sequel.
Dad's beating was a blockbuster.
Mom left my life when I was young.
My friends never stayed when I grew up a little.
Val never returned from her old hometown.
Val left too.
Dad's beatings became a franchise.
The first hit made me lose his trust.
The second made me lose my faith in him.
The third made me lose hope in anything good.
The fourth made me lose happiness.
The fifth broke my heart.
The sixth broke my soul.
The seventh broke my rib.
And the last one turned me into a shell.
I lost every single hope in anything good. I started seeing evil in people.
I closed the doors to my bedroom and to myself. I hid behind the walls in our house, and built some walls around my heart too.
I never saw innocence in anyone again, save for one person.
As Kent Sinclair folded up upon himself, only one person wanted to see what's beneath the folds of a broken soul.
When the next school year started, with me having no friends, no energy, and no life, Noah Grayson saw a spark of hope in the glint of a shattered wall of glass that once resembled a human underneath it.
Noah Grayson became my class project husband.
A/N: I blame the late chapter on my deteriorating mental health.
First I want to congratulate my girlfriend for getting accepted into one of the greatest Masters programs in the country. Always proud of you ♡.
Second I want to thank my readers for reading my readable reads.
Third, check out my other stories while waiting for updates.
The Rivertown series goes as follows (albeit you don't need to read them all to understand the books):
Stepbrothers (thanks for 1m!!)
Roommates (almost 2m omg)
Hold My Hand
Soulmates
Husbands But Not
Finally Found You
Fourth: proud to announce my poetry book Roses & Cigarettes is available on amazon in paperback and kindle editions.
More soon x.
YOU ARE READING
Husbands But Not
Teen Fiction[Completed] Noah is confident. Kent is not. Noah is popular. Kent is not. When a group project ties their knot, everyone at school is shook. But if you ask Noah, it's nothing. They're just husbands, but not. However, when Kent starts growing thinne...
