Mine To Love (manxman)

1-At First Sight

JEREMY

It was already half way through the school year when a new boy joined my class. Mrs. Parker had him stand in front of the class and introduce himself.

He was taller than a lot of the other boys in our class and his dark hair was cut really short on his head.

"My name is Frankie and I'm fifteen years old. I moved here on Friday with my mom and dad. Dad was transferred to the army base here. We'll probably be moving again in a year or so. We move a lot." He looked uncertainly around the room as he spoke.

"Thank you Frankie that'll do. You can take a seat in the third row beside Mark. Mark raise your hand please." Mrs. Parker turned to the board and started writing before Frankie could take his seat.

During the rest of the day all of the kids tried to talk to Frankie and make friends with him, but he'd just shake his head. At lunch he sat alone even though he'd been asked to sit with some of the other kids.

He was on my bus after school and he got off on the corner of my street. "You live here too?" I asked him as I tried to catch up to him.

"Yeah. We live off base." He didn't even look at me, he just continued to walk fast ahead of me.

"Did you guys move into the big blue house with the tire swing out back?" I asked with more enthusiasm now. That was the house next door to mine. We'd been to visit my grandparents over the weekend so we'd missed the new neighbours moving in but my mom had told me that they had.

"Yeah, why?" He stopped and turned back to look at me with a wary expression on his face.

"That's right next to mine. I guess we're neighbours. Do you want to come over after you finish your homework? We could play ball, or I have a PlayStation and some cool games that  we could play." I told him.

He looked at me with a frown. "No. Stop trying to make friends with me. I'm not here for long so there's no point. Don't you have any friends?" He looked almost mad and I could feel anger begin to rise inside me too. I was only trying to be nice to him. I thought he might like to be friends since we lived side by side and were in the same class. Of course I had friends, I just thought that he might want to be one of them.

"Yes I have friends. I have friends who don't act like an idiot when I ask them to come over or sulk because they might actually make a new friend. I was trying to be nice." I shouted at him.

"Don't shout at me." He pushed my shoulders and I nearly fell from the force of his shove. With a growl I launched myself at him and shoved him as hard as I could. He fell to the ground and I fell with him. He quickly rolled us over so that he was sitting on my stomach and he pulled back his fist to hit me.

"Frankie, get off that boy this instant." The female yell froze Frankie in place before his fist could make contact with my face and I let out a relieved sigh.

"Get off me." I tried to dislodge him so I could sit up but he was bigger than me and heavier than me too. When I finally managed to stand and brush myself off I realized that we were in front of his house and a woman was standing on the front lawn with her arms crossed as she glared at Frankie. I guessed that she must be his mom. She was pretty for a mom and she looked a little bit younger than my mom.

"Why are you fighting with that boy?" She turned to me then and smiled a genuine smile. "What's your name sweetheart?"

"Jeremy ma'am." She smiled at me again before turning to glare at Frankie again. "Why were you fighting with Jeremy? I taught you better than that. Answer me Franklin Gregory Thompson."

Frankie groaned beside me. "Don't middle name me mom. You know I hate that sh-" He cut himself off and his face grew red. "Sorry mom. He was shouting at me and I told him to stop."

"I was shouting at you because you were being rude. And you shoved me first." I argued. "I only asked you if you wanted to come over and play on my PlayStation."

His mom let out a strange sound and laughed. "That's so nice of you. Isn't that nice Frankie?" Her voice had that tone that moms get when they're daring you to disagree with them at your own peril. "Where do you live Jeremy?"

I pointed at my house. "Right there. I thought Frankie might want to be friends since we're in the same class in school but he doesn't seem to want to." I looked at a clearly sulking Frankie as I spoke the last sentence.

"Well duh." He shot at me.

"Franklin." His mom scolded him.

"Sorry mom."

"Why don't you want to be friends with Jeremy?" She had a look of puzzlement as she looked from one of us to the other.

"What's the point? Any time I make friends we just end up leaving and I never see them again. If I don't make friends then I can't miss them when I leave." He hitched his school bag on his shoulder and walked into his house.

"I'm sorry Jeremy. I'll have a talk with him. Please don't give up on him, he's a good boy, he's just had a lot to deal with." She looked so sad that I felt an urge to hug her, but instead I just smiled and nodded before making my way home.

The next day I sat beside Frankie on the bus. He wouldn't speak to me but I kept talking to him. I told him that I had a little sister who'd be starting school next year. That I wanted to get a puppy but my dad wouldn't let me until my sister got a little bigger. I told him about my friends, Rodge and Mattie and about our football training. I told him that he should try out for the team since we needed someone to fill an open spot. I told him which teachers were nice and which ones weren't. Then the bus stopped at the school and he pushed past me and off the bus before I could catch up to him.

At lunch I sat beside him with my friends and we all tried to chat to him even though he just frowned at us and ate his food. I was determined to make him my friend.

On the way home I chatted to him about everything I could think of and continued as we walked to our houses. "See you tomorrow Frankie." I called after him as he practically ran up his walkway and into the house.

I continued like that for two weeks until we were stepping off the bus one day and I accidentally bumped into a boy much older and bigger than me.

"Sorry." I mumbled as I cowered away from the angry look on his face.

"Be careful where you're going." He shoved me and I fell on my ass on the pavement.

"Don't touch him." Frankie got in the boys face and shoved him back for me. "Come on Jeremy." He caught my hand and pulled me up on my feet.

"Thanks Frankie." I smiled at him, and this time he smiled back.

"You want to come over later? My mom is making cookies and I've a bunch of pretty cool films that we could watch." He asked me.

"Yeah, I love cookies. My mom used to call me the cookie monster when I was little because I ate a whole plateful when she left the kitchen to answer the door." We both laughed at that.

"How old were you?"

"I think I was three or four." I remember crying all that night with a stomach ache.

When we reached the class we promised to talk to each other at lunch time and we did. After that we were almost inseparable. If he wasn't over at my house then I was at his and our moms became good friends too.