Dilemmas

06

Shaun buttoned his Hawaiian-themed polo. He looked down as he adored the patterns and the varying shades of green that decorated his clothing. He wore navy blue khaki shorts that reached his knees.

"The fabric is very comfortable," he muttered.

"It looks good," Brandon commented without looking at it. He was busy looking in his locker.

Shaun found a wreath of pink flowers in his locker. "Now I'm complete." He wore it around his neck.

He closed the locker and turned to Giovanni. "What do you think?"

Gio gave a thumbs up. "Nice."

Shaun sat down on Brandon's bed. He had already packed what he needed in his sling bag on his bed, which was on top of Brandon's. All he had to do know was wait.

He took out his cellphone from his pocket and turned it on. The phone displayed the time: 5:31 pm. Shaun sighed and shut off the phone. "It isn't going to start until seven right?"

"Yeah," muttered Giovanni, still lying down on the bed a stone's throw away from where Shaun was sitting. He hadn't changed yet, for some reason.

"You should change," Shaun said.

"Nah. It's still an hour and a half away."

He had a point. Shaun would be feeling impatient just waiting for it. He needed to do something.

Shaun stood up. "I'll go see Drake." Then he rushed out of the door and walked towards their room. Room 02.

He knocked on the door. "Drake? You in there?"

Silence.

"Hello?"

He sighed. Probably they're still in the school building. I don't know what they're doing. . .

"Shaun?" someone said from behind. "Is that you?"

He turned and saw Zeke, wearing a pink version of Shaun's polo. "Hey," he asked. "Have you seen Drake?"

"I think they're in the basketball court," he replied, scratching his head. "I swear I've seen him on the way here."

Shaun was already walking towards the stairs. "Okay. Thanks."

•

Turns out I didn't need to walk far, Shaun thought.

He saw Drake and a few others playing on the computer in the study area. Shaun never liked the place especially at this hour, when it was dark and the area was darker.

Shaun saw Drake in his hoodie with the hood off his head, cheering and shouting as they watched a few of his friends played. Slowly, he approached him.

"Hey," he said. A typical greeting.

Drake turned to face him. "Oh hey," he said. "What are you doing here?"

He thought his voice went cold for a second. "I—I just want to ask you if you want to come with me to dinner."

Suddenly, his friends cheered again, and Drake turned away from him to face the screen. Shaun immediately recognized the game: Tekken. "Whoa! You knocked him out, bro?"

The one sitting on the chair looked up to face him. "Yeah, bro. You should've seen it."

He turned back to the screen. The one who had a keyboard on his lap nudged the guy. "Wanna play another game? It's a rematch."

"Let's do it!" And the crowd cheered again.

Drake turned to face Shaun, smiling. "Another time." He pointed a thumb to the screen. "I'm going to be late, but you can stay if you want."

Shaun gave the dismissive. "Nah, but thanks away." He then turned and walked away as soon as the group cheered loudly again.

•

Shaun was eating at the canteen alone, with no one else sitting with him on his table. But he didn't feel sad. In fact, sometimes the silence had to be good.

My god, I should've not ditched her like that, he thought to himself as he consumed the chocolate bar. I'm so stupid.

He spotted Kaden Pride walking, probably finding a table to sit. Shaun silently called him to sit with simple eye contact. Kaden saw him and changed direction, going to him.

Kaden sat down. "Hey."

Shaun's nostrils flared. Even he sounds like his own twin. But he managed to keep a composed posture. "Hey. I, um. . .ah—"

"You're Jason's schoolmate, right?" Kaden asked, adjusting his glasses. Shaun never saw that at first sight.

Shaun swallowed. "Um, yeah." He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table. "Look, I'm really sorry about him." He tried to squeeze out his sorrow, but other words almost slipped out of his tongue.

Keep it calm, he repeated to himself. Keep it calm. Keep it calm. . .

Kaden sighed. "I know you are. I—I already got over it."

He couldn't help but feel shocked. "You did?"

"Yeah," he said. "He was so cruel to all of his schoolmates, to you, most especially."

Shaun's heart fluttered. This could not be happening. He isn't as bad as Jason?

He continued. "Um, I heard he tried to sneak drugs into your backpack. Almost brought you to expulsion."

Shaun slowly nodded, while getting butterflies in his stomach and remembering the memories. "Y—yeah."

"Then, um. . ." His voice lowered to a whisper. "You—you know. . .I—I helped him with that."

Shaun whisper-exclaimed. "You did?! That's all fucked up, man."

"I know," he said miserably. "Specifically, he forced me to."

So Jason is using Kaden as his accomplice? he thought. That's new. . .

"That was how he snuck it in his backpack undetected," he muttered, realizing it. "He forced you to do it."

"I'm sorry," Kaden said, holding Shaun's hand. "I'm really sorry."

Shaun didn't reply for a while. "I. . .I need to go," he said, standing up and holding his plate. "I need to go to the party."

Then he walked away, leaving Kaden to sit there and ponder.