Lullaby

chapter 3 - Friend

By lunchtime I was actually ready to just ditch and go home, but I knew I had promised my father to do better and to try at least, so instead of cowardly chickening out I decided to make my way to the canteen, even though I didn’t even feel hungry at that time I knew I had to at least try. Making my way out of class I was arm-napped by Claire as she hooked her left arm under my right

“Sooooo...” she cooed

“What?” 

“What does he look like?” she had a huge grin on her face at this point and it was extremely contagious, I couldn’t help but smile at her in return

“ He’s, well…” I felt my cheeks burning so I cleared my throat and looked down

“That good huh?”

“He is what the word perfection was made for” 'Corny much' I mentally scowled

“I heard you two hit it off too!” she stuck her tongue out to mock and joke, which made me stop dead in my tracks

“Where in the hell did you hear that!?” I exclaimed to her, but nearly pulled her down when I stopped

“Whoa easy! And word has It that you two got cosy and hit it off in class, sheesh don’t yank ma arm off will ya!” I know she was trying to cheer me up but it just wasn’t helping, first day back after the accident and already I was getting gossiped about!

“He just introduced himself! Nothing else! Now… who’s been saying all this?” I demanded, even though I had a faint idea who

“Who’d ya think? Jessica went around after first period telling everyone that you were so desperate for a friend and attention that you thought you could hit on the new hottie” I let out a big sigh and shook my head, that’s what the daggers were for.

“Figures, but anyway let’s go get some lunch. Looks like I’m going to need all the energy I can get today” We marched our way to the canteen to a very popular sight, the entire canteen was full with jock straps and teen wannabe bimbos that cluttered up the place, I said to Claire to go find us a seat whilst I went in the line to go get the food, she gave me her money and left without a word, the canteen was always full but today it was just too much, I got really frustrated and decided to go use the venders outside. I stormed towards the door infuriated and slammed the door open only to hear a whack and a thud of the door hitting someone in the face which was followed by some cursing,

“DAMNIT! Who the fu… oh it’s you Jen” he sighed grabbing his nose and twisting it slowly, it was just perfect timing, and I was mentally rolling my eyes at this point

“I’m so sorry!” I begged, he just laughed at me

“Hell, no harm done” he giggled as he wrinkled his nose and got to his feet

“Except I just busted your nose” I mentioned with the hint of sarcasm, rolling my eyes

“Nahhh, it just stings tis all, but hell that was anger if I ever saw it" he smirked "so who’s the prick that pissed you off?” he tilted his head like a puppy and I couldn’t help but laugh at him

“No, it’s nothing like that,you see the line was fully and I was actually hoping on getting something to eat today” I was grabbing and twisting the bottom of my hoodie now, I felt so damn foolish.

“Damn, I was looking forward to eating crap today” he gave me a mock pout which made me smile resulting in him smiling too.

“Fancy taking a walk?”

“Huh?” my face must have looked a picture at that point

“Don’t you guys have a local chippy or something we can take a walk to?”

“Sure, it’s not far why?” and he just stared at me even more before raising a brow “OH!” I exclaimed “Oh, urmm” I looked back behind me, do I just ditch Claire?

“Oh c’mon… please?” He pouted again and clasped his hands together to mockingly beg me “Presides you can tell me about the local history” he said as he lightly nudged my shoulder.

   So we made our way down to the chippy talking about the classes we had so far and what he thought about some of the teachers, at the chippy we somehow managed to make the make the lady undercharge us by £0.75, I just couldn’t hold it together after we left he had practically flirted with her to distract her on how much she needed to charge!

“I cannot believe… what just happened!” I gasped in between laughing and shovelling down chips

“What?” he asked as he shrugged his shoulders

“You must have made her day! She normally hates students and overcharges us!”  He stopped to look at me with a serious face before his lip quivered and we both started laughing again

“Hey, what can I say, I’m a charmer” he rolled his eyes and started eating again

“So anyway, this may seem terribly rude but, what’s up with the baggy clothes?”

“Wh-what?” I stuttered, he had actually taken me by total surprise with that

“Sorry, it’s just that I never see girls comfortable in them... they normally want to show as much chest as possible” he drifted off, probably sensing how uncomfortable he was making me feel right now.

“I’m not most girls, so please don’t confuse me with those tarts you may hang out with”

“Please, don’t assume I’m some playboy either, I was just curious” he sounded deeply offended like I had accused him of murder or something, I just sighed

“If you must know, I was in an accident” I stopped talking and slumped onto the bench next to us closing my eyes

“Oh, I’m so sorry” he started but I just waved my hand to silence him.

“Don’t be, its fine and I wore this today to just well, hopefully slide under the radar to avoid attention, but it’s sort of backfired.” I opened my eyes to look at him; his eyes were darkened with sadness as if he understood somehow

“Do you want to talk about it?” he politely asked me, he sat down next to me “trust me when I say, that if you think I’m going to judge you for whatever you say or shit like that I won’t ok?” my eyes widened, that was exactly what I was thinking

“But I…Uhhh,What?” I stuttered at him, but he just smiled compassionately

“That’s what you’re thinking right?”

“Yes but” I looked at him genuinely confused

“My mom’s a psychiatrist” he shrugged “You pick up on a few things” I relaxed a little more then, but still I must have looked confused as he just laughed and ran a thumb over my chin “So you wanna talk or?” I leaned back against the cold metal of the bench and sighed

“Ok but I’m warning you, it will either sound stupid, ugly or all my fault” his gaze hardened but I could tell he was focused on what I was going to say

“I said I don’t judge so shoot”