Twelve Days of Christmas

10 Lords a Leaping

Luca

I sloshed my coffee round and round the paper cup, starting absentmindedly at the swirling patterns it made.

"Hey dude, you ok?" Marvin said patting me on the shoulder before taking a seat next to me.

"Sure," I said, forcing out a smile. "Just wish this was over so we can go back home."

"Come on, it's been a bit of a laugh so far," he said with a nudge to my shoulder.

I could tell he could sense my bad mood, so I sat up straighter and plastered a smile on my face to hide it better. To anyone else it would have worked, but Marvin had known me since we were 5 and got into a fight over whose turn it was to go in goal in the school playground at lunch time. Neither of us did, because we both ended up in front of the head master, me for punching Marvin in the face, him for biting me on the arm.

Needless to say we'd been best friends ever since.

"What is it today then, Lords a Leaping?" I asked, pretending to be interested.

"Yeah, but you never know, maybe they'll be one short and they'll ask drummer boy back again."

I smiled and chewed on my bottom lip. A nervous habit I had when things didn't go the way I wanted them to and wasn't in control.

"I don't think he'd come back even if he was asked," I replied.

"Probably not," chuckled Marvin.

I stayed silent for a while churning things over in my head until I had to ask,

"Was I really that bad to him?"

"Nah," Marvin said without hesitation. "He just didn't know how to take you."

I frowned at that answer. "What do you mean, didn't know how to take me?"

Marvin fiddled with his now empty paper cup.

"Well, I've known you for a long time, so I could tell that your teasing wasn't meant to hurt him. You did it because you liked him."

I thought over that for a bit, trying to work out what Marvin was getting at.

"Yeah, but are you saying that to people who don't know me, I come off as rude and insulting, or are you saying that Dummer Boy was just overly sensitive?"

"Erm," Marvin cocked his head to one side as if he was thinking over my question, "I'd say a bit of both."

"Shit," I breathed out. "So how many other people have I managed to offend without noticing?"

Marvin laughed. "Don't worry, not that many, it doesn't happen often."

"What you laughing at?" James said while sliding onto the table in front of us.

"Apparently at my ability to insult people without realising," I replied, still feeling a little perturbed by the idea.

"Oh yeah. Are you talking about Ben? That was brutal man!" James said while giving me a slow punch to the arm.

"I know! I felt like I was being told off by my mum!" I laughed back.

James looked briefly puzzled then said, "Oh yeah, I bet, but I was talking about you with him. What was that about anyway? What did you have against him? I thought he was quite a cool guy. Did you see his solo? Fucking amazing!"

I spun round and gave Marvin my best questioning eyes. He said I wasn't that bad! The fact that he wouldn't even meet my gaze told me that he'd just been trying to sugar coat it again.