Wicked

Kyle 5

Kyle

Only a cloud or two in the blue-blue sky, skirting along the horizons and sure to vanish later. The students of Brine High were running about the quadrangle and the grassy oval. It was Monday and I still hadn't told anyone about Jake, I felt scared and alone. I really wanted to ignore it and hope it'd go away. I'd hoped that after seeing me scamper over rocks to get away from him Jake would understand things better and stop trying to kill me. I wasn't interested in him nor had I wished him any ill will, I just really wanted the cursing to stop.

I sat with my friends at lunch, very quiet. From across the campus Jake was talking and sitting with other groups but whenever I glanced up he was trying to catch my eye. Smiling at me, and I had no idea what that smile was supposed to mean. Was he flirting? Was it knowing, was he trying to communicate something? Was he waiting for me to approach him? It wasn't a malevolent smile, but that only made me more confused. I felt too sick to eat anything. Suddenly the idea of magic wasn't something to laugh at, nor was it some fantastical thing. Magic was invisible and terrifying and unknown.

I didn't have General Maths that day. If I had I would've gone to the bathroom and hyperventilated instead of getting into any enclosed space with him. My typical 'get through it' attitude wasn't going to work this time. When school finally ended I followed Kim to the car park before tapping her on the shoulder. Were I a more expressive person they probably would've noticed I was bothered by something. Kim saw the anxiety on my features after turning around.

"What's wrong?"

"I know who's been trying to hurt me, the guy who's obsessed with me."

"You figured it out!"

"Want to come back to mine now?"

"Sure."

We separated and got in our separate cars, I scanned the crowds for any sign of Jake before pulling out and driving home. He'd not approached me at school, instead it felt like he'd wanted something. The TV was playing a medical drama, my Mum sitting on the couch with a red vegetable smoothie and a tray of carrot pieces and celery sticks. She and Kim greeted each other cordially as I led my friend up the stairs to my room. Once I opened the door all my movie posters faced us in the dark. I went to my bed and buried my face in the pillow, Kim closed the door behind her and went to open the curtains.

She turned to me "Who is it?"

"Jesse Cowles."

Immediately her eyebrows pincered together, but instead of denying she was thoughtful about it. I turned onto my side and huddled into a ball, still wearing my shoes.

"...I knew him in primary school, and middle school before we were friends." Kim confessed. "But he'd seemed so different now I thought he must have changed. It turns out he still hates his name, he used to smack other kids and start fights over it. But he'd acted friendly and very chill toward us this month, probably cause he knew we were all friends of yours. Brody called him Jesse and he didn't react to it, I supposed he was over the phase of hating his name."

"That sounds childish."

"Yes." Kim stepped over to my bed and sat down. "He was always childish, in weird ways. He used to always steal things from people, even worthless things that he didn't even want. Cause he'd throw them out later. He'd also tell lies all the time for no reason. It's that thrill of doing the wrong thing that little children have. And they're supposed to grow out of it, but Jake never did. He still had a thrill from doing the wrong thing, that like- juvenile urge, only it stopped being about sticking gum in places and turned into him spitting on people, then stealing and then break-and-enter. A mentality that stuck with him and he never grew out of it. He never lost that simplicity to him. Back in primary school other kids would have made fun of his name cause it sounds similar to Jessica, and even though nobody at our age would pick on that anymore, he is still mentally at that level."