The New Boy

Chapter 23

"Hi friend." I said as I got into Kylie's car.

"Hey, did you do the Chemistry homework?"

"Yea, you can copy from me." I told her.

"Cool, thank you." She seemed fine but I knew she was holding in emotions and trying to hide them.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'll be alright, all in due time. Thanks for being here for me."

"Anytime dude." I said. She told me that we were going to pick Henry up since his car broke down.

Henry got into the car and greeted, we did the same. We went on to listen to the music in the car and I knew almost every love song that was playing.

"How ironic that the person who has never been in a relationship, knows every love song out there."

"Are you going to start with me right now? As if you date."

"At least I mess around with people of the opposite sex, you are a complete saint." He continued to tease.

"Sure whatever Henry, just leave me alone."

"Is it possible that you are single because you have your guard up?" Kylie asked.

"Of course not, I'm not afraid of falling in love. I think I haven't fallen in love because I am so eager to fall and know how it feels, when I should just wait and let things be. Apparently you cannot predict it and it comes at the most unexpected time so I can't get it if I'm waiting for it in anticipation."

"Dude, love is just--"

"You are just cynical, it does exist and you are going to fall in love as well, and we can bet on it that it will be before you graduate high school." I cut Henry off.

"I know I'm cynical but I'm also right. And there is no way I'm going to fall in love, how much are we betting?"

"Five hundred bucks."

"Hm! I like your confidence Navia, get ready to lose."

"I won't."

"As for you, don't wait on falling in love, go out and have fun, try dating or something." Kylie said.

"Unless I have feelings for someone, that's not happening."

"These feelings are the reason you guys get hurt, okay though." Henry said.

"So what do you think it is that your parents feel for each other?" Kylie asked Henry.

"They are confused."

"What the..." Kylie exclaimed and laughed.

"Okay from my perspective; they are having fun like I am except that they chose to do it with one person their whole lives because it would be weird if they switched from person to person at their age." He had an answer to back up everything he said.

"Wow Henry! It's love Henry, and then you came along."

"Yep, you know it. I'm serious though, the only love that exists is between parents and their children, they have no choice anyway but to care for their kids and look out for them, it ends there. And with friendships, that's just what we call closeness, you get me, I get you, we share things we don't share with other people, we became friends. Then with people that date? They are just like friends that suddenly developed a sexual desire for each other. You get what I mean?"

"Henry, you are... you are something else bro." I said.

"I know right, and you guys like it."

"We never said that."

"You did not have to. Actions speak louder than words Navia."

Kylie parked at her usual spot and we got into the school building. Henry disappeared into the crowd, while Kylie and I went into the library so that she could copy off my homework.

After that, we sat through classes, listening to the lessons. I jotted down notes as the teachers spoke until I had no energy in me anymore. I just wanted to go home.

Lunch time arrived and through it Kylie, Henry and I laughed and talked. Most of the times I noticed that Kylie would dive into her deep thoughts and not utter a word. I was worried about her and the plan was to cheer her up. I guess it was not that easy helping somebody get over a heartbreak. I wondered how it would get for me if I ever got heartbroken. I hoped that I would not go through that, it looked catastrophic.

Kylie had applied heavy make up to hide the eye bags that were hanging under her eyes. She must had stayed up all night and cried. As much as she was trying to convince me otherwise, I knew that Kylie was struggling to get back up from this heartbreak that tore her to pieces. What I needed to do was to support her and be her shoulder to cry on. She knew that I was just a text or a call away. More like a really short drive.

We went back to class when the bell rang. It was Literature. Martha was asking us how it was going with our projects and I knew that we had not even started on ours so I just kept quiet.

We then went on to read Romeo and Juliet. That got me drowsy as hell. My eyelids were feeling heavy and I could not keep my eyes open.

"Monroe."

"Ma'am." I rapidly blinked my eyes, trying to convince her that I was not asleep.

"Are we boring you?"

"N-n-no ma'am, why would you say that?"

"Read the last line that I just read."

I did not even know which line she was talking about. I was obviously not paying attention and following through as she was reading. Everybody had their eyes on me and I acted as though I was perusing through the book to find it. Martha waited in anticipation for me to read and I was quiet.

"Ma'am, may I please go to the bathroom." Henry saved me by redirecting everybody's attention to him. He was a life saver and I had to take him out for milkshakes or something just to thank him for that. I let out a breath of relief.

"This is your last chance Monroe." Ma'am said after Henry left the class.

"Thank you ma'am and I am sorry."

She continued to randomly pick learners to read out loud and I tried extra hard to keep my eyes from closing throughout that lesson.

The bell finally rang and I celebrated on the inside. The rest of the periods went quite better than Literature. I enjoyed Life Science and Geography the most.

...

It was home time and Kylie dropped me off at my house then took Henry home.

When I got home I just had an apple and fell asleep.