After a mediocre rehearsal, Lottie and I stood side by side near the teacher's parking lot and when I looked into her kind, green eyes, mine started tearing up.
I started the conversation not her.
"I don't think he would've been proud of me today, I was kind of a shithead." I began.
She tilted her head to indicate that I needed to elaborate without interrupting me.
"Sebastian was a dickhead in Economics today and I was a dickhead back. But my Dad never taught me to do that. I feel like a pile of shit," I said, another tear escaping my eyes again.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, it's been a week. And you can always make things right tomorrow." She said side hugging me.
I heard footsteps approaching and quickly wiped my face.
I turned around and I suppose someone was reading my mind because there Sebastian stood, with two yellow exercise books in hand.
Lottie stepped away so that we could chat.
"I took yours by accident," He said, giving it to me.
When he spoke normally, it allowed you to see that he was actually quite small. It was a bit funny.
"I'm sorry for being an arse today, you were right, I did judge you without knowing you." I said, biting my tongue after. Those words lodged in my throat and ran out of my mouth before I had time to catch them.
"You were right too, though. It's easy to think about class distinctions all day when I'm not trapped by mine. Dealing with people like that every day probably gets frustrating. " He responded.
I nodded in agreement.
"Truce?" I asked.
"Nope," He responded, upon seeing my face fall he laughed. It was a stupid little giggle not that fake horsey one he usually puts on to punctuate his sentences.
"I only make truces with people I know, I don't know anything about you. You don't even really look like a Noah," He said,
"Well, my family calls me Ayomide, Ayo for short. It's cultural. But people would take the piss by saying A-yo like the beginning of an old rap song so when I started going here in September, I just started going by my Christian name Noah." I said, realising I must have been rambling, I stopped myself.
"That fits you much better. Okay Ayo, truce," He said
"You know something about me now but what about you? Or is that a wider symbol for class privilege and the exploitation of the common man," I smirked.
"Touche, Karl Marx. Fine, I own all of the old Barbie movies on blu-ray. They're for me, not anyone else," he said, hanging his head down so you could see his well-constructed waves.
That was priceless. After I waved him goodbye Lottie gave me a wide smile.
"Maybe today isn't so bad after all, that seemed to go well" She beamed, glancing back at him.
Maybe.
YOU ARE READING
For When You're A Man (under reconstruction)
Jugendliteratur17-year-old Noah Oduwole lives in chaos. He goes from his crumbling flat on top of a betting shop to a school where people wouldn't know struggle if it grew giant legs kicked them in the face. His Dad's health has been deteriorating for the last fe...
