I.. Is It My Fault?

Chapter 8

(Clay's pov) Friday

A few days had passed, it was Friday. The last day of the school week. It was also the last day that I would have to get a ride to school with Alison and start taking the bus.
As excited as I was, I was also really nervous about it. But it was comforting knowing that I would have Eli and Dave with me too.
Stepping into homeroom I handed Mr. Cormack the slip of paper he would need to sign. I will be happy when I don't need to do this again. I took my seat next to Eric and stared at the table.

"Clay?" Eric asked after a few minutes.
I looked up to him to find him smiling.
"Y-yeah?" I said quietly.
"What're you doing Saturday?"
"I.. I don't know. Nothing probably."
"Well I was wondering, I'm throwing a party then and I wanted to see if you'd come along."
I looked at him nervously.
"A party?"
"Yeah, my parents are out of town for a while so I thought I'd take the opportunity." He said grinning. "So you in?"
"I.. I'm not one for parties." In fact, I'd never been to one.
"Oh come on." Eric's friend, Vince said. "It'll be rad! You gotta come!" He said enthusiastically.
Actually he almost shouted it, making some other people look at him in confusion.

"Your sister's gonna be there." Eric said.
I thought about it for a few moments before giving my answer.
"Alright. I.. I'll come."
"Yes!" Eric exclaimed.
Abbie looked up from her phone, only just hearing the conversation.
"You guys talking about the party?" She asked.
I listened to them talking about the party that was to take place the next day. After class ended we had English so we made our way down. Nothing special happened.
It was free period before I knew it so I headed over to my locker to swap some books.

Once there I took out some books and switched them with ones that I'd taken out of my bag. I closed the locker and was about to put them in my bag before the books were slapped out of my hands.
I stepped back and watched who had done it walk away, chuckling as he e messed around with his friends.
I sighed and picked up the books and put them in my bag.
"He's such an asshole." I heard a voice sound from my side.
I jumped a bit and looked at the voice's owner.
"Clay, right?" She asked.
I just nodded a little.
"Stephanie. We met a few days ago."

"Oh, yeah. H-hi."
"Don't worry about him, he's a jerk to pretty much everyone who's not in his inner circle."
I nodded.
"So how's it been?" She asked. "Finding everything ok?"
I nodded again.
"Still shy, huh? Don't worry, that'll pass." She said with a smile.
I decided to ask her.
"A-are you going to this party tomorrow?" I said shyly, messing with the bands on my wrist.
"Eric Bennison's? Yeah. Why, are you?"
"Yeah," I nodded.
"See," She said. "Already being invited to parties. Looks like you're hitting it off pretty well already."

I gave her a small smile. There was a call from down the hall, making us turn in that direction. It was a few of her friends.
"Hey, I've got to go but I'll see you tomorrow at the party." Stephanie said before smiling and walked towards her friends. Since there was only a few minutes left of the break period I thought I'd head off to my next class.
The rest of the day was pretty slow. I sat on my own during lunch, sitting off to the side of the room. I did notice a few people giving me weird looks though.

I didn't pay much attention however. I finished the remaining classes and popped into the office at the end of the day. I handed over the slip of paper and left, waiting out the front of school for a few minutes.
Alison pulled up and beeped the horn, although I was already approaching the car when she did.
I got in and we drove away once I was buckled in.
We took the short drive back home, but before I could step out of the car once parked, Alison stopped me.
"You're gonna be getting the bus from next week. You know that, right?"
I nodded.
"Alright, just checking. Well, Eva has my number in case I'm needed. Other than that I'll be back to check on you in a few weeks."