A Life With Boys

Chapter 8

Without doing it on purpose, I looked away when Russel approached our table in the canteen. I saw Vince looking guilty as well. We would never be able to forget what we saw the night before. The dim light in Russel's room had come from several candle lights.

The candles were placed around his bed, where Russel was having sex with Aimée, a beautiful brunette in sophomore year. Now, he was sitting next to her, smiling a fake smile. He couldn't hide the sad look in his eyes. Aimée didn't notice nor care that Russel didn't smile genuinely at her. She must have thought they were a perfect couple.

Which they were - if Russel hadn't been looking so depressed right now. There was no denying that Russel was handsome, though it was masked by his sadness. Aimée on the other hand, looked happier than ever. She was definitely in love with her boyfriend. But I doubted whether the feeling was reciprocal.

Vince pointed to the door of the canteen and I nodded. He wanted to talk to me.

"Should we tell him?" he asked as soon as we were outside.

"Perhaps you can tell him, you're his best friend. But leave out the part where I climbed up after you."

Vince nodded. "I can't get it off my mind, I need to tell him."

"Right. You should, probably," I concluded. "Never mention me seeing it, he won't forgive me."

"Okay."

I walked back into the canteen and Vince stayed behind in the hallway.

"Where have you been?" Liz asked when I sat down again.

"Bathroom," I lied.

A few minutes later, Russel stood up and murmered "Gotta go" before briefly kissing Aimée goodbye.

"See you at three, right, honey?"

He nodded short and shuffled out of the canteen. He didn't even look back to wave back at his girlfriend, as a normal person would have done on the first day of their relationship. If it were the first day. I mean, who would have sex before even being an 'offical' couple?

Maybe Amber was right about the people here at Milden High: all they did was fck each other. But Vince wouldn't do that. He was different. If he liked me and he was like Russel or Nathan, he would have at least kissed me. What if he didn't like me? Did I even like him?

For all I knew, I had not even the slightest idea what this whole "liking someone"-thing was. Anyways, I did want Vince to kiss me. And I wanted Nathan to unkiss me. Or didn't I? It had actually felt good.

Luckily, the bell rang and saved me for overthinking - for the time being. I had class with both Russel and Vince and neither of them showed up.

"Where are you, we have class!" I texted them both.

Russel didn't even reply; Vince said "shit" but still didn't show up. Where were they? I asked the teacher if I was allowed to go to the toilet and slipped out of the room, through the hallways, looking for the boys.

I found them outside, at the school's parking lot. Vince was talking loudly, making angry gestures. Russel looked like he could explode any moment soon. His face was red of tears and anger. He was about to hit Vince.

I ran toward the boys. "Hey!" I yelled. "Calm down, you two! What's the matter?"

Before I could do something, Russels fist landed on Vince's nose.

"Are you insane?" Vince called out.

"Fck off, both of you," Russel said.

"Please," I interrupted. "Tell me what's wrong, all I want is to help you. You're my friend!"