New Kid On An Old Block

Chapter Two

(A/N: Slight note of self harm, nothing gory.)


Lunch wound up being great, Jack and I talked for the rest of it and I agreed to hang out with them after school. Jack told me he wasn't exactly sure what they were doing, but they were open to options, and so was I as long as I had someone, anyone to hang out with. 

The rest of the school day was surprisingly uneventful for me. That was a first.
I grabbed everything out of my locker and headed towards the gates.
I ran into some asshole jock, well, let me rephrase. The asshole jock ran into me.
He knocked me completely over, I fell flat on the ground scraping my knees, making a tear in my jeans, my books and papers went flying. I just laid there. What the fuck else was I supposed to do.
After a moment, I sat up and realized what was happening. Everyone around me was laughing.
"Got the new kid!" The jock yelled, as it if was some sort of point system, was I the new thing to pick on?
I just sat there. I was frozen and didn't know what to do. This was not happening again. I just got here. How could I be hated already?
"Dude, you're bleeding," The letterman jacket guy laughed, "Are you just gonna sit there?" 
I stared at my bleeding knee.
"What a fucking freak." He muttered, pushing me back on the ground again. My head thumped against it. That hurt.
People stuck around to laugh at me, seeing what I'd do next.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped a little bit.
"Hey, it's just me." I recognized Jack's voice. He was carrying my books and I saw Rian with all of my papers and pencils.
I sighed and took my stuff from Rian and Jack, shoving it all back in my bag. I'd use a backpack instead next time. Things wouldn't go flying out of it next time someone knocks me over.

Jack held his hand out to me, I took it and let him help me up.
"Thanks" I mumbled quietly.
Letterman jacket guy was still laughing, "Awwww, look, new kid and Barafag love each other" He mocked, a group of people encouraging him as they laughed.
"Oh shut the fuck up, Jeremy. Don't forget I saw you making out with Travis." Rian yelled back. My eyes went wide. He was going to beat the fuck out of us.
"It was during spin the bottle and I was fucking drunk!" Jeremy yelled back.
"A kiss between two men is still a kiss!" Rian smirked, then looked at Jack and I, "Let's just go." He shook his head.
I nodded and followed them out of the gates.
"Sorry about that, they think that because they're on a fucking 8th grade football team that they can do whatever and say whatever, like they're special or some shit. Who cares anyway?" Rian asked as we walked. I wasn't sure where we were going, but it was the opposite direction of my house.
"I don't know." I sighed, "That's what I left my other school for, being the school fag with no proof to even back it up. It doesn't matter I guess, it just gets to me." I kicked a pebble out of the way.
"How's your knee?" Jack asked, looking at the blood stain on my ripped jeans. Oh well. I liked distressed jeans.
I looked down at it and shrugged, "Hurts but it's fine." I looked around to see where we were.
"Why does it get to you?" Jack was looking at me as we walked, like he was genuinely curious. Rian was laughing at texts on his phone, assuming it was Kara he was texting. I'd like to meet her one day.
I sighed, "Because I overcompensate too much. I'm just going to come right out and say it so you can decide if you want to be around the new school fag, but I'm gay, and everyone knew it, but I tried to like...not be? I guess? Just to get through school, with the plan that once I was out of school, I'd find a great guy and live my life away from the people who make fun of me. So, I flirted with a few girls, badly. Nothing came of it, but one day, this girl came up to me, grabbed me and just kissed me. I got so excited that someone was even paying a slight bit of attention to me, and then the whole crowd behind her cracked up. I stood there like a fucking idiot and she just basically told me that she kissed the school fag on a dare and that I'm ugly." I bit my lip, fighting against the tears that were stinging my eyes. I was not going to cry in front of these guys.
"That's fucking shitty man." Rian said, looking back at me. I nodded.
"Stop calling yourself a fag too, Alex. It doesn't matter if you're gay. That doesn't give anyone the right to talk down to you, not even yourself. So please don't. If it makes you feel any better, I'm gay too. Everyone at our school knows it though, they caught me making out with my ex in the hallway and I just shrugged it off and kept doing my thing. They really have nothing to hold over me now except for turning my last name, Barakat, into Barafag which is so fucking stupid that it honestly makes me laugh." He chuckled a little at the whole thing, "And anyone who kisses you for any reason other than the fact that they want to fucking suck. I'd kiss you any day." He blushed at that a tiny bit, but I smiled a little.
"Really?" I asked, looking over at him.
He nodded, "Well yeah. I mean I'm not hitting on you or anything, you're just really cool and really good looking. Even Rian could see that and he's got the captain of the cheer squad and a dance class assistant instructor on his arm." He smiled.
Rian laughed, "Soon to be senior dance instructor thank you very much, as soon as she turns 16 and they can actually hire her rather than mentor her." He grinned proudly.
"Yeah yeah yeah, Kara runs the world and she's so flawless and beautiful and perfect." Jack gushed mockingly, which just made Rian laugh.
It made me laugh too, "Thanks Jack. You know, I have a nickname for my last name too. Gayskarth." I rolled my eyes, "My last name is Gaskarth." 
Jack cracked up, "Barafag and Gayskarth. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" 
I laughed right along with him.

We ended up at the food court in the mall. It really was a long walk, but Rian said his mom would pick us up, so that was cool by me, not that I minded walking home either. I walked to and from school and it was nearly a two mile walk, so I was used to it. This walk was only like three or four miles. 
I sat down next to Jack at the table by Wetzel's Pretzels. Jack was stuffing his face with their huge pretzel, drowning it in cheese. I had the same thing, but I was eating it normally and just laughing at Jack.
"So what else do you like to do for fun?" Jack asked me after he'd swallowed his mouthful of pretzel.
I swallowed my bite too and put the pretzel down, "Uh...I don't know I guess. I write a lot. Songs, poetry, well, I don't know if you'd call it poetry per se, but it rhymes so I'll go with that. I'm trying to learn how to play piano. I've got a lot of it down, with the whole multiple keys thing and the pedals, but I can only play a little bit. Nothing really worth noting. I'll get there though." I smiled and reached up to fix my bangs. My sleeve rode up and Jack saw my bracelets.
"Oh cool" He took my wrist and my heart started pounding. I was going to throw up.
He turned one of the bracelets over and a large group, still fresh angry cuts showed themselves. He smiled a little at me and put the bracelets back in their place, "These are really cool, I like the Mayday Parade one, did you see them at Warped this summer?" He asked, "I have the same one at home." So he wasn't going to ask questions. I appreciated that.
I swallowed, then took a drink of my Pepsi, "Yeah, I did. They were really really good. I saw Man Overboard, Motion City Soundtrack, Neck Deep, The Wonder Years and Transit too, a bunch of others but those were my favorites. It was so cool, I got to meet Joe, the singer of Transit. He was a cool guy." I smiled. 
Jack eyed me for the tiniest millisecond then smiled back, "I didn't get to meet anyone but it's cool that you were there. It was a really good time." 
I nodded and awkwardly went back to eating my pretzel, despite the fact that I didn't feel so hungry anymore.

We talked for a while, walking around the mall. I picked up a new pair of jeans and some shoes, Jack got a new hoodie and Rian got nothing, but he enjoyed shopping with us anyway. 
His mom picked us up, she was really nice. Her name is Kathi, and she basically gushed over Rian.
She dropped Jack off first, and Jack gave me his phone number. Rian gave me his too, but in all honesty, I was really happy about Jack's.
Once I got dropped off at home, I walked in, locking the door behind me, dropped my bag, kicked off my shoes and ran into my room.
Fucking idiot. Jack saw them.
I sat down on my bed, head in my hands and thought about what to do. What if he asked?

My phone buzzed.

Jack: Hey, you okay?

Alex: Yeah. 

Jack: I just...I don't want to like, be awkward here, but I saw and I just wanted to make sure you're okay.

I swallowed hard again, fighting the lump in my throat.

Me: It's not a big deal.

Jack: It kind of is, but I won't like...Bug you about it. Just...Be careful okay? You're too good to be doing that to yourself.

Alex: Well don't make it a big deal then, and I'm really not. I'm probably the furthest thing from too good, but now I'm talking too much, you think I'm a freak who cuts himself, which I guess I am, and this is going to be really awkward now, so if you don't want anything to do with me anymore, please get it out of the way now. Also don't tell Rian.

Jack: Do you really think everyone is only out to hate you? You are too good for this shit Alex. I don't have to know you that long to tell you that. I don't want to stop hanging out with you either. I'm not an asshole who's about to walk out on someone who's just trying to figure life out.

Alex: Wow. That's deep. :D

Jack: Yeah I've been known to be deep lol. 

Alex: Oh yeah, I can tell. :P

Jack: So we're making jokes now?

Alex: Better than the alternative. So yep, we're making jokes now Barakat. 

Jack: Fine, Gaskarth. Why did the chicken cross the road?

Alex: ......Really?

Jack: You didn't answer. Why did the chicken cross the road?

Alex: Hm. I don't know. Why?

Jack: To get to the other side, but why did he need to cross the road?

Alex: Uhhh....You know, I actually don't know this part. Why?

Jack: To get to the bar.

Alex: Okay...Why did he need to get to the bar?

Jack: Now you're getting it. He needed to get to the bar to get to the toilet.

Alex: ....Uh...Why did he need to get to the toilet???

Jack: Because all the cocks are there. HA!

Alex: Hahahaha holy shit. That's the best chicken crossing the road joke ever. Dirty and gay. Wonderful. You actually just made my day with that.

Jack: I've got more where that came from. Hey! Do you have Halo?

Alex: Yeah why?

Jack: Get online and play it with me! My gamertag is JackB618. It's my initials plus my birthday.

Alex: Cool, that's easy enough to remember. Mines EarthToAWG

Jack: What's the W stand for?

Alex: William. That's my middle name, and I like space so. EarthToAWG worked for me.

Jack: Cool. I'm not creative, so I just made my normal boring one. 

Alex: Add me, I'm online now.

I signed in and waited for the request to pop up. He'd be my first and only friend on here. I usually played with randoms, but this was nice.

Jack: You have the headset right?

Alex: Indeed I do. Am I gonna need it?

Jack: Well I can't just text you to tell you where to go to help me kill things.

Alex: Fair enough. I'll put it on.

I put it on and smiled at the request on the screen. I added him and got it all set up so that we were playing together. 

We spent at least four hours yelling at each other and yelling at other various online players when they were being stupid.
It was a slew of "FUCK YOU YOU IDIOT SHOOT THE OTHER GUY" and "GOD DAMN IT WHO THE FUCK IS THIS KID HE CAN'T EVEN PLAY!" and a lot of "FUCK" every time one of us died.
We ended up laughing about it pretty hysterically when other players would yell at us. 

I actually went to bed that night happy.