Walking Away

Friends

Raven

I got off the bus and scanned the sidewalk for Mark, which had become my routine over the past two weeks. Usually he was waiting for me, but I didn't see him today.

I didn't see Johnathan either, which surprised me. From what I'd seen, he was like clockwork - always on time, always where he meant to be. And so far, he was always polite. Unfailingly. It was something I could never pull off, with my track record. I'm pretty sure I offended 98.9% of all the students at my old school, at some point or another. Not that they didn't deserve it, of course.

"Raven!" I heard Mark, I just didn't see him. I continued to our normal spot and waited, now secure in the knowledge that he was on his way.

"Hey!" he was out of breath, but grinning. "Sorry I'm late, I had to drop Jonah off at the elementary school and it sort of threw my whole schedule." 

I nodded, and we started walking. "Why is he at the elementary school?" That seemed like a safe question.

"He had to talk to the principal about Ali's teacher." At my confused glance, he continued. "Ali is his little sister. Allison, if you're feeling formal, but honestly I've never heard anyone but her mother call her that, and even then -" he stopped. "Uh, I mean, no one calls her that. But anyway, there was some trouble in her class, and now Jonah's trying to get it fixed."

That was...nice. "I didn't know he had a sister." I thought about it. "Actually, I don't really know anything about him."

Mark shrugged. "Not many people do, I guess. Not that it's a secret or anything, he's just..."

He seemed to be struggling, so I tried to fill in the blank. "Antisocial? Quiet? Closed off?"

"No!" Mark frowned. "Well, yes. I guess. Sort of." He shook his head. "What do you want to know?"

"Is his name Jonah or Johnathan?" I had been wondering this for a while now, and no way was I turning away from this opportunity. I knew almost nothing about him, and it bothered me. I mean, I don't know why it bothered me, but it did. I turned that over in my head, but forgot about it when Mark answered my question.

"Jonathan. We just call him Jonah. It's a name his sister came up with when she was little." Mark grinned. "This is actually a good story. Ali was super upset because she couldn't make the 'th' sound, and so for years he was Jonah. She got so mad at herself about it that he thanked her."

"Thanked her?"

"Yeah. It was great. He said that he was really tired of his name. He told her he liked what she called him better than Johnathan, and he wanted it to be his new name. She was so proud of herself when he said that."

It was a good story - and a sweet one that made me smile. "He sounds like a good brother."

"He's the best." Mark replied, with the kind of certainty that came with stating facts.

"Does he have many friends?" I asked. I never saw him talking to people, and I was curious. Mark gave me a 'really?' kind of look, and I rephrased. "I mean, not that I think he needs more friends, 'cause you're awesome, but I don't think I've ever seen him talk to anyone except for you."

"He talks to you." He pointed out.

Right. "Out of necessity. He's polite because I'm your friend." It suddenly hit me that I wasn't actually sure if Mark wanted to be my friend. I mean, he was everyone's friend, but maybe I was assuming too much. That would be just like me. "I mean, if we're friends. I think we are, but if we aren't, that's okay too, I don't mean to be all clingy or whatever, because I don't want you to think that you have to be my friend. I'm so grateful that you've been around, but I didn't mean to pressure you or anything. Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I've basically been following you around just assuming that we're friends, and you've known me all of what, two weeks? God-"

"Raven." Mark interrupted. "We're friends. Chill, okay?" I nodded. "And also, Jonah's your friend too. He just shows it differently."

"Really?" I probably should have dropped it, but I wanted to know.

"Yeah. Didn't he help you after the pep rally?" He looked guilt-stricken for a second. "That pep rally that I'm really, really sorry about?"

I nodded again. "Yeah, but that was because he knew you'd feel bad. Which you don't need to. You already apologized, and it was an accident."

Mark laughed. "Yeah, he helped because I would feel bad." After a second or two, he stopped chuckling. "Because he's polite, and the polite thing to do would be to make sure you were okay. Like, for instance, handing you the phone to call your mom or walking you to the nurse. Right?"

I hadn't thought about that. "I guess so." Actually, either of those things made a lot of sense. "Wait, yeah, you're totally right. Why didn't he do one of those things?"

Mark shrugged, but he was smiling. "Honestly? I spent a while trying to figure that out myself."