Welcome back. It's time for Alex to return to school, will he get any answers from Josh? Read on to find out and don't forget to donate to Nifty http://donate.nifty.org/ to keep the site running. Keep the feedback coming too, it's always appreciated.
Chapter 6
Monday morning came around all too quickly and I spent the whole walk to school wondering what the day would bring. How would I bring up the subject of what happened over the weekend? Would we not mention it and pretend it didn't happen? How could we pretend that he didn't stop me becoming a human pancake with no effort at all? I walked into history a little early and noticed the desk next to mine was empty. I hoped he wasn't avoiding me but I couldn't really be surprised, the question was; how long would he stay away for?
"Where's your little friend today Conway?" I really didn't want to deal with Brandon right now. "Has your little tutoring project skipped out on you today?"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked him with a scowl.
"I've seen the way you're trying to help that dumbass out," He sneered. "Dunno why you're bothering, all he's good for is shovelling horse shit." I was just about to get in his face when Miss Freeman came in and made him sit down. I wasn't done with him yet though, I had a fool proof plan at the end of my sleeve. As soon as he turned his back I flipped him off, that'll teach him. Unfortunately for me I did it just as the teacher looked up and I didn't hide it quickly enough.
"Care to explain that Mr Conway?" She asked as all eyes turned to me.
"No Miss, I was just checking to see if I had a splinter." I brilliantly replied while taking a sudden interest in my middle finger.
"Well maybe we can take a look at it when you stay behind after school." Fuck!
When I met up with the twins at lunch they seemed to notice that I was feeling a little blue.
"So how was your weekend?" Luke asked with a friendly smile.
"Eh, it was ok, I suppose." I replied. "Have you guys seen Josh today?"
"No, why?" Sam asked, "I thought he was with you in history."
"He should have been but there was no sign of him, is he in the library?" Sam looked at me like he knew where this line of questioning was going. He dropped his fork and started to get up.
"Fine, I'll go and have a look." He grumbled and made his way out of the cafeteria.
"What's going on with you two?" Asked Luke. "You seemed to be getting a bit closer last week and now you're acting like he's avoiding you."
"We met up over the weekend and went for a walk but things got a bit...weird." I replied.
"How weird?" I tried to think how to continue now as I didn't want to give away too many details.
"He just wasn't really what I expected." That was about the only way I could explain it without giving away too much.
"So do you still have the hots for him?" He asked with a cheeky grin.
"Yeah, I suppose, it's just that this weekend I saw a lot more of him than I expected." That was an understatement right there.
"But did you like what you saw?" He pressed on. I nearly shouted HELL YEAH!!!!
"I think it'll just take some getting used to." I answered. Just then Sam returned.
"He's not there." Sam said as he re-joined us. "So what were you talking about while I was gone?"
"Alex here said he'd seen more of Josh than he bargained for." Luke explained as I started to take a swig of my drink.
"Oh cool, does he have a big one?" Sam asked as I spat all over the table. "Nice one mate."
"I didn't see that you dirty fucker." I laughed, trying to wipe up the mess. Remind me never to drink around these two again.
Over the next couple of days my mood got worse. Sam told me that Josh was in the library at lunchtime on Tuesday but I never saw him around during the day or even after school on the walk home. On Wednesday there was no sign of Josh in chemistry and I definitely felt like he was avoiding me. Brandon also picked up on this and gave me some shit when we passed each other in a corridor but I just ignored him and stalked off to the cafeteria. The twins joined me again and before I could say anything Sam told me he'd been to the library and Josh wasn't there.
"Is he still avoiding you?" Sam asked sounding genuinely concerned.
"Looks like it." I snapped. "And I've got Brandon on my back giving me shit as well."
"Want me to go have a word with him?" Luke asked, cracking his knuckles.
"Nah, I'm just ignoring him." I replied with a smile.
"Good, cos that fucking hurt." He said opening and closing his hand to get rid of the pain he'd just caused himself. No matter what, these guys never failed to cheer me up, at least for a little while.
That night I contemplated phoning Josh but I didn't know how I could without getting mad at him for avoiding me. I was hoping his love of building things would override whatever he was feeling and he'd turn up tomorrow. At least I could try to break the ice a little while he'd be working. Unfortunately it was not to be. I sat by myself at the back of the classroom with nothing to do but doodle as we were on the last week of the birdhouse project. I looked over and saw Josh's sitting on the side, waiting for the finishing touches. I think he only needed to varnish it and it would be ready to go. I even thought about doing it for him but I decided it was his project to finish off, not mine. All through the lesson I kept looking at the door to see if he'd turn up late and this didn't go unnoticed by Brandon. I caught him sneering at me a few times and laughing with his buddies, which pissed me off more and more.
When the lesson ended I made my way out to the hallway and heard Brandon's voice ring out. "Hey Conway! Where's your little dumbass friend today?" I slammed my bag to the ground and got right in his face.
"What's your problem Heeley? I've seen your grades and you're as dumb as that guy is ugly." I said pointing to one of his meathead friends.
"Yeah well he might be ugly..."
"Oi!! I'm standing right here!" The ugly one said.
"At least he's not a freak like Draper!" Brandon added. I don't really know what happened next except for feeling a tremendous amount of pain in my knuckles where they collided with Brandon's face. Next thing I knew I was grabbed from behind by ugly and had three guys beating on me. The fight was over quickly as the teachers broke everything up but I had definitely come off worse. Both Brandon and I were taken to the principal's office where I was suspended for a week but Brandon was only told not to come back until Monday as he had some competition he needed to train for and I had started it.
My dad picked me up fairly soon and took me to the hospital to get my hand checked over. Mum met us there and while we waited she started telling me off for getting in shit at school just like before. When I explained what had happened and what the punishments were for both of us she looked seriously pissed off, grabbed her keys and sped off back to the school.
"Should I call the principal and warn him?" Dad asked.
"Nah, why ruin the surprise." I quipped.
We returned home after an hour or so with some fairly good news. Nothing was broken, just a bit bruised. My right hand would be swollen for a few days but I could live with that and they told me to take some pain killers if it got too bad. Mum was already at home when we pulled up and she was still fuming.
"So what happened with the principal?" Dad asked.
"I'm surprised that idiot can even stand up without a spine." She started. "I told him that suspending Alex for week but letting that thug and his cronies off for a three on one attack was obscene! And I said letting people like that represent the school showed a severe lack of integrity. I laid into him about how useless his staff were and if this bullying in his school continued then I'd look into taking legal action. He started to get a little worried so Alex is now only suspended for the rest of this week and has detention for the majority of next week, and the others will miss most of next week instead."
"Thanks mum." I said with a smile.
"Don't think you're getting off that easy." She fixed me with a death stare. "If anything like this happens again you find a teacher and report what's going on. They can't deal with bullying if they don't know about it so don't try to solve it on your own. And don't think you're sitting around here on your arse all week either, you've still got one good hand!"
I trudged up to my room and looked in the mirror to see the damage. I was a mess. I had a black eye, my right hand was a little swollen and I had bruises on my arms and body where those thugs had beaten me on the ground. It probably looked worse than it was but I probably wasn't going to have a good night's sleep any time soon. I phoned the twins to say I wouldn't be in school tomorrow and filled them in on what happened. They called me various rude names for trying to take on Brandon on my own and said they drop by after school to cheer me up.
Friday was really boring. I couldn't draw nor do anything fun because of limited movement in my hand so I just watched as much TV as I could stand. You have no appreciation for school until you watch some of the mindless crap that's put on to entertain bored housewives. You can see now why they'll fuck the window cleaner while their husbands are at work; it's not due to lack of love in the relationship, it's just to stop them having to watch that crap. Mercifully the twins showed up a little earlier than I expected as they'd skipped out early to come and see me.
Sam took one look at me when I opened the door and said, "Aww you hurt your wanking hand." A huge smile on his face as he mocked my discomfort. I was about to invite them in when I saw Josh over their shoulder just turning into the lane.
The twins turned round and when they saw him Luke just said "Wait here!" and started stalking towards him. Sam pushed me into the house to stop me hearing what was going to be said but I just ran to the window to watch. I saw Luke shouting at Josh and kept thinking `flight not fight, flight not fight' over and over. Then I saw Josh start to cry as he pushed past Luke to run home.
"What the fuck did you say to him?!?!" I yelled at Luke as he came in, slamming the door.
"What do you mean `what did I say to him'? I told him to stop being a prick and letting you get beaten up for him!" He said, still wound up from his encounter.
"Goddamnit!! Why'd you have to say that?"
"Because it's his fault you've been pissed off all week and now you're getting beaten up for defending him when he should be fighting his own battles!" Luke was really raging now.
"You don't understand!" I shouted.
"Then explain it to me!" He spat back.
"I can't, it's complicated." I said quietly.
"Fine, well when you and lover boy figure this out let me know cos I can't be arsed with this shit!" Then he slammed the door on his way back out the house and stormed off home.
"Well, that could've gone better." Sam piped up. I'd actually forgotten he was still here. "Listen, he's just pissed off at the moment. I'll calm him down, but you need to talk to Josh."
"I can't, I need to give him time." I said, remembering what his grandpa told me.
"You've given him a week, just phone him or something. The worst he can do is avoid you and he's been doing that anyway. He might just be waiting for you to make the first move if he's too scared." What he said made some sense and I decided to do just that. I said I'd keep them both up to date over the weekend and then he went off to catch up with Luke.
I went up to my room and lay down to think about what to do for the best. After about an hour of staring at the ceiling and still not making any decisions I heard something drop on my bedroom floor. I sat up and saw a screwed up piece of paper next to the bed. I quickly grabbed it from the floor and dashed over to the open window to see who threw it in. There was no one around anywhere that I could see so I opened it up and saw a brief message that read "meet me at the tree trunks at 10 tomorrow."