veryday I found myself learning more about not only the world around me, but the people in my life as well.
It had been a month and a half since the trip to Disneyland. It had also been the same amount of time since Alex and I had spent time in jail and Gino cashed in his legacy fund to bail us both out, something I'd done research on to find out that those types of funds started at around 10,000 dollars which meant that if Gino used it all, he had used quite a bit of money to get us out of jail. And of course, my parents found out. Only, I used my amnesia to my advantage to get out of trouble. Something that my older sister Jaime, who I discovered I was never really close to, saw right through.
Alex on the other hand wasn't so lucky. He tried using my amnesia thing too, which I suggested. Unfortunately, he still got grounded for three weeks and had just come off punishment a couple of weeks ago.
Now it was mid August which meant one thing: It was time for school again.
Everyone had no problem relaying to me how much they didn't want to go back to school. Everyone except Jade, who from what I was told, was a straight A student.
I was looking forward to school. I'd had plenty of time over the summer to catch up on the whole idea behind a high school by watching a lot of teen movies. I found them to be very insightful, as was everything else I watched. Movies like Gigli and Catwoman.........actually those kind of sucked, but then there were gems like Bring It On and Mean Girls that I fell in love with instantly.
And now, I was ready for school and all of the teenage trials and tribulations that supposedly went along with it.
Of course, me saying I was ready still didn't stop my parents from wanting me to stay home.
It took a lot of convincing from my friends and myself. Even Jaime helped out, but my mom finally budged and okayed me to start my senior year of high school.
Which started in less than 45 minutes.
"Are you absolutely sure you want to go?" came my mothers voice, who had been following me around for a good twenty minutes now.
"Mom," I sighed, opening the refrigerator. "I thought we went over this already?"
"I know, I know. We have. It's just I'm worried about what could happen-"
"The way I understand it, I didn't lose my memory until the END of the school year," I replied. "So I guess we don't have to worry until May."
"Brandon, please don't play like that!" my mother exclaimed.
Well I thought it was funny.
I poured my glass of orange juice and sat down at the kitchen table just as my sister came downstairs looking tired and like a hot mess. Yet, she still managed to put on a coy little smirk as soon as she entered the kitchen.
"I'm so glad I don't have to do this anymore," she spoke, grabbing a breakfast plate.
"Don't have to do what anymore?" I asked.
Jaime took a seat at the table.
"Getting up early to go to that hellhole."
"Yet, you're up early anyway," I spoke. "And isn't the Hellhole one of those shady ass clubs you go to?"
"Haha, funny," Jaime spoke.
"I want you to call me when you get to school," my mom spoke.
"Mom!" I objected.
Over the past month and a half, I had also gotten to reaffirm my relationship with my parents, which was surprisingly easy to do after I had found myself getting more comfortable with them.
However, I still hadn't told them that I was....gay. I mean, there wasn't a real reason to. I didn't have a boyfriend to do "gay" things with. Hell, I didn't even have a girlfriend for that matter. So I guess I wasn't anything. Gay or straight. At least, I wasn't anything up until today. I was ready for school and the relationships that came with it.
"Look, I just wanna make sure you're safe," my mom replied.
"And I will be," i replied. "I have Alex, Jade, and Gino."
"Let's not forget about dear old Michelle," Jaime added, a bit spitefully.
Michelle, as I had found out, was a very vapid and shallow person. To her, boys were the only things that mattered. Of course, I had heard the story. The one about her cheating on Adam with this still mysterious Ryan guy. Which in turn had caused me to understand Adam a little more.
But then, I had even more questions. Like was Adam gay? I mean, he'd had a girlfriend for crying out loud! So why in the world did he suddenly become so interested in me?
I never asked him because I didn't particularly care anymore. I was more interested in Alex than I was Adam.
Speaking of Alex, I knew it had to be him at the door once I heard the doorbell ring.
"I'll get it," I spoke, jumping up.
"Ready for twelfth grade?" Alex asked, stepping into my house once I let him in.
"Of course," I replied.
I couldn't help but note that he looked really good. He had gotten a slight haircut that almost looked like a fade, but his hair was slicked and spiked at the front, like normally. And he was wearing what looked to be more expensive clothes than normal.
"Hello Alex," my mom greeted him.
"Mrs. Jameson, looking beautiful as always," Alex replied.
"And what about me?" Jaime asked, fluttering her eyes.
"Eh, you're....okay," Alex replied, not even giving her a second glance.
I suppressed a laugh while making my way over to my backpack, my mother returning to following me around.
"Mom, I'll be fine," I sighed, knowing she was right behind me. "Tell her Alex."
"He'll be fine mom," Alex replied.
"I know...I just...I worry," my mom replied.
And I could understand it too. It's just, you'd think after a month and a half, she'd see that I was doing just fine. I was building new memories and trying to forget the old ones. Trying to forget what happened to me.
"Please....I'll be fine," I spoke, soothingly.
My mom glanced at me with a sympathetic look, but I could tell that she loved me and was just looking out for me.
"I'll be fine," I repeated.
She didn't say another word. Instead she just hugged me.
"I'll be here when you get home from school," she spoke, smiling.
"Alright amigo," Alex spoke. "Let's hit the road."
I was completely ready for my upcoming experience, as I was sure that I was really going to learn a lot.
Alex and I walked out the front door together and straight into the glaring sun. It was only 7:30 in the morning, but it was already near 90 degrees outside and the sun was clearly at its peak in the sky.
Which had me wondering:
"Why are we taking the bus?" I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun.
"I couldn't get the car. You don't have a car. And Jade's is in the shop, remember?"
Maybe I was being selfish and stuck-up, but I did NOT want to be outside right now.
"Come on, you'll be fine," Alex smiled.
If I didn't catch fire first!
Okay so I was warned that Reginald Angston High otherwise know as the Angst was a big school. But nothing could prepare me for the gigantic building I was standing in front of.
It had to be larger than my entire neighborhood, which it in itself was pretty large. Add that to the fact that there seemed to be literally thousands of kids buzzing around the large set of 50 steps that led up to the front doors of the school.
I was ready for adventure alright, but this was ridiculous.
"So this is the Angst," I spoke in awe as I looked around at the various students chatting with their friends.
"This is the Angst," Alex replied looking around as well.
"Hey guys."
I turned around to see Jade standing behind us. Or should I say, super model Jade.
Her hair looked completely different. Ordinarily it was a brownish black color and tied behind her head in a kept but sort of untidy fashion. But today....today it was all black, which meant she'd obviously dyed it. And it was perfectly straight, so long that it came quite few inches past her shoulders, down to her waist basically. She was wearing a low cut top, something I didn't see her wearing too often, and a short ruffled mini skirt. Basically, she looked like any teenage guy's dream girl.
She was standing with Krystal, a girl I had seen only a few times the entire summer, but she looked pretty hot as well. When I had last seen her, which was a little over two weeks ago, her hair was a mixture a various colors, but for the most part looked red. Today is was perfectly red and looked good on her Hispanic face and body. It was straight and down just like Jades, although nowhere near as long as it only came down to her shoulders. She was wearing a light yellow low cut top with a white shirt underneath to cover up some of her cleavage and had on a light blue mini skirt which wasn't ruffled like Jade's. She also liked like the perfect girl for any straight guy.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Alex spoke, looking both girls over. "Look at the supermodels, B!"
"You guys look nice," I added.
Both girls smiled.
"Well thank you, and you two look good too," Jade replied.
"Where's Adam and Gino?" Krystal asked.
I was wondering that myself. Alex had said that Adam was supposed to be on the bus with us, only he wasn't. I wasn't sure if I should be worried or not but Alex quickly informed me not to be. He said Adam would definitely not be missing the first day of his senior year in high school.
"They'll show up," Alex replied. "And we'll find em."
In this beehive of a school? I was seriously getting major butterfly's in my stomach now. Before they were because I was anxious to get here. Now they're because I'm starting to feel like I'll get lost numerous times before the day is over with.
Jade, Krystal, Alex and I made our way up the steps leading to the high school and inside. I wasn't sure what it was that had made me think that the inside was going to be any less crowded than the mess outside, but it wasn't. It was probably worse. Now, giving the Angst the benefit of the doubt, they certainly had enough room for all of us students, if not more. The halls, as I noticed, were highway-road wide, probably so we all wouldn't feel any more crowded and congested. And they were brightly lit as well. Besides the fact that I had never seen the school before, at least not that I could remember, it looked new. As if it were built a year or two ago. I couldn't find one dirty thing in sight. Even the lockers looked new and clean.
"OH my gosh, sweetie!"
I turned around to see Michelle rush up to Jade hugging her.
"What did you do to your hair?"
"Oh-"Krystal started
"And Krystal, you too? God, I seriously need to go to you guys' salon," Michelle spoke. "How much?"
"Oh-"Jade started
Just like Michelle to talk someones head off.
"Hey everyone!"
This time it was someone who wasn't so familiar to me. Standing before us was a white guy with spiky blonde and brown hair that stuck straight up all around his head. He was wearing some baggy black painters pants and a red Billabong shirt. And just like most of the guys I'd seen here so far, he was hot and looked like he belonged in Orange County, not Texas.
"Ryan?" Michelle said, puzzled.
Looking at Jade, Krystal, and Alex's faces, I could tell that Ryan was someone they did not want to see. I couldn't blame them, as they had told me all about the elusive Ryan. According to them, he and partially Michelle, although they'd all seemed to have gotten over her involvement in any wrongdoings, had been to blame for all of their problems last year. At least, anything and everything almost. He'd even been indirectly responsible for what happened to me apparently, when he denied ever seeing a note given to Gino that I'd found, when they later found out that he was lying.
Basically, the guy was bad news.
Hot bad news.
"You guys look great," Ryan spoke, with a smile.
"Fuck off asshole," Alex said, harshly.
"Alex...come on...you're not still upset about what happened last year are you?" Ryan asked.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me!" came Adam's voice from somewhere behind Ryan.
And I could tell, he was upset.
"Adam-"
"What the hell do you want?! Huh?"
Adam had wasted no time in rushing up to Ryan and grabbing him by the neck of his shirt, shoving him up to a nearby locker.
"Adam, I'm just-"
"Just what?" Adam asked.
I could tell Ryan was afraid. But not afraid that Adam might do something to him, even though it was obvious that he might. But he looked afraid for a different reason. Like maybe.....because he was worried that Adam wouldn't listen to him like he seemingly wanted.
"Please...just let me explain-"
"No, I'll explain it for you." Adam started.
Looking around, it was weird to see how no one was wiling to help Ryan by stopping Adam from his impromptu interrogation. I figured, if Alex wasn't lifting a finger or the all moral Jade for that matter, then there definitely had to be something wrong with Ryan.
"I'll explain all about how you went behind my back with my girlfriend,"
"Adam, I'm sorry but-"
"And I'll explain about instead of acting like a man and apologizing, you act like a fucking bitch and make friends with Gino so you can stay close to all of us, as if we even wanted you!"
"What's going on here?" Gino asked, walking up behind me.
I was surprised to see him as was everyone else. Adam stopped focusing on Ryan and turned to face Gino.
I couldn't help but notice how cute he looked. He was wearing a solid white short sleeved shirt with the words "Ecko" in big blueish-greenish letters on the front. His pants were a faded pair of blue jeans that looked white enough to match perfectly with his shirt. Basically, from what I was use to seeing him wear, he looked underdressed. I guess it took a look like that to make him even cuter than normal. His hair was the same though. Jet black with spikes at the front. He always kept his hair in order just like Adam and Alex.
Gino looked over at Ryan. For a moment, he felt like helping him escape Adam. But then remembering how much of an asshole he was last year by blackmailing him, the thought left just as quickly as it came.
"Oh my god, I just remembered, I have to go find my locker," Michelle said, breaking the tension. "Come on girls."
Once again, Michelle hadn't given either girl a chance to do much of anything as she quickly whisked them off and down the over populated but definitely not crowded, hallways, leaving us guys behind.
Alex walked over to Adam and got close enough to him to say something only the two of them could hear.
Adam glanced over at me, then the look in his eyes changed. It looked like regret. Like he regretted me seeing him angry and violent towards Ryan, which I guessed had to be true once he released Ryan from his grip.
Ryan, straightened himself back out but made no effort to leave.
"Adam, guys....this is a new school year," Ryan started. "We're seniors now. On top of the school."
"This speech got a point?" Adam asked.
"Just that, I had a lot of time to think over the summer...about how immature I acted last year-"
"Try all your damn life!"
"Adam!" I exclaimed.
Adam's head jerked over to look at me. And he wasn't too happy to see the look on my face, which was one of anger.
"I'm sorry," he sighed.
Then Ryan looked at me for the first time.
"I know you don't remember...but I was pretty mean to you before," Ryan spoke.
Obviously not too mean. I hadn't felt anything...love or hate towards Ryan when I first saw him like I did for Adam and the others.
"I'm sorry."
I wasn't sure if he was expecting me to say anything to him or not, but I didn't anyway. I didn't know what to say.
"Okay, we listened," Adam said. "Now leave!"
Ryan looked from Adam to Alex, Gino to me, before he sighed and headed down the hallway.
"What a jackass!" Adam exclaimed. "I mean, the nerve!"
"Seemed like a pretty decent thing to do, if you ask me," I blurted out.
"If you only knew the half of what that guy is capable of....."
"Doesn't look like I'll be getting that chance now will I?" I asked, a bit flustered. "I mean, you ran the guy off so fast we didn't get to hear what he had to say."
"And you wouldn't want to have heard it. Trust me," Adam replied.
At this point I trusted no one. At least no one entirely. I was closest to Alex and my parents out of everyone anyway. It didn't really seem like I had all that much in common with anyone else, to tell you the truth.
Which made it even harder for me to understand how I'd even become friends with any of them in the first place.
"Look, Brandon, Adam's right," Alex said, a lot softer and calmly than Adam had been speaking. "You're better off without him."
Well if Alex agreed.....but......
"Come on, we should go find our lockers too," Gino spoke, joining me on the left while Adam walked on my right, Alex next to him.
"This is gonna be THE year man, I can feel it," Alex spoke, as we walked.
"You guys gonna go out for football again this year?" Gino asked.
"Of course," Alex replied. "I don't suppose you might wanna try out this year, would you B?"
As Alex had told me, I was supposed to try out last year but had got held up doing a project with Gino. But one thing was for sure, even though I'd lost my memory, there was no doubt in my mind that football was NOT for me.
"I think I'm just gonna wait and see what happens," I replied.
I wouldn't be against being a football player. Getting to see hot guys naked and most importantly Alex naked.....that was worth the brutality that was football alone.
My first class happened to be U.S Government. It was a required class for all seniors who really only needed it, Economics, and English 4 to graduate. Of course, we had to have more than three classes. I had eight this year.
But first period was still....interesting. For starters, I had to be the one stuck in here without Alex or Gino or Adam. There was no way either Krystal or Jade would be in regular Government as they were in advanced classes and Michelle, not that I'd want a class with her anyway, had Government next semester.
Which left me all alone. As I walked into the class I noticed several of the students attention turn to me. Obviously they'd heard about my situation. But did they have to be so weird? I mean, they were either staring, or staring while whispering things to each other.
To avoid having to look at anyone, I took a seat at the front near the large window on the far right corner of the class. The bell hadn't rung yet, so there were still several seats available. I was hoping no one would bother me. At least not right now, as I sort of felt out of my comfort zone without having Alex or anyone else here with me. I mean, I spent practically every minute of the past month and a half with him and the others. And now was really the first time I actually felt alone.
I wasn't surprised when all but one seat in the class was filled by the time the bell rang, as most seniors opted to take regular Government rather than advanced. The open seat was-you guessed it-right next to me.
I guess people took the hint and decided to avoid sitting next to me. At least, that was the way it seemed since all the desks were set up in pairs.
"Okay....so...big class this year," came the voice of our teacher Mr. Martin.
He was an elderly man, maybe early sixties, yet he looked in great shape.
"Let me just call roll and then I can get you all situated here."
He seemed to be organized. His room was in top shape, nothing out of place. It looked clean, just like the rest of the school, and he seemed to be in complete control of his class.
At least losing my memory had given me the strange ability to be able to read people off the bat. Not everyone though.
"Lucy Allen?'
"Here"
"Sam Anderson?"
"Here"
So apparently, when he got to my name I was supposed to say here. I made a point to make sure that I attached the faces to the names as Mr. Martin called them out. I wanted to know everyone for some reason.
"Brandon Jameson?"
"Uh, here," I replied, raising my hand.
That was simple enough.
Accept now everyone was staring at me again. It wasn't like they were trying to attach a face to a name like I was. No these people knew exactly who I was and I knew exactly why they were staring at me.
I avoided looking at them. Perhaps out of fear. Perhaps not. I just felt...weird being here.
But I didn't know why. I thought high school was supposed to be fun, not nervewrecking!
"Christian Murphy?"
No one said anything this time.
I looked around. Who would actually miss the first day of school?
"Anybody know this Christian guy?"
I heard a little bit of chatter.
Hearing the name Christian brought back memories of the Christian from Disneyland. Memories like how he'd been so easy for me to talk to. Or how he and I seemed to be a lot a like. But I knew I was never gonna see him again and that the chances of this Christian being the same one from California were about as slime to-
"Uh...sorry I'm late,"
None.....
"Really?" Mr. Martin asked skeptically.
"Hey what can I say," Chris spoke, looking around for a seat. "I got lost."
Not hard to believe in a behemoth of a school like the Angst.
"Yeah well don't let it happen again," Mr. Martin replied, as Chris took a seat next to me.
What are the odds that I was seeing Chris again? I mean, the very same Chris from California?
And he looked hotter too. His hair looked just a tad bit longer, but it was still jet black and hung down his neck in curls. It looked like his hair had this shower look to it, like he just washed it which made it look even better. He was wearing a black short sleeve shirt, that didn't really look new to me. It had the name of some punk rock band on the front and the back had a bunch of tour dates, all from a year ago. He was wearing brownish cargo pants with a chain I assumed was connected to a wallet hanging from his right pocket. And he also had on this yellow arm band that didn't really go with anything he had on. Basically, he looked almost like a rocker himself, a far cry from the preppy Abercrombie poster teen I'd hung out with in California. Maybe the summer changed him, but as soon as I saw him look over at me with this cocky grin, I knew that wasn't the case.
"Story guy," he started. "What's going on?"
"Not much," I replied. "I'm surprised you remembered."
"Coming from an amnesiac himself, that surprises me," Chris spoke.
I could tell he was joking, so his comment didn't bother me.
"So you go here? To this school, I mean?" I asked.
"No, actually I'm doing this thing where I go from school to school and only stay for like a week...." Chris stopped talking and stared at me, smiling. "Yeah, I go here."
I'm sure it wasn't noticeable, but I could feel my cheeks getting hot. I had to be blushing.
"I just....never thought I'd see you again, that's all," I said.
"Aww, isn't that cute," Chris spoke.
"Okay...so Government.....the basics..." Mr. Martin started.
Suddenly, I felt a lot better about this class.
Fourth period had just let out and it was now lunch time. Lunch, as I quickly realized, was divided into nine different schedules to accommodate the hunger of the 3000 plus student body. The first lunch period started at 9:30 in the morning! That's not lunch. That's breakfast. I was fortunate enough to not only have a suitable lunch time at 11:45, but I shared it with all of my friends, who had been sitting with me at a rather large lunch table for the past 5 minutes.
"Okay, so how did you first four classes go?' Jade asked me, opening her bottle of water.
I shrugged.
"They were okay," I replied.
I could tell that Alex, Gino, and Adam were all pissed that they, so far, had not had a single class with me. We couldn't check schedules because they weren't ready or something. Our teachers had been telling us from class to class where to go next. And each period I had to have someone help me find the next class.
"Ooh, mine, were GREAT!" Michelle exclaimed just cutting in as usual. "You will not believe how many cute guys I have in my first three periods," Michelle replied. "And then...there's Ryan in fourth....nothing I haven't already had before."
"So what's he like anyway?" I spoke up.
Adam rushed Ryan away so quick, I barely got a chance to know him.
Everyone grew quiet and stared at me thoughtfully.
"Brandon....we've already talked about this today," Adam said as sympathetically as possible.
"No actually you ranted and I listened," I replied, a bit frustrated.
"Brandon-"
"You saw something in the first place right? Something that made you all friends with him to begin with? So why the sudden change?" I asked
"It wasn't sudden Brandon," Jade replied. "We all know what we're talking about here."
"Yeah, I'll bet," I mumbled.
I was being a brat, I knew that. But I had a right to question my friends judgment after what happened to me. They had been wrong in not believing me about the John guy. And they had been wrong in being friends with the psycho. So maybe they were wrong about Ryan. Maybe he had changed. I was at least wiling to give the guy a chance.
"Can we not talk about Ryan anymore?" Michelle asked. "We ARE trying to eat here."
Fine. I wouldn't bring him up around them anymore. I had someone else to talk to about him. I think.
As it turned out, fifth period was when I really started to see my friends again. Adam, Alex and I shared fifth period together which was Anatomy. Gino and I shared sixth period Spanish 3 together. I was unfortunately stuck with Michelle for seventh period English 4. And eighth period had Michelle, Gino, Adam, Alex...and Ryan along with myself, together for Theater Arts.
And that was where the tension began again.
"Oh god.....we're gonna have to get out of this class," Michelle spoke as soon as she caught sight of Ryan.
Alex and Adam looked in the direction she was and saw him as well.
"I go all day without having to look at his sorry ass in any of my classes and then we get to eighth period..." Adam huffed.
He was upset again. Temperamental bastard. I was starting to not like him again, not that I had ever fully come around to liking him. I tolerated him. But now even my toleration of him seemed to be diminishing.
Ryan was sitting in the very front of the class, which was set up almost like a movie theater, accept the front had a large stage set up rather than a movie screen.
Ryan was also alone, obviously trying to avoid having to talk to anybody.
"Here, let's just sit in the back-"
Adam stopped when he saw me walking over to Ryan to sit down.
"Brandon!"
I didn't turn around to acknowledge him. Instead I took a seat next to Ryan.
"So, how's it going?" I asked.
At first, Ryan looked stunned to see me. And almost afraid. He was about to respond to my question but stopped when he saw an angry Adam, with Gino, Alex, and Michelle trailing behind, coming up to him.
"Brandon, what the hell are you doing?" Adam asked.
I looked up at the people before me.
"Whatever I want," I replied.
Adam wasn't in charge of me. If I wanted to talk to Ryan, I very well could and would. It was my life we were talking about here.
"Okay, class, if you could take your seats please," came the voice of our teacher Ms. Andrews.
Adam, Alex, Gino, and Michelle all took seats behind Ryan and I, as the row Ryan had picked only allowed two people per row.
Ryan flashed me the faintest of smiles.
Looking back at Adam's pissed face sort of made me feel good.
That would teach him for turning back into a jackass
Gino and Adam's lockers, however, had both coincidentally wound up next to one another. And given their current moods and thoughts, that probably wasn't a very good thing.
Adam had avoided running into Brandon early on in the morning, opting instead to go to his locker. It just was unfortunate that Gino happened to be at his too.
Gino had a lot going on in his mind. For the past month and a half he had been slowly trying to rebuild his friendship with Brandon. And while he wasn't as hostile towards him as he was to Adam, he still wasn't as open with him as he was with Alex. He had laid the groundwork for Brandon to start trusting him again, but it still obviously wasn't something that he was willing to do. Yet.
Of course, his chances had significantly increased once school started on Monday. Adam had all but forbade Brandon to speak to Ryan, and of course, Brandon spoke to him anyway. And because of that, Brandon had once again gone back to being angry with Adam. And if that wasn't enough, on Tuesday, Brandon and Alex had a huge argument concerning Ryan, after he admitted that it was Ryan's idea that Brandon talk with him, which meant that Brandon was upset with the both of them. On Wednesday, Brandon had talked only to Jade, Krystal and Gino himself of course. And today, he planned to take full advantage of that.
Adam made sure that he was turned away from Gino as he put his books in his locker.
The two had never really gotten along and so they had just chose not to speak to each other.
Adam had his own worries to think about. It just seemed like he was always unhappy. Even over the summer when Brandon had started talking to him again and things seemed to have gone back to normal, all he would do was worry. Worry about the same thing or worse happening to the boy he loved. Worried that maybe one day he'd never see him again and that the day would come sooner rather than later. Of course he wanted to give Brandon his space, which is what he pretty much had done. And it was obviously the reason why the two had managed to tolerate each other. Until Monday rolled around and Brandon had insisted on befriending that jack-hole Ryan. If it wasn't bad enough that he had to put up with Michelle, even Gino, but having Brandon friends with Ryan? So he reacted in a way he thought was normal. He tried to protect him.
But it was apparent that Brandon felt that Adam's methods were too virulent and so he went against them. Tuesday. Even Wednesday and Thursday. Now that it was Friday, Adam knew that he had to find a way to get himself back on speaking terms with Brandon. And maybe once he got that far, he could even start worrying about how to get him to have the same feelings for him he once had so that they could be a couple again.
Adam shut his locker at the same time Gino had and the two stared at each other with potent looks that were anything but friendly before going their separate ways, which unfortunately would lead them to the same place, as they both happened to share the same first period.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday had gone by relatively smooth. I finally memorized my schedule and the location of my classes by Wednesday afternoon, and didn't require any more assistance. I saw my friends a lot during the day, but my locker wasn't near any of theirs.
But for some reason, I found myself smiling like a silly fool as I watched Chris take his usual seat of four days next to me.
"Somebody got laid last night," he said, taking note of my smiling. "Tell me, was she drunk or just desperate?"
I playfully shoved him.
"So you're obviously happy for some reason," Chris spoke.
I wasn't sure what it was exactly. I mean, I knew it had something to do with Chris. Everytime I saw him, feelings that I never really had around any of my friends or family, came to surface. It was like I was excited and nervous all at once. And like my head was spinning so fast and the butterflies in my stomach were making me so happy that I just felt like I was high.
Chris did it to me every time. Every time he'd smile as me with his perfectly straight white teeth. Or everytime he'd take his playful jabs at me and then do little things like touch me to let me know he was joking. Things that I loved everytime.
I didn't know if Chris and I were exactly friends. After all, outside of that time we talked in California or the time we got arrested, we'd only talked in first period the past three days.
Maybe I felt connected to him on some deep level. Maybe I wanted something from him.
I wasn't sure.
I was sure however, that I was totally in lust with Chris, and I knew I had to have him. Soon.
"So what about your girlfriend?" I asked. "She keeping you on your toes?"
"Yeah," Chris replied. "I'm sure she would. If I ever had one."
Now that was hard to believe. Chris without a girlfriend? As gorgeous as he was?
"What?"
"I'm not really what you'd call a...committing type of guy," Chris replied. "The thought of staying with a single person for a long period of time bores me to tell you the truth. I'm more of a party guy. I like to have fun."
I knew what his idea of "fun" was, which included night 'visits' to a certain unfinished building in California.
"Oh come on....you gotta want a girlfriend sometimes," I found myself saying, even though I should have been rejoicing the fact that he didn't have a girlfriend.
"Well besides the fact that I don't want or need a girlfriend to tie me down, I don't really have time," Chris replied. "Track keeps me busy, you know?"
I remembered that he was referring to the fact that he was on the school track team. My previous guess of him being a runner had been right.
"What about you?" Chris asked.
"What about me?" I repeated.
"Well, is there a special lady friend in your life you'd like to tell me about or are you hopelessly in love with Spill Boy Jo?" Chris smirked.
I could tell he was joking. Although, the slight glint in his eye told me that he really wanted the question answered.
"I don't know," I replied. "I guess you could say I don't really have time for girls either."
Chris stared at me with this look that told me that he was silently trying to piece things together.
We had to let the conversation stand there as it was, as our teacher had started with the days lecture.
But as I looked over at the smallest of grins on Chris's face, I knew that I wanted him even more.
The rest of the day was interesting. I say interesting because something strange happened once eighth period rolled around. Instead of silently fuming while I talked with Ryan as I had been doing all week, Adam and Gino made separate points to each have the strangest of conversations with me.
Yet, even though they both had talked separately to me, it was almost like they got together and choreographed their little speeches.
They both made the same point to apologize to me for their behavior all week. They both talked about how much they cared about me and were only trying to look out for me. And they each both warned me about Ryan again. Except, instead of argue his bad points, they made Ryan admit them to me himself.
And sure Ryan admitted them to me. Except, Ryan had already told me before they forced him to. Which upset me beyond belief because it just seemed like they were still trying to control my life. So I made it a point to inform them of how asinine they were both being and said no further words to them.
And that was twenty minutes ago. Now it was after school and almost everyone was gone.
The final bell had rang and I had a strange feeling of a weird kind of achievement in myself. Proud that I'd survived my first week of high school. Sure there were a few...Gino and Adam spots along the way but I managed.
I was at my locker getting and putting things away and looked up to see a huge surprise.
"Chris?" I said.
I had been using my locker all week without knowing who the locker next to mine belonged to. And finally, on the last day of the week, I had received my answer.
"Oh hey," Chris smiled, taking out a crumpled slip of paper from his pocket.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Well, it's Friday," Chris replied. "I figured I'd at least find out where my locker was before next week."
"And so you found it," I replied.
"So I did," Chris spoke, starting with his combination. "You know, I have to say I'm surprised."
"About what?" I asked.
"Well, you're always with Spill Boy or the rest of your little posse," Chris replied. "And now...."
"I'm avoiding most of them," I replied. "And the one I AM talking to is at football tryouts."
"The dreaded jock, I see," Chris replied.
"Aren't you on-"
"This is Texas. You're only a jock if you play football," Chris replied. "Anything else and your a bona-fide athlete."
I smiled at Chris's comment. It just happened to be very true.
"Besides, I like to consider myself a bit out of the norm when it comes to school."
Which had become quite obvious to me through the course of the week. I'd come to find that Chris had many types of friends. He was a people person. A people person who had also come to school wearing a different type of outfit-from punk rocker, to skater, to prep-almost everyday.
But he always seemed to have this edge about him. Something that let me know that he was a good guy, but at the same time was still bad. Like he was itching to get into or start trouble but hadn't had a chance to do so. Yet.
"Hey, Brandon I-"
I turned around. It was Alex.
"Oh....."
"Alex...hey," I replied, taking note of his attire, which was a football uniform composed of our school colors of red and white.
Alex looked from me to Chris, and then froze. It was like something suddenly came to him.
"Alex?"
"Hey, I'll see you later alright?" Chris spoke, leaving.
"Yeah..."
Alex watched him leave, a look of growing frustration on his face.
"Alex...what's wrong?" I asked.
"Please tell me you're not friends with that guy," Alex spoke, trying to contain his emotions.
"Who Chris?" I asked. "I don't know. I guess so. Why?"
"Brandon, please just promise me you'll stay away from him."
Right, I was so gonna do that for apparently no reason at all.
"Alex, why?"
"Christian Murphy is bad news Brandon. I know what I'm talking about," Alex replied.
"No you don't," I said, starting to get angry myself.
"Brandon-"
"No. And how do you know him? I mean, did you know him when we were in California?"
"I couldn't remember then. I knew I'd seen him somewhere, just wasn't sure where."
Well, with a school as big as ours with as many kids as ours had, that wasn't hard to believe.
"He used to go to school with all of us in middle school, but then he moved," Alex replied. "It's probably why I couldn't remember him."
"So why don't Jade and Adam recognize him?" I asked.
"Because they never knew him," Alex replied. "Chris hung out with an entirely different crowd than the rest of us did. The only reason I know him is because........"
Alex looked down at the ground with this distant look.
"Alex...what?"
"Forget it alright. Look, I know what I'm talking about when I say this. You're better off without him."
Now I was angry again.
"Cant even give me a good reason huh?" I asked, highly upset. "I mean, at least when you guys preach the bad word of Ryan, you have a handbook to follow."
"Brandon-"
"It's like you people like being miserable or something," I started. "And if one of you isn't, you find ways to make them join you."
"Brandon, a lot of really bad things happened-"
"So get over them!" I exclaimed. "At least you can remember the things that happened."
I didn't want to look at Alex anymore. As far as I was concerned, he was as bad as the rest of them were.
If I wanted to be friends with Christian Murphy, then I would. The same went for Ryan too. It was my life, not theirs.
And its about time they realize it.
A/N
I'm really sorry that it has taken me longer to update here than on my group. I never intended to wait longer than two weeks to submit new episodes to Nifty, but I've been more busy than usual the past few weeks and I haven't had much time to do anything computer-wise. I'm still busy, but it was a bout time I sent something to Nifty, so, here it is. again, sorry for the delay.
Oh and if you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say 'group' its my new YahooGroup I started last month. The link is at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JoJoPresents-GayFiction
There you'll find additional episodes of Angst as well as two other new stories by me not available on Nifty yet. So if you have some time, please check it out.
Copyright 2005