Basement Royalty

Chapter 6

Things seemed a little different when Ray went back to school on Monday. He couldn't pinpoint it, but there was something much friendlier in the atmosphere. He spent most of his first period English class telling Michael about what had happened with Joel at Burnie's place, and trying to explain the weird feeling that had arisen since they'd apologised. Michael just laughed quietly at that part. By lunch, the two of them were joking like normal, and Ray finally felt like he belonged here.

Unfortunately, school work didn't stop, and Ray left the lunch table early that day to go to the library. He had an essay due the next morning, and wouldn't have time to do all of it that night. He walked over to the bank of computers against the far wall, noticing that there was only one free, in the corner. His stomach dropped as he saw who was sitting next to it. Still, he didn't have much choice. As he put down his backpack and sat down, he took a breath to steady his nerves.

"Hi, Joel." He said. Joel spun around, eyes wide, to see who was talking to him. He broke into a smile when he saw Ray sitting next to him.

"Hey, Ray." He replied. "How're you doing?"

"I'm pretty good, thanks. What about you?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. What are you doing here?"

"I have a history essay." He gestured at the PC, despite the fact it was still on the log in screen. "I don't have time to finish it all tonight so I thought I'd get started now."

"Oh, man. I haven't taken history for a while. I forgot how annoying those essays are."

"Oh, yeah, you're doing an elective, right?"

"Yeah, performing arts. I'm... hopefully going into acting." Joel looked down, flushing slightly. Ray smiled.

"That's awesome! You're gonna be an actor."

"Like I said; hopefully."

"Well, I bet you'll do great. And you've got everything figured out. I still don't know what I wanna do with my life." Joel pulled the sleeves of his shirt down over his hands and looked up again.

"When I was your age I didn't know what I wanted to do either." Ray laughed, prompting a frown from Joel. "What?"

"Sorry, just... 'When I was your age'. You sound like an old man."

"Yeah." Joel half-smiled. "I think I am an old man in my head."

"Well, let's hope you don't go grey and wrinkly then." Now it was Joel's turn to laugh, a quiet, breathy sound that did something weird to Ray.

"Hopefully I've got a little time before that happens." Joel reached over to Ray's computer, still on the log in page, and tapped gently on the screen with one finger. "You should do some work, Ray. I don't wanna think I'm distracting you." Ray started back to reality.

"Right. Yeah." He typed in his log in details and waited as the desktop loaded up. "So... you're eighteen now."

"Yeah, I am. What about it?"

"I don't know, I just... Most eighteen year olds I know wouldn't wanna hang out with fifteen and sixteen year olds." Joel shrugged, bringing attention to his slouched posture.

"Most eighteen year olds aren't friends with Burnie Burns, who knows every fucking person on the planet."

"Yeah, okay, good point."

"Also, it kind of comes from Geoff. He's friends with Michael and Jack and everyone in that group and so we all just kind of melded together into one loud messy crowd."

"Right. I forgot about Geoff being held back a year. I guess you don't see him in classes anymore."

"Well, I wouldn't anyway; we took different electives. But we don't see him as much, no. It kind of sucks."