The Little Mistakes (boyxboy)

Chapter 7

I picked my lunch tray up off of the metal ledge after getting my food and turned around to walk to the cash register. I waited in line behind three kids. I tapped my foot, trying not to get too impatient. When it was my turn, I typed in my pin number and was on my way after a short nod to the lady at the register.

“Oh, look who it is,” I heard a male voice say, sounding amused.

My face dropped into even more of a frown--if that was possible--as I turned my head. The guy walking up to me by himself happened to be a friend of the kid who had tripped me yesterday. I cursed inside my head. Of course this would happen. And without Phoebe, nonetheless. She just had to go to the bathroom before lunch instead of going in line for food with me.

“What the hell do you want?” I asked, giving him a nasty look.

“Whoa, don’t get ahead of yourself, there,” he said with a smirk.

I could tell he was trying not to snicker at me. That just made me upset. I didn’t understand why people had to be such jerks. Couldn’t everyone either simply keep to themselves or be nice?

“Bugger off,” I muttered, going to walk away from him.

The kid stepped forward quickly, blocking my path. I furrowed my brows, getting more and more angry and annoyed. “What’s the hurry?”

“Who do you think you are?”

“Rikert,” he said casually.

I scoffed. “Stupid name.”

“Screw you,” he hissed. I smiled. “At least I don’t talk like a freak.”

“Just leave me alone,” I spat with plenty of venom.

I turned away from an astonished Rikert. He didn’t even try to say anything more to me as I headed towards the table I’d sat at yesterday. It was still way across the room from me, but I could see Patrick and Aria sitting there.

“Caise!”

I stopped, mid-step, and looked around. The voice was unfamiliar--nobody I had met before. I glanced around, unsure of who was trying to get my attention. Then my eyes landed on a boy sitting at a table about five feet away.

I looked at him and then I glanced around. He smiled a little. “Come over here,” he said.

“Me?” I asked stupidly.

“Of course,” he said, waving me over.

I slowly walked over to his table. I stopped in front of him. Honestly, I didn’t even know why I was standing here. I hated people. It was so unlike me to try and talk to new people.

“What?” I asked gruffly. Now that was more like my usual self.

“I saw that,” he said slyly.

I raised a brow. “And ‘that’ would be...?”

“Him.”

My eyes followed where this kid was pointing at. Rikert was still standing where I had left him. He looked a little confused as to what had just happened between us. When he caught us looking at him, he quickly walked away.

“Your point?” I said. “He’s an arse.”

“That’s Rikert Evitts for you,” he shrugged. “I’m Kieran White.”

I nodded, not really sure what was happening right now. “Uhm, Caise.”

“Yeah, I know,” Kieran said with a smile. “That’s how I got your attention, remember?”

I bit my cheek. Duh, way to go Caise. Acting like an idiot once again. “Right.”

“So I heard about yesterday,” Kieran said, looking straight into my eyes.

I shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know--”

“Hockey?”

I swore. “Seriously? Is that all anybody cares about here?”

Kieran chuckled. “Hey, it’s not often we get a new kid from the complete opposite side of the world.”

“Look, if you’re just going to make fun of the way I talk, then you can piss off,” I grumbled.

“I wasn’t going to do that,” he said sincerely. I felt tension building in my shoulders. I nodded apprehensively, believing him for some reason. Kieran pointed at the table he was at. “You can sit if you’d like.”

The first thing I did when he said that was look across the cafeteria. My eyes found Patrick. He was watching me curiously. But as soon as I had met his eyes, he immediately turned away. As if he were pretending he’d never been staring at me.

“Sure,” I muttered. I pulled the chair next to him out and sat down. My tray of crappy food sitting in front of me. “Only for a minute, though.”

Kieran shrugged. “We have French together. I thought you’d have recognized me.”

I picked at the red tray with my fingernails. “Sorry. Not exactly a people person.”

“I guessed that.”

“Well you suck at French,” I shot back.

Kieran smirked. “Thought you didn’t notice me?”

“I didn’t. Everyone in that class sucks at French. It was a generalization.”

Kieran watched me, thinking for a moment. “Fair enough. So New Zealand, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said, sort of bored. “Born and raised.”

“That’s pretty cool. You move out here with your parents?”

I snorted. “Not even close. More like they shipped me away because I’m practically demon spawn.”

Kieran laughed. The sound even made me crack the tiniest of smiles. Glancing around a little, I spotted Phoebe paying for her lunch. I grabbed my tray and scooted back in my chair.

“There’s my cousin,” I said. “I’m gonna go.”

Kieran looked over. Recognition flashed across his face as soon as his eyes clocked on Phoebe. I wasn’t sure what that was about but neither of us commented on it.

“Alright,” he said. “We should hang out sometime.”

“Why?” I blurted.

“So you can say you have an actual friend here?” he suggested as if it were obvious. I pursed my lips. He shook his head. “I’ll see you in French tomorrow, then.”

I hesitated. Then I mumbled a response and a goodbye before walking after Phoebe. I called her name as she passed. She glanced over, a little surprised. I was just leaving Kieran’s table.

“Oh hey, Caise.” She smiled brightly. “Were you just talking to Kieran?”

I looked over my shoulder. Kieran smiled and waved at us. I turned back to my cousin. “I guess.”

“Making friends?”

“No.”

Phoebe laughed. “I figured. Kieran’s pretty cool, though. He’s really nice. And cute too.”

I snorted. Girls. “You familiar with him?” I asked.

She shrugged a shoulder as we neared our table. Patrick wasn’t even looking at us. I wasn’t surprised. After that incident this morning in the kitchen, neither of us had said a word to each other. I’d even passed him twice in the halls between classes and he’d not so much as sneered in my direction.

“You could say that I know of him,” Phoebe said, bringing me back to our conversation.

I was thrown off by her response, but I didn’t say anything as we were arriving at the table. Phoebe took a seat next to her sister. Jamey was sitting next to who I assumed was Rory. The only other open spot was between her and Patrick. I bit my cheek and silently sat down. I was beginning to hate this lunch hour.

****
Kieran conned me into being his friend. He switched seats with the girl who had previously been next to me in French class. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of him. I never really did ask Phoebe how she knew him. I didn’t get too much of a weird vibe from him. So I figured he was a nice enough guy.

He kind of reminded me of myself. Not his attitude, of course. He was a lot nicer than I ever remembered me being. Phoebe hadn’t been waiting for me outside the room after class like she had been the first two days of the week. So I walked with Kieran to lunch.

We made small talk as we went. There were quite a few long stretches of silence, though. But that was mostly because I wasn’t the biggest conversationalist in the world. You couldn’t say that Kieran didn’t try, though. He was a good sport about it all.

After we made it all the way through the line, I still hadn’t seen Phoebe. I was pretty curious as to what she was up to. Kieran and I walked to one of the closest empty tables. I wasn’t really planning on sitting with him but I figured I could hang out for a couple more minutes. We pulled out our chairs and sat down.

“Are the hamburgers any good?” I asked, observing the food on my tray.

“It’s high school,” Kieran pointed out. “Are they ever good?”

I nodded. “Good point. Do you always sit alone?”

Kieran raised a brow. “Problem with that?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I prefer being alone, too.”

“Yeah, I just don’t really like a lot of the people who go to school here,” he said.

“So if I offered you a seat at my lunch table, you wouldn’t take it?”

“Not even if you paid me,” he said seriously.

I chuckled. “Cheers then. I’ll keep that in mind. But I’m probably going to head over there once Phoebe finally turns up.”

Kieran waved me off. “That’s fine. Do whatever you like.”

He picked up his burger and took a bite out of it. I looked around, still not seeing Phoebe anywhere. I could see Jamey and Aria at the usual table, though. I sighed and picked up a fry and popped it into my mouth.

“Rikert try anything else with you yesterday?” Kieran asked a moment later.

“You, know,” I said, “He actually didn’t even acknowledge me in class. I’d rather have that than him trying to talk to me.”

“Trust me, you get used to him. I’ve been going to the same school as him for the last ten years now. And he lives a couple streets away from me.”

I smirked. “Better you than me.”

“Speaking of houses,” Kieran said, looking over at me. “Wanna come hang out at mine tonight?”

I raised my eyebrows at him. Well, that was something I was most definitely not expecting. “Are you being serious?”

“Duh. Why would I offer if I didn’t mean it?”

“Uhm,” I said. “I don’t know. I’m just not used to people bothering to be mates.”

“Me neither,” he chirped. “So what do you think?”

I thought about it. He was nice enough. I didn’t think he was planning on murdering me or setting me up in any way. “Sure, why not,” I said after a few moments.

Kieran smiled. “Great. I drive to school so you can meet me by the doors after the final bell and we can go.”

“Alright.”

We proceeded to exchange numbers. I was slipping my phone back into my pocket when I heard a little whistle. Kieran and I both looked around to see where it came from. Phoebe was about to walk past us. She waved at Kieran and then nodded with her head for me to join her. I grabbed my stuff and stood.

Kieran and I said our pleasant goodbyes to each other and I was on my way. Maybe it wasn’t going to be as bad here after all.

“You two look awfully chummy,” Phoebe commented when I fell into step beside her.

I shrugged, keeping a blank face. “He invited me over after school today.”

She quickly looked over at me. “Really,” she said in wonder.

I scrunched my nose. “Yeah, why?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Just surprised you’re actually making friends, is all.”

I snorted. “Whatever. One can’t hurt.”

Phoebe smiled but never responded. She just led the way back to our table. I glared at her as we took our seats. I hated when she did that. It was like she knew something but wasn’t telling me what it was. Girls could be so annoying sometimes. No wonder I’d never had one as a friend before.

Everybody else was already at the table by the time Phoebe and I got there. And as I sat across from Patrick, he gave me one of the darkest glares I’d ever seen from him. That, I realized, was why I never made friends with anyone. People were just not nice to me. I was getting pretty sick of it.