The Delinquents

The Delinquents - chpt. 3

The Delinquents

Chapter Three

            "Would anyone like to go first?" We were all sitting in a circle in the living room. We had pushed the couches, recliners and some dining chairs into a circle and sat awkwardly spaced apart. Everyone was present, so the grand total was seven teenagers and one adult. This group included; myself, Lily, Travis, Keegan, Gabe, Derek, Simon and our leader, Evan.

            Evan sighed, "someone has to go first."

            Travis smiled, "I'll go first, I love going first." Travis sat beside me, he was stretched out comfortably on a recliner and rested his feet in my lap. I sat stiffly on a wooden chair. It was only my second day at Ash Falls and I wasn't quite ready to lounge with the others even though most seemed perfectly comfortable around me, Travis especially.

            Evan smiled, "Thank you Travis, now, what would you like to share?"

            Travis pursed his lips as he thought. "Hm, well let's see. I only lit one thing on fire this week." I pressed my lips together as everyone praised him. Was this what was seen as an accomplishment? 

            Evan frowned, not as happy as the others. "But last week you were incident free, what did you burn?"

            "Please tell me it wasn't any of my stuff," Gabe said dryly, "Last time you burnt my favourite t-shirt. You still owe me a new one."

            "I thought I already replaced that," Travis asked thoughtfully.  

            Gabe glared at him, "You did. But then you lit the replacement on fire two weeks later."

            Travis laughed, "Right, right. I forgot about that. Sorry, dude."

            "What did you light on fire?" Evan asked, stepping in.

            Travis's smile disappeared and his gaze grew cold, colder than I had ever seen it before. The joyful look in his eyes was gone and the playful, relaxed way he held his shoulders was now tight and rigid. "It was a letter from my dad."

            The whole group was silent and everyone seemed to look anywhere but at Travis. I wasn't sure what to do so I dropped my head and stared at my lap. Obviously I wasn't the only one here with absent father syndrome.

            "Who's next?" Evan asked lowly.  

            Derek raised his hand halfway into the air and smiled. "I finished that book you gave me to read. I read the last chapter last night."

            Evan grinned, "Great! Did you enjoy it?" They babbled on about the book Evan had assigned to Derek and I noticed that everyone seemed to relax again as the conversation flowed. Travis still had his feet on my lap and began to wriggle his toes.

            I scrunched up my nose. "You're disgusting, do you ever wash those?" I asked, pointing to his feet. I sneaked a glance at Evan, half expecting him to reprimand me for speaking while Derek was. He didn't.

            He grinned at me, "Never."

            "I loved the main character, he reminded me of myself at times," Derek continued.

            Evan smiled, "That's why I assigned it to you, I wanted you to identify with the hero of the novel. See how he handled his emotions in the beginning in comparison to the end? That's what you need to work on, expressing yourself instead of bottling everything up."