Absent Truth

Chapter 2

“Enjoy art?” The voice made her jump about ten feet in the air making herself look like an idiot. Seeing it was Nathan she cursed under her breath.

“Jeez Nathan! Don’t sneak up on me like that... You’ll end up killing me!” She snapped.

“Sorry, but I did wave at  you from the door. And I swear you were looking at me the whole time you were walking towards me. So it’s kind of your fault for having your head in the clouds the whole time.” He explained apologetically.

“No need to become a smartarse over the matter.” Bea muttered. “Do you know what the next lesson is, and who I’m with?” She asked them both.

“We have homeroom time now.” In answer to this Bea only raised her eyebrows as if to say ‘Homeroom time? What the hell’s that then’

“Basically it’s a little bit of free time in between lessons. You get homeroom time after two lessons, then another two lessons then another H.T then two more lessons before lunch. After lunch it’s your final two classes of the day, and you can go home, or go out with people. Most of us go out after school, I think that's a bit obvious.” Russell was saying as he followed Nathan down the hallway to the concrete staircase again. The staircase was lined with random posters, graffiti, pictures and drawings all covering a large green emblem that belonged to the school. Once upon a time this place must have been a wonderfully clean area, but over time it had just reduced to severe grottyness.

“So where is everybody heading down to after school today then?” A boy said over Bea’s shoulder. He was the boy known as Miles from earlier. He was flanked on both sides by the boys Tobias and Julian. Anthony, Laurence and Oliver were missing from the pack, but somehow Bea knew they were probably not far behind, maybe round a corner or lurking in a classroom or even already where they were headed, but Bea knew they weren’t far.  This conversation must have been choreographed specially to rope Bea into coming out with them because all the boys were smirking, especially those who were speaking.

“Oh you know. Lazing around in town and stuff. Hey BB, I’ve just had a good idea! How about you joining us!?” Tobias said winking cheekily at Bea while receiving a shove from Julian. Julian and him were brothers, twins, but they looked totally different to each other. They shared the same facial features; round smooth oval faces flecked with freckles inflicted by the sun, as was their tanned complexions. A mop of straight and scruffy hair drooped over their eyes but Tobias’s was brown with streaks of gold whilst Julian’s was a rich golden colour that looked like honey.

Julian had a style that you would see many of the guys in fashion magazines wearing. A similar style to what Nathan was sporting. He wore a white shirt with one of the those slim ties. Over the top a black Blazer with the schools emblem stitched on. His brother was wearing a band tee and skinny’s, much more laid back but the emblem was stitched onto the back jean pocket. Although Bea hadn’t gotten around to it, it was obligatory to have the emblem somewhere on your outfit. Even if it was only on your bag.

And yet Nathan seemed to look better than them both. It was unsettling because these were both really good looking guys, but Nathan out ‘looked’ them. It was almost unnatural.

“Erm, I'm not sure really. I don't really know my way around town or anything. I’d probably just be a liability.” Bea said trying to smile at them all. Nathan replied with his whimsical smile and then said

“You wouldn’t be a liability. It would be an honour to give you a grand tour of all of London if we had time, but since we don't, we’ll just tour town, and then maybe tomorrow we’ll attempt London.”

“Well... Okay then. But I best just text my Mum...”

“Awww, baby gotta ask mummy-moo?” Miles said light-heartedly trying to wind her up. As he was speaking Anthony had shown up looking flustered and apprehensive. Bea could see Nathan looking towards him questioningly, and saw Oliver also turn up looking almost as angst-ridden, closely followed by Laurence who was looking cool and confident instead. He was wearing a cream polo t-shirt hung on his pale ivory frame, just showing a glimpse of his muscular arms. Beige trousers complete with a matching beige trilby hat balanced on his unkempt brown hair. He was second best looking, but not very far off being first. He could have been Nathans brother, but his bottle green eyes suggested different.