Ursa Minor (On hiatus)

The trespasser

"I printed the data sheets for you, but I have it in my locker..." I said instead. Lame. 

"No problem," Allen shrugged, smiling. "I don't even know if I'll have the time to prepare it tonight, would be good if I did though-" 

"You could, or I mean, I could bring them for you, because I'll be at the the prayer group today so..." I interrupted, the words almost tumbling over each other with the eagerness. Not sure why I'd found it so extremely important to tell him that. And if Allen found it important/surprising/interesting I couldn't tell, his wide-open face suddenly unreadable, his blue eyes darting away from me. 

"Ok, cool, I'll see you there then," he nodded and smiled somewhat distracted and quickly left my side, for whoever else had caught his attention. I forced myself not to turn and look after him. Because whatever. I didn't care. It was probably just another one of the un-named Bradford's. And I really didn't care. And Adam was still glaring at me.

"Cool, I'll see you there," he echoed. "So now you're hanging out with him." 

"I'm not," I said defensively, but Adam turned and stomped down the hallway. Adam wasn't really the easiest person to keep track of in a crowd. I had to almost run to finally catch up with him again, just to barely avoid tripping over him as he stopped mid-step in front of his locker. 

"Looked like it," he muttered. 

"I'm not, ok?" A little more sternly this time.  

"Sure, whatever. Just don't see why." Adam said and peered into his locker like it contained the most interesting thing in the world. This was so typical. He pretended not to care, and all the while he did care a whole fucking lot. I was pretty used to it by now, but it didn't make it any less annoying. "Why are you being so hostile? He's totally harmless."

Adam snorted, his face basically hidden in his locker by now. "Yeah he's fucking harmless, he's just so nice and cute and everybody just loves him." Ok. So that was it. Adam didn't give a fuck about what everybody thought. Everybody equaled Trish. I rolled my eyes. 

"You really think she would be interested in someone like him?" 

"What the fuck do I know these days? She dated that Ewan didn't she?" Ew. I wanted to counter that Ewan had been more of a mistake than a date of Trish's, but then Adam returned from the depths of his locker, looking at me darkly. "And you're exactly the same! 'I'm going to the prayer circle'," he squeaked. "Like what the fuck? You're going to sit with them at lunch soon?" 

"Chill. It's because of Lis, you know that. I just got stuck doing this stupid project with him," I said almost soothingly, trying to be all smooth about it but Adam gave me one of his darkest glares, slamming his locker shut with a bang and kicking it where it already had a dent from the previous abuse. "Fuuck," he spat out, looking up at me with his big dark eyes shiny. "I feel all abandoned." And that got to me. I'd used up all the excuses and avoided this for too long. I would just have to let my mom down again, because it was either that or loosing my best friend.

Adam lived in the East Valley area, closer to the school. A realtor would probably call it a better neighborhood than mine, but really, Oakland basically only had so-called good neighborhoods. His stepdad had bought the house when he'd married Adam's mom. What had just been Adam and his mom in a flat in Glenville, became a happy family complete with two tiny stepsisters, the wide eyed chirpy dresswearing kind. And Adam became the odd one out, the black sheep. Spoilt rotten and neglected at the same time.

If I felt the need I could escape to Adam's basement, to the Highland Park on one of my hour long walks or even to the solitude of my room, but Adam escaped from school to his basement, from the family dinner table to his cousin in Glenville, from the cousin's sofa to some party somewhere. And then dragged himself back to school to do it all again the next week, the next day. Always on the run. Never stopping. Even sitting down in one of the battered armchairs in the basement that was all his, Adam's leg still idly kicked the armrest. I sat down like he had, my head resting against one armrest, flung my legs over the other.