Social Menace [boyxboy]

Social Menace {24}

                I hit the lockers and groaned. "Drew, it is too early for this."

                "Not Drew."

                I turned to face Talon. Nyssa was shaking her head behind him, arms crossed.

                "Cut it out, Tal. You're not a kid," she said, yanking him away from me.

                "Aw, come on, Nys! He was zoned out. I had to fuck with him," Talon said.

                "Have you seen Tyson?" Nyssa asked me. "We were looking for him."

                "And then you found me, lucky you," I said. "But no, I haven't seen Tyson. He was up pretty late last night, so he probably stopped for coffee on the way."

                "Maybe we should get him a rat for his stress," Talon said. "It fixed Connor's separation anxiety, didn't it?"

                "It didn't fix it. His parents just bought him the dog so he didn't freak out every time they left him home alone," Nyssa said, elbowing Talon. "Leave Connor alone. At least having the dog calms him down."

                "Wait, he legitimately has separation anxiety? I thought you guys were just kidding," I said in confusion.

                Nyssa shook her head. "He was bad as a kid. His parents ended up giving him a stuffed dog that they put his dad's tie on and sprayed with his mom's perfume. He was clinging to that when Ty and Farren met him in elementary school. His parents eventually bought him Jonesy when the stuffed dog trick stopped working."

                "When you're 17 and can't function without a rat or your mom," Talon said, laughing.

                Nyssa stomped on his foot. "You have no room to talk. You're 17 and you still panic if you lose me in the grocery store, idiot."

                "Ow!" He hopped away from her. "That's different!"

                "You really shouldn't make fun of him," I said. "He can't help it if he has separation anxiety. Besides, I did notice you're always with Nyssa. It's not a bad thing, but at least Connor found something to help him."

                "What, so I should replace my sister with a rat?" Talon said.

                "The rat might tolerate you better," Nyssa said. "Come on, Tal. Let's go find Tyson. I want to make sure he's okay."

                "He'll be fine, Nys," Talon said, but obediently followed her down the hall and out of sight.

                I was worried about Tyson too, though. We'd done our homework together and then had dinner with his parents. Tyson brought up a card game, and we ended up playing with his parents all night. I knew he was trying to spend time with them before Mallory sold him out.

                We'd texted until I fell asleep, though I had a text from Tyson two hours after that about a quote from some book he was reading. He must be exhausted after staying up so late.

                I spotted Drew down the hall and slipped behind a group of students, keeping hidden behind them until we were out of the hallway. I hurried my way to class, wondering how the Social Action meeting would go after school. Surely someone had come up with even a scrap of an idea.

                The day went normally at first. Lectures, notes, quizzes, gossip, worksheets.

                And then the phone rang in one of my classes.