Song: New Friends by Maty Noyes
Kai Carter (POV)
Here I was sitting in the cafeteria once again. All alone. It was now lunch time and I just got off that ridiculously long lunch line.
I honestly don't know why the kids at this school like eating this slob. Personally, if I could afford it, I'd never take a single bite of the food they provide at this school.
I even remember one time where the apples they were serving actually had worms in them. So disgusting.
But here I was anyway eating away at a turkey sandwich. I also had a cartoon of milk that I had not opened yet, a chocolate pudding and carrot sticks with dressing.
I was sat in my usual empty lunch table in the far end of the cafeteria. I had a book open so that I was studying and eating at the same time.
My opened text book suddenly closed, causing me to panic slightly. When I looked up I saw three people standing in front of me. Two guys and a girl.
"Mind if we sit here?" The girl who I recognised as Stacy asked.
I nodded in response. "Yeah, if you want to."
The three of them sat and looked at me, causing me to knit my eyebrows together in confusion.
"You look lonely." Stacy pointed out.
"I am not." I deny.
She looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Oh really? So why are you sitting all the way back here all alone then, huh?"
"B-because I like being alone?" I answered, but it came out more like a question.
"No one likes being alone." Stacy said.
Just as I was about to answer, one of the boys who I recognised as Juan answered. "I like being alone." He pointed out.
"Oh shut up Juan, you're not helping." Stacy shot back at him.
"And what exactly are we trying to help?" The other boy Austin asked.
"Not what, it's who. And we're trying to help...what's your name?" She asked.
"Kai Carter." I answered.
"Right, we're trying to help Kai." She continued.
I looked at her with a confused look on my face. "Help me with what?" I asked.
"Make friends, duh." She said as if stating the obvious.
While it was very strange for a bunch of people that I have never talked to in my entire life to come to me and try to be my friend, I was definitely not complaining. Friends might be just what I need and I'm already starting to like Stacy.
"I'm Stacy." She said pointing to herself. "This is Juan." She pointed on Juan to which he threw me a wave. "And this is Austin." She said and Austin smiled at me.
"And I'm Kai." I introduced myself once again.
"Yeah, you already said that." Stacy pointed out to which I laughed in embarrassment.
"And we are the outcast alliance." Juan said.
"The outcast alliance?" I echoed his response.
"Yes." He said with a beaming smile.
Stacy shot him an annoyed look. "No we're not." Both Stacy and Austin said in unison.
Juan nodded. "Yes we are! That's what we call ourselves."
"No, that's what you call us." Austin answered.
Stacy nodded. "Yeah and that sounds like the name of a band, and we're not a band."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever." Juan answered. "Point is we want to recruit you in our group."
"Gosh you make it sound like we're the illuminati or something." Stacy said. "We saw you sitting all alone and so we wanted to be friendly."
Just as everyone was speaking I notice one of the guys who took my lunch approaching our table.
He stood in front me with his arms folded. "Hey loser, I'm taking that milk and pudding."
Before I could even respond Stacy spoke up. "Get lost Shane, aren't you too old to be acting like a forth grade bully stealing peoples food? Go find something better to do."
"Shut up Stacy I wasn't talking to you." Shane fired back.
"Dude get lost." Austin said already standing from his seat.
"Hiding behind friends now." Shane said pointing at me. "I'll catch you alone." He said turning around to leave.
"Yeah, yeah, fuck off." Juan said throwing a finger at him.
I looked at them with a huge smile on my face. I definitely needed friends like that who would stand up for me.
After that incident none of them spoke about it.
My eyes drifted across the cafeteria in time to see that Damien and his friends had entered.
I realize that Damien was scanning the cafeteria. And then his eyes finally landed on me.
His eyes were so beautifully enchanting that I just could not look away. I felt like I was hypnotised.
A big smile then grew on his face. He said something to his friends and started making his way over to me.
"Hey Kai," He said when he got to me, ruffling my hair in the processes.
My cheeks heated up in embarrassment. "Hi Damian."
"New friends?" He asked pointing to Stacy, Austin and Juan who was staring at our interaction intently.
I nodded. "Yeah."
"That's nice. I'm going to go sit now, just wanted to say hi." He said pointing to his lunch table. "I'll see you around Kai." He said and walked away before I had time to answer.
When he got to his table, I heard one of his friends say something to him and he responded by telling them to shut the fuck up.
When I turned I saw that Stacy and the rest of the 'outcasts alliance' as Juan likes to say, was still looking at me.
"He's...friendly towards you." Stacy pointed out. "I didn't know you had such high profile friends."
"He's not my friend." I said. "He just started talking to me."
"But he was quite friendly." Juan pointed out.
"Yeah I guess he was. I don't think he wants to be my friend though." I said.
"Why would you say that." Stacy asked.
"I don't know, just look at him and look at me." I answered in frustration.
"Yeah yeah, whatever you say kayak." Juan said.
After that our conversation drifted away from the topic of Damien. I was suprised how well I was able to fit into whatever conversations they were having. And while I didn't say much, I was just happy to have people willing to sit with me and talk to me.
Soon enough the bell rang signalling the end of the lunch period. Everyone packed up their stuff and started heading out. Stacy, Austin and Juan even recommended that I should hang out with them more often, and of course I agreed.
When I left the cafeteria I spotted Damien standing at the entrance with his arms folded like he was waiting for someone.
When I got close to him and started walking past him, he placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me.
"Hey," He said almost causing my heart to stop. What was with this guy and talking to me all of a sudden? I mean I'm not complaining, but it was weird for someone like Damien to be talking to me. "New friends huh." He asked.
I nodded, "Yeah, well I-I don't know. They just started talking to me."
He nodded. "What about the portrait of me?"
When Damien asked me to paint a portrait of him I really thought he was joking, but now here he is asking about it again.
"I didn't know you were b-being serious about that." I shyly told him.
"Why are you stammering Kai? Do I make you uncomfortable?" He asked with a smirk.
"No! Thats not it. I-I'm just not used to talking to people that much."
He nodded in understanding. "And no I wasn't joking about the portrait." He said.
"Ok, is there any picture in particular you want me to paint?" I asked him.
He looked like he was thinking about my question for awhile, then he snapped his fingers. "Tell you what, how about one of these days I take you to my house and you paint a live picture of me sitting in a chair." He said still smirking.
My face was now cherry red at that moment. The hottest guy in the school wanted me to come to his home for me to paint a picture of him? Wow this guy must really loves paintings.
"I-I don't know if-" I started but he immediately cut me off.
"Don't worry buddy." He said messing up my hair. "I'll pay you for your services." He said with a wink and walked away.
I was left speechless. I just watch him walk down the hall and disappear among the sea of students.
***
I was just done helping Marther close up the diner and I was now riding my bike home. The entire time I just couldn't shake the thought of Damien out of my head.
I've had a crush on that guy for years, now and he's now talking to me. I mean I know he's not gay because I've seen him making out with girls before but I still can't shake him out of my mind.
I guess that's one more thing that's going to keep me up at night.
When I got to my house I saw that the lights were out meaning that my parents were out partying somewhere as they usually did. And for that I was grateful.
I took a spare key from my pocket and opened the door and entered the dark house. I didn't even bother turning the lights on, I just made my way upstairs to my room.
After washing the worries of the day away with a shower, I headed back to my room and got my dinner I got from the diner.
After eating and doing homework I decided to scroll on Instagram, where I stumbled upon Damian's account.
There were not many pictures on his account, only seven of them, but they were nice and clean. He was shirtless in most of them, showing off his amazing body.
Six pac abs, amazing chest, biceps and triceps looked amazing. There was even one of the pictures where he was showing off all his back muscles. My oh my, he was too hot for his own good. His face was beautiful with freckles spreading across his nose.
After looking at these pictures I just knew that I would not have an easy time falling asleep tonight. I know that I won't be able to stop thinking about Damien, not even for a split second.
I even contemplated following him, but I thought that would be too weird. He probably won't even notice that I followed him. And even if I did, who the hell follows someone at twelve am? He would just think I'm stalking him.
Suddenly I heard a car pull up in the driveway and the door opened, meaning my parents were back from their rendezvous.
That was my que to get off my phone and act like I was sleeping. I curled up and started some fake small snores.
I heard chattering in the kitchen, then footsteps coming up the stairs. I then heard my bedroom door start opening.
"Shit." I cursed under my breath. I really though I locked my door.
"Kai." I heard my father call. When there was no answer, he sent a glass bottle at me in an attempt to wake me up. The bottle only missed my head by a couple of inches, breaking just above my head with the pieces falling on my face.
Even with all that, I stayed put. I didn't answer him and just acted like I was still sleeping. When there was no answer, he closed the door and walked away.
I carefully removed the pieces of broken glass off of my face. Luckily none of it didn't penetrate my skin. I cleaned up my bed and laid back down.
That night I didn't sleep.
***
Thank you for reading.
Love you ♥
-JAY