Some would say that High School was the best time of one's life. The friendships you make, although seldom everlasting, have a long term effect on who you are as a person. It's the time of your life in which you would discover what it is you want to do with your life, you face your childhood fears and decide to become your own hero. Some, of course, would be wrong, according to Connor.
He didn't see what was so big and mighty about hours and hours of sitting down in a boring classroom filled with boring people talking about boring stuff. Who cared who had made out with who or when. Who gave two shits about the photosynthesis of the ameabas they saw in class (which Mr. Cole kept insisting were not ameabas, but protists, whatever the hell that meant anyway). And most importantly, who cared about the fact that Alexa Losey, the head of the cheerleading squad and one of the school's queen bees had been spotted somewhere downtown on Friday night whilst her then boyfriend Cameron was allegedly at some football team party in the nice part of the city. Connor didn't care, obviously.
Lilly on the other hand, certainly did care.
-"It's just the gossip of the hour!"—she said while the two sat together during lunch—"Everyone's talking about it!"
-"Huh. Now kidding."—Connor said as he chewed down his pizza, that Monday's lunch special—"Listen Lilly I'd love to pretend like I really cared about the love life of the jerk platoon's head, as I kindly remember you called him, but... I don't."
-"Pfft. Relax, bad boy, I'm pretty aware you don't give a rat's ass about any of this."—Lilly said, taking a sip out of the green juice she had brought that day in her unicorn lunch box—"It's just that these days things have been just spicing up and my lady brains URGE me to gossip about it! And since you're my best buddy, well I'm sorry but you kind of have to deal with it."
By that point, Connor was already well aware that Lilly had branded him as her best buddy. She had already established that a couple of times. Personally, he didn't complain a bit about it; he didn't see how it would change anything anyway.
The girl of the baseball cap and the unicorn lunchbox seemed to be so outgoing and friendly, it was strange she had gotten such a fixation on being friends with him. Some would say she liked him, but that wasn't it. It was complete dude talk, not even close to anything romantic. For all he knew Lilly could secretly be a boy. That was one of the reasons that made him shut his mouth on the first place. She didn't really seem to have any female friends. She did get along with the female teachers, especially miss Ballinger, but no girls around seemed to be able to deal with her. She had many guy friends, and she was very tight with The Brits band, apparently, but that was about it. No girls.
And another thing Connor had managed to notice was that she had some very strong opinions about what he assumed was the popular clique. It wasn't just the jerk platoon, she seemed to spite the cheerleading squad a lot. On that Monday, when they were walking down the hall, they ran into a couple of girls in their cheerleading uniform, whom from the looks of it were in their year, which meant they were probably Alexa's teammates or even friends. As soon as they crossed paths, the two girls made an ugly face towards Lilly, and she gleefully flipped them off in return. Connor didn't make any sort of comment, but it was pretty obvious that she didn't like them one bit.
But, when it came to bad blood, Lilly had but one particular clique she loved to hate.
-"Ugh. Look at that."—she said while they sat on their English class with Ms. Ballinger, as she gestured towards a sign-up sheet by the door that certainly hadn't been there last week, and a row of giggling girls cueing to sign up their names on it—"Isn't it sad? How their minds are so blindly drawn to that paper, as if they had any chance at all..."
-"Chance of what?"—Connor asked, more out of compliance than curiosity.
-"Of getting the part!"
-"You're not making much sense."
-"Ugh. Did you use to live in an igloo or something? That"—she pointed towards the signup sheet—": is the first call for auditioning for the spring play later in the year. Every year it's the same. Those theatre club girls think they're sooooo pretty and sooooo talented... huh, I can't wait to the see the look on their faces when they don't make it past the first calls."
Connor did take a moment to give a shit when he heard that, because for the first time he had heard Lilly give some legit hate.
-"Wow there. That sounds frustrated."—he commented.
-"What!? No it doesn't!"
-"Yeah it does."—Connor said without phasing himself—"I'd say from the sounds of it that you wanted to get some important part in that theatre play and for some reason or another you haven't been able to, and you're jealous about it."
-"Hey, hey."—Lilly said, raising her arms and laughing it off—"First off, if I wanted a part in that silly-ass play, I'd have it, ok? Second, I simply don't want one. And third? Those girls at the drama club? Bunch of losers. They think they are above everyone else, and that they're so pretty and talented. I don't hate anyone, but I surely do pity them."
That was the last Connor ever said of the subject to Lilly for the time. Certainly there were some skeletons in the closet, and the wisest part of him told him it was better to leave it that way. At least for that moment.
But it was definitely going to come back on the conversation eventually, especially after the realization that hit Connor that day during lunch.
-"Hey, something's ringing in your pocket."—Lilly commented while taking a spoonful of what Connor assumed was lettuce, but could've been some other sort of weed.
Connor noticed the vibrating sound, and reached into his right pocket, taking out the cellphone Grace had just given to him the other day. He had even forgotten he had it on him. He had just received a text from the phone bill company; apparently his data plan had just been accepted and he was free to use his phone for internet browsing. He was about to put it away right then, but Lilly beat him to it, grasping it in between her hands.
-"Bro! You didn't tell me you had a phone!"—Lilly exclaimed, pretending offense by placing her hand over her chest—"I am so hurt!"
-"Ha-ha. Heartbreaking."—Connor mocked—"I just got it. Well, Grace, just got it... one for me and one for Al. Yesterday actually."
Lilly started tapping something on Connor's phone, as she kept on with the conversation.
-"She did? That's so sweet of her."—she commented—"You shouldn't just walk around with it on school, though. They'll totally confiscate it."
-"Thanks for the advice. Yeah... it's the first one I've ever had. It's actually very rare for us foster kids to get phones."
-"Yeah... I can sort of picture that... so, Grace is actually a good foster parent, isn't she?"
-"She's ok, I guess..."—Connor paused for a bit—"She's been a lot better than most. So far at least. There's never a telling on for how long you are staying with a foster parent. Those sort of things change fast..."
That reminded Connor about how later that same week Brittany, his and Alexis' social worker would be visiting town to check on things. Stuff may be changing way sooner than expected after all.
-"Well that's good, isn't it?"—Lilly said—"I bet that Mikey Murphy kid is a cool foster brother too."
-"Meh... I tolerate him... anyway, what are you doing with that thing again?"
-"Almost done... there! Here you go."
Lilly handed Connor the phone back, and he started scrolling down through it to notice whatever changes were made. And boy, were there changes; Lilly had downloaded several social media apps Connor had never heard about before, let alone used (what the hell was Instagram?), and in his contacts list, there were about five or six new numbers.
-"What are these?"—Connor asked confused.
-"Oh those are all of the gang's phone numbers. See? There's mine, I've saved it with my name, and there's also Oli's, Joe's... and Troye's too, you see?"
After she said that, Connor scoffed and deleted the phone number she had saved as Troye's on a whim. Naturally she went into self-defense mode.
-"Hey! Why did you do that?"—she asked.
-"What's the point? It's not like I'm friends with any of these people."
-"Well, you might be! They're all pretty cool! Besides you only deleted Troye's! Are you still fed up about what happened with his little brother?"
Connor clenched his fist at the mention of Tyde Mellet. He still held quite the grudge after what he did to Alexis.
-"So what if I am? I can't help it. There's something about them that makes me just not want to deal with them. At all. Or any of their friends, for the matter."
-"Well whatever that something is you better get over it now, 'cause here comes Joe."
And Lilly was right, because Joe Sugg, the drummer from The Brits, was headed their way with a quick pace and sweating like a madman. Clearly he had been running late somewhere—probably school—and he had just managed to get there in time. He took a seat left of Connor, panting like crazy.
-"'Sup mates!"—Joe greeted, and then took a look at Connor's fries—"Hey, Connor, mind if I take on? I'm starving man."
Connor didn't give him the green light, but it wasn't necessary, as Joe took some fries anyway.
-"Sure, help yourself..."—Connor complained sarcastically.
-"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Sugglet. Where you've been, Joe? I thought you were meant to have English and Science with us."
-"I did! I just ran really, really late!"—Joe said, crunching down some fries—"I forgot to time my bloody alarm and before I knew it my dad had already left for work! I had to run all the way from home because no busses were driving around anymore. I swear it's been crazy! I've already missed half my periods, plus all last week of classes... I'm so screwed..."
-"Nah, don't worry about it little Sugg, things will look up."—Lilly reassured, patting him on the back.
At that moment, Connor realized that he wouldn't be getting off hanging out with The Brits just like that. One more thing to add to his list of constant nuisances so far in that town. Connor didn't erase any other phone numbers other than Troye's, but he figured that would last for the time being.
-"Hey, Connor, I was meaning to ask."—Joe said at some moment—"What did you think about the gig? Did you like it?"
-"What? Oh. Well, it was fun, yeah."—Connor replied, trying to brush off the subject.
-"Really man? Because I did recall seeing you for our first song, but then when we were started with The Killers, you were just gone."
Connor's throat clenched at the mention of that band. He didn't have an appropriate response, because who would? He wasn't about to go around telling people he barely knew his life story. Not even his social workers knew about it anyway, so why should anyone else? But it did seem wrong to leave Joe hanging like that, he had to at least try to come up with an excuse of sorts.
Lilly saw him struggling, and spoke up.
-"He had to leave early."—she said—"You know, his foster siblings had to be home by then and he had to take them. Real bummer, but yeah."
-"Oh. That's a pity."—Joe said dismissively—"Hey, look at that! It's Troye! Hey Troye! Over here, dude!"
As Joe got distracted, Connor made sure to take a look at Lilly and mouth a silent 'thank you'. She replied with a silent 'you're welcome', but Connor knew that later on he wouldn't hear the end of it. He hoped that for the rest of the day she wouldn't bring it up though, or else he'd probably have to tell her about the fact that cheerleader squad leader Alexa had given him her phone number, and he was pretty certain Lilly wouldn't like that. Not one bit.
Speaking of the devil in the flesh, the mysterious gas station kid was indeed heading their way, with his trademark white headphones hanging from his neck. At first it seemed like he was alone, but in a matter of seconds, he was walking side by side and having a very proximate conversation with the golden haired tanned girl Connor had seen him with on the mall.
-"Augh."—Lilly commented—"He's with her..."
-"Dammit."—Joe whispered under his breath, and then faced Lilly—"She won't ever leave him alone won't she?"
-"You don't know how it's been during summer."—Lilly complained—"The minute I looked away, there she was! There's really not stopping her."
-"That Lia... damn, if only Troye would listen to us."
-"You tell me."
Connor switching looks at Joe and Lilly. Clearly he had no clue on what was going on, but he didn't want to make it too obvious so that neither of them would get him involved in it. The less he knew, the better.
As soon as they stopped talking, Troye and Lia reached the table. The silent awkwardness that had just befallen upon them was replaced by kilometric grins that managed to do little for Lilly and Joe's obvious disliking for the golden hair girl. She was wearing a white skirt with a matching jumper that day, and a headband that highlighted her brown eyes.
-"Hey guys."—Troye greeted.
-"Hey everyone!"—Lia followed, with a large toothy smile and a hair flip that Connor could swear had glistened with the sunlight—"Long time no see!"
-"Hey people!"—Joe saluted—"Lovely day isn't it?"
-"Hey Troye!"
If Lilly had intended to make the situation twice as tense as it already was, she had achieved that goal. Joe almost choked on the fries he was (still) grabbing from Connor's plate and Connor was left speechless. Troye looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh, and Lia's smile seemed to cover a murderous rage of sorts.
-"Singh."—she said flatly—"Always a pleasure."
-"Wish I could say the same, Johnson."—Lilly replied, with an equally as murderous smile—"Sadly I'm not into sadomasochism."
Lia looked like she was about to tear Lilly into two, and that was quite for the first impression. Everyone else remained quiet, and Connor found it strange that Troye wouldn't defend her. She was his girlfriend after all. Or at least that's what he thought.
-"Don't you have a garbage to go sleep in somewhere, Singh?"
For the first time so far, Lilly did look legitimately hurt. At that, Troye did respond.
-"Lia. Cut it out."—he said—"That was uncalled for."
-"No, Aussie, don't worry, I'm fine! Really."—Lilly said, waving it off with her hand—"Sadly Lia I seem to have lost your hose address. But if you were so kind to give it to me written down somewhere, I'd love to sleepover."
-"You know what? Whatever. I'll go get myself something to eat and then I'll be back."
Lia gave Troye a peck on the lips and then made her way towards the food queue. Troye let out a sigh, and then sat down with the rest.
-"Sorry about that Lilly."
-"... You don't need to apologize."—she said, going back to her salad.
An awkward silence fell upon the table, in which Lilly seemed to go back into her food and became a lot more closed off than usual. And Connor felt sorry for her. And he felt mad at Lia for making her that way. It was weird, because he hadn't ever felt that legitimately protective over anyone, other than Alexis. Well, Alexis and someone else... but that was in the past. And Lilly wasn't a younger sibling. This was strange, but he decided to let it be.
-"Hey, Lil."
Connor got Lilly's attention. She looked up at him sort of surprised, as he had never used that nickname before. Probably no one had, for the matter.
-"Great comeback there."—Connor complimented, earning a smile from Lilly.
-"What can I say? I'm a natural."—she said, flipping her long, wavy hair.
At that it seemed like things were getting a little less tense. Joe then took the chance to speak up.
-"So, Troye!"—he said—"I've just found out from Connor and Lilly here that the reason why he left early was because he had to take his... eh... foster siblings back home."
-"Oh, that was it?"—Troye asked, rather surprised, and then directed himself to Connor—"I thought you had hated the music or something."
Connor stopped chewing, and met Troye's eyes with his own. He hadn't intended for anyone to notice why he had left early. Not the real reason at least. The only person who knew, and not even into full detail, was Alexis, and that was because she knew the complete story. So why would Troye suspect? Something in Troye's eyes told him that perhaps he knew more than what he should.
-"Nope. Not at all."—Connor said—"Why would you think that?"
-"It's just that... eh... you know what? Never mind... Anyway, did you like the gig?"
-"... Yeah... you guys aren't half bad."
-"Hey, give us some credit!"—Joe complained—"I broke my own ass in those drums! Even if it was only for one song..."
-"Well to be fair"—Lilly commented—", you were a little bit off your game Suggs."
-"What? No way!"
-"She's right you know."—Troye said—"We're out of practice. We have to talk with the guys so that we can all get back on track, starting this week."
-"Well you might want to make those arrangements quickly."—Lilly said—"Word has it that Mr. Cole is working on some project that involves a lot of time for Science class and I don't know with how much time available that leaves ya'll."
-"Project?"—Connor asked—"For science class?"
-"Oh yeah!"—Lilly said—"Every year he does this big scientific project with his class. No one knows what it is because he changes it so often, but chances are we are finding out either this week or next."
Lilly stopped talking as soon as Lia got back in the picture, taking her seat next to Troye's with a plate full of... you guessed it, salad. Well, it was funny seeing how she and Lilly hated each other so much and yet shared some traits.
Lia then took a look at Connor, raising her eyebrows and giving him a smile.
-"So, you're the new kid, right?"—she asked—"I'm Lia Marie Johnson."
-"Connor."—Connor said.
-"Just Connor?"
-"Yeah. Just Connor is fine."—Connor said.
He didn't like to introduce himself with his full name. Not only he didn't like his middle name (Joel sounded really biblical and he wasn't that much into that), but he also hated to be called by his last name.
-"You know, you aren't rough on the eyes."—Lia commented, earning a raised eyebrow from Connor and a stern look from Troye, to which she defended herself—"What? It's true! You jealous, Tro?"
-"No, it's just..."—Troye gave a distrustful look at Connor, which he didn't take that well—"What are you implying, Lia...?"
-"Oh, nothing! But, you know, Connor... this school is very short on good looking guys willing to participate in the school's spring play-"
-"Oh, here we go again..."—Lilly complained out loud.
-"And..."—Lia continued, clearly disliking being interrupted—"Since you're knew, I thought you'd like to sign up for it? I keep trying to convince Tro here to take a shot, but he doesn't really like it."
Connor gave a questioning look at Troye, and then at Lilly and Joe. The two of them were silently shaking their heads 'no'.
-"You with the drama club?"—Connor aske with his mouth full.
-"Well, duh, you silly!"—Lia giggled—"I'm the head of the club! Mr. Dawson always picks me for the lead roles."
Connor's mind gears clicked: Lilly had made it very obvious she despised anything to do with the drama club, and Lia was the self-proclaimed head. Things were starting to make some sense.
-"I'm flattered."—Connor responded flatly, as usual—"But I think I'll pass."
-"Oh well, that's a shame."—Lia said—"Anyway if you're interested in auditioning, there's signup sheets all over campus. Tryouts are on Saturday."
Lia then stood up with her plate between her hands, still half full. She looked towards Troye.
-"Tro, I'm already full... do you mind if we go already?"
-"... Actually Lia I want to stay here with my friends."—Troye said—"We'll catch up later."
-"Ok, then. See ya."
Lia gave everyone a goodbye grin, even Lilly, and then walked off. She was so weird. And her relationship with Troye, or whatever the hell that was, was even weirder. Troye did give a long sigh as soon as she had left.
-"Dude."—Joe said—"What happened... you know... while I was gone?"
-"... We'll talk about it"—Troye said, taking a cautious look at Connor, listening to the conversation—"on another time, Joe."
---
Whatever that 'on another time' could have meant, Connor completely ignored. The day was gone just like that, with no other significant events. Besides detention, of course, which Connor still had for the rest of that week, and Troye did as well. Mr. Hartman was still in charge of them, and no students had managed to get themselves sent in with them just yet. It was sort of discouraging, because it made them look like even bigger screw ups. Connor occupied his Monday detention by doodling and writing down his thoughts on his tiny notebook, and Troye, like always, did homework.
It was on Tuesday's detention that things got slightly more interesting. Mr. Hartman had an exhausted and, let's be honest, a little sick look on his face during the entire day. Connor had crossed paths with him a couple of times during the day, like in the morning when he was arriving school with Mikey and Alexis. Mr. Hartman had walked right past them, limping slightly and looking a little green.
-"Wow."—Alexis had said in astonishment when he walked by—"Who's that?"
-"... That's the gym teacher, Mr. Hartman."—Mikey explained—"He's the one who broke Connor apart from his fight."
-"What!? No way!"—Alexis said, then turning towards Connor—"That's the guy!?"
-"Yeah, that's him."—Connor said—"He's also been in charge of monitoring me in detention."
-"Man, he looks beat."—Alexis commented—"I wonder what happened with him?"
What indeed. And for the rest of the day Mr. Hartman remained as such, even earning some comments from some of the teachers. When they were walking down the hallway, Connor and Lilly overheard none other than Principal Hart talking with Mr. Hartman.
-"Darn, Sawyer! What on earth happened to you!?"
-"I'm sorry Mamrie... been... a rough last couple of days..."
-"You're hungover!? Augh, and on the second week, too...!"
-"I'm not hungov—HIP!"
Perhaps the hiccup gave him away, but nonetheless Principal Hart gave him such a scolding that Connor swore she could be heard all the way to Connecticut.
By the time he had gotten to detention that day, he found himself with an empty teacher's desk in an almost desolate classroom. The only person present, of course, was mysterious gas station kid, who sat on his usual spot. He noticed Connor, and looked up at him.
-"... Hey."—he greeted.
-"... Where's Mr. Hartman?"—Connor asked.
-"He... wasn't feeling so well."—Troye said—"He said he needed to go to the bathroom."
-"... And how long ago was that again?"
-"... Like half an hour ago. So yeah. There's that."
Connor nodded in silence. Well, if he was already there, he might as well do as he was supposed to. Connor entered the classroom, closing the door behind him, and then sat down on his designated seat, like he did every other day. He didn't say another word to Troye, and instead went ahead and dedicated himself to his notebook like, he did when he had nothing to do.
It's at these certain moments in which time appears to freeze and stay put, unwilling to move for anything in the world. It's like when you are waiting for an answer to a very important question. Normally it would be something like 'would you like to go out with me' or something similar. At least for the average teenager. Other prime examples that popped into Connor's mind included the waiting period in between exams, the resting period of a lazy Sunday afternoon before class... and the never ending wait at the hospital corridors, when you are expecting to hear news from someone you love. That last one was the worst, true living torture. Being locked inside this classroom with mysterious gas station kid was a walk in the park in comparison to that, but it was annoying anyway.
Connor kept writing down almost automatically on his notebooks as his thoughts flowed like a river. What he had seen the other night bothered him a lot. Not that it was strange to have nightmares or anything. Connor wasn't even sure if it was safe to call them that anymore. They were so recurrent they didn't seem to be as occasional as nightmares were meant to be anyway. Regardless, he reckoned he had never been through such a scary and vivid experience in any dream he'd had so far. For starters, it was the first time in years he had dreamt about a hospital. He thought he had already gotten over that. Whenever he had his nightmares, he'd usually picture himself on car or in the middle of the woods during the storm. But never on a hospital. Never on that hospital. And most definitely not... accompanied by anyone.
-"Who's Brandon?"
The interrupting of his train of thought and sudden end of the silence, plus the mention of that name, made Connor break the point of the pencil he was using to write against the paper. He the closed it shut on a whim, turning to his left to face a standing up Troye, who had been reading what he was writing who knows for how long.
-"I-I'm sorry..."—Troye said sheepishly—"I just read the name and-"
-"That's none of your business."—Connor said, putting away the notebook and taking out some math homework to do instead.
Troye seemed taken aback by Connor's harsh reaction, but didn't comment on it at all. He seemed to be trying to say something else, though, but Connor didn't see him getting anywhere with that, and it was annoying.
-"Well if you have something to say, spit it."—Connor complained—"If not then go back to your homework or whatever."
Troye shut his eyes and clenched his fists, showing some signs of annoyance himself.
-"I've finished everything anyway."
-"Good for you."
-"Listen."—Troye said, rolling his eyes—"It's been a long while since Mr. Hartman left and I think he's not doing too well. I think we should go look for him."
Connor gave out a laugh.
-"You, sneaking out of detention? Breaking the rules? Where does that come from?"
-"What do you mean by that?"
-"Aren't you like the teacher's pet or something? The perfect A student?"
-"What!? I am not!"
-"Yeah, whatever..."
Troye sighed frustratingly, and then sat down next to Connor.
-"It's no secret you and I don't get along."—Troye said—"But I'm actually trying here. I really need to leave. And I could use your support if you just help me find Mr. Hartman."
-"Are you scared that if you don't find him he'll get you into trouble?"
-"I'm not scared. I'm positive he'll get us into trouble."
-"Us is a lot of people."
-"Well, if I leave on my own and you are here they will put some of the blame on you for letting me leave just like that."
The mysterious gas station kid did have a point, and Connor hated to admit it, but the last thing he needed was any more trouble. Especially knowing that Brittany was visiting anytime soon, and whatever sort of misbehavior he'd have on the latest days were going to be directly reported into the system.
Before he knew it, the two of them were walking down the school's hallway, searching for Mr. Hartman. It was a strange adventure of sorts. There were some janitors working at that hour, and because they didn't want to answer any questions, they did their best to avoid them and remain hidden. Sure enough the plan would've been amazing if only they had half a clue on where the heck Mr. Hartman was. After about ten minutes of searching, they came up with the then obvious thought he's most likely to be in the locker rooms or at the gym.
-"We're so stupid!"—said Troye out loud, when he had made sure nobody was around to listen—"I bet he's been there all this time."
-"I don't think he wants to be bothered, then."
-"Don't be stupid. What could he be doing?"
-"Do you want me to make a list?"—Connor asked sarcastically.
-"A list? What are you-no, forget that. Forget I said that. Let's just find him so that we can leave."
Connor had gotten to that point of frustration in which he could no longer not care about what was happening. He had already complied too much with Troye by coming along with him, and whatever shit he was getting himself into was now Connor's problem as well. SO, he broke one of his rules, and decided to question Troye's motives.
-"Ok. Speak up."—Connor said, planting himself on the ground.
-"Huh? What are you saying?"—Troye asked, stopping and looking back at Connor—"Keep moving, we have to find him!"
-"I'm not going anywhere"—Connor said firmly—"until you tell me what you are up to."
Troye stood there with a face that could only be described as 'really?', but Connor didn't show any intention to leave.
-"What happened with 'that's none of your business'?"—Troye asked.
-"This became my business as soon as you dragged me into it."—Connor replied.
-"... Fine. I need to see Lia, ok? She's waiting for me at her place."
Troye didn't say anything else, and all Connor did was raise his eyebrows. He clearly wasn't getting anywhere else with the story, so he decided that should have to be enough.
-"I can work with that."—Connor said and then proceeded to walk along, even leaving Troye behind, who was in some sort of shocked state.
Soon after Troye started to follow Connor, apparently confused.
-"Wait, that's it? You're not going to ask me why I'm going to her place or anything?"
-"Why, you want me to?"
-"What!? Of course not!"
-"Then what's the problem? Get your shit together, Mellet."
-"I—! It's just weird how you insist on knowing something and then you just drop it like that."
-"Well, I only needed a reason to be doing this shit, and that one's good enough. You want to see your girlfriend, and that I understand. There's no need to explain anything else. Whatever you two are up to is between the two of you; and that is none of my business."
That seemed to have shut Troye up, at least for a good couple more minutes, as the pair arrived the school's gym. They were facing the double door entryway that opened path towards the basketball court, expecting to find Mr. Hartman in his office on the other side, when Troye spoke up again.
-"... Lia is not my girlfriend."
-"Hm? What was that again?"
-"I said"—Troye said, then facing Connor—"; Lia is not my girlfriend. At least... not like that. We were dating for a year, but things got... complicated over the summer. And we were on a break. And now we're sort of back together... sort of."
Connor didn't answer to that. Instead, he just opened the double doors and went into the gym, Troye following suit. But it seemed that whatever this was, Troye was using it to talk out his feelings or some shit of sorts. So he did just that, and kept on talking.
-"We are at good odds."—Troye said—"We've stayed friends, but we're not really seeing other people. We do still hang out and I think that it's safe to say soon we'll be back together. But right now, she's not my girlfriend."
Connor scoffed at Troye's comment, and then added a sarcastic remark of his own touch.
-"You sure seem oddly eager to go to her house anyway. Parents not home or something?"
-"What? No-it's not like that. She and I... we study together."
-"Sure, whatever. That's what everyone calls it anyway."
-"We're not sleeping together."—Troye defended himself—"... That's very personal."
-"Of course it is. And I believe you."
-"... I don't think you do."
-"True. But it doesn't really matter now does it?"
-"Well, it matters to me..."
-"Why's that? You have plenty of friends whom to talk about your girl problems. Why should my opinion be any better than any of theirs?"
-"Oh, don't think I don't notice"—Troye said with a hint of anger in his voice—"about how my friends feel about Lia. I know they don't like her one bit. I'm not exaggerating when I say you're my last resort to talk about this."
They reached the locker rooms, and unsurprisingly the lights were all on. That could only mean Mr. Hartman was close somewhere. Troye kept on talking.
-"She... isn't liked much. Not by anyone really. Not my friends or anyone else in school. I think I'm all she's got."
-"... charming"—Connor said—", considering that awful thing she told Lilly. I may not know much about her but I'm smart enough to tell that was a low blow."
-"I know. And I apologized to Lilly after that, remember? Lia can be... I don't know how to put it, really."
The two of them soon faced the open door of Mr. Hartman's office.
And inside, a snoring Mr. Hartman lying on the office floor, with a bucket full of vomit by his left and a mature content adult magazine on his right, sleeping the day away.
-"... Ok."—Troye said—"I... I didn't expect to find this. Not one bit."
-"... Dibs on the magazine."—Connor said, picking it up from the floor.
Troye looked at Connor with wide eyes like he had just robbed a bank.
-"What? He won't be missing it."—he said—"The latest edition of Hustlers... nice..."
-"I don't want to picture you reading that."—Troye said.
-"Then don't! It's not like I'm asking you to. Anyway, what do we do about him?"
The two of them watched the gym teacher on the ground, clearly unfazed by whatever was happening around him. Troye even tapped his arm with his feet, and still got no reaction at all.
-"He seems to be totally out."—Troye said.
-"In that case, I say we leave behind a note explaining what a failure of a teacher he is."
-"What—here!? He'll know we've seen him sleeping! A-A-And the magazine—!"
-"Of course not here. Back in the class. We can't be that obvious."
Troye seemed to have some sort of moral complex about whether he should go through with Connor's idea or not. Connor was already done with having to listen to his conflictive feelings about skipping an unsupervised detention, so he decided to speak up instead.
-"Look, if you have to go, do right now."—Connor said—"I'll leave the note back in the class and we can call it a day."
-"... Are you sure?"
-"Yeah, whatever. It's not like I'm going to tell on you or anything. I'm not about that."
-"... Gee, Connor, thanks... are you... are you sure you don't want me to walk to your house with you like the other days...?"
-"I know my way by now. Don't worry. Go see your girlfriend."
-"She's not my—!"
But as soon as Troye started to complain, Mr. Hartman started moving in his sleep, prompting the two teens to leave the room running like a pair of underage thieves from a liquor store.
And, just like that, Troye was gone on his way towards Lia's house, and Connor made the walk to Grace's on his own. And as he did, some thoughts ran through his mind.
Connor had kept listening to Troye's complaints, and he realized then that, for the first time, he actually managed to give a shit about what he was hearing. It was somebody else's life, a life that had nothing to do with his and, let's face it, probably wouldn't affect him in any sort of way, but he did have genuine interest in what Troye told him.
What the actual hell?
This was new. New and scary. Connor thought about how to name it, but he couldn't. He couldn't and wouldn't realize there and then, that this conversation had made him realize something he had been trying to avoid this far.
That night, when he was at Grace's home and after dinner, Connor took out the notebook in which he wrote whatever came unto his mind. And he started writing in the loneliness of his bedroom during the night, as soon as Mikey had fallen fast asleep.
Today something strange happened. I had an adventure of sorts, and I must say that despite how dreadfully boring it obviously was, I had fun in my own way. It was me and the Mysterious Gas Station Kid trying to find a gym teacher who turned out to be dead drunk in his own locker room.
And I've come to realize something strange.
I think I have a new friend.
---
A/N
Hey, Hey, Hey!!!
How's everyone doing this fine week? I'm good, thanks for asking! Yeah, I do tend to talk to myself sometimes, but who doesn't!? Right???
Right...?
Anyway, please let me know how you like this chapter! I have been working on it two days straight because next week I enter finals and--you guessed it, I don't know if I'll be able to update then.
*everyones goes NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!*
*or I wish*
But don't worry! I'll start working on the next couple of chapters right away, just so that in case I don't have time to write I'll be able to update anyway sometime soon :D
Be excited for what comes next!!! I promised a lot of Tronnor from this point on and I will keep my promise. Also, Connor may or may not be doing something sportsy soon, and you know what that means...
*cough*lockerroom*cough*
Huh? What was that? I need to get my throat checked.
Anyway this is this chapter's question: What do you think Troye's "relationship" with Lia really is? I'm curious to you guys' theories, come at me with them!
Talk to ya'll soon, you crazy lot
--Coffee