Yesterday I had lab so I hadn't gotten the chance to speak with Will but today I have gym. When I get out to the track, I see him sitting on the bleachers, talking to Kelley. He sees me and waves me over. I jog up to them.
"Hey Dylan!" Kelley greets cheerfully.
"Hey Kelley! How are you?"
"I'm well, thanks. I'll give you two the chance to talk. I'll talk to you soon Dylan! Bye Will." She pecks him on the cheek and he smiles back at her, holding onto her hand until the distance between them breaks the bond apart. She makes her way over to her friends and Will turns to me.
"That shirt yesterday certainly was something wasn't it?" He starts.
"I didn't realize you had seen it."
"It was pretty hard to miss in the hallways. I hope you didn't wear it thinking you were proving a point to me."
"I wasn't thinking about you at all. Actually, all I was thinking about when I decided to wear that shirt because I wanted to defend a friend and prove a point to every goddamn person in this school. The point that just because your clothes are little different, just because you act a little different, doesn't change who you are. They needed their eyes opened and goddamnit I was going to open their eyes."
"And did you prove your point? Are their eyes opened?"
"This isn't something that's just going to magically change in a day. It's something that's going to take a long time. One day isn't enough to prove a point so you know what? Let me get back to you later on that one."
"Was it for that girl?" He asks, nodding at Emma, who is walking around the track by herself, earbuds in.
"It wasn't just for her. It was for anyone else who wants to be different but doesn't have the guts to change. For people who aren't afraid to look a little weird sometimes. Simon is supporting me with this. I'm sure you saw him."
"I saw him alright. And you both looked like idiots. Some of the girls may have liked it, but I don't think it's going to get you anywhere."
"You haven't seen the little changes yet. You know Kate called Tara a bitch the other day? She was sticking up for Emma. My little sister is convincing my mom to let her buy a pair of pink pants. Emma is wearing her colors again, but in a way that's easier for people to accept. Simon is having a blast."
"That's only a couple people Dylan. Not nearly enough people to change anything."
"It's enough to get started. And that's all I need. I need this idea to get started and then, then it was snowball and get bigger and bigger until I can go through the halls and not feel like I'm seeing the same people over and over again. Maybe there won't be so much pressure to be perfect. Maybe we can get some diversity in our lives so we don't look back and regret things we could have done but didn't because we were too freaking scared. I don't want to change the world, just a couple of high schoolers."
Will nods but doesn't say anything. I shake my head and walk away. I'm just not going to be able to convince him. I jog down the bleachers and as soon as my feet hit the rubber track, I take off sprinting. When I start to get tired, I slow to a jog but don't stop going.
I turn my music louder, skipping the slower songs on my iPod. Simon runs up to me and motions that it's time to go in. I check my watch and see that the period is in fact almost over.
We're almost late to chemistry but we make it on time, walking in with the bell. Everyone looks up, sees us and stares while we take our seats. By this point, I've actually gotten used to so many people staring at me, watching and scrutinizing my every move. The chatter hasn't been about my choices of shirt or friends, sure signs that things just may be improving.
When it comes time for lunch, I see Kate for the first time all day. She has on a pair of red ballet flats with a matching red scarf over a white sweater. "I see you went with a pop of red today?" I say, kissing her lightly on the lips.
She smiles and nods. "You know, I like the color. It adds a little flavor to my outfit when before it was all just neutrals. Who knew I was so boring?"
I shake my head, "you were never boring, no matter what your clothes looked like. You look beautiful today, as always."
"I'm sensing some kissing of my ass. What did you do wrong?"
"Absolutely nothing! I can't tell my girlfriend how beautiful she is without being accused of things I didn't do?" I ask indignantly.
"Of course you can, I was just saying..." Kate says, kissing me and placing a dark gray folder in her bag. "Oh, look what I found in one of my drawers at home." She unzips a pocket in her bag and reveals a bright pink pen, not unlike the one that Emma used to use. Recently, I've only seen Emma with black pens and yellow highlights.
"That's from what, third grade?" I joke, pushing her locker closed.
She grabs my hand and gently swings our now interlocked hands between us while we walk. "Actually, it's probably from fifth grade. Remember I had that final pink phase before I realized that everyone thought pink was too babyish?
I think back and nod. "I vaguely remember that. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to girls back then. My life was sports and video games."
She nods, "oh yes, even then you were a little soccer star. Half of our class had a crush on you. The other half either thought boys were gross or were in love with Simon. God you were such a little player. Sharing lunch with a girl one day and the next day you had a new girl with a new lunch."
I laugh loudly and the few people still milling about the hall on their way to lunch turn and look at me. "What can I say? It was less work for my mom."
Kate laughs at that comment as well and we walk into the lunchroom. We're the first ones at the table and set our bags down. As we get settled, Emma strolls into the cafeteria and waves to us. We wave back and shortly after she sits down, Simon comes in, surrounded by as all flock of twittering sophomores. He waves them off, smirking at them before joining us at our table of three. The girls watch in envy as he sits down next to Emma and starts to talk to us as if they didn't even exist.
"So how is everybody today? I'm doing great. You see all those girls over there? Following me around all day. They keep saying they love a man in such a strong color like purple and how they came to a bunch of the soccer games and that I'm the best defenseman on the team." He whistles and shakes his head with a grin.
"You are such an attention whore!" Kate tells him, giving him a jokingly stern face.
"Simon Castro, the junior class' biggest man whore in the history of this high school." I announce.
He flips his short hair and chuckles. "Hey, I'm not hooking up with any of them," He wiggles his eyebrows, "yet."
This send both Kate and Emma into giggles and Emma chokes out, "you're awful!"
Simon shakes his head and puts his hand up to stop her. "Actually, I've been told that I'm great."
This sends the girls into another round of giggles and I just shake my head in mock disappointment. "I'm ashamed to call you my best friend sometimes."
"Oh come on, I know you love the attention too." Simon protests.
"Actually, I have something that may be a foreign concept to you. It's called a girlfriend. They're what happen when you actually learn to stop being a man whore and you learn self control."
"Oh please, self control is boring. You're just jealous because I beat still hold the record of numbers of girls kissed at one party."
"Yes, because I actually have better things to do at parties than convince drunk underclassmen to make out with me for a stupid bet."
"Like trying to get drunk upperclassmen to make out with you?"
"No, like try making out with only a couple girls but getting way more action than you with your little freshman, sophomore girls."
"Hel-lo! Girlfriend sitting right here! I don't want to hear this!" Kate interjects loudly, covering her ears with her hands.
I take her hands off of her head and kiss her cheek. "Things of the past"
"Until of course Dylan realizes that he's stupid for having a girlfriend when he could always hook up with someone new!" Simon jokes.
The conversation basically stays the same the entire period and ends when the bell rings, dismissing us from sixth period. Emma and Kate walk beside me to drama.
Emma is the first to say something once Simon breaks away from us to go to class. "Is he serious about all that stuff with those girls?"
I shake my head. "Nah, half of its bullshit, the other half he was just as drunk as the girls. But he's had one serious girlfriend. Last year, a little bit before Kate and I started dating, he was going out with this girl. They broke up when she moved to England for her dad's work. He doesn't date a lot but he's had a few month or so long relationships too. That long one was like, eight months I think."
Emma nods. Kate's jumps in, "Simon also likes to pretend to be a player but really, he's a total softie. One time he found out that this girl liked him and he bought her a flower on Valentine's day. It was really nice because even though he didn't like her back, he made sure that her valentine's day wasn't ruined."
"That does sound nice. Your friend Nathan, what's he like?"
We walk into the drama room and sit down in a little clump. "He's pretty absorbed in his books. He's had a girlfriend or two but nothing that's lasted longer than a week or two. He's just too preoccupied."
Emma nods. "Is he always like...how he's been with me?"
"No, not always. He's actually a pretty cool guy, he can just be a little pigheaded and stupid sometimes. He'll come around eventually. He doesn't like to stray from the crowd a lot because he wants to be captain so badly next year."
"Oh." Emma says. The bell rings and Mr. Holmes starts class. We do more improv and he tries to explain a new game but no one is really paying much attention. It's the end of the day and everyone is tired.
Eventually, he gives up and just has us play bus stop which is a good improv game for tired, unimaginative teenagers.