CHAPTER 20
[ Mike ]
"Happy belated birthday, best friend," Derek announced as soon as he joined Calvin, Maya, and I at our usual lunch table. We all raised our heads to look at him in confusion, but he was quick to clarify things when he placed a medium-sized box, wrapped in Christmas paper, in front of me.
After sizing up the box to take a few guesses at what must've been inside, I sent Derek a very deadly and very threatening glare. "No offense, but I'm not interested in any of your presents."
"This one is actually pretty good," Derek insisted as he nudged the box and gave me an "I'm-not-kidding" look. I glanced at Calvin who seemed uninterested in my so-called birthday present and more interested in his handmade sub sandwich. Maya was just as unenthusiastic because all of her attention was set on finishing her last-minute homework, so I came to the conclusion that neither of them contributed to this gift. Nonetheless, I wouldn't put it past Derek to publicly humiliate me for a quick laugh all on his own.
I ran a finger along the frayed edge of the wrapping paper, half-tempted to tear it and crush the anticipation building inside me, but I was still reluctant. "Derek, if this is a joke, I'm not in the mood."
"Just open it," he ordered just as he plopped onto his designated seat next to Calvin and threw an arm around his shoulder. Calvin blushed at the contact, but he tried not to let Derek see.
I squinted at the two of them, but I eventually breathed a long sigh as I took the box in my hands and started to tear away the wrapping paper. Derek bit his lip in anticipation which only made me more worried about the contents of the box. I reached over the table to grab Calvin's knife that he had been using to cut his fruit, moving it between my fingers for a full moment, before I actually used it to cut open the box. Taking a deep breath and hoping for the best, I flipped the box onto its side, only to have a full-sized, gold soccer ball roll onto the table.
Derek pointed at the ball. "Check out the signature."
Obeying his command, I rotated the ball to catch a glimpse at someone's autograph sloppily written in black ink. When I recognized who the signature belonged to, I looked back at Derek. "No way. Gareth Bale? What the fuck, man?"
"That was supposed to be your actual present, but it took a ridiculously long time to get this. At first, I tried to buy it from an illegitimate source and that didn't turn out very well."
"I told you not to," Calvin blurted out. "Maybe you'd still have those three hundred bucks."
"Okay, but how was I supposed to know that the dude was gonna steal my money?" Derek countered.
"He said that he was a soccer player from the Marshall Islands. They don't even have a soccer team!"
Derek rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"Look, I don't care how you got it," I interrupted them, "but I love it."
Derek laughed. "See that, Calvin? He loves it."
I checked out of their back-and-forth banter and gave my full attention to the soccer ball, instead. Who would've thought that Derek could be a good friend, after all?
"Hey," Maya spoke up right after she stuffed her now-completed homework into her backpack. "Where's the little kid that you always hang with?"
I frowned at her comment, but answered anyway. "He spends lunch with the drama kids so that they can all rehearse for the school play."
Derek stopped fighting with Calvin, for only a moment, just so he could smile sheepishly at me. "Aren't you glad that I set you guys up?" he asked as though he actually expected an answer, but I just stared at him until he got uncomfortable and eventually looked away.
"Congrats, Mikey," Maya continued, a teasing, yet sincere, smile on her rosy lips. "You finally found someone that likes you. Now you can leave me the hell alone."
Laughing lightly, I threw an arm around her shoulder and buried my face into her jet-black hair. "Not a chance, babe."
"Eugh," Maya retched while simultaneously pushing my away from her. Normally, that would've bruised my ego, but I wasn't all that hurt by her rejection, especially since I knew that I was perfectly happy with Noah.
Suddenly, the bell sounded above us. Everyone rose from their seats and started to make their way to their next class. Derek patted my back as his way of saying goodbye, and then he walked off with Calvin attached to this side. Maya caught up with a guy she had been seeing on the down low, and I breezed out of the cafeteria to meet up with Noah, who was standing right outside the nearest boys' bathroom just like he said he would be.
"God, I haven't seen you all day." I snaked an arm around his waist and pulled him into a brief, but sensual, kiss. He returned the kiss, which was such a relief, considering I had been so used to people rejecting me because I was, well, me. "How's your day so far?" I asked once we began to head into the direction of his next class.
"Good," he replied promptly. "But guess what?" He stopped walking and turned to face me, blue eyes wide with excitement.
"What?"
"My parents had sex last night!" he exclaimed. At first, I was caught off guard by the tone he chose to use to describe his parents' personal life, but then I remembered his parents' current predicament—so I mirrored his enthusiasm.
"That sounds great! Well, not like that ... I mean, it's great to hear—god damn."
Noah clutched his binders tighter against his chest and gave me a cute little grin. "And you..." He jabbed a finger into my stomach, "...have a soccer game tonight. Are you excited?"
I shrugged. "We're gonna win. North Valley sucks."
His blue eyes grew soft. "I asked if you were excited, not if you were going to win—so full of yourself." He sighed, his narrow shoulders sinking in defeat as he kicked his feet into a brisk walk, leaving me behind. I watched him walk away, my head shaking in pure disbelief, and then I jogged after him until we were walking side by side in synchronized steps, almost.
"How about we skip last period and do something fun," I proposed.
"Depends," he said with a soft shrug. "Is it your definition of fun, or my definition of fun?"
I paused to think it over. "How about both of our definitions of fun?" I delivered with a suggestive smile.
His cute little nose seemingly crinkled in distaste. "That sounds like a great time, but sadly, I have a Spanish test to take." He stood up on his tip-toes to plant a chaste kiss on my cheek before he started into the direction of his class, becoming a faceless member of the swarm of students filtering through the hallways. With a disappointed frown, I turned on my heel with the intention to show up to my last class of the day, Calculus, since I didn't have a plausible reason to skip school anymore.
On my way there, however, I noticed that people were staring at me more than normal. I was that guy that usually faded into the background because he wasn't all that important. Even though Derek and Maya were the popular kids of the school and I was considered their best friend, no one really gave a shit about me. I was insignificant, unimportant, and easily forgettable—so needless to say, this came as a surprise to me, but I didn't dare question it.
After I had arrived at my Calculus class and took my usual seat, I realized that the staring hadn't stopped. The only person who didn't stare at me was Nicolas, which was more ironic than not, so I took the opportunity to tap his shoulder during one of the downtime periods of the class. "Hey," I greeted in a whisper, "what's going on?"
He didn't even turn his head to look at me.
"Dude," I pressed, tapping him harder this time.
Finally, he forced his turquoise eyes to meet mine, but he didn't say anything.
"Why is everyone staring at me?" I questioned, but my mouth fell agape before he could give me an answer. "Oh my god! My pants didn't rip, did they?" Almost instantly, my hands shot to my ass to feel around for torn fabric on my jeans. When I couldn't find anything,
I brought my eyes back to Nicolas who looked more than mad at me. "What is it?"
Nicolas flared his nostrils and sunk into his seat as he loosened his posture in a deliberate attempt to relax himself. "I do not like being made a fool of," he stated, his voice oddly steady and controlled; in fact, everything about his composure looked forced, like he was doing his best not to completely blow his top.
"What are you talking about?"
"That kid..." he spat with contempt, "...you are with him? After what I did for you ... after I ... I do not like being used like this."
I pulled my brows together. "What?" Was that why everyone kept staring at me? I never made my relationship with Noah public record, but even if I had, I highly doubted that people would care enough to give me the time of day. They certainly didn't care when I was single. "I don't see why you're so upset."
"I am upset because I like you."
"Right, shouldn't have asked." I leaned away from him and folded my hands together, deciding not to embark on his psychopathic territory. Honestly, I couldn't see how Calvin didn't notice that Nicolas was sorta psycho; he talked like a damn robot, for god's sake.
I went back to focusing my mind on the pressing issue at hand—everyone was actually starting to pay attention to me. I didn't know that dating Noah could have that effect on my peers, but it was the type of attention that I certainly didn't mind, so I embraced it.
Leaning back in my seat with my feet draped over the top of my desk and a triumphant smile dominating my facial features, I basked in the attention for the rest of the period. I didn't care that Nicolas was sulking in his seat, or that my teacher was giving one of the most important lectures of the entire class; all I cared about was that I was finally having my chance to shine in the public's eye. I was finally, for lack of a better word, popular.
As soon as school let out, I strolled through the hallways with an ease and a newfound confidence that I never had before. Sure enough, eyes were glued to me during my entire journey to my locker, and I wasn't afraid to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. Anyone who dared to say that they didn't have any desire to be popular was a liar because I knew for certain that everyone wanted to be seen. I was being seen, and the sensation was truly overwhelming.
A few minutes later, I found myself breezing into the boys' locker room to get ready for tonight's game. My teammates ceased their conversations when I entered, their eyes following my every move as I made my way to my designated locker. Smiling, I clicked open my locker and tugged out my uniform. I'm sure Derek didn't even get this much attention and he was deemed the most desired boy in school.
"So, we're gonna crush North Valley tonight, am I right?" I announced, finally deciding to cut the bitter silence with a little enthusiasm and wit. But what I expected to be a round of applause and a series of hollers was just complete, deafening silence. Frowning, I glanced around the locker room at my half-naked teammates. "Am I right?" I tried again.
The room rose to a clamor as the boys continued to talk to each other like they were before I entered, quite obviously ignoring me. My mouth parted slightly to question it, but the sight of Patrick in my peripheral vision grabbed my attention, instead. "Hey, dude."
Patrick lifted his head to look at me, eyes narrowing as soon as he recognized who I was. "What?"
"What's up?" I questioned dumbly, referring to my teammates' blatant disregard.
Patrick pushed his black hair away from his face and sighed heavily, like my question had somehow placed a heavy burden on him. "You're a real dick, you know?" he responded, which instantly threw me through a loop. It wasn't the response I had expected. "I can't believe you can be such a cruel person and actually smile about it."
Any ounce of sheer cockiness that I still possessed was washed away in that very moment. "Wait, what?" I pulled my brows together in a furrowed line and frowned slightly. So maybe the attention I had been receiving wasn't the good kind of attention. I tried to think of what I could've done wrong, beside accidentally forgetting to stop at my neighborhood's stop sign, and purposely forgetting to call my mom to tell her I had arrived safely at school, like she ordered me to do everything morning.
Patrick shook his head in disbelief as he draped his jersey around his shoulder and walked away from me, leaving me more clueless and more helpless than before. It was strange to see Patrick so worked up like this; we weren't the best of friends, but we respected each other enough to talk about anything that came to our minds, considering that he was currently dating Cora and I swore to him that I would kill him if he ever broke her heart. This mutual agreement had been put into action the second we became teammates, so it was more than unlikely for him to be so short with me.
Sighing, I decided not to put too much thought into it; instead, I set my focus on winning the game and creaming North Valley's ass, pun intended. After an hour of tedious warm-up exercises and continuous side glares from my teammates, people started to file into the stadium, filling in the bleachers slowly but surely. Every few minutes or so, I would look over my shoulder and search the crowd for Noah, who promised that he wouldn't miss my game for the world.
I didn't have much luck finding him, but I easily spotted Derek, Calvin, and Maya in the front row. Derek's arm was draped around the shoulder of his better half, who looked more than ecstatic at the intimate gesture. Judging by the way their eyes were glued to each other's and their lips were stretched into elated grins, I concluded that they were in their "on" stage again.
I returned my attention to the coach just in time to hear my assigned position for the first quarter of the game: right wing. Patrick was assigned his usual position as right forward, which meant we'd be working together more often than not.
After the referee checked our gear and relayed a few rules about tonight's game and after all the spectators had taken their seats, we were finally called to the field to take our positions. As I waited for North Valley to start, my eyes scanned the bleachers one last time. It was relatively packed, so searching for Noah was literally impossible. Sure enough, not even a second later, the referee blew his whistle and the game started.
North Valley's first move was all too expected—their striker, #14, passed the ball to the center d, who held it for a little while longer as he waited for his teammates to push up. Then he sent the ball downfield with one powerful kick for the left forward to catch, but because I anticipated this move, I intercepted the pass and instantly moved forward with the ball.
Glancing up to assess my surroundings, I maneuvered around the mids rushing me with a fancy foot move and continued down field. I looked for Patrick, who was supposed to be my partner in crime when it came to this sorta thing, but he wasn't in my immediate line of sight. I contemplated passing the ball tot he left forward, but crossing field like that would be way too risky, so I opted to run the ball down and shoot on my own.
Then suddenly out of nowhere, I was tripped from behind by who I originally assumed was a defender from the other team. But after I recovered from my less-than-graceful face plant into the turf, I realized the culprit was Patrick. He had gone down the field by himself, scoring the first goal of the game. As everyone reverted to their starting positions, I bore holes into Patrick's head.
We never took an opportunity from another team member. Several new additions to the team tried to be ball-hoggers, but were ultimately scolded for not being a team player. No one scolded Patrick. No one cared that he had just carried out a super dick move.
The game resumed and I tried to keep my distance this time, being careful not to step on anyone's toes. Doing so only made me realize that my teammates were purposely ignoring me. Every time the ball came my way, someone else jumped in front of me and no one passed the ball to me. So basically, I was running around the field like a sitting duck until the coach decided to put me out of my misery by pulling me out of the game for the entirety of the second quarter.
As one would imagine, I was fucking pissed, so as soon as the referee blew his whistle to signal the start of halftime, I ran off the field, pushing past the gates and continuing to elbow my way through the crowd of annoying teenagers. Stopping short of my long purposeful strides just ahead of where my friends were seated, I latched onto Derek's shoulder and spun him around. "What the fuck is going on?"
Derek's mouth fell open at my sudden presence. "Mikey!"
"What's going on?" I questioned again. I couldn't stand another second of being ignored more than usual. I knew I wasn't the greatest person to be around, but I certainly didn't like the way my teammates were choosing to look right through me like I didn't exist. Derek had something to do with this, I was positive. "No one's talking to me!"
Derek stared back at me with unconcerned eyes. "That's not new."
"Derek," I tried to say without losing my mind. "What did you do?"
He raised his hands in the air to feign surrender. "Me? I didn't do anything!"
Maya grabbed my attention when she scoffed rather loudly. "Well other than tell people that Mike's only using Noah for sex and not-so-subtly implying that he might have raped him? Yeah, absolutely nothing."
Switching my gaze back to Derek, I noticed he had pulled his lips into an apologetic smile, somewhat admitting to having a hand in all of this. "Oh, yeah..." The second those words fell from his tongue, my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach; I had to back away from the trio to save myself from reacting too violently.
Calvin wiggled his hand out of Derek's grasp and looked up at him with confusion clouding his grey eyes. "Derek, why would you do that?"
His eyes widened. "I didn't do it on purpose! You know me ... I get to talking and things just come out and ... well, yeah, shit."
"I didn't rape him!" I felt the need to shout as I advanced towards him, hands balled into fists. On any given day, Derek would've been able to beat me into submission if we ever got into a fist fight, but with all the anger overpowering me, I was sure that I could seriously hurt Derek if he said one more thing to piss me off. "Why the hell are you talking about me and Noah, anyway? It isn't any of your fucking business!"
Calvin grabbed my shoulders in an attempt to keep me at bay. "Mike, calm down. We all know that Derek is an idiot. Just take a deep breath and let's figure out how we can—"
"Where's Noah?" I asked, quickly changing the subject. If word had spread to the whole school that I was using Noah, then the chances that he heard the rumor were pretty likely. I had to explain myself to him before he got the wrong idea.
The trio looked stumped over the question until Calvin raised a finger in the air to indicate that he had all the answers to my prompting questions. "I saw him," he said, "he was heading over to the concession stand."
I mouthed a quick thank you to the black-haired boy, and then brought my deadly glare back to Derek. "Some best friend," I spat with nothing but contempt dripping from my words as I backed away from him and kicked my feet into a near sprint to search for Noah.
Dark thoughts began to cloud my mind. If Noah heard the rumors, he'd be surely upset, and it would probably take a lifetime to get him to understand that it wasn't true. Maybe at the beginning of our friendship, I would've said that all I wanted and needed from him was sex, but now, that simply wasn't the case. I found something precious in Noah, something that made being with him worth while. For a big part of my life, I had been pinning after people who didn't want me, but Noah wanted me. He had to understand that I would never do something so harmful like all those rumors suggested.
As I waded my way through small groups of people until I approached the concession stand, I decided that I would have to clear my name later. Finding Noah was more important, given that I could find him. He wasn't where Calvin said he'd be, and he wasn't in the bathrooms either, so I drew the conclusion that he had gone home.
To be sure, I darted out of the stadium in record time and paraded into the parking lot. I wasn't quite sure what I was trying to accomplish, knowing that Noah didn't drive and his only source of transportation were his parents. I pulled out my phone to send him a quick text message as I searched the plethora of sedans and SUVs for the curly-haired boy.
My stomach tightened significantly, twisting and turning, when I laid eyes on the outline of a figure near the front of the school. My feet moved faster than my mind, and I approached the figure, which seemed to more closely resemble Noah with every step I took. His small frame was sprawled onto the asphalt, and he looked like he was fighting to get to his feet.
I rushed to his side. "Noah!" I shouted, despite being so close to him. After he seemed to realize who I was, he flinched at the slight contact we made when I rolled him onto his side to get a better look at him. A gasp escaped my mouth when I saw the dark liquid running along the side of his face and the purple bruises forming under his eyes in the glint of the street lights. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Don't touch me," he forced himself to say through strangled groans and muffled cries.
I did, anyway. "Noah, who the fuck did this to you?"
Noah shook his head violently. "I don't know, I don't know, h-he had a m-mask. I didn't s-see." He buried his head in his hands and broke into a fit of heavy sobs. "I didn't see! Everything h-hurts..."
"Noah," I voiced in the softest voice I had ever heard from myself as I pulled him onto my lap and allowed him to bury his head in my shoulder. "I'm gonna take you the hospital," I reassured him.
"No!" he shouted in a near-scream. "I want to go home! Please. I need my d-dads."
My eyes traveled down the length of his neck, catching sight of several more bruises. His shirt was stained red with blood as well, indicating that he must have had serious injuries beneath it, but I respected his privacy enough not to check it out. "Noah, you're bleeding everywhere. We need to take you to the hospital."
"No, no, no..." he refuted in a long, and seemingly never-ending, succession. He leaned into me more, sobbing profusely into my neck; he cried so hard that his body shook wildly. He needed to see a doctor (that was obvious) but he looked so shaken up that I felt like I would be betraying him if I didn't obey his request.
"Okay, okay, we'll take you home," I offered, instead. I waited for him to nod in approval before I instructed him to hold onto my neck as I scooped my hands under his small frame and slowly stood to my feet, carrying him in my arms.
And he cried the whole way home.
**
a/n: Wow guys, this is quite a long chapter! Sorry for the late update,
I've been busy with orientation for school, and it didn't help that I got a bad case of writer's block, but I'm back! I know this chapter isn't all that funny, but I thought since HTBS had dark themes, then it only seemed fit that HTBAV had some, too, so the tone of the series would essentially be the same.
Now onto the question that you're probably racking your brain trying to answer ... who attacked Noah? Take a wild guess! Who knows? You may be right!
I know it's been a long time, but if you could vote and leave a comment, that would make me feel amazing! Thanks!
Until next time,
Lara <3