Well, this is a first.
"Hey."
I opened the door wider, indicating for his royal redheadedness to come inside. I wasn't cruel enough to let him freeze to death from standing outside.
"Nice house," said Scout, looking around.
I only nodded.
There was a moment of silence. He scratched the side of his head, while I put my hands inside my jean pockets. Neither of us spoke.
Talk about awkward.
"Look –" he started to say, but I cut him off.
"I'm sorry."
He stared at me with a confused expression, like he misheard me.
I took a deep breath and explained, "For giving you crap. You didn't deserve it."
Now he stared at me like I had three heads. If he was waiting for me to say more, tough luck. That was all he'd ever get out of me.
The thing was, Scout was part of this moving on shit. If I wanted to put the past entirely behind me, I needed to clear out some unfinished business.
I admit it. I'm a bully – or used to be.
Scout Crimson was one of the people I gave so much shit to, even if I knew that he didn't deserve it. Sure, his righteous ass was annoying as hell. But he was just being a good guy. Maybe that was what pissed me off the most.
He stayed good despite everything.
Besides, I figured I was getting too old for this crap. Only a few months left until graduation. It'd be a waste to spend those final months holding back because there was that guilt feeling nagging me.
Slowly, Scout lips turned up in a smile.
"I'm sorry, too – for everything that happened."
What did I tell ya? Good guy, apologizing even though he'd done jack shit.
I shrugged. "It's life. We just gotta deal with it."
Scout eyed me, as if deciding if he should say something.
"She'll come around, man," he finally said, referring to the dark-haired dork we both know. "Don't worry about it."
I let out a sigh. "Yeah, we'll see."
"The dicks are looking for y –"
Both of our heads turned to the direction of the voice. Connie looked at us like she just caught us making out, then her eyes settled on Scout and a smirk appeared.
"Well, look what the dirty pussy dragged in," she sneered, with a hand on her hip and the other one holding up a bottle of beer.
Scout nodded warily to her, giving out a small smile.
"Hey, Anderson."
Connie raised an eyebrow.
"Pull back your claws, Con," I told her, ruffling her still silver shoulder-length hair. "We have permanent truce," I added, reaching my fist out to him for a bump.
Scout looked just as surprised as Connie, before a slow grin stretched out on his face and he met my knuckles with his.
"Whatever," muttered Connie, turning her back on us.
"Wanna play NBA 2k16?" I asked Scout.
Connie halted in her tracks while her eyes landed on me.
Scout blinked, taken aback by my sudden offer.
"Uh," he hesitated, shaking his head. "I dunno, man."
I nodded to him. "C'mon, the crew won't bite."
Connie snorted at that.
"Nah, I think I should go," he said, pointing to the door with his thumb.
Shrugging, I said, "Might as well make the truce official."
I caught Connie's eyes narrow on me for a second, but she didn't say anything.
Being nice wasn't something I usually did for kicks. What better way than to try it out on Scout? It was weird as fuck. But I had to admit, it was also kinda refreshing.
Finally, he gave me an unsure smile.
"Sure."
I nodded. "Cool."
"This will be fun," I heard Connie mutter.
Scout followed us to the basement without a word. As we climbed down the stairs, I caught sight of Alfie and Kurt going at it on the consoles with Frisco lounging on the beanbag and laughing his ass off.
"Yo, guys," I called.
Frisco turned to me with a smile, but then he froze when he saw who was behind me. I could clearly see the curiosity flooding his features.
Kurt glanced at me, before doing a double take. With his posture alert and ready to pounce, he dropped the console and nudged Alfie.
"What?" hissed my best friend.
Kurt grabbed a fistful of his sweatshirt and shook him hard, while still never letting his eyes leave Scout.
"Dude, what the hell?"
Forced to let go of the console, Alfie glared at Kurt before following where the big guy was looking at. His eyes widened when he saw Scout.
"The fuck is he doing here?" he spat, his nostrils flaring.
Connie casually walked to the small kitchen, but not before glancing at me and giving me a leer. Yeah, thanks a lot for the help.
"He's here to hang with us," I informed them with a shrug, as if it was no biggie. I walked over to the fridge and grabbed a can of beer, before walking back to Scout and handing it to him.
He nodded. "Thanks."
"This shit is messed up," breathed out Alfie.
"Nope, this shit is finally sorted out," I stated, sitting on one of the armchairs.
I gestured for Scout to take a place on the sofa with Alfie and Kurt, both of whom were watching the newcomer like a hawk.
Connie decided that was the perfect time to speak up.
"'Permanent truce,'" she said, doing air quotes with her fingers.
Alfie stared at me with his mouth dropped open.
I shrugged and cocked my head. "It is what it is, man."
I might've appeared calm as fuck on the outside, but I was nervous as hell on the inside. I would just have to trust that Scout wouldn't say anything stupid.
"C'mon, Alfie," piped up Frisco, waving a hand. I could clearly see that he was trying to cover up how weirded out he was by this. "Cut him some slack."
"When did he ever cut us some slack?"
Scout rubbed the back of his neck, keeping his head down.
"Don't be such a baby, Al," scolded Connie, whacking Alfie upside his head when she walked behind the sofa. I caught her eyeing the back of Scout's head like he just told her he was pregnant.
Kurt grunted. "Whatever – I'm hungry." With that, he got to his feet and headed to the cupboards, but not before casting one last suspicious look at Scout.
"Fucking fine," sighed Alfie, putting his hands up in defeat. "If your righteous ass can beat me in Tekken, I'll consider hanging out with you," he added to Scout, picking up his fallen console from the floor. "Grab the damn console, Crimson."
The smallest of smile appeared on Scout's face.
"Game on, O'neal."
Surprising the fucking shit outta all of us, it didn't take long before my jackass best friend loosened up and began enjoying Scout's company.
Alfie kept looking at him like he couldn't believe he was the same person who gave us hell for the past years.
Even I had to admit that when he wasn't being a shithead, he was a great guy to have around. None of us expected that he could be so easygoing.
Apparently, he didn't have a stick up his ass 24/7.
Connie sat on the arm of my chair, raised the bottle of beer to cover her lips, and whispered, "I heard Snow apologized to Halo yesterday."
I tensed up.
"Don't worry," she assured me quickly. "No one scratched anyone's eyes out. I even heard they hugged it out."
She snorted a laugh. She must've found it funny, considering any confrontation with her ended up in a cat fight.
"It's buzzing all over school. I'm surprised it didn't reach you."
"Been busy," I simply said, before taking a swig of my beer.
"It won't be long now."
My eyes remained on the screen. "'Til what?"
"'Til she comes back to you."
I gripped the bottle in my hand and resisted the urge to sigh.
God, I hope so.
"How the fuck did you do that?" blurted out Alfie.
Scout only laughed.
"Can't the fuck believe I'm about to say this but," he paused, shaking his head in dread of what he was about to do, "teach me your ways!"
I chuckled and turned to Scout, before saying, "Yeah, there's no way he'll leave you alone 'til he beats your ass in this game."
Frisco snorted. "I should know."
I pointed to my curly-haired friend with a knowing look.
"I beat you, fucker," scoffed Alfie.
"I let you beat me," counted Frisco a-matter-of-factly.
"No, you didn't."
Like a motherfucking choir, Kurt, Connie, and I said in unison, "He did."
"Pft, whatever." Alfie waved us off. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm the king of –"
"Sore Loser Kingdom?" I finished for him, with a smug smile.
He flipped me the bird. How sweet.
I grinned real wide. "Love you, too."
Scout's look didn't escape me, like he couldn't believe a bunch of rebellious kids like us could be so damn normal.
Huh. I guess now we are.
"I'll have a go!" announced Connie, raising a hand.
I laughed. "You can't play for shit."
She raised an eyebrow. "Watch me."
I kept myself from snorting and gave her a be-my-guest look. She hopped off my armchair and sat on the floor facing the big screen, between Alfie's legs. My best friend absently played with her hair while he watched her start the game.
I shook my head in amusement at those two.
My eyes traveled to Scout, who was focused on the screen as he competed with Connie. Seeing him here was weird as fucking hell, but it was a start. Him being here makes it official somehow.
It's a shot at a new beginning.
_____________
A purple-eyed dork will finally show up again next chapter, which is the last chapter.
This begs the question, is it gonna be a happy ending?