Well fuck, your Friday could've gone better.
You're were in a pretty—un-ironically—bitchy mood already due to the incident this morning with your idiocy, and now your mood has worsened since the end of the school day.
And Lalonde. Fucking Lalonde.
Why does she think that you're going to stretch your neck out for some kid that you don't even interact with. The words that she whispered in your ear rings in your head.
'If needed, you may beat the shit out of those assholes.'
What the fuck.
She may have just been extremely pissed and spat out words without realizing what she's saying, but you know better, Lalonde is always careful with her words and never makes any mistakes regardless of petty emotions such as anger. You know she said that as a way to encourage you to stand up for her friend and try scaring off those guys for good with some brute force. You know if Rose could, she could've beaten everyone to a bloodied pulp long before, but alas, she couldn't damage her spotless record(plus John might be traumatized by the way that Rose fights. Even you wouldn't want to pick a fight with her. Shits brutal as hell).
You never even had a conversation with John until this morning(although you wouldn't consider that a conversation), even now, as you're walking down the sidewalk with the dork you two aren't conversing. Why the hell would you get into a fight for him? Shoving and fighting are two completely different things, you wouldn't consider that fighting for him. Now that you think about it....
WHY THE HELL DID YOU EVEN SHOVE THOSE BASTARDS?!?!?!
You know that as soon as they saw your face they would've instantly stopped and let you get the poor kid out of there, but no. You just had to shove those guys and get the fucking kid all because the sight pissed you off.
Great. You're sure rumors will start up that you and John are BFF's due to that stunt. Although it's not like you really care, you just know that Makara will hear it, and him being the gullible shit that he is, he'll try to get poor John to smoke with you two, just like what he tried to do with the short angry guy that's his 'BeSt MoThEr FuCkInG fRiEnD'. You're sure Rose would kill you if that ever happened and you're positive that John would have a heart attack of Makara did "ask" him.
Now don't get yourself wrong, it's not like you hate John, it's just that you don't know him enough to even like him. You wouldn't even consider yourself acquainted with the guy until now.
You don't even know why you agreed to walk John home. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE HE LIVES, DAVE WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!
Urgh, you need to stop thinking about this, it's making you angry and antsy. You pinch the bridge of your nose and let out a somewhat annoyed sigh. You're just really in a pissy mood and you're almost positive that you're giving off a really negative vibe. You're probably making poor John uncomfortable or even intimidated and that makes you feel like shit. He's clearly not doing too well since fatso 1, fatso 2 and toothpick gave him trouble. You truly do feel bad for him, the way that he was trembling on the floor made you sympathetic and struck a chord with you. You suppose that's why you got physical with them.
You clench your jaw and fists while twisting the barbell in your mouth and gnawing on the clear bulb. You're really getting tired of yourself for being in such a pissy mood, which ultimately ends up putting you into an even shittier mood.
"... You don't have to walk me home.." John says for the umpteenth time, still sounding small and scared as he does so. Although this time he sounds more fearful and worried, you feel a little bad for making him feel uncomfortable and awkward. You feel bad for all the shit that he has to deal with.
"It's fine," you say, glancing at the boy who walks behind you. You see him hunched over, with his eyes staring at the sidewalk. You see him nibble at his lower lip and fidget with the straps of his back pack, he looks really tense and awkward as he struggles to match your pace. You aren't really walking fast at all, but you slow down a little so that way your short legged shadow doesn't have to jog to keep up with you and your long legs. It just now hits you with how confuse and possibly frightened John really is, you mean holy shit. He freaked out this morning when he accidentally ran into you, whenever you pushed those pricks aside like rag dolls he probably thought you were coming after him because of it and now look at him, being escorted home by some guy he probably thinks is going to beat the shit out of him. Poor guy. You instantly regret showing any signs of distress because he does seem like the kind of guy that's really self-conscious and blames himself for anything and everything. Because of this, he'll probably blame himself for you being in such a shit mood and will destroy any chances of you two becoming friends or even talking to one another. You hope this won't make him cry like he did before.
Wait.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, WHY DO YOU EVEN CARE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
You'll admit that John seems like a pretty good guy and has a pretty nice ass and is probably really nice, but with these factors alone you're pretty sure that you two wouldn't be compatible. You feel like John is the complete opposite of you, and now that you think of it, he kinda is? You don't really know the guy enough to say that with absolute certainty, but seeing the way he acts at school then yes, it's safe to assume that he is nothing like you. He also looks like he'd freak out if he saw you doing anything really, then again he freaks out whenever he sees you so it really wouldn't be that big of a difference.
You could really go for a smoke right now, all these thoughts are confusing and annoying you and you're getting sick of them. You know what, fuck it, you're going to. Hopefully John won't freak out and tell Rose; that's the last thing you need.
You swing your grey bag around and swiftly unzip the front pocket, digging your hand in there with hopes of finding your pack and lighter. You really don't smoke that much seeing as cigarettes mostly taste like absolute shit, but in your opinion it helps take off some of your stress that's been piling on your shoulders.
You easily find the pack and soon after you have the plastic lighter in your hand. You pull your hand out, leaving your bag hanging off your shoulder, and open the pack, plucking a cigarette out with your teeth. After that, you close the pack and stuff it back into the front pocket of your bag, not really caring all that much if some of the cigarettes tear or crumple. You then swiftly light your cigarette, guarding it with your hand as you do so, and toss the lighter in your front pocket as you quickly zip it back up. You adjust your backpack onto your other shoulder as you take a drag from the now lit cancer sti-er I mean, cigarette.
You let out a cloud of smoke and turn around to glance at John, who was burning holes in you with a worried expression before hastily gluing his eyes to the sidewalk. You turn back around, oh well.
"Don't tell Rose." You say, sucking in the smoke filled with numerous carcinogens. You'd say you feel better already, but you can't help but feel a little guilty as you're doing this, Rose would literally drop dead, come back to life, and kill you if she ever saw you smoking tobacco.
You think you heard a small 'Okay' coming from John but you're not really sure, it doesn't surprise you though, he's been pretty quiet.
The both of you continue to walk for a few more minutes, your cigarette is now partially made up of ash. Although, you don't really bother with it, you'll just let it fall away on its own. It dawns on you that you still have no idea where the hell you're going but at least Rose's house is in view. Speaking of Rose's house, you see Roxy's car in the driveway, indicating that momma Lalonde is at the nest and probably expecting you to arrive at any moment now. This causes you to stop in your tracks and spit out the cigarette, flattening the joint with the bottom of your shoe and blowing out any excess smoke that may exist in your lungs. You turn around to face John who's trying his best to keep eye contact with you seeing as you probably would want it.
You clear your throat and ask, "Where do you even live?" trying your best to sound nonchalant.
This grabs John's attention and causes him to look at you, uncertainty staining his face. He glances around a bit at his surroundings before looking back at the ground, hanging his head a little. Was he just following you blindly?
"..up the road and to the left.." He mumbles, the last part being a little inaudible, although you're sure you heard him right. You look over your shoulder to examine the suburban road and realize that John really wasn't that specific. For all you know he could live far up the left side of the road or live around the left corner in a house on the left side of the road or in the house on the left side of the next left corner with a left handed door and a L shaped house.
Okay Dave calm down there, you're going to make yourself smirk a little.
Welp looks like you'll be following John. You turn back around and see him staring at his shoes as his hands fidget with the ends of his sleeves, he looks really anxious and his cheeks are turning red. Whoops, looks like you've embarrassed him. You walk behind the nervous wreck and stand there, you witness him freeze up.
"Lead the way." You say, trying your best to sound non threatening and even a little friendly. He hesitantly looks at you with a worried expression before turning back around to begin walking forward.
You follow, of course, and you notice that John isn't dragging his perky ass, he's walking pretty fast if you do say so yourself. You're sure he's walking like this in a way to not waste your time, or he's just trying to run away from you. You don't really mind either way.
You wonder, is John always this quiet? You know that he's like, scared of you and shit, but you thought he would at least try to start a conversation so that way it wouldn't be too awkward. Whenever you saw him with Rose this morning he looked pretty talkative, but then again Rose is his friend, and you're not. Maybe you should try and befriend him. Even though you already ran the numbers and proved that it is extremely unlikely that you two would be friends, you could still try. At least then you could tell Rose that you tried.
You've decided that you'll try to make small talk with the short kid, but what would you talk about? Think Strider, Jesus Christ it can't be that hard. Just talk about the weather or some shit like that. That would be ironic you suppose. Alright, all you need to do now is to talk to him before you puss out like a weenie.
"Is the weather always this shitty?" Wow. Wonderful. Amazing. Stunning. What better way to start off a conversation than to insult Mother Nature. For all you know John could like this kind of weather. You should've just said something cliché like, 'Wonderful weather we're having huh?' and keep the sarcasm very low. Haha great, let's hope you didn't offend John. Speaking of John he's looking at you over his shoulder with a very uncertain face. Hahahahahahafuck.
"Yeah.." John says quietly, turning his head back around and hunching over a bit. For some reason you expected him to continue so you stayed silent for a moment before realizing that he wouldn't. Great, nice awkward atmosphere Strider, we can tell that you intentionally made it like this, bravo.
"In Houston, it was always sunny as fuck." You blurt out, Jesus Christ you need to start thinking before you speak dumb ass, actually... YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID ANYTHING AT ALL!!! THE POOR BOY ALREADY MADE IT CLEAR THAT HE DOESN'T WANT YOU HERE NOR DOES HE WANT TO TALK TO YOU, SO WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!?! You could go to Rose's house right now if you really wanted to. It's right there, nothing is stopping you. You could even make a casual exit and just walk through yard whenever you and John pass it. Yeah, you'll probably do that. A+ though for making a complete idiot out of yourself, it really complements you.
"Houston.?" John questions, his quiet voice snapping you out of your thoughts for a moment. Whoa, does he really want to try and have a conversation, or is he just trying to amuse you so that way you won't beat him up.
"Yeah," You say in a matter-of-fact tone, "that's where I'm from. It's pretty nice, just crowed as hell though.." you mutter the last part in remembrance of some of your peers. You hated them. No one really peaked your interest at your old school, so you didn't really have any friends and most of the kids there were always annoying the hell out of you. You remembered someone challenged you to strife with them like you and your bro did, they even had their own sword and everything it was pretty amusing to say the least. Needless to say you kicked his ass and gave him a few(a lot) shallow cuts, bro was pissed once he found out that you were expelled for that. You smirk at the memory.
"Sounds hot," John says, slowing his pace a little bit. You're pretty sure he's doing that unknowingly, so you try your best to walk slow enough to not pass John. "I couldn't do that." He shivers at the thought. You snort at this.
"Yeah, I've had my fair share of heatwaves but at least it's better than freezing your ass off up here." You say, walking up to John's side and looking at him. He glances at you from the side and quickly returns his gaze up ahead, a little smirk forms on his thin lips. He hums at your statement while looking down for a moment and dammit John don't hunch over all tense like that, respond and have a discussion with me, you think. You feel as if you just killed his voice and internally groan at this, looks like this whole staring a conversation thing isn't working out at all. At least you can say you tried.
You decide that your little exit of this romantic walk will not happen whenever you two pass the Lalonde house hold, speaking of which you're passing it now. You glance at it for a moment before- wait, what was that? You just saw something in the window disappear. Before you can get a better look at what was in the window, you feel your phone vibrate inside your front pocket of your pants. Who could be calling you? No one really calls you unless it's an emergency or they can't reach you trough text. You're positive that no one has attempted to text you, so is it an emergency? Your heart nearly drops when you think of the last phone call you've had. You stop in your tracks, your breath quickening, and quickly fish out your phone only for it to stop vibrating. What the fuck?
The house is now behind you as you and John continue to walk, except now you're lagging behind a bit. Is something wrong? Is someone hurt? What happened? Who called you? You realize that you're silently panicking. Your heart feels like it's going to burst and your lungs feel like they're being crushed by your ribcage. You would stop in your tracks if you haven't already, but your legs are automatic and continue anyway. You assure yourself that it was probably an out of state caller that means nothing, or that it was someone who dialed the wrong number. But something in the back of your head keeps telling you that something's wrong and that there's an emergency.
You mentally slap yourself for your ridiculous paranoia and decide to distract yourself by focusing on the wild mess called John's hair. Just look at it. It's a tangled mess. Does he even brush it? Probably not, it looks impossible to try and tame those wild stallions let alone comb them. It looks very fluffy though, and soft. At least he washes it. Imagine Rose with that hair, she would look ridiculous and you'd probably laugh at her. Although you're sure that anyone else with that hair would look ridiculous but for some reason it suits him.
You were so fixated with John's hair that you didn't even hear the door of the Lalonde household open.
"Davey!" A voice shouts, sounding a little impatient, "Where were you?! I tried calling you!" you turn around to face the voice and sure enough, you find an angry momma Lalonde in sweat pants, white tee, and a pink open robe with her hands on her hips as she stands in the doorway. However her words reassure you about the phone call and helps calm you.
You just stare at her frown and ponder about your answer. You didn't expect her to come out and chastise you in a bathrobe. You motion to John and open your mouth to speak but quickly shut it when Roxy's voice cuts through.
"You didn't have detention did you?!" You don't respond due to your loss for words and because of your shock. Did she really think that you had detention? Wow, thanks Roxy.
"No," You croaked out, finally getting(somewhat) out of that dumbfounded state. You glance at John before returning your attention back to Roxy. "I was walking him home..?" You're unsure wether or not Roxy realizes that you're waking John home. She should know who he is, you're sure he's gone over to Rose's house on more than one occasion so she should've at least seen him or talked to him once.
"Who?" She questions, stretching her neck a bit to get a better look at- oh. Oh wow. You just realized that you may or may not have been unintentionally blocking John from Roxy's sight. You step aside to allow Roxy to look at John, an instant squeal emerges from momma Lalonde and you, for some reason, just realized that she's wearing those big, plushy, pink cat slippers that come up to her ankles.
"John!" She squeals, a big grin surfaces on her once annoyed face while her hands are pressed to her cheeks with excitement. "Oh John, I haven't seen you in so long!" She says, outstretching her arms as she makes it to the sidewalk, the little cat heads on her slippers bounce with each step she takes.
Like the gentleman that you are, you step out of Ms. Lalonde's way and allow her to embrace John in the biggest bear hug you've ever seen.
"Why don't you ever come over any more?" She pouts, pulling away from the poor boy while keeping a firm grip on his shoulders.
"Ah- well.." He starts off, smiling while his cheeks redden with embarrassment as he looks to the side. "Rose said that some stuff was going on, so I didn't want to intrude on anything personal."
You know exactly what he's talking about. The 'stuff' that was going on was you moving in with the Lalonde's and mourning over your bro. You silently thank Rose for not having any of her friends over while you were still sore and vulnerable.
Roxy glances over at you with her abnormal pink eyes and then quickly returns her gaze back to John, flashing him a toothy smile. This makes you tense. Her smile is one of those fake smiles that tries to fool gullible people into believing that everything, was and is, fine. Apparently, John knows Roxy well enough to detect this smile and you see his own smile falter a bit with what you can assume is worry.
"Well," She starts off looking past John before quickly returning her gaze. "everything is okay now," She glances over to you as if to confirm this statement. You give her a quick nod. "So you can come over whenever you want, alright?" She embraces him again.
"You know you don't have to come over only for Rose ya know?" She says, releasing him and squeezing his cheeks together and making his lips involuntarily pucker. "You can come see me and then we can hack the IMDB page for Nicolas Cage again."
She releases his face and he giggles. What a nice sound.
"Yes of course!" He agrees, lighting up at the thought. "We'll definitely have to do that sometime!"
"We could do that right now!" She suggests, clasping her hands together in front of her chest.
"Ah, I wish I could, but"—he shoots a thumb behind him—"I gotta get home and do my homework."
Ha, nerd.
"Wow you nerd!" Roxy teases, voicing your thoughts and shoving his shoulder slightly.
"Dave, do you have any homework?" She asks, directing the attention to you while she gives you a 'don't lie to me boy' face under her pursed smile.
What.
No don't direct that question to you, you were fine just spectating them interact and be happy. Dammit Roxy, why?
"Uh.. well.." You're unsure how to answer that. You didn't really pay attention to any of your classes so you truly don't know if you have homework or not. "About that.." You drift off, rubbing at the nape of your neck. The attention on you embarrasses you a little and causes your cheeks to have a twinge of pink.
"Let me re-phrase that," She said, face unmoving as she placed her hands on her hips. "John, do you know if Dave any homework?" She asked, turning to the petite boy.
Dammit Roxy, you two aren't friends, just simple acquaintances escorting the other home safely. You can already see John spewing out gibberish and fumbling with whatever he gets his hands on first as his eyes look anywhere but you. You can already tell what he's probably thinking, Oh gee willickers, my name is John and I don't know how to respond to this. If I say yes then I'll get beat up but if I say no Roxy will hate me forever. *cries nerd tears*
You internally sigh at this thought due to how accurate it is.
"We don't have any classes together." You blurt out, stepping forward a little to attract Roxy's hidden malice stare to you. You don't know how well Roxy and John know each other, but you know for a fact that if he didn't give her the answer that she wanted, then she probably would've play fought with him, regardless of if she knew him for a long time or not. You completely step in front of John at this thought, a little fearful about what wrestling move Roxy may pull on this poor boy.
"Is that so?" She asks and oh god you really don't like the way her voice sounds. "Well then I'll just have to ask Rose whenever she gets home."
"Yeah yeah okay okay," You say turning a bit, sliding your hand over John's backpack before latching onto the handle. "I gotta go now."
Roxy groaned, rolling her eyes as she did so before lazily ruffling John's hair.
She shoots a kind smile to John before speaking, "Don't let him boss you around now, ya hear?" With that, she steps forward and gives him another long embrace with your hand still locked onto his backpack handle.
"Remember John," She starts off, letting him go and placing her hands on his shoulders yet again. "you're always welcome to come over."
You see John's eyes light up slightly as he nods his head with a short 'Okay'. Roxy places a small kiss on his forehead before sending both of you off to continue your little detour. Your hand is still clamped onto his backpack but it doesn't seem to bother him that much, so you keep it there.
In no time you reach, what you can assume to be, John's house. He surprisingly lives really close to the Lalondes, it was literally right around the corner.
"Okay so I guess this is your house, right?" You ask, looking at the suburban home that John stopped at before lowering your head to look at John. He's hunched over and his face is flushed. Damn, when did that happen?
You see him shakily nod his head as he turns his face towards his home, hiding his face.
"Okay," you say in your cool ass voice. "cool."
You release John's backpack and hears small 'yeah' before he begins to walk to his front door. As he came places his hand on the door knob you call out to him with your arm outstretched to him a little. "Hey, wait."
You feel as if you have to say something to him before he enters his house so you will. It's gonna be ironic though, probably something like 'stay out of trouble' or some shit like that.
John looks at you over his shoulder, patiently awaiting for you to say what you're going to say. His eyebrows are furrowed with uncertainty at the thought of you saying something nice to him. Dipshit, you're not that rude. As you open your mouth to bless John's ears with the most beautiful ironic moment in his life, an image of some extremely shitty high school drama pops into your head that mimics this exact moment. You cringe at this. You only watched that shit show because Makara sad it was the shit to watch when you're high so you just decided to humor him and agree. You hated that show when you were high and you still hate it now.
Due do this sudden thought you completely forgot what you were going to say so you just stand there, looking at John with your eyebrows furrowed in disgust. You try to remember what you were going to say but for fucks sake you can't, you can only think of that prick confessing his love to that fucking bitch the he knew in third grade. What the fuck?
"Uh..." You mumble, unsure as to what the fuck you're supposed to say. You can feel your cheeks heat up a little with embarrassment and you know for a fact that if bro saw this then he would kick your ass. You look around for anything that could help remind you as to what you were about to say but nothing fucking helps. You do notice, however, that there isn't a car in his driveway, so no one is probably home. Alright just fucking roll with that Strider, Jesus fuck.
"Is anyone home.?" God fucking dammit you sound like you want him to invite you inside. Fucking shit, FIX THIS.
"Well, I mean, can you get inside?" Why the fuck are you so damn tongue-tied? Isn't this supposed to be the other way around?!?! You still manage to keep a cool exterior during this embarrassing moment and show no signs of awkwardness or embarrassment. Although you are clenching and un-clenching your fists at your sides which is pretty out of character for you.
John seems a bit confused by your question and opens his mouth to probably ask you why you asked such a dumb fucking question before his eyes shoots to the empty driveway. He mouths 'Oh yeah' to himself before he holds his hand up to reveal a keychain wrapped around his finger.
"I have uh,"—he coughs—"I have the key." He says, waving his hand a little to make the keychain jingle. He looks awkward and uncomfortable and you should probably leave no-was that a fucking ghost busters keychain on his fucking keys?
No dammit stop that, respond to him.
"Okay. Bye."
Dave. Get the fuck out of there.