L E O N I E S • P O V
"Bray," I stare up at a dear and old friend as he stands over Jess and I, who are still in the grass wrapped around each other.
He grins and helps us both up, pulling me into a bone crushing hug. Bray and I have known each other forever. We've been at the same school since we were children. He's on the school football team and has plans on going pro. His big sister, Jade, is at Miami Dade College doing social work. She's cooler than he is though. She lets us hang around her place most weekends which isn't the most intelligent idea considering we're all underage. She could get in big shit when we drink. But she doesn't seem to care.
"Jess," Bray grinned when he released me and snatched her up. Her feet came off the air and she giggled. "Good to be back?"
"For sure," she blushed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Flirt alert. "Yeah it's good to be back with the squad."
While Jess was granted some freedom over summer, she wasn't allowed to come to every event. However, when all of us were together, I had noticed that her and Bray had started to become closer and closer. She told me that she had a crush on him but she didn't want to step on my toes.
Bray and I have a complicated-ish past. About four months before summer just been, we'd been having a small get together at my apartment while Mom was out of town. There was alcohol, music, pizza and then. . . there was sex. Well the pizza came after the sex. We worked up an appetite.
Besides the point.
It had been a long time since I had been touched and I was in need. So that happened. And it wasn't half bad. So it kept happening. There were no strings attached of course. Relationships were an absolute no for me. But when summer rolled around, I decided to call it quits. It had the potential to become complicated and I didn't want that.
"I wonder if we've got classes together this year," Bray folded his arms and smiled at Jess. He wasn't unattractive, at all. He had golden brown hair and a soft gaze. He was tall and muscular but on the leaner side of muscular. Picture Dave Franco with height. But he had a shit eating grin and as soon as he smiled, he looked like a trouble making moron. In a sort of cute way.
Jess nodded and held onto her back pack straps as she shifted her feet. "Yeah I think that we have drama together. I remember you said that you wanted to take that class."
"You took drama?" I pointed at him in confusion. "You're on the football team?"
He laughed that loud and idiotic laugh that made me flinch with surprise. "Whoops," he winced at Jess, still appearing amused. "I did say that I wanted to take Drama. But na I can't because of the commitment to the team. Sucks. I wanted to."
"You'd be damn good at it," I said. "Drama queen."
Jess shrugged a shoulder but I could tell that she was disappointed. "What about Biology," she questioned. "Who do you have for that?"
"Mrs Yule," he said.
"Me too," I replied.
Jess awed with disappointment. "Damn. I have Mr Laron. So does Amy."
"Alex is in our class, Lee," Bray pointed at the fourth member of our friend group who was walking down the school steps. His dark blonde hair swept across his forehead and I always wondered how he didn't end up red as a beet. Poor pale kid couldn't even tan.
He approached the three of us with a small wave. Alex was big intelligent. He was into science and experiments. He was super quiet and I could not figure out how he had been friends with Bray since kindergarten. The two of them were brothers for all it mattered. Despite being polar opposites. Bray had one of those personalities that was hard to cope with when you were more reserved. Sort of like me some would say.
"Hey guys," he nodded with a small smile and I squinted at him because the sun damn near reflected off his face and threatened to blind me. His sheepish grin turned on me. "Hey Leonie."
Oh Alex, I thought. Poor sweet Alex. He was such a sweetheart. But he had been tucked into the friendzone from the moment that we met, despite his best efforts to crawl out of it. Best efforts might have been a bit of a stretch. The kid did not know how to communicate with females to save himself. I loved him but I wished that he could extinguish the flame that he was holding for me. It just wasn't going to happen. Even if my heart wasn't in permanent pieces after experiencing heartbreak. It still wouldn't happen.
"Hey Alex," I gave him a wave.
"Ooh," Bray winced in the direction behind Jess and I. We both turned around. "There's Harlin. Think she'll be tolerable this year?"
I scowled at the bleach blonde who was strutting up the stairs. Her skin was the shade of old pumpkin. She needed to sue whoever did her tans. Harlin and I did not get along. That could have been an understatement. If she was the rain and I was a dying flower, I would still tell her to fuck herself.
She's an evil entity and to be honest, no one knows what the hell her problem is. She has two great parents who are super sweet as well as an allowance that would rival Kim Kardashian's. I suppose we don't know what goes on behind closed doors. But I had a feeling that she was just a super entitled brat who felt that the rest of us were beneath her. And no matter how hard she tried to intimidate me, it didn't work. That pissed her off.
"Dorito dick head can give it her best shot," I said, turning back to face the group, "I'm not even giving her a moment of my time."
"Dorito?" Alex questioned.
"Orange," I shrugged.
"Oh, that makes sense."
Bray nodded before he clamped his hand on Alex's shoulder. "Come on bro. I need to find Logan before class. He borrowed my cup at practice last week. I want it back."
"You share those things?" I recoiled with disgust. "That's fucked. Why don't you just sniff each others sacks."
"I'm not going to wear it," he scoffed as he sauntered backwards with Alex in tow. "I have other plans," he grinned with mischief. "Later Jess. We'll catch up at lunch."
I thought about what plans he could have for a used cup until it occured to me that if the chance came up, he did something immature and called it a prank. Child. He did help with the prank that we pulled a year ago with the mannequin corpses though. He could be creative.
Jess giggled and waved at Bray as he retreated. "Ugh, he's so hot," she said when he was out of earshot. We began walking towards the ground entrance. We were in homeroom together and our class was on the floor level. We continued to greet peers as we went and I was surprised at how many people I forgot existed while I was on summer break.
"We've known Bray literally forever," I commented, letting her link our arms. Jess was half a head taller than me. That wasn't hard though. I was quite short. "How come you're just now starting to froth over him?"
"I don't know," she grinned, watching her feet as she walked. "It's like one of those things. I always knew that he was good looking. But I guess it sort of shifted while I was at another school. It's different. I kiss-kiss like him."
Kiss-kiss like was the real deal. We came up with that when we were seven and we needed to express that the crush was serious. It was a double kiss because we believed that the most intimate thing that a couple could do, was kiss their lover on both cheeks. It was all the exposure that I had to adult relations. Mom never had men around and Jess's parents were more old school than the pope. Of course, with age, we realised that a kiss on each cheek was actually the least intimate thing that a couple could do. I mean, hello. People eat ass on the first date now.
"Kiss-kiss like, huh," I nodded.
We wandered into homeroom. We went straight to the back and sat beside each other. The class, like the rest of the school was modern with glass walls and state of the art tech.
"You don't like- mind? Right?" She said with concern. I swivelled in the seat and stared at her as if she'd grown two heads.
"Mind? What?"
"Well, you two used to- you know-"
"Jess," I cut her off, waving my hand with amusement. "No. No girl. I would have thought that would have been more of an issue for you."
"Oh," she shook her head as the class began to fill with student's who were occupied with recounting their summer's in shrill voices. "No I don't mind as long as there is nothing there between the two of you."
"There is nothing," I stared her direct in the eye and made sure that she heard me loud and clear. "Not a damn thing. There never was. My only advice, is make sure that if whatever is going on, doesn't work, we can all still be friends. No splitting the group up with relationship drama."
"Yeah," she nodded. "I agree."
I smiled with satisfaction. I just wanted her to be happy and if that goof was who made her smile, then I was in support of that. I'd be watching him though.
A head of blonde hair came into sight at the front of the classroom and I saw Amy scouring the space. She spotted us after a quick second and waved before beelining down the aisle between the desks. She fell into one right in front of us and I noted how, even though she was in uniform, she was vibrant with colour. It was just her. She was a short girl with wide hips and a large chest. Her shoulder length blonde hair was never brushed but she pulled it off. She was a strict vegan and planned on becoming a vet after high school. She was sort of the Mom of our group. She made an odd addition but we'd been close as kids. So despite the fact that she grew in a different direction, we didn't split.
"Hello, hello," she sang, dropping her bag on the floor beside her. She spun around in her seat and wheeled closer so that she could lean on our desks. "Welcome back Jess. Plan on keeping out of trouble?"
"Sure," Jess answered with boredom. She and Amy were friends. But it was more because I brought them together. Jess was easily frustrated at most of what came out of Amy's mouth. Their personalities just clashed. Which was surprising because I was far more outspoken whenever something pissed me off. Perhaps that was why Jess felt so bothered all the time. She didn't just let it out so it became all pent up and resentful.
"Well," Amy said, ignoring Jess's obvious sarcasm. "I'm afraid to say that you won't be seeing much of me during the weekend's."
I feigned surprise. We never saw much of her during the weekend. Not unless she was bringing us a hangover care pack. Gatorade, fries, burgers and a side of lecture. "How come?"
"I have signed up for a volunteer position at an animal shelter. It's for College applications," she clapped with excitement.
"Well that's when the sun is out," I shrugged. "You can still come along when we go out at night."
"And drink myself into oblivion like the two of you?" She scoffed. "No thanks. My body is a temple and I plan to treat it as such. Ethan and I did a lot of meditation this summer. We feel so brand new."
Ethan. Her boyfriend. He was the most patient dude that I had ever met. He had been in our group since the beginning of highschool. He and Amy had been together for two years and it seemed that both of them were deep in love. The real deal. His jamaican heritage means that he has the most beautiful dark skin and a buzz fade haircut. Not to mention that he has the coolest parents on the planet and a night on the wine at their place is the most entertaining thing on the planet.
Ethan wasn't quite as sold on the meat free, no drinking sort of thing. But he did it to keep Amy happy. I had nothing against her choices. But it did bother me that she expected him to change so much for her. I'd voiced that and she said that a relationship was all about compromise. I wanted to know what she had changed about herself for him. She had no answer for that.
And that was our crew. Bray, Alex, Jess, Ethan, Amy and I. That was us. Well, almost all of us. There had been one more. One more person that used to be in our photos. One more person that was in all of the memories. Some of the best ones that we had. Benny. Just hearing his name in the depths of my mind caused pain that I couldn't stand feeling.
Benny had been my boyfriend when we were fifteen. He was a new student that started at the beginning of freshmen year. It was instant. We fell hard and we fell fast. He was my first. First love. First time having sex. First time experiencing loss.
We had one perfect year together. He was an MMA fighter and he was damn good at what he did. I used to watch his matches, cheering him on from the front row. We spent all of our time together. He and Ethan were best friends. That was how Amy and Ethan started dating. Ethan was friends with Bray. I knew Bray and Jess. Benny knew Alex. It just sort of resulted in the seven of us spending all of our time together.
But during the summer before sophomore, Benny was travelling out of town with his little sister and parents. There was a lake spot that they vacationed at and I was meant to join them two weeks in. After I'd spent some time with Mom. But I never made it. Because he never made it. His car was hit from the side and it spun out of control, ending up in the lake. It drowned all of them and I had never been the same since.
Losing love like that, it put me in a terrible place. It was the hardest thing that I had ever been through and I refused to go through it again. If I didn't fall in love, I couldn't lose love and I would never end up in that position again.
Never again.
About half way through the day, when I'd already had enough of droning teachers and stacks of assignements, I recieved a text from Mom and felt immediate frustration. If there was one thing that I hated, it was messages like this.
Hey honey. Straight home after school. I have something that we need to talk about. Love you.