I was in heavenly bliss sitting with Zander, our hands connected, our bodies flushed right up to one another. My head was resting on his head while his was resting on my shoulder. For once, he was relaxing, it didn't look like he was worrying about his father, or what will happen to him when his dad kicked him out.
That was before the bus came. I wanted to curse at it with as any cuss words as I knew. Zander seemed to jump up right away when the bus came, almost seemingly jumped out of a trance. I chuckled at his reaction while he blushed and grabbed his bag.
"Are you okay?" I asked with a smile while also slinging my bag over my shoulder. He looked at me again but quickly looked down while his ears turned pink. What was he blushing for now? I thought.
"I'm actually fine right now," he said and gave me a one of a kind smile.
"Alright, let's get on before the bus leaves us," I said. I grabbed his hand and lead him to the bus, he was just trying to keep up but he was smiling.
The bus driver gave us a weird look and he did notice us holding hands but he didn't say anything. Probably because I gave him this look that clearly said back off. I had to do that to the rest of the kids that saw us on the bus too. God, why can't people just stay in their our business?
Zander curled himself back into his tiny little ball once we sat down. He was probably overwhelmed with all of the attention.
"Where did you go that one day when you told me to cover you in class?" he suddenly asked. Wow, we are actually making progress. Usually on the bus, he never talks; he always keeps to his own little world and I have to start the conversation.
"What? Now you finally ask?" I replied, clearly amused.
"Well, I was going to ask you the other day but then I had to save you from that kid by the buses," he said.
I smirked. "Really? You came to save me? You couldn't even talk his off. I, in the end had to save you."
He squinted his eyes and looked up as though he was lost in thought. "No, I don't think that was how that worked. I believe I came to save you."
I laughed. "No, Zander. I think your heads all mixed up from this morning."
"Uh huh. I know what I saw and you were clearly in distress."
"I didn't need you to come save me; I'm not no damsel in distress!" I said making him laugh. It was a real one and in that moment I knew that everything was going to be alright. He may have had a trauma in the past but with my help, he will push past this. I know he will.
"Anyways, I know that I helped save you now please tell me what you were doing," Zander said again.
I smirked knowingly. "Guess?"
"What did you say?"
"Take a guess Zander," I said with an eye roll.
"Um... did you try and go to the office and try to change your grade because everyone knows that you are failing?" he asked and he was clearing getting amusement from my fake humiliation.
"Ha ha," I said sarcastically. "Very funny. Any real guesses or do you just want to keep making fun of me?"
He tilted his head. "I think I just want to keep making fun of you."
"Nevermind," I said, trying to act mean but totally failing because of my smile. "Now for real, any other guesses?"
"Not real ones, no," he replied back. "Now please just tell me now."
"I'll give you a hint: have you seen Josh or Mike around for the past couple of days since that day?"
He stared at me. He blinked. His eyebrows furrowed. His eyes narrowed. He gave me a look before looking towards the back of the bus to see if they were there. They weren't. He looked back at me even more confused. I had to hold in a laugh at his expressions.
"Okay... what did you do?" he asked.
"Nothing horribly bad," I replied.
"Is that supposed to sound good because it made it sound like you agreed to doing something bad."
"I just had to do something to get back at them. They ruined your life and even though they didn't totally ruined mine, they made it a hell of a ton worse than it could have been."
He raised an eyebrow. "So what did you do exactly?"
"I just gave them a small taste of their own medicine. Nothing serious. It wasn't like they had to go to the nurse. They just were too embarrassed to stay around. They left and I'm sure that they won't come back for at least another week," I said, watching his face expressions carefully. Thankfully nothing was that bad, he didn't seem too horrified.
He just kept staring at me. "Your thoughts?"
"Wow. I didn't know you actually had that in you," he said and finally his expression changed from blank. Instead he looked rather impressed with me.
"Why thank you," I said and gave a little head bow. He just laughed at my dramatics.
"But why did you do it again?" he asked. "I'm kinda confused with that."
"Um... They made your life hell and they were always making me do stuff that I didn't want to do. I just couldn't let them do whatever they wanted to do anymore. Not just to you but to all of the other freshman's too."
"So because they beat up people you thought that it was okay to beat up them to get back at them?" he asked. I froze, hoping that he didn't agree with my methods. Finally he smirked.
"Bro, calm down," he said.
I studied him. "You seem much more confident now. You're smiling and now you are making jokes. What happened?" I asked, totally impressed with his new mood. He just seemed so happy right now and he's never usually like that.
He seemed to think about it, getting very serious all of a sudden. "I guess it's because that I'm with company. Usually I'm always all alone so I never have a reason to be happy. Now I'm with you and everything seems to be... what's the right word now? Better. I just feel happier all of a sudden."
"Wow," I replied after his speech and slowly and dramatically started clapping with this strange smile on his face. He immediately started to blush again.
"Too much?" he asked with a wince.
"Nope. It was the perfect about of much. I truly didn't know that you had it in you to say a big speech."
"Shut up," he said though even though he was trying to be mad, a tiny smile was slowly making its way onto his face. He was blushing again.
"Pink is a good color on you," I muttered, mentioning from all of his blushing. I didn't mean for him to hear me because he might think that I'm a weirdo.
Apparently he did hear me and he started to blush again but this time he immediately looked away and right back out his window. Oh god, I did something wrong. He's probably not into me and I just made this so much worse. He probably thinks that I'm this creepier or something for saying that. God, what in the hell was I thinking?
He didn't try to start another conversation with me the whole us ride so I didn't say a word, in fear of making it worse. It was so awkward. Normally on the bus we are right next to each other but this time he had scooted as far over as he could.
I just didn't understand. This morning he was doing everything in his power that he possibly could do to get me from being mad at him and now he's the one neglecting me. Maybe he just wanted to be friends and now that I've said that he thinks I'm creepy? But then again he was sitting as close as possible to be as he could and he even laid his head on my shoulder. I thought he was comfortable in this... zone but apparently not. Ugh. This just makes me want to hit my head into a wall.
"Wilder," I heard someone say my name which snapped me out of trance. It was Zander and he didn't look particularly happy.
"Huh?" I asked, totally confused.
"The bus stopped and you're blocking the way out," he said, furiously gesturing to the middle section of the bus where a stream of teenagers were pushing each other to get out.
"Oh," I said and my face falls. I was hoping that he was going to start up a conversation with me and it would be like nothing has ever happened. Zander didn't appear to be angry but more nervous and self conscious. He was pulling straight back into his shell and I couldn't let that happen because it could be another two months to get him to get comfortable to me like it was in the beginning.
"So are you ready for school?" I asked him. "Math class has to be a bummer so early in the morning?" I tried to think of a topic that almost everyone agrees on. We both had math class first with Mrs. Aragon. I hated her. She always knew that people were picking on him and she would always turn a blind eye.
He gave me a weird look and but shrugged. I winced as I saw his backpack that I gave him. It looked so old and only one strap was going which made it look even worse. I wish I could have given him a real backpack, not one that the other kids would see as a sign to pick on him more.
"I guess," he muttered.
"You have art second period right? What are you guys making?" I asked again.
He stopped in his tracks. "What are you trying to do?" he asked.
"What? Trying to talk to you? Is that bad?" I asked.
He just shook his head. "You're just never this chatty. I guess the only other time you were talking this much was the very first time that you were trying to be my friend. You're getting rather annoying right now," he finished.
I wasn't looking at him when he said that so I thought he was being serious but when I finally looked at him, he was giving me a teasing smile. Relieved, I rolled my eyes at his behaviour.
"Why thank you. That's just what I wanted to hear so early in the morning from my best friend," I said and gave him a light punch on the shoulder.
"Good then. I have a feeling that I'm going to be saying that a lot," he said.
"Hey!"
"You totally know it's true. You're like the most annoying kid that I have ever met in my whole life."