The Junior David Kearney was currently seated at a circular table somewhere in the massive school library, reading a book on God knows what, waiting for either his friends to arrive so he could have some company before first period, or wait silently and hope that he could avoid his friends till first period.
Either one worked.
And obviously fate was against him.
"Dave! Hey!" a high pitched voice called from the front of the aisle, directly adjacent to his seated position. He swore silently. Of all his friends, she was the least of the ones he wanted to talk to.
It was Connie, his best friend.
Connie sort of ran/sort of walked, over to him, her bag slapping her hip as she moved, her brown ponytail swinging side to side before she grew fed up with it and pulled it over her shoulder.
"Hello Connie." he replied in a monotone voice."What a pleasant surprise" To be honest, David did not want to talk to anyone at this time, especially about him, and he knew that the first thing Connie would do would be to ask if he and him did anything.
"Bullshit Dave, I know you're happy to see me." Connie replied sitting down across from him. Dear God, why did she have to call him Dave?"
"Please don't call me Dave, not anymore." he asked, trying to hide the displeasure in his voice at the nickname. Connie was taken aback.
"Why? I thought you loved when people called you Dave, sometimes letting them get away with a Davey. What happened? Did something happen? I knew it, something happened, what happened? Come on. Tell me!" she grew fervent in her ranting, hoping she could pry her way into getting him to spill what happened over the summer.
"Not telling, why? Because it's none of your business." he replied.
"What's none of my business?" a blonde haired man asked, seating himself next to David, a small smile on his face.
"Oh nothing, Alex, only Dave won't tell me what's made him have such a stick up his ass." Connie replied to Alex's question. "Well, more than usual."
"Can we just drop my life as the topic of this morning? Please? I'm sure there is something far more impressive and/or important than my life." David shielded. Alex laughed a bit, a smooth laugh that rolled over you contagiously, making you think it absolutely necessary to laugh along. By now David was immune to its possessing effects.
"There is as a matter of fact. A new kid, cousin of the new French teacher me and David have together. I don't know if they're a guy or girl, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. I'm quite anxious to meet them. From what I've heard from the teachers, he's an… interesting guy." Alex stated, quite nonchalantly. Connie grinned deviously at David.
"No Connie, no. Don't even think about it." David said, before Connie could suggest anything.
"What? I was just suggesting that you become friends,...preferably one immune to killjoys. And you're taken remember?" Connie replied, mumbling that last part. David scowled at his friend. And right before he could strangle said friend and dump the body, the rest of his friends showed up, each taking a seat around the table.
David sighed.
It was time for the Great Swapping.
Each year, they all got together on the first day to exchange their schedules for the year, in order to find out who had the same classes, who had the same lunch periods, and spares. Once the grand total of them all were assembled, they began. They each lined up their papers in a grid on the table, and compared, smiling and frowning when they determined their classes. Wash looked at his schedule again, hoping to memorize it.
French was first, shared with Alex, his friend Reginald, and...Maine.
Great, Maine was in his first class. Not that he disliked the guy, but Maine's friend Simon was kind of creepy, and Maine would do whatever Simon told him to, even making Maine hang around with Simon's circle of friends, what Simon called the 'Meta' Family. The only reason they were even friends was because Maine had suffered a throat injury and became mute, and Simon was the only seventh grader who knew complete sign language, save Elliott and Leonard Church, but Maine seemed to like Simon the best.
And Simon had it out for David, and all of Maine's former friends.
He looked down the rest of the schedule.
American Government, English Honors, Gym, Spares, Lunch, Chemistry, Trigonometry, another spare, and his Art class at the very end.
Many shared with his friends, mainly Alex, Reginald, Maine..., Caroline, and Connie. Though he did notice that he had classes with other friends, such as Trig, English, and Art with Church, Simmons, Caboose, and Grif, though how Grif even passed ninth and tenth grade was a mystery to them all, though the rumor was that Simmons had a soft spot for the Hawaiian. And Chem with Donut, Doc, Simmons, and Allison.
At least he wouldn't be in any classes with Elliot, he had made sure of it.
He frowned, forcing the thoughts from his mind. The last thing he needed was to start his junior year grieving over his broken relationship with his ex-boyfriend. Nor even trying to tell his friends what happened between them, what Elliot did to him, how he hurt him.
"Hey Dave?" Connie asked, looking up from comparing hers and Alexa's, her current girlfriend, and Alex's twin sister. "Where's Elliot? Aren't you curious if you have any classes together?"
"No." he stated plainly, letting his shoulders drop. "I'm not."
"What? Why not?" Caroline asked. "I thought you and him were madly in love." They're eyes all tuned towards the three of them. David debated internally whether or not to tell the. He weighed the choices in his head. If he stayed shut, Connie would just go to ask Elliot what had gone down, or worse, keep pestering him to tell her. Or he could just tell them now and face the mass amount of questions and shouting he knew might come….
Ah what the hell?
"We broke up, plain and simple." David commented, shrugging it off as if it were absolutly nothing. Connie's jaw fell open, and Caroline raised a curious eyebrow, and as predicted, several others started to shout questions. "Why it matters, I have no clue."
"When did this happen?" Caroline asked.
"Over summer break, why?"
"Why? You were perfect for eachother, you made each other happy, you always were smiling, you laughed more, you were happier." Connie replied, emphasising each point. "That's why!"
"So… I need to have a boyfriend for me to be happy?" he asked, pulling that one point out of the whole speech. "Eh, Rebecca?"
"No, no that's not what I meant…" Connie tried to defend herself, not even caring that he used her real first name. David just dismissed her, piling his belongings into his bag, and leaving the library without a second thought.
Now David expected a lot of things to happen. Connie might follow him, he might find someone even more annoying, like Donut, who was even worse when it came to breakups.
He had not expected to run into one of the most handsome guys he had ever run into.
"Sorry man, that was totally my fault." he said, a smile creeping onto the man's face. David looked up at his face. It was squared, but had enough of a curve to not look brawlic, he had light grey eyes, or eye, as one of them was blurred, almost as if blinded, and had a small slightly pinkish scar running over the eyebrow, eye, and just below it. His brown straight hair was styled into a faint point, like a mini faux hawk. "Names Calvin.."
"David." David said, a little flabbergasted. The man was hot, and looked like he had the 'Mr. Right' personality to go with it, but also hinted off a deep sadness from long ago, buried inside him. "I… I got to, you know,...go. First period and all."
"Yeah, don't want to be late, first day and all." Calvin added, pointing to the main stairwell. "That way to the office, right?"
David was too stunned by the man's smile and stare that he failed to notice that the kid didn't know his way around, in which he normally would assume he was new, or a freshman, or he was like Caboose, but instead of his logical mind processing that, he neglected it, and watched as the kid walked away, waving a small goodbye.
"...Bye…" David waved back, a dopey smile on his face.
And in all of thirty seconds, he had forgotten all about Elliot.
