Forever tag for: you-are-world-class-and-i-mean-that and thatfunnygirllauren
Monday reared its ugly head with two missed alarms and a hurried dash to get dressed and out the door in time for college. Finn didn't have time to do much except scramble together whatever he could find to wear from the floor and the end of the bed that passed for clean, snatch up his football kit and bag from the floor and rush out the door to get the bus through into town hoping he wouldn't miss meeting up.
The house was still too quiet as he locked the door over and made his way down the street to his stop. He made it just in time to catch what was supposed to be the earlier bus. The universe had other ideas. The bus idled precariously long two stops down from his house as a group of pensioners argued over the fare and he fidgeted in his seat. He only had the half hour before they had to be in class. Meeting up before the first bell would at least make college seem less crap for once. Finn occupied himself looking out of the window and dug his hands in his jacket pockets, moving down in his seat as he waited for the bus to eventually move again. Ten minutes longer than it should have been he sprung down out from the sliding doors and marched to get to the right street in time before the next bus arrived.
Chloe was there first. She was huddled in her green bomber jacket outside the café across from the bus stop waiting, pacing to keep warm where she stood and straightened up a little when Finn made his way over to stand beside her. 'Hiya.'
'Do you want a brew?' Finn greeted her and gestured with his thumb behind them as an offer.
'Don't think there's time' she shivered and shifted from side to side to keep warm, 'it's just gone five to eight, thanks.'
The minutes passed, maybe she wouldn't show up. She hadn't promised anything and didn't owe him, as he was about to ask Chloe if she'd heard anything the idea died as Chloe saw her before he did and waved her over as Rae came into view and rounded the corner. He looked over and she was wearing her usual leggings and skirt with a jumper and a green parker as she waved back. Finn had been late, Rae was later and luckily so was the bus.
'Morning,' he greeted her with a warm smile.
'Mornin.' A look passed between them and Chloe gently reminded them that they should get a move on.
Rae's hand found his and he gave it a reassuring pull towards him as they fell into pace together with Chloe walking slightly ahead as they headed across the road to catch the bus. It was quiet for the first while until Archie got on at his stop a few trips later and sat behind them and across from Chloe who was finishing off some last minute homework revision. The two of them got into comparing their work for each other and he and Rae were left alone to split a set of headphones between them on the rest of the trip down. Rae gave her usual marks out of ten for whichever tape he decided to play, out of the three tapes in his bag there were probably about six songs she thought were passable. Finn just rolled his eyes and wound her up about it for the rest of the drive.
The familiar white purple and green signpost loomed ahead all too soon as they all collected their stuff and went to wait by the doors downstairs to get off. The dull grey concrete of the college grounds came into view with people funnelling down through the gates ahead and collecting around outside. They got off the bus and made their way just past the gates and into the car park were Izzy and Chop were messing about perched on the bonnet of Chop's car.
'What happened to you lot? Cutting it close.' Chop greeted them.
'Bus took ages, could've done with an extra ten minutes to get this finished to be honest though,' Chloe slotted her notebook between her arms. Izzy slid from where she'd perched herself on the bonnet, gave Chop a quick peck on the lips as the rest of them saw him off as he said goodbye, peeled the car out from the space and left.
'I like your top Rae,' Izzy mentioned as they stepped into place.
'Thanks,' Rae went quiet as they made their way into the campus properly and stiffened as the four of them walked past the benches and groups clustered around. Rae kept her gaze low and tried to get past as quickly as possible. Most people were busy keeping to their own group and shuffling from one foot to the other to stave off the cold of the morning while the early morning frost was still in full swing.
'You alright girl?' He asked slowing down.
'Fine.' She stopped as they got through the gates and he twisted to see if she was ok again. 'I think I'm going to give it a miss,' she struggled to keep her breathing in check and twisted to get away.
'Rae, hang on.' He called her back and walked over to stand in front of her, taking her hand again tentatively.
'It's fine, you should go on ahead of me. See you in a bit yeah?' Her voice was even but her face was giving her away as anxiety clouded her eyes.
He frowned, not understanding why she didn't want to come with him when it dawned on him that she was panicking about walking through college holding his hand like that. It wasn't just about fitting in, it was survival; she'd tried to point it out to him before. Being him like this in college made that hard for her. Finn kept hold of her hand and dared any of them to try; to so much as think about saying anything. Nobody looked over and continued on with what they were doing. Her hand gripped his till they got towards the doors to the main entrance. He let go of her hand, separating them from each other.
'Better?'
She gave him a small smile of thanks as her free hand pulled open the door. He stayed close to her as they navigated through the throngs. They stopped before they went their separate ways just outside the English corridor and the science block. Finn turned back towards her, stepping a bit closer so she would hear over the noise of people milling into their classrooms.
'I've got a double after this and football later, but if you wanted to I could meet you for break,' he ventured with a hopeful smile.
'Yeah. Yeah, alright,' she agreed with a smile.
'Get you in a bit then,' he raised his eyebrows and gave her a cheeky half smile as he walked backwards to keep talking to her and turned into a slow jog to weave his way through the increasingly crowded hall to get to class on time.
The morning seemed to crawl past. P.E followed by maths wasn't the best combination on the best of days but it was worse in winter with the heater in the maths department overheating making the room feel like an oven when he'd just cooled down from running and football from the last class. By the time he got out he felt like boil in the bag rice and probably looked a right state. Brilliant. He sprayed some more deodorant on and padded outside to sit on one of the picnic benches further round and out of the way to wait. Finn took his notepad back out from his bag and pretended to work on something till Rae arrived, but it didn't seem to make much difference. He still got approached again at least three times since he sat down.
'You sitting by yourself Finn?' One of the girls from Maths with the yellow blond hair and dark eyebrows, Nicky or Vicky, sat down beside him close enough that her leg pressed against his uncomfortably and she shifted over in his seat. She didn't move and leaned her top half over the table towards what he was doing.
'Waiting on someone,' he muttered low. If she was disappointed she didn't show it. A few other girls sat down around him and Nicky/Vicky kept on.
'Oh, are you seeing anyone?'
'Yeah, I'm waiting on her so,' he hoped that would be enough to get them to leave but they just seemed to multiply making him feel like he was on display.
'Who does your hair?' Another girl asked across from him. He didn't answer and rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling his back tensing under the scrutiny.
'Are you going to the footy match in the park later?' Nicky or Vicky asked, leaning an elbow on the table.
'Yeah,' he replied and they eventually realised he wasn't giving them any more than a four word response after ten torturous minutes and they soon got bored and left him alone. Eventually he gave up and he moved out from the benches altogether and waited for her just further down near the bike shelter and rolled a cigarette in his hand and took a drag to settle his nerves.
'Thought you'd be sitting round there with Archie and that,' he heard her voice and turned around to see Rae make her way to where he was standing. He followed her gaze to see Archie sat with a group of blokes he recognised from one of the football teams.
'Thought you weren't coming for a bit.'
'Got held back in English.' She sat down beside him and dropped her bag down onto the floor and looked over at him properly, seeing he was slightly rattled. 'You alright?'
'Yeah, just got a bit bored hanging about.'
'Sorry.'
'It's alright.'
They chatted back and forth, sitting close by but not close enough so that there was a gap between them so Rae wouldn't be uncomfortable with the curious looks they'd get if they sat like they did in the pub. Chloe joined them not long after and slumped down on the bench across the table. 'Double biology is just sadistic. Thought I was never getting out.'
'Is Izzy not coming?' Rae asked.
'She's inside with some people from drama.'
'You fancy coming round to mine later?' Chloe asked her, 'me and Izzy are getting a film in, you coming?'
'I can't. I've got Kester after this.'
'Ok, give me a ring later then.'
'You on for coming round to mine on Wednesday?' Finn ventured and she tilted her head in his direction with a small smile reserved for him.
'Yeah, I'll ring you tonight.'
For the rest of the break they talked amongst themselves and went their separate ways once the bell rang again.
College wrapped up for the day and Finn couldn't get out of the place fast enough. He had been padding quickly through to the other end of the building past the library and the vending machines when he crossed paths with Rae again outside the main hallway and he moved quicker to catch up.
'Rae,' he called over. She turned around hesitantly and when she realised it was him she stopped and met him by the windows.
'What's up?' She asked quietly, keeping watch around them.
'I just wanted to catch up before you left to walk you out.'
'Two minutes I forgot to collect the homework sheet.' She ducked back into the classroom and came back out a few minutes later stuffing the paper into her bag and shifted is back over her shoulder again.
As he waited Liam made his way down the corridor and stopped just in front of her, 'you coming Alarm Girl?'
Rae shook her head and Liam turned behind him when she didn't follow.
Finn looked between them and then turned to face Rae, 'I can walk you, if you wanted to,' he offered. Liam gave him a look he couldn't read and the air seemed to change in the cramped hallway as people continued to file past them to get home.
'It's alright,' Rae finally spoke and shook her head. She turned to look at Liam, 'I'll see you there.'
'Suit yourself.' She watched as he pulled the corners of his mouth down raised his eyebrows at the pair of them and turned to go down the hallway and out through the double doors.
'So does he go to Kester's as well or?' She nodded and worried her bottom lip confirming what he already guessed.
'It wasn't mine to tell.' He stayed where he was, not knowing what to say, needing time to think.
All those times he didn't understand why she went about with him. Why out of the whole college he was the person she'd went to. Thinking back to that time in the pub with chloe it dawned on him, "He just gets me; we're the same."
They pushed through it albeit awkwardly and Rae was the first to speak again.
'Did you still want to go to the pub on Friday?'
'Chop's already planning a night out for everybody.'
'Who's got an empty?'
'Nobody. There's something on somewhere. His mate from work knows some bloke who knows somebody running it, got no idea,' Chop hadn't given him much detail. 'So he's trying to get us all in.' They knew it wasn't likely, not if it was the same mate who told Chop there was a secret gig somewhere that turned out to be just a carpet warehouse in the middle of nowhere.
'So, pub then?'
'Pub,' he agreed with a laugh.
'I'll give you a ring after,' she promised and he let her go and went to find Archie and the girls.
The days that followed took a similar pattern and most of the rest of the week passed without much incidence. Thursday had been looking to go the same way. The day was drawing to a close with the last class of the day. Technical wasn't usually anything interesting. All the projects were wrapped up for the year and they were left to work on practice diagrams for some tape holder or car parts.
It was easy work and they had a lecturer, Mr. Grant, who occasionally let them off early. Finn used it as an excuse to jot down playlist ideas and drawing absently on his paper and let his mind wander to plans for later on. He was used to being left alone. He didn't pay attention to what was going on around him, only tuning into fragments of conversation around him.
'Did you not hear?' Macca didn't bother to whisper, 'bout him and that massive bird.'
'Nah mate, she said she wasn't. Somebody was just having a windup.' A second boy chimed in.
'Said he was the other day, Vicky asked him outside.'
'Aw, now that is rank. Girls like that are proper slags. Probably getting at it on tap.' As if to prove the point Simmy decided to crudely mime.
Macca pulled his breath in through his teeth, 'Poor fucker.' That brought a wave of snickering behind his back towards the back of the classroom.
'All this talking back there must mean you're finished. Do you need me to give you more to get on with or do you want to keep your mouths shut?' Mr Grant bellowed. He wasn't asking them, not with an expression that told anybody with half a brain he clearly wasn't in the mood. Most of them were living proof it was possible to function without a brain cell to rub between them so they continued on.
Their lecturer left the room for more photocopies and Simmy used it as excuse to move to the side of Finn's desk. 'Alright mate?'
Finn barely looked his way and continued with what he was doing, unaware of what had been going on behind him.
'You having a drought or something?'
'You what?' He looked over at Simmy's sneering face, his brows furrowing, wondering what he was getting at so he could tell him to do one.
'You and that fat bird, Rae Earl. Somebody said you were going out.'
Finn brushed him off what an expression of Yeah, and?
'Did you lose a bet or something mate? That's not right that.' Simmy gave him a grimace as if he was being sympathetic but his face barely contained a sneer. Finn clenched his jaw and looked over at him with cold eyes.
'It's a windup innit?' He continued on, oblivious. He either didn't care or he just to stupid to notice as he scrunched his face and tilted his head like he was in on some sort of conspiracy with him. Like they were friends. 'Imagine shagging that,' he made a face of disgust and said some other things under his breath about it towards his mates at the back of the room. Finn only caught the odd word but what he did hear made him want to scrape the chair back and ram his fist through his ribs. 'Is it true then…proper minging girls, must have a magic…He heard that part and his stomach burned and contracted in anger making him tense in his seat. Who the fuck did they think they were?
Sense stopped him from moving. Having to explain why he was in the Head's office with a busted up hand to his dad and leaving Rae and the gang waiting behind for him got him to swallow it down. Getting suspended wasn't on the cards. He had to be smart about it. He could wait.
Finn raised his face so he was looking directly at Simmy with a stare that made the room go silent. 'Good thing what I do's not any of your fucking business then.'
A few more people noticed and looked away from their desk and over, but Finn didn't look away. The door to the class swung open and knocked against the metal of the storage cupboard against the wall as Mr. Grant struggled with a box of worksheets and papers. He thunked it down on his desk and looked over to see the standoff.
'There a problem lads?'
The pair of them shook their heads, Finn didn't look away once. Daring Simmy to give him a reason to knock him into the linoleum. 'Leave it outside and get on with your work then.' Simmy sauntered back to his seat, wasting time till the bell went.
It was different when they got out of class. Simmy was walking alone when Finn caught up to him. He hadn't seen Finn move and jolted when he rounded on him. Finn grabbed the front of his shell suit and gave him a hard shove into the gate.
'I'll tell you what mate.' He exaggerated that last word squaring his shoulders. Simmy darted around to see if anybody was going to notice and come over. Nobody batted an eyelid and continued to file out of the building. He wasn't so smirky now, not without his mates backing him up. As Finn cornered him between the gates he went white like he was about to piss himself. 'Why don't I worry about what I'm doing and you keep your thick as pig shit mouth shut.'
'I'm sorry, I was only messin' about.' Finn didn't give him an inch and he struggled in his grip.
'You or any of your twat mates say anything to Rae or my mates or go near them I'll knock your teeth in, alright.' He watched carefully as he wordlessly agreed and scrambled away as soon as Finn shoved him hard out of his way and let him go.
Finn stepped off and shifted his bag back on his shoulder properly and made his way out and started the journey to the park to channel most what he'd held back at football.
It was the early evening by the time Finn got home. Finn struggled with unlocking the front door with his kit and dumped the bag up in his room. He switched the TV on for some company and picked up the phone, pulling the cable so he could sit on the stairs and took a few minutes to think up what he was going to say. He owed his uncle a call, but family or not it was one of his least favourite things to do. He wasn't any more comfortable with talking to faceless voices than he was face to face with this kind of thing. At least face to face you could see them react, you could see what they were thinking. He picked up the receiver and punched in the number and waited for someone to pick up on the other end.
'Hello?' A woman's voice called down the line.
'Hi Pamela, is Uncle Derek in?'
'Hiya love, hang on, just a minute.' The sound on the other end muffled as she put her hand over the end of the receiver and shouted, 'Derek.' A few more muffled noises and disembodied voices later and he heard the phone being picked up again and his uncle's voice.
'Hello?'
'It ehm, it's Finn' he started, rubbing at the side of his ear. 'I was just calling to say that I'm probably not going to be coming down. I'm gonna leave it. Thanks for the offer but I'm gonna stick things out up here for a bit.'
'Oh, right.' His voice gave nothing away, his dad was the same, but usually only used it when Finn had fucked up.
'Is that ok? I wasn't trying to waste your time, I just had a lot on.'
'No, it's alright' he admitted calmly. 'Just surprised. Your dad seemed to think you were set on coming down.'
'Yeah, I was, but…' he trailed off, not knowing where to start. His uncle seemed to understand anyway.
'Your dad needs you there anyway.'
'Yeah. I know.'
'Tell him I was asking for him.'
'Will do.'
He hung up a few moments later feeling like a small weight had been lifted for the night.
