Chapter 3:
The bell rang, excusing the children from their lectures. Connor and Kevin gathered up their things and left the lecture hall. Cathy handed Kevin the notes that he needed for the test next week before they walked out of the room. She offered to help him out if he needed any tutoring. Instead, Connor offered to tutor Kevin if he needed help.
The two finally stepped out of the main hall. A cool fall breeze greeted them as they exited the hall.
"I thought that class would never end," Connor complained with a small laugh.
Kevin laughed, "It wasn't too bad."
"I typed out about half of your directions," Connor explained, "I'll finish them during my public speaking class."
"Do you have to go now?"
"What, are you trying to get rid of me?" he nudged his arm with a smile.
"No, no, no! I was just wondering," Kevin insisted.
"I'm kidding. I actually don't have to be there till noon. Besides it's only," he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time, "10:45."
"Right."
He smiled, "Since you need to make friends, I think I can help you out with that."
Kevin, confused, gave him a weird look, "I've been here less than twenty four hours. How can you help me make friends?"
"Because, I know a few guys in your next class, my best friend being one of those guys. It won't kill you to talk to other people ya know."
"You don't know that for sure," Kevin smirked.
Connor laughed, "You're funny. Come on," he grabbed Kevin's arm, "They should be hanging around the hall by now. They always are there early."
"This early?" Kevin questioned, being drug away after Connor.
"They talk with the teacher sometimes," he tugged on his arm to make him hurry up, "Now hurry up!"
Kevin rolled his eyes with a smile and trudged along after him. The two traveled across campus to the English section of the school. Kevin did his best to mental note everything and where everything was. It was a bit hard for him to pay attention to his surroundings as Connor casually pulled him along and kept talking all the way though.
They had finally reached the English hall and went inside. The two were greeted by arguing. As they entered the hall, they saw it was empty with only three students in the back talking quiet loudly. They sounded louder due to the echo in the hall. The group of students was arguing over the new William Shakespeare's Star Wars book.
Connor laughed at their argument and turned to Kevin, "They fight a lot, but they're nice guys."
Smiling, Connor looked up to the guys and yelled, "Poptarts, I found a new friend for you!" he yelled.
The guys stopped arguing and faced the front of the hall to see Connor and Kevin. Kevin felt himself start to lock up and become uncomfortable.
"Seems like a geek," one of the guys called. He had on a Foo Fighters tee shirt, "Nice going!"
"Schrader, be nice! He's new, it's his first day."
The student, Schrader, smiled, "That means we can be extra mean to him."
Another one with a black tee shirt on and pink vans elbowed him, "Shut up would ya."
Connor laughed, "Well, I'm off to my next class," he looked at Kevin, "I'll give you the directions later then?"
"Sure," he nodded.
He looked to his friends and called, "Play nice, boys!"
"We will," they said in unison.
"Oh!" the guy in the pink vans called, "Say hi to Steve for me!"
"Shut up, Chris!" Connor turned bright red and exited the hall in a hurry, desperately trying to hide his smile.
The three in the back burst into laughter. Kevin stood at the bottom of the lecture hall as the three friends in the back laughed at Connor's speedy exit. The one in the pink vans, Chris, looked down at Kevin.
"Hey, come on up here, we don't bite," he said, a few laughs in between.
Kevin nodded and walked up to the group in the back of the room. They smiled kindly to him as he sat down next to Schrader who was sitting by himself in his row.
"What's your name?" Schrader asked with a smirk. Kevin got a bit of a closer look at him. He seemed like the rocker type, with a thin layer of black eyeliner under his eyelids.
"Kevin," he nodded awkwardly.
Chris smiled, "I'm Chris, Connor's best friend."
The other one who's stayed silent, wearing a Chiefs shirt smiled, "I'm James," he pointed to Chris, "That one's boyfriend."
"I'm Eric," Schrader nodded, "No ones boy toy."
Kevin smiled at Eric's comment, "Nice to meet you guys."
"How'd you meet Connor?" Chris asked.
"My roommate introduced me to him."
They all exchanged looks of confusion, "Who's your roommate?" James asked.
"Uh..." he tried to remember his last name, "Arnold… something. I can't remember his last name."
"Cunningham?" Eric offered.
"Yes! Arnold Cunningham."
"He's your roommate?" James asked.
"Does he have a bad rep or something?" Kevin was a bit confused.
They all shook their heads before Chris started to explain, "He's a pathological liar. A really nice guy, just a liar."
Kevin nodded, "I got the warning from Connor."
They all nodded in understanding. Then, they went to start explaining everything Kevin needed to know about the class and what he needed to catch up on. They were in the middle of reading A Clockwork Orange and how they were analyzing it and the note taking that went with it.
One at a time, each of them showed Kevin their note books and sticky notes from the book. For a small book, they took a lot of notes for it. To Kevin's surprise, Eric took the most notes out of all of them. The rocker-esk guy of the group had the most done for the book.
From school, they dove into talking about themselves. Eric was going to be an English major in case his band didn't work out. That was only if his band didn't work out. Kevin was surprised to hear that he had his future well planned out. If his band didn't take off by the time he was 27, he was going to drop it and become an English teacher.
Chris scoffed at Eric's plan, then went onto explain that he was taking all hard classes so he could be a museum curator when he graduated college. He loved to learn and knew all sorts of fun facts about any given topic no matter what it was. He continued on by saying he already had a job as an intern at one of the local museums and had to go after their class ended.
With a smile, James kissed Chris's cheek, gushing about how much he loved brainy guys. Then he went onto say how he'd love to be a professional baseball player, but couldn't because he wasn't good enough, or so he thought in his mind. So he would settle for teacher and baseball coach at a high school or middle school.
Kevin felt stupid when it finally came his turn to explain his future. He didn't really have much planned out. He wanted to major in English that was for certain, but he didn't know what to do with it afterwards.
Then Kevin finally brought up something he'd been wondering about since Chris made the comment, "Who's Steve? The guy you said for Connor to say hi to for you?"
Eric and James both looked at Chris to explain. Chris sighed and looked at Kevin, "Steve is Connor's boyfriend."
"You make it sound like it's a bad thing that they're together," Kevin said with a light laugh.
"That's because it is," James added.
He stopped laughing, "Oh."
"Steve isn't the right kinda guy for Connor. Connor's to fragile and breakable for a guy like Steve Blades."
"Steve Blades? That sounds…"
"Menacing?" Eric suggested.
"Torturous?" James asked.
"God awful?" Chris questioned.
Kevin nodded with wide eyes, "All the above."
Chris rolled his eyes, "Steve isn't right for him… at all… I don't know what that boy sees in Steve, but he won't listen to any of us when we try to tell him to break up with him. He's probably just scared or something."
"Scared of what?"
"Scared that he could possibly hurt him," James answered for Chris.
"Is it an… abusive… relationship?"
Chris nodded, "Yeah. It's sad really. Connor's just too afraid to break up with him."
"That's… sad…" Kevin responded, kinda sad himself.
Eric scoffed, "I keep offering to beat him up for Connor, but he keeps saying no…"
"Because he knows you'd do it, Eric," James responded lightly.
He nodded, "Damn right."
Before they could continue their conversation, the teacher walked in. Kevin got a good look at him. In his own opinion, he looked liked one of the accountants in the Producers who always sang "unhappy". The man had slick black hair that was parted to the left, glasses, plain blue tie and a nice shirt.
"Mr. DiLanzo, we have a new student!" Chris called.
"Send him down," he answered in a monotone voice.
They all nodded to Kevin to go down to meet him. He was a bit awkward going back down the stairs as he headed up to his desk. The teacher met Kevin's gaze just as he approached his desk.
"And you are…?"
"Kevin. Kevin Price."
He nodded, "Kevin Price. Kind of a bland name."
"Excuse me?" Kevin was a little confused with what he was saying.
"What is it? Two syllables?"
"Three, sir."
He nodded, "Right. Well, I'm sure that the trouble makers in the back filled you in with what we're doing, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
Mr. DiLanzo handed him a copy of the book and Kevin quickly denied it. DiLanzo gave him a look over his glasses.
"I uh, have a copy back in my dorm room."
"I'll mental note that, but you'll need the book today. Bring it back to my desk at the end of the lecture."
"Yes, sir."
"Good. I except that you are up to pace with the rest of the class by the next time we meet."
Kevin nodded.
"You are excused."
Kevin nodded again and headed back up the stairs. This is going to be a fun class… he thought. Day one, class two, get ready for an hour of half of hell… Kevin sat down next to Eric again and he started taking notes on the book in his notebook. The others let him be and went back to arguing over something. Kevin didn't know what, he was tuning them out.
One thing he couldn't get off his mind was Connor and this Steve Blades fellow. It bothered him, and he didn't know why…