The Next Day, 7:20 A.M, Cafeteria...
Yesterday had been a pretty eventful day for Mr. Price. He had finally made a breakthrough. Alexa was seemingly warming up to him. He had ended up staying in her house until about 7 at night. The funny thing is, he probably would've stayed longer if it wasn't for the fact that his dad got home from work around that time. If he caught his son coming out of the neighbor's house at that time, Shane would have to explain a lot of things, and he was not too fond of that idea. It seemed like he had made some progress with Little Miss Bliss, and he was pretty happy about that. The only problem is, now he's gotta explain to his friends why he wasn't in school. The truth wasn't an option, of course. Alexa would kill him if he mentioned anything that happened that day. Straight up murder him. As he was trying to think of an excuse, the big man himself decided to show up.
"Look, he's returned from hiatus! Dude, where were you yesterday? Coach Helmsley was flipping out because you weren't at practice. You know we have a big game this week." Big E inquired.
"I had- I had to take care of some personal stuff. No big deal." Shane answered nervously.
"Personal, huh? What, did Cash find himself a little lady friend who needed some, you know, attention?"
Shane panicked.
"What?! No, why would you think that?! Nope!"
Big E put his hands up.
"Whoa, chill bro. I was just joking, calm down. I got you. I won't ask you if you don't wanna talk about it."
On the inside, Shane was celebrating. He had just dodged a bullet.
"Thanks, E. Well, what about you? I heard you had a run in with Braun yesterday over some stuff."
"Oh, God. I'm still pissed about that. Apparently someone told him that I said I could out lift any day of the week or something. Dude ran into my homeroom and challenged me to a strongman contest. Of course I couldn't say no, because then I'd look like a punk. Now I gotta train for that, along with my regular football workouts. Man, I don't know who told him that, but when I found out, that person's dead. I promise you that."
Shane had to stop himself from laughing. He already knew it was Dean, and he was so tempted to just tell him. The thought of an irritated, muscular teenager coming after his nefarious best friend was hilarious to the boy.
"I feel bad for whoever it was. So, am I screwed when I go to practice today?"
"Yeah, pretty much. He's probably gonna make you run 2 miles around the track, and do like 100 push ups, along with the regular stuff we gotta do. You're in for a long afternoon, friend."
He groaned in response.
"Fuuuck. I'm gonna be a corpse by the end of it. Oh, speaking of death, I heard Dean tried his luck with Alicia Fox yesterday. Is he still alive?"
"Surprisingly, yes. In fact, I had the displeasure of seeing them make out in front of the school when I went home after practice."
"Oh, lucky you. Jeez, that didn't take long at all."
"He's your best friend, man. You know better than anyone that he's the king of impulsive decisions. The boy literally walked out in the middle of class because he was bored once."
Shane laughed.
"Yeah, I just hope this one doesn't get him seriously hurt. I heard Fox is a fucking crazy person."
"You heard correctly. The last guy she dated transferred to another school, just to get away from her."
"Why?"
"Because, after they broke up, she stalked him every single day until the last day of school. Man was afraid for his life. Hell, I don't blame him. That girl's got issues."
"Well, I'll be praying for him. I feel like he's gonna need all the help he can get."
Big E nodded.
"God have mercy on his soul."
At that moment, Shane's phone started ringing. He looked at the caller I.D and his eyes bugged out.
"E, excuse me. I gotta take this. I'll be back soon."
He then ran out of the cafeteria.
"Wow, must be an important call. Probably his dad or something." Big E guessed.
Outside the cafeteria...
"You didn't tell anyone anything right?!" Alexa yelled over the phone.
"No, I didn't. Chill out."
"Okay, okay. I'm just, really stressed out right now. I still don't know how I'm gonna go about this."
"I still think you're freaking out over nothing. Look, just act natural."
"But natural for me is being a bitch! I'm trying to change that, remember?"
Shane lowered his tone a little.
"Listen short stuff. Don't worry about it too much. All you gotta do is come to school, and be a lot more mellow. People will just think that you were becoming a little more mature. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"Stop using that comforting voice. You know it always works on me. Okay, I guess you're right. I'll try to calm down."
"That's great, Alexa. Are you almost here?"
"Yeah, I'm about 15 minutes away."
"Good, see you then."
"Oh, and one more thing. Stop calling me short stuff!"
She hung up and Shane had a big smile on his face.
He walked back to the cafeteria and sat with Big E once again.
"Why so happy?' The big man asked.
Shane came up with a quick lie.
"Dad called and said he's making tacos for dinner tonight."
"Ooh! Nice! Love me some tacos, esse. They so bueno!" Big E said in a rather poor attempt at a Mexican accent.
"Uh, Ettore? Never do that again. That shit was terrible."
Big E waved him off.
"Whatever man, you're just a hater."
