Indifference (boyxboy)

6. Bend Your Legs and Drop

Ryan

I forgot. Again.

I realised the moment I stepped through the front door of my house and saw my mum squishing the cheeks of her grandaughter and cooing over how cute she was, reminding me of what Neil had said to Elijah earlier.

Yes, you heard that right. I was already an uncle. My irresponsible sister of just 19 had got herself knocked up by the local dickwad and was now in possession of a lifetime burden of regret. She was called Charity. What a fucking joke.

I immediately turned on my heel and headed back to school, not walking too quickly though, because secretly I kind of hoped that he'd have given up on me and gone home. And then tomorrow I could act all pissed off and be like, 'where were you? I waited till 5 o'clock'. Maybe I should take a photo of me standing outside the front gates as proof? Nah, that sounded too staged.

Despite it being nearly half an hour later than agreed by the time I got back there (yes, admittedly I may have stopped at the corner shop to grab a bar of chocolate) he was still standing there waiting.

I chuckled and shook my head as I walked over.

"Wow, you're really not going to give up on this are you?"

He turned to me with a frown.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, who the fuck stands here waiting for half an hour to help someone who basically doesn't even appreciate your help."

"How can you know you won't appreciate it, when you've not even let me help yet?" he asked.

The guy was infuriating.

"Fine," I replied, and gestured for him to follow me as I headed back home. "But just to warn you, you could help me get a fucking A+ and I'll still be an ungrateful little fucker."

I heard a grunt of displeasure as he scurried to catch up. "I'd settle with you just watching your language around me," he replied.

I turned to face him and gave him a look which I hope he interpreted as 'you bet your fucking ass I won't'.

Clearly he didn't because he kept yapping.

"Anyway, you can pretend all you want that you don't care, but you wouldn't have asked to see my paper if you didn't mind failing."

"Wow, you have all the answers, don't you," I shot back sarcastically.

"Yes, that's why I'm your tutor."

I looked across at him, expecting to see a smug look on his face, but there was nothing there. No emotion at all.

I let out a chuckle of disbelief which made him turn and frown like I was the one who was crazy.

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my cigarettes and lit one up. Straight away Elijah moved further away from me.

"Scared of second hand smoke inhalation?" I teased, purposely blowing some smoke towards him.

"Look, I have no problem with the thought of you dying a slow painful death, trying so hard to breath that you feel like you're choking on your own lungs. But right now, I don't want to go home smelling like I rolled around in an ashtray."

I knew his words were said to try to shock me, but it was nothing I'd never heard before. My dad smoked so I didn't really notice the smell. And who wanted to live into their 80s anyway? We all had to die of something.

We turned onto my street and I felt him tense up beside me.

"You live here?"

"Yeah, and unless you want to get the shit beaten out of you, I suggest you don't stare."