Six

"What are you saying?!" Tyler asked frantically.

"I'm saying that you got drunk and humiliated yourself in public."

"How, exactly?!"

"Why do you keep yelling?" I asked making a face.

"Just answer the question."

I sighed and narrated the events of the previous night to Tyler.

"Why didn't you stop me?" Tyler asked at the end of my narration.

I raised a brow. "What?!"

Tyler opened his mouth to respond but I beat him to it. "How was I supposed to stop you when I had no idea of where you were?"

I paused for a few seconds, as if waiting for a reply but continued before Tyler could give one. "Did you expect me to follow you around to make sure you didn't do anything stupid?"

I was beginning to sound like my mum again but I didn't care. "And more importantly did I force you to take any form of alcohol?!"

I paused again glaring at Tyler who looked like a puppy that couldn't make it home before the rain started to pour heavily. "No!! You took the alcohol on your own, meaning that it was your choice. So how exactly is any of this my fault?!"

The next thought that came to my mind was, 'Wow! I am wonderful at scolding, I should do it more often.'

I was also beginning to understand why my mum did it so frequently, it was fun.

"Did anyone take video?"

I looked at him with disbelief. "How could you even ask that? Of course, everyone present took either videos or pictures or both. I would have too,  if we weren't friends."

"Typical." Tyler hissed.

*~* ~* ~*

The weekend passed by as fast as it always did and it was the ever so dreaded Monday again.

Mrs Peter was taking Clarisse for her job interview, so she offered to take me to school along with Tyler since the venue for the interview was not too far from our school.

Most people appreciated kind gestures like this, but not me, because it entailed getting to school extremely early.

I jogged out through the front door,  when I heard the sound of Mrs Peter's car horn and almost slipped on one of the stair steps. I muttered a few anger-filled words to the stairs before entering the  car.

"Good morning Mrs Peter." I greeted.

"Hi Jason."

"Hiiii!!!" Came a high-pitched voice  from the passenger seat.

"Hi Clarisse." I replied with a small smile.

"I hope you didn't forget anything." Mrs Peter inquired.

"No, I didn't." I replied.

With that she pushed down the accelerate-pedal and the vehicle swung into motion.

"I'm sorry we're late. We would have been much earlier had it not been that Tyler forgot something. And because of that we had to go back home again before coming to pick you up."

Earlier?!!!

The first period starts by 8am and according to my wristwatch, it was 7:05am. What could possibly be earlier than this?!!!

I now understood perfectly why Tyler was always in school when I got there.

"It's no problem Mrs Peter." I replied.

I turned to Tyler who sat at the backseat with me, he was staring out of the open window absentmindedly.

"Dude," I called, tapping his shoulder. "Are you okay?" I asked with concern.

"Yeah." He replied without turning away from the window.

A few minutes later, the car halted in front of our school, Keegan Contemporary Academy. Tyler and I came out of the car and bid Mrs Peter and Clarisse goodbye.

"I wonder what today holds for us." Tyler said dryly, staring at the massive building.

"Something worse than last week." I replied.

We stood there for a few more seconds before walking into the school building. 

As we walked through the hallway, I could hear the whispers and giggles clearly.

"Isn't that the guy in Kate's video?"

"I can't believe he came to school, he should have transferred out or something."

"Oh my God! The cave man decided to put on some clothes." *laughs*

"This guy is so disgusting."

"Who's that guy with him, isn't he irritated."

"Cave man!" *loud laugh*

'Why whisper if we're still going to hear what you said?!!!' I yelled angrily in my mind.

I turned to Tyler when we got to my locker and managed to smile "See you later."

"Yeah." he replied flatly and left for his locker.

I let out a sigh and opened my locker. I stuffed my bag into it and picked out my Algebra textbook.

A hand suddenly tapped my shoulder "Hey."

I jumped in surprise and hit my temple, hard on my locker. I turned  and realized it was Tyler. "Why are you here?!" I asked angrily, rubbing my temple.

"Because, I couldn't take the overly loud whispers and continuous laughter around me.  Plus there was a picture of me from the party glued to my locker. Also, someone decided to do a beautiful painting of the word, Cave Man, on my locker just below the picture."

"So?"

Tyler looked slightly annoyed. "So I came here to get away from all of it."

Just then a group of our classmates passed by and one of them asked "Hey! What did you have for breakfast, cave man? Raw fish?" His question was followed by loud laughter.

I turned to Tyler with a raised eyebrow "Hmm..." I hummed, "how clever."

"I'm not in the mood for your sarcasm, Jason."

I was about to reply when another hand tapped my shoulder "Hey."

I jumped in surprise and this time I yelped. I turned and saw Claire standing with a confused look on her face.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you?" She asked.

"Oh! No! Far from it." I replied, running my fingers through my hair. "I  was just... surprised to see you."

"Really?!"

"Yes."

"Alright." She replied slowly, eyeing me suspiciously. 

"So, are you going to introduce me to your friend?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, sure. Tyler this is Claire. Claire, Tyler."

"How's your arm?" Claire asked, examining Tyler's arm with her eyes.

"What?!" Tyler asked with raised brows.

"Your arm, you injured it." She replied looking up at him.

Tyler still looked confused "It's fine."

The bell, indicating the beginning of first period, echoed through the hallway.

"According to your textbook," Claire said turning to me. "You should be heading to room 6B for your algebra class which is where I'm going."

With that,  Claire started walking away. I was about to join her when Tyler grabbed my arm. "Dude, how did she know about my arm injury?"

"She dressed the wound." I replied.

"What?!"

I loosened my arm from his grip. "You heard me. I have to go, Mr Shiver does not take lateness to his class lightly." I turned and jogged toward Claire.

"This is not the kind of information you leave out in a narration, Jason!" Tyler yelled after me.