Chapter 3

“You really were the life of the conversation during break.” Valda sarcastically stated as we walked down the corridors after school. We were headed to the library to meet the debate and quiz team. I still didn’t know if I wanted to join them or not. I thought that me actually seeing them would finally make up my mind, at least that’s what I hoped.

“I did try to warn you, sorry you had to sit through that with me.” I jokingly apologised.

“I think I’m going to skip tomorrow and the rest of the week then.” She replied.

“Take me with you then.”

“Hell no. You might be the most silent person in that group but for some reason they’re attracted to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“We always ran into one of your friends the entire day. Even when we were just changing periods we still managed to run into one of them.”

“The school isn’t that big and I do have some periods with each one of them.” I explained.

“True but what about when we were literally on the opposite side of the school from where their class was going to be?”

“Coincidence?” I was beginning to question it myself now that she pointed that out. I always got one of them in the hallways no matter what. I never thought anything of it besides it being a coincidence and the school not exactly being a massive building you could get lost in.

“Maybe.” She agreed as we stopped in front of the library doors. We opened it up and found some students seated at the tables, most of who I knew but there were some new faces from the younger grades that I didn’t know.

“Now that’s a face I never thought I’d see in here again.” Geoffrey stated when he saw me. The two of us used to be partners when it came to quizzes and debates. Whichever event he was apart of so was I. I had to admit it, we did work well together despite our clear mismatched personalities. Then again, my personality, or lack thereof, didn’t exactly match anyone’s yet there wasn’t many people who I struggled to actually get along with.

“That makes two of us.” I replied as I approached the tables with Valda following behind me.

“You deciding to join us again?” Geoffrey asked but I could hear the excitement in his voice.

“Maybe.”

“That’s not fair. Many of us had to pass a test to get in so why can he just come and be in the team.” That was one of the boys I didn’t know, he was probably a junior. I didn’t pay much attention to them since I hardly had any interaction with them anyway.

“What kind of test?” I asked.

“A quiz but you can choose the category.” Geoffrey informed me.

“Okay.” I agreed as I shrugged my shoulders. “She’s joining as well by the way.”

“What’s your name?” Geoffrey asked her.

“This is Valda. Valda meet Geoffrey.” I introduced them.

“Nice to meet you. You have beautiful eyes.” Like I said, Geoffrey and I had completely different personalities.

“Thank you.” The unsurety in her voice put a smile on my face. It was so out of character for her to be uncertain of herself.

“Okay, let’s start. There’s the list of categories you guys can choose from.” He pointed to the list of categories theatrically pasted on the wall to his left. There was one that I instantly gravitated towards. I looked over at Valda and she had an interesting smile on her face, almost as if she welcomed the challenge on the wall.

“History.” I called out.

“Biology.” Valda added.

“You seemed like you enjoyed yourself today.” Mandy told me as we sat in my lounge and relaxed after we came from school. This wasn’t unusual since they lived a couple of houses away. They also knew that my dad was never home before 7 so I’d be alone until then which really didn’t bother me but my friends decided that it wasn’t good for me to be alone after my mom died and now it was just expected that one of them would be here or I would be by one of their houses. I appreciated the effort though and I was glad that I could always count on them.

“It was just a normal day.” I replied as I heard a car pull up in front of the house.

“Your dad’s home.” Mandy stated as she looked out the window at the police car probably parked in the street.

“He probably forgot something.”

“Sounds like you.” I immediately rolled my eyes at her but I knew she was right. Me forgetting something was so natural that me remembering anything was celebrated; another reason why I hardly spoke in the group I guess.

“Afternoon guys.” My dad greeted us then rushed down the hallway to the kitchen probably.

“So you and Valda, spill.” Mandy ordered me as we returned to our conversation.

“Nothing to spill.” I shrugged my shoulders then watched my dad putting something into one of his pockets on his uniform.

“Lies. I sensed a bit of chemistry between you guys.”

“Hudson has a girlfriend again?” My dad asked barely paying attention to us as he slowly made his way to the door fidgeting with the small light on his uniform.

“For the week at least. Whether or not he can keep her after that is yet to be determined.” Mandy replied.

“I have no interest in her whatsoever.” I stated.

“Why not? Maybe it will be good for you to get back out there.” I loved my dad’s innocence but sometimes, if he could just read the room, I wished he could not say anything.

“I knew I liked you Mr T.” Mandy happily stated knowing that she got exactly what she wanted. Her calling my dad ‘Mr T’ is something my mom actually came up with. My dad had to give a presentation at my primary school on a few occasions so he wanted to ‘engage with the kids’ and my mom suggested that he allow them to call him Officer T since our surname started with a T. After that it just stuck and now most of the children at school call him Officer T or Mr T depending on the situation I suppose.

“I’m going to be working late again today so what do you want me to bring you for dinner?” My dad asked me.

“He’ll have dinner with my family but you should try the chicken pasta at The Den. I know you’d enjoy it.” Mandy answered before the question could even register in my brain. I knew that fighting her once she made a decision like this was useless so I just gave my dad a nod as he smiled at my disinterested face.

“I’ll give it a try then. Don’t stay up too late tonight.” My father told us.

“Be safe tonight dad.” I replied before he walked out of the door.

“So back to you and Valda…”

“Just give it a rest already. Nothing is going to happen between Valda and I.”

“Where did you take her after school then?” How did she know about that?

“I drove her to the apartment in town her family is living in.” She looked more confused by my answer but quickly recovered.

“I was talking about where you guys went after last period but please continue.” She was definitely more interested now. I loved Mandy like my sister but she irritated me just like a sister would.

“Look, Valda is my responsibility for the week so I was just trying to be kind. She’s new to the city as well so I didn’t want her travelling home alone. We might live in a safe neighbourhood but the rest of this town is not as safe.” I explained.

“And you say you don’t care about her.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“So you do care about her?”

“Why do you have to be so irritating? Now I understand why Martin prefers spending time with Jessica over you.”

“Martin and Jessica just need to get over their egos so don’t even go there because they make me tired. You and Valda…”

“Can you just stop?”

“Fine.” She unwillingly agreed, “I just want to say that it’s nice seeing you interact with anyone besides us. I’m glad you’re getting along with her.” ‘Getting along with her’ was a bit of an exaggeration. Talking to her felt like a battle with each one of us trying to get the upper hand all the time. At least she had some interesting views, that was one of the only reprieves I guess. She had a brain and wasn’t mindlessly trying to get unnecessary information from someone unlike some people I knew.

“She’s interesting.” I finally replied.

“You finally going to bring down that mountain you put up between you and everyone else?” Why was everyone so obsessed with ‘fixing me’? I was okay, I really was.

“I don’t have a mountain between me and everyone else.”

“Can you remember the last time you even smiled with anyone that wasn’t one of us? Today was literally the first time in years I saw you genuinely enjoy talking to someone and not just blow them off.”

“It doesn’t mean that I like her.”

“I don’t care about you and Valda. I was just happy seeing you today because I finally saw a glimpse of the person you were before, of the boy I weirdly looked up to.”

“You looked up to me?”

“Yeah. I love my brother but he isn’t exactly a role model and Felix… you just had everything in your life perfectly sorted and controlled. I mean, you were kind and funny and welcoming and really made me feel like I had place in the group even though I’m younger and not in the same grade as you guys. You even had the perfect balance between your friends, school, studying and your girlfriend. When your mom died, you were still you and still kept that perfect balance. I guess losing your mom and your girlfriend leaving was too much.”

“I’m not going to lie and say that Heidi leaving me after my mom died didn’t mess me up but I was still there.”

“You were still with us but you were barely a fraction of yourself. Do you know how much work these past two years have been just trying to have a normal conversation with you?” I really didn’t know that Mandy felt this way about me. Like I said, she was always a sister to me but I didn’t realize that I had such a big impact on her life.

“These past two years have changed me but I still care about all of you even though I might not show it as much.”

“I know, I was just worried about you. You closed yourself off so much that I didn’t know if you were ever going to get back to the person you were but I’m glad to see there’s still hope.” This was the Mandy I liked; honest and caring. She had this ability to make me understand my mistakes but still accept me for who I am and that’s what I loved about her. I was always scared that someone might come along and hurt her over and over again knowing that she’d accept that person despite their faults.

“I can’t promise that I’ll ever be that person again but I can promise that I’ll always be there for you.” I gave her a smile and I was glad that she had one plastered on her face now as well.

“Let’s just go to my house already. I’m pretty sure my mom is finished with the food by now.” Mandy stated as she quickly stood up. One thing that was consistent with her; she hated feeling so ‘sappy’.