street fights

semi-decent friendship

Teresa's POV

I woke up and took a few strawberries from the kitchen and hoped to have a better day than yesterday. I looked at the phone and saw a note by it saying I didn't show up for class yesterday.

I groaned and got ready for a day that was hopefully going to be better than yesterday.

I opened my locker and saw my stuff thrown in there that I discarded yesterday.

"I put your stuff in your locker." Dallas said walking next to me. "Felt bad, I guess."

"Oh. Thanks." I said, unsure of how else to respond.

"Yeah. See ya." He said walking away.

I sighed. "Wait, fine. I'm sorry. Thank you for getting my stuff. I owe ya one." I said.

"Cool. If you wanna pay me back, skip school with me."

I laughed. "Woah, hang on. Skip school? Don't you think that's kinda a big favor? And a little extreme?"

"That's what you did yesterday. And I'm gonna be completely honest with ya, I don't think your mom or your dad or whoever watches you cared if you skip school."

I sighed. "Fine. Where we going?"

He grinned. "You hungry?"

"I could eat. But I don't got any money."

"Don't worry about it."

"Wait, you aren't gonna steal, are ya? I don't wanna get arrested again."

"Yeah, like you didn't steal that granola bar yesterday."

"How did you-"

"I got cash. Come on." He said cutting me off.

We walked in silence for a little bit down the road until we almost made it to the diner. "So... I've gotta ask, why are you doing this?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"I mean, you take me out of school and now we're going out to lunch? What's your deal?"

"Just trying to be nice. Tryin' something new for once."

I rolled my eyes. We walked inside and sat down. A waitress came up to us. "Shouldn't you two be in school?" She asked.

"We have the day off." I quickly said. "Uhh... we go to private school. Our parents said we could come down here." I muttered.

"Alright. What would you two like to drink?"

I don't think she believed me. Probably not one bit. But I didn't really care.

"Nice lie." Dallas whispered. I rolled my eyes. "Do you think your friends would be worried you didn't show up to school?" He asked.

I groaned. "No. I don't have any friends. Is that what you wanted to hear? Cause you seem to know too much about me already."

"I didn't know. Just wondering. The first time I heard of you was when you ran into me behind that dumpster."

"Oh." I said, unsure of what else to say.

"I was right though. Your parents won't care if you skip?"

"Yeah. My mom just wrote down yesterday I skipped and drank so much she forgot about it."

"What about your dad?"

"I don't know my dad. It's just me, my mom, and my sister."

"Oh. It's ok. My moms not around much either."

It was an awkward conversation between the two of us about our family. Obviously we both came from rough sides of town.

We ate and I just wanted to leave. I don't know why he felt obligated to do this.

"Alright. Can I go now?" I asked putting my fork down.

"Alright. Fine. I get it. Maybe I'll see ya around." He said.

I looked at him before getting up. "I just don't get it. I'm obviously not a very nice person. You clearly aren't either. Why are you acting like this?"

"Cause I also want a friend. Yeah, it sounds corny, but I'm all I got right now. So I figured I'd try and expand my horizon."

I looked at him trying to get a read on him. Did he mean it? I couldn't tell.

"I feel like you know more than you're letting on." I muttered.

"Maybe I do. Maybe I don't."

I rolled my eyes playfully. "Y'know, I'm actually ok with this. You wanna be friends? We can be friends. But I've gotta tell you, I'm hard to be friends with. I'm not good with people, you could say."

"That's alright. Me neither."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, then I think this is gonna be the start of a semi-decent friendship." I said with a laugh.

He grinned. "I guess it will be."

We walked down the streets and I tried to be less awkward about the whole thing, but it just was. I mean, some random guy I barely know wants to be my friend.

"Look." He said.

"What?" I asked.

"Those guys up there."

I groaned. "I hate those guys." I muttered.

"You know them? Friends?"

"As if. That's Ben, Robert, and Jason. They found it funny to shove me in the fountain at the park a few months ago." I muttered.

"Why?"

"I dunno. Just 'cause?"

"They're looking for a fight. Can you fight?"

"No way. Are you insane? I'm not doing that." I said crossing my arms.

"C'mon. It's not like they're adults. They're our age. You never though about getting some revenge on them?"

"I would. But I can't. I don't like fights."

"So you can't?"

"Can't fight? I can. I just won't."

"Prove it."

I grinned as he walked in front of me, hoping he didn't notice.

What's just one street fight?

We walked up to them and Ben started laughing. "Look, it's Little Tessie! Still can't swim?" He asked. They all joined in the laughing.

"You guys looking to start something?" Dallas asked.

They all laughed. "What, you think you two could beat us three? You're outnumbered. And you've got a girl who can't swim!" Jason yelled.

"I bet we could."

I looked at Dallas and back at them, only to realize Ben wasn't there. I turned around quickly and saw him from behind.

I swung my fist at his jaw and he toppled over a bit. He certainly didn't expect that.

Robert went to Dallas and Jason and Ben had me.

I was done for.