Popular Jerk

Chapter Seven// Her Boyfriend?

Every passing tree blurs into ten.

The journey home exceeds the time taken to arrive, it taking ten times as long to get home.

Nathan's lips haven't parted since we got into the car. With a silence drowning his words it is hard to comprehend his emotions, the blank in his eyes along with the flat of his lips not much to go off.

Out here there is no signal. As a result of being on a single road down the empty country side, the radio has no connection, adding to the painful drag of our ride home.

I go to speak but have nothing to say.

I was the one to cut our date short. Insisting we go home. Lacy's words had hurt, more than I let out to show. But with the rotation of her words revolving around my brain in the silence, the more I realise they are true.

Nathan pulls onto the kerb outside my house ten minutes later. Just like before, he exits the car the way he got in- silence. I step out onto the pavement and watch as he stands by his door. His eyes don't even graze over me with his attention over in the next garden.

Michael is stood at the end of his drive, a basket ball in one hand with the other combing through his hair. He doesn't see us. That is, until Nathan calls his name.

"Hey Mike. Pass it here." Energy regains in Nathan's bones the instant he locks eye contact with Michael. Nathan catches the ball mid air and shoots the ball into the hoop. "Did you just see that? Watch and learn chump."

"Nate that was wicked! Toss it over."

Nathan flings the basket ball into the air with one hand which Michael then dripples up to the hoop. They play off of each other with a competitive beam widening their smiles.

I watch from the distance of the top of my drive. From my corner view I spectate the game Nathan is giving his all. Their voices ring in the air and their cheers circulate the whole front lawn.

"Hey there." A voice speaks out of no where.

"Do I know you?"

The boy places down a tray of drinks on the brick wall that separates mine and Michael's garden. His eyes pierce blue, sharp with a radiance as bright as a crystal blue ocean. The pigment in his eyes outshines the whole of his face, the length of his hair dark which curls at the ends.

"Aron." He shakes a lock of hair over his forehead. "Paige. Right?"

"You now my name."

Well of course he knows your name silly, he just said it.

"Yeah I do. Was home when you came to see my brother." Aron throw is head in the direction of Michael. That is when it all comes together.

"Oh so you are Michael's brother, Aron."

We stand in silence for a moment until he laughs. I join in and try to shift the awkwardness gleaming from my face like a neon sign.

"So you're Michael's friend, ah?"

"Something like that." The stealer of my boyfriend's attention works too.

Oh God, why is this affecting me?

"He can be a total nerd at times. I'm just glad he decided to shoot some hoops. Had this thing in the garage for like over a decade. Normally he's too busy cleaning his figurines or shit."

I look at Aron as his eyes look at me.

Nathan had looked at me the same way just an hour ago. As he fed me chocolate strawberries consoling me as I softly brushed away my tears, he gazed at me like one look could fix my heart. One smile, the way Aron now has me giggling at. But something in the moment of seconds had changed his mood, which is now reclaimed with the bounce of a basket ball to his new best mate.