Status: [INDEFINITE HIATUS]

Different yet Always the Same

New Company.

Soon enough, Dane found himself in his last class of the day—English. It was the only class that he and Rachel shared together. When arrived to the classroom he found her seated in the back of the room, scribbling into a notebook. Dane smiled to himself and took the empty seat next to her.
“Hey,” he greeted, forgetting her abrupt departure during lunch.

“Hey,” she replied nonchalantly without ever glancing his way.

Dane frowned at this. Was she upset with him? What had he done to upset her? If anything he should be the one upset after the way she ignored him during and after lunch.

“Hey, Rachel, what’s wrong?” Dane asked, not wanting anything to escalate further.

Rachel dropped her pencil and finally turned to face him. On her face was a confused expression. It was nothing like Dane had ever seen before. He was at a loss of words.

“Nothing,” she replied, sighing heavily. She stared at her best friend for a few moments then returned to her notebook. The teacher had already begun to speak. But Dane didn’t let that stop him from trying to get through to Rachel.

“Rachel, why are you upset?” he asked in a whisper. “I should be the one upset since you know, you ignored me the whole lunch hour.”

“I did not ignore you,” Rachel replied. “I’m just confused about a lot of things.”

“Well then, let me help you. What’s wrong?” Dane pestered some more.

“It’s nothing that you can fix, Dane,” Rachel replied.

“Do you want to hang out after school and we can talk about it?” Dane offered.

Rachel shook her head no. “I’ve made plans already with Delilah, Alice, and Kayla to work on homework after school.”

Dane waited patiently for the part where Rachel would invite him to join her and her friends after school. It never came. Pretty soon, the last hour of school was over and the final bell rang. Rachel hopped out of her chair as quick as she could and was out the door before Dane could get his things together.

-

The sky was dark that afternoon. The clouds were gray and threatened a storm—not that Dane minded. His thoughts were muddled as he stared up at the tormenting cloudy sky. Dane was lying on his back in the field that he and Rachel would always meet in after school. Today, he was alone. She was with her three new friends and she hadn’t invited him. Dane felt like it was the beginning of the end. All he wanted was to lay in that field and remember the times he and Rachel had.

“Care for some company?” a voice said interrupting his thoughts.

Vicky’s face towered over him, obscuring Dane’s view of the sky. He stared at her with a blank expression while she stared back with a bemused one. Her hands were on her hips making it seem as if she were about to lecture him.

“Excuse me?” Dane asked.

“You look lonely and could probably use some company,” Vicky replied as Dane sat up.

Dane shrugged. The only person he had ever spent time with was Rachel. Outside of that, he wasn’t exactly sure how to act. People had so many different expectations that it was sometimes hard to keep up. Having just to worry about Rachel’s expectations made things easier.

“This is an interesting place. Do you come here a lot?” Vicky asked.

“Used to,” Dane admitted. “I don’t think I’ll be coming anymore.”

The thought of being at the field without Rachel sort of hurt Dane. He just didn’t want to think about it.

“That’s a shame, it’s really peaceful. Why don’t you think you’ll be coming around here anymore?” she asked.

“I shared this place with my best friend since childhood… and now she’s sort of moved on from us,” Dane said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Vicky raised her eye brows at him, “Is this girl Rachel Lyons?”

Dane looked at Vicky and nodded. She rolled her eyes at him, “Rachel is a waste of time. I know her type. Childhood best friend with the social outcast until she hits high school. She becomes popular, changes and forgets her best friend. I’ve seen it happen many times.”

Dane felt himself grow a little angry. He quelled it quickly and stood up, “Rachel is not like that. She’d never throw away our friendship.”

Before Vicky could get a word in edgewise, Dane had already stalked off into the distance.

Vicky gave an exasperated sigh, “Boys…”