Nobody's Boy

School was strangely regular; nothing had changed since last time I was there. No thrills, no excitement, no Sean.
“You okay Gavin?” Mathew asked me after school had swiftly passed, “You’ve been silent all day.”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Are you sure?” He kicked a stone down the road and stopped walking to turn to me, “Do you miss your father?”
My father used to own a small chain of hotels, passed down through the generations, but he sold them when I was young- to buy bigger hotels and spread the Butler family name across the world. He was like that, always wanting better things. Nowadays, he’s usually in America or Europe- but I don’t care. He’s not a very nice person.
I looked at Mathew, my best friend and saw the worry in his eyes. I knew exactly what to say,
“…Yeah, that’s right, I miss my father.” Mathew put his hand on my shoulder and smiled sympathetically,
“I’ll see you later, I have to get home,” he squeezed my shoulder, “Do you think you’ll be ok?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I fought back a smile and watch Mathew squeeze my shoulder again, sigh and walk down a different road towards his house. As soon as he was out of sight I laughed to myself and walked in the opposite direction, shaking my head.
I sauntered up the hill, dragging my feet. My thoughts drifted to Sean. I wonder what he’s doing. My thoughts were interrupted by someone pushing me to the floor,
“G-give me-e your m-money-y!” A boy, around 15 years old, stood over me brandishing a small blade. He was small and skinny, his clothes were worn and dirty and there was fear in his eyes,
“You won’t stab me,” I stated simply, and attempted to get up, the boy pushed me down again,
“D-don’t t-tempt me!” he stammered, his blue eyes shining with tears,
“Why are you so afraid?” I asked curiously, “You’re the one with the knife,”
“Please don’t make me stab you,” he shook his head, “I don’t want to stab you, I just want your money!”
“Easy tiger-”
“Give me what I want!” He snapped, I scrambled backwards as he thrust the knife closer to me. He sighed and threw the knife on the floor, muttering ‘I can’t do this’. He sat next to me and hugged his knees.
“I can’t believe I nearly got stabbed!” I gasped, holding a hand to my chest. The boy twisted his head and looked at me darkly,
“It’s all me me me with you people,” He reminded me of what Sean had looked like when I first met him; dirty, scruffy, skinny, “you’re shameless!”
I smiled at him warmly, feeling genuinely sorry for him, “My name is Gavin, what’s yours?”
He looked at me warily, but relaxed at the sight of my smile, “I’m…Aled, and I know what your thinking, but I’m not some poor little orphan boy who has to steal to make ends meet,” Aled turned to face me, “I ran away on my own accord and I am perfectly happy and healthy- so don’t pity me,”
“Ok,” I laughed at his abruptness. We sat on the grass in silence for a few minutes, before he frowned a little in thought,
“Did you say your name was Gavin?” I nodded at him, “Gavin as in Sean’s friend Gavin Butler from the big house on the cliff?”
“Yes- how did you know?”
“Oh, I just know Sean,” he shrugged, “he must have mentioned you,”
“Are you a friend of his?” I asked, definitely remembering Sean saying he had no friends apart from me. Aled smiled and shook his head,
“No, I just know his brother,” he looked at me oddly, “to be honest; I wouldn’t have ever thought Sean would be friends with someone. Especially you, Gavin Butler”
“And whys that?”
“Yeah, why is that?” Aled and I both swing our heads around to see Sean standing over us, “Story time’s over, Aled, beat it.”
I watched Aled scramble to his feet and scurry away, quickly, kicking up dirt as he hurried past us. Sean smiled and pulled me to my feet,
“Come with me,” he dragged me down the coastal path until we were on the board walk, a hundred yards or so away from the sea. Still holding onto my wrist, Sean hauled me into a small cave where the beach ended, almost directly underneath part of my garden.
Once inside the cave, Sean lead me over to a small pile of rocks, behind which was a box, no lid, filled to the brim with, well (how do I put it?), crap.
Sean must have noticed the look of confusion on my face, as he laughed at me and told me ‘not to worry’. He his hand slipped from my wrist into my hand and he sat me down on a rock, using his free hand to pull something out of the box of crap.
“This is yours,” he whispered shyly, handing me a small beaten up teddy bear, “I stole it and a bunch of stuff from your house about eight years ago and, for some reason, I couldn’t bring my self to sell the bear,”
“Uhm…thank you?” I questioned, taking the bear I’d so lovingly called ‘Squeezy’ when I was a small child. Sean looked down at his shoes,
“I’m sorry for stealing from your house,” I put my hand on his shoulder and said that it was okay. Only then did we both realise we’d been holding hands since we’d sat down. Simultaneously, we pulled back our hands and looked away from each other; I could feel my cheeks burning red.
Silence echoed around the cave as we both sat, embarrassed.
“I just,” Sean started a few minutes into the silence, “I just thought that I should give it back now we’re friends. No secrets, right?”
“No secrets.”