Whatever You Say

I opened my eyes after their footsteps had disappeared just around the corner. As soon as I found my glasses with my hands, I placed the crocked screens in front of my eyes. My hands shook slightly. “D-damn, imbeciles,” I muttered. I could barely see. I stood up, stumbling and took my bag with me.

I poked my head around the door frame and looked around for any members of The Hive, but they didn’t seem to be any—just a few other students walking around.

I glided through the millions of trophy cases. There were about every sport known to man, but The Swimming Team. We were probably the worst in the school. Even The Ping-Pong team laughed at us. The Ping-Pong team! Though, everyone laughed at me. I got in around two years ago. They still sucked before, but once I got in, they started believing I brought them even more bad luck.

When my feet reached the bus stop, my eyes caught a pair of pigtails swinging impatiently. They turned and Susanne’s eyes went wide.

“C.J.!” She reached my jaw with her hand and I flinched in response. “They did this to you?”

I nodded and took Susanne’s hands off. “We’re gonna have to walk. I don’t want people to bother me.”

Susanne looked around, her pigtails swinging around once more. “We had to, anyway. The bus already left.”

I nodded again, I put my bag over my shoulder and saw that Susanne bent down to reach for around five books that were scattered all over the floor. I bent with her and picked a couple of them myself. Then we started walking. The walk was probably around fifteen minutes away. Not that far, really, but our parents just refused to take us when they had to work so early.

She stared into my eyes, noticing the glasses. "I think you're going to have to buy a new pair."

"I have an extra in my room," I told her.

She nodded.

“Does it look that bad? I didn’t get a chance to look in a mirror, worried that you were here by yourself,” was the first thing that came out of my mouth when we started turning on the second block. I didn’t see very clearly, but I could still feel her face turning to me again. “By the way, tell me if there’s something I might bump into, please. I already bumped into three walls and five doors,” I added, causing her to giggle.

She grew silent quickly. “You have some smudges all over your face, and your lip is split. Not to mention that extreme lift up yours pants did over your belly button.”

“If luck is by my side, we can make it quickly enough for you to help me cover this up with make-up or something.”

“I don’t use make-up,” Susanne reminded me. Right. I forgot.

I thought quickly. “Mom’s.”

We stopped at my house first and hurried to the stairs. I told Susanne to wait in my room while I looked for some powder stuff my mom uses to cover up her red spots. Susanne spread some of it on the affected areas right after I washed my face to get some dirt out.

Then, we stood in front of the mirror and stopped when we thought it looked just around all right.

I took the make-up from her hands and rushed to my mother’s room, bumping into someone.

Fuck.

“Wow, C.J., you finally admitted to yourself that you were gay. Now all you have to do is tell the world what they already know and you won’t feel a slight piece of guilt.”

I scoffed at my older brother. I pushed past him and put the make-up on a small make-up bag that was on top of the bedside table.

“C.J.! Rehan! You guys home?” my mother’s voice called.

“Yeah!” I returned. “Susanne’s here, too, Mom.” I started walking back to my room, but unfortunately bumped into my brother again. This time he was scaring Susanne off. She looked terrified of the guy, I would be, too. He was tall, strong and captain of The Football Team over Ring High which happened to be at the other side of the neighborhood. Our mother was very open, so she let us choose our school. My father wasn’t too convinced, though.

Of course Rehan wouldn’t want to be seen with his geeky brother.

“Hm, guess you’re not so gay, after all—wait, Susie isn’t much of a straight girl, anyway, right?”

I opened my mouth, but Susanne beat me to it. “It’s Susanne,” she corrected him. “And, no, I am not into girls.”

Rehan laughed. “I’ve never seen you give head before, so that’s still up for discussion.”

Gi—“Give head?” I muttered to myself, but Rehan’s ear caught it.

“You wouldn’t know what it is, Loser.” He left after that and Susanne just stared after his back.

I was pretty sure he and Éirin would get along just fine…