I'm New to This

Hey I’m going to Liam’s for the afternoon. Is that alright?

I text my dad as the whole group walk to Liam’s house. I’m towards the back, and I’m keeping to myself. I look up from my phone and see Liam at the front of the group, looking back. But when our eyes connect, he snaps his head forward.

I smile, because at this moment I think, this kid is weird. But in a good way.

I’m thinking this when, all of a sudden, our little group comes to a halt. For a second, I think that we’ve arrived at the house, but as I look around I realize that we’re still on the sidewalk. Trying to see what has made up stop, I take a few steps into the group, but I can’t see over all the tall boys who’re standing in front of me.

Giving up on that feat quickly, I turn to the girl who was standing near me; the tall one.

“Hey, what’s going on? Why did we suddenly stop walking?” I ask her. She notices me, then looks at me, then back at the front of the group. When she looks back at me, I can tell she’s hesitating on telling me, except I don’t know why.

“Uhm.. Football boys, that’s all,” she says. I look at her, confused about why ‘football boys’ would stop us in our tracks. But before I can ask her this, I hear a word that pretty much clears all my confusion in one instant.

‘Fag’

Then, as if on cue, the tall boys separate and reveal little ‘ol me. And I see the ‘football boys.’ The small group of about 4 boys stood blocking our way, with someone at the front who I recognized from the previous week;

"Then all of a sudden, a significantly larger boy bumps into me in a harsh way, the way where I almost fall backwards and have to take a step back just to keep myself standing.

“Fag.” he mumbles just loud enough for me to hear him."

That guy.

“So, you’ve picked up this little fag, huh? What, is he your little boyfriend?” the leader asks in a taunting tone. I look to Liam, who looks just about furious.

“Take that back, Benson!” Liam grits, keeping his glare fixated on this ‘Benson’. Benson takes a step toward Liam, as if he’s tempting Liam to take a shot.

“A little sensitive?” the boy asks, stepping even closer so that he and Liam are now having one of those unreal, movie-like glare-offs. I gulp, wondering why Liam is taking this as far as it’s gone. This is dumb.

“Take. It. Back.” Liam repeats. I watch as the boy makes a mocking face toward Liam.

“What are you gonna do, fuck me up the ass?” he taunts, laughing at the end and looking back to his friends, who laugh along with him. Liam doesn’t say anything, but just continues to stare at him. Benson then calms down and resorts back to glaring. He brings up his index finger and pokes Liam harshly on the chest. “Huh?”

And all in an instant, Liam lunges at Benson, throwing his fist in a rage, also letting out a sort of angry growl. Benson dodges the swing, but only because the other boys in our group grab Liam and stop him short. Liam struggles to break loose, but the boys have their grip.

“Fuck you, Benson! Go crawl back to your fucking shit hole and wank with your loser of a brother!” Liam yells, still unable to break loose. This strikes a nerve with Benson, because he refutes with a unkempt shout.

“Keep my brother out of this, Kirtley!” he almost yells, obviously holding himself back.

During the fueled argument, I turn to the girl again.

“Are they fighting over… me?” I asked the girl. She looked at me and shrugged.

“We don’t really get along with those guys. Their dickheads.” she put simply. I nodded.

“But their initially fighting because he called me a fag?” I asked.

“..Yeah,” she said after a thought. Then she began to mumble to herself. “But I don’t know why Liam is getting so worked-up over it…”

After she says this, I roll my eyes. “This is dumb.” I repeat.

I can feel her gaze on me as I take a step forward. And then another, and then another. And both groups watch as walk forward, past Liam and Benson and onward. I just keep walking.

“Felix? Where are you going?” I hear Liam call after me. I catch Benson chuckling.

“Where’s the fag going?” he calls to me, even though he’s asking Liam.

I just stop and turn back towards them. I look at Benson for a moment, then turn my gaze to Liam.

“Let’s keep walking, it’s not like they matter.” I say. Waiting and still standing, I watch the two groups process this. When my eyes get back to Liam, he’s smiling wildly at me.

Liam shakes off his friends who’re still holding him, and turns to Benson with that smile.

“That’s right: you don’t matter!” he says, giving them a skeptical look and walking towards me. I give Liam an approving smile.

And as Liam makes his way to me, others in our group follow and soon our whole group begins walking again, the girls giving the ‘football boys’ some fierce dirty-looks.

When Liam catches up to me, he throws his arm around my shoulders, laughing like a madman. I can’t help but laugh with him as we walk at the head of the group.

“Sorry about those dickheads,” Liam says once we’ve separated. I shake my head, smiling still.

“Nah, nothing I can’t handle.” I say. The tall girl catches up to us.

“That was wicked!” she exclaims with an ecstatic smile. I smile back at her.

“Thanks!”

There’s a moment where the group sort of applauds me for my ‘heroics’ and ‘balls’. I feels really nice because I definitely feel more in tune with this group, but it’s still embarrassing at the same time. I mean, I can’t just let Liam fight over me. That’s just…

I won’t let that happen.

Plus, we aren’t even to Liam’s house yet. Where, might I mention, Owen also resides.