Start a Revolution

Drew.

I could feel a large flush move from my head to my toes in a matter of seconds as John and his two friends squeeze into our booth. I put a hand on Mitch's shoulder protectively, as if my sworn enemy was about to kidnap him.

"You okay there, Hemingway?" he asks, his eyes flicking over to me. "You look like you just swallowed a set of hot coals." The smirk on his face burned into my brain.

I felt my mouth tighten into a thin line. "What do you want, John?"

"No need for hostility," he scoffs, opening his menu, not even glancing at it. "There are children present. And speaking of..." he looks down at my little brother, who I immediately try to cover, "what's your name?" John asks, a genuine smile on his face. I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion.

"Mitchell," my sibling answers, his head inclined upwards to be able to return John's stare. "I'm three years old."

I clear my throat. "Mitch, what did I say about talking to strangers?"

He glances up at me. "But if he is your friend, is he a stranger?" I could just sense the smug smirk on John's face, which I choose to ignore.

"Speaking of friends," I mock my enemy's earlier comment, "who are these gentlemen?" I wave toward the boys who accompanied John into our booth. Lisa was already talking to one of them, which she stops once she hears me referring to them.

"This is Kennedy," John says, pointing to the dark haired one, "and Pat." This one had long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He had a boyish charm about him.

"And who is this?" Kennedy asks, a smirk on his lips, as he looks down at Lisa.

She grins as his arm goes around the back of her seat, and she subtly leans back into the gesture. "Lisa," she answers, tucking an errant piece of her hair behind her ear. "I'm Drew's friend. You probably never've heard of me seeing as she is all John talks about."

"Nu-uh!" John protests.

"Yeah-huh," Pat contradicts, sliding his eyes to me from behind his menu.

John just grumbles and goes back to looking at his food choices. I shift in the booth, swiping a hand through my bangs. I felt a tad uncomfortable eating pizza with John O'Callaghan, but he didn't look to be trying to sabotage or embarrass me in any kind of way. So I push it away just as the waiter comes back to our table.

"I see your party has grown," he says lamely, pulling out his pen. "What will you all have tonight?" I connect eyes with Lisa, asking her if we could leave, but she ignores me and returns to flirting with Kennedy.

"Three pizzas," John suddenly speaks. "One cheese, one pepperoni, and one Hawaiian."

"Hey!" Mitch exclaims, his half-way toothless grin beaming at John. "My favorite is Hawaiian!

John grins, his eyes flicking to me in his peripherals. "Me too!" he gives my little brother a high five. "What else do you like? I like baseball."

"Me too!" Mitch shrieks, utterly delighted.

I roll my eyes. How the fuck is John O'Callaghan getting along with my little brother? Isn't he like, programmed to hate anything or anyone associated with my family? So why is he acting so civil toward Mitch? Maybe he's finally coming around....I snap that thought away. It's probably because he's three and John doesn't want to be a jackass in front of a child. That has to be it.

"So, do you go to Corona?" I hear Lisa ask Kennedy, his arm still around the back of her seat of the booth. It was ghosting her shoulders. "I don't see you around."

"Yeah, we go there," he shrugs. "But I only transferred over a couple months ago."

"Why'd you transfer?"

I make sure John was still getting along with Mitch before listening back into Lisa and Kennedy's conversation. "My other school sucked," he chuckles. "But I made buddy-buddy with John over here and he asked me to be in his band. So I transferred to stay close."

I couldn't help the shocked look that came over my face. "You're in a band?"

The question was directed at John, who looked up at it, but Pat answered. "Yep," he says, popping the P. "Two years now. But we're still looking for another guitar."

I nod slowly, my expression still puzzled. "You okay there, Drew?"

I snap my eyes over to John. Did he just call me Drew? He rarely ever calls me by my first name. Very rare for him to do so. I don't ponder too much on it. "Just surprised you're in a band," I shrug. "What do you do in it? Do you stand in the back and sway?" It came out as a light joke, but a flash of hurt went through John's eyes. My brows crinkle again.

"No, I sing."

Once again, I was hit with a bullet I wasn't expecting. John can sing? Or maybe he just thinks he can sing. I feel a smirk pull at the left side of my lips.

"I'll be the judge of that," I snort.

Our pizza arrived then, quicker then I expected, and we all greedily take pieces for ourselves. I cut Mitch's into small pieces for him, giving him a fork to eat with. We make small, easy talk as we eat, not venturing too far into conversations since John and I were "sworn enemies." Which was getting hard to maintain with how civil he's been toward me lately.

"So, why do you and John have such a beef anyway?" Kennedy asks.

Both John and I freeze. We had just been talking about the pep rally from the other day, so how did Kennedy suddenly jump to this topic. I let my eyes glance at John, who was stiff and had dropped his food back onto his plate.

"No reason," he answers, clearing his throat. But his voice was like ice.

"I never actually learned the reason," I shrug, trying to lighten the tension up. Lisa was giving me a blank stare. "I don't know about John though. It's mostly our families doing. We don't have much to do with it."

John once again didn't supply anything as Lisa easily changes the subject to Prom. I roll my eyes before sneaking another look at O'Callaghan.

He wouldn't return the stare. Instead, he was scowling at his pizza.

What's his deal? Does he know of why our families hate each other?