Anything for Us

October. Yes, a month had already passed into the new school year. Nothing all that exciting had happened, to be honest. Just school, basketball and Dakota flirting with me every chance he got. Nothing out of the ordinary. I have one class left before lunch, Italian, but it’s in a different building to the main school building, meaning I had to walk outside and across a forecourt. Luckily, Zach’s in my class (because apparently he thinks Italian is the language of love and wants to learn it too) so at least I have someone to walk with.

As we left the main building, I noticed a group of freshman crossing in the opposite direction. Like, a good 30 of them. But what made me keep looking was the fact that Hendrix was standing on the edge of the group, no-one talking to him. What the fuck?! Dakota never mentioned that Hendrix hadn’t made any friends. Unless…unless Hendrix hasn’t told Dakota. Fuck. I need to do something about this.

“Save me a seat?” I said to Zach.

“Sure thing,” Zach nodded, not questioning me.

I fixed a small smile onto my lips and walked over to where Hendrix was walking.

“Hey Drix. How’s everything going?” I asked warmly.

Hendrix shrugged. That told me all I needed to know. Everything was shit.

“Do you want at sit our table at lunch today?” I asked.

Now I know a few kids heard that, because I heard gasps.

“R-Really? You wouldn’t mind?” Hendrix asked softly, looking up at me.

“Of course not! You’re practically family, you know that,” I laughed.

“Thanks Angel,” Hendrix said gratefully.

“Any time. See you at lunch!” I said cheerfully.

I squeezed his shoulder before walking towards school.

“Oh my gosh, you know Angel Lewis?”
“That’s so cool!”
“Do you want to be my partner in Chemistry today?”

Well, that went better than I thought it would. Sure, a few people would try to befriend Hendrix just because he knew me, but the initial surge of people showing interest in him will give him confidence, and he’ll be able to pick out the people that genuinely want to get to know him. Hendrix isn’t stupid, he’ll figure it out. If Dakota knew that Hendrix didn’t have any friends after a month of being here, then he’d blow a fuse, so it’s better that I deal with it. I think.

*

“H-Hey guys,” Hendrix said nervously, holding a tray with his lunch on.

“Hendrix! Sit down, buddy,” Zach grinned, nodding to the seat next to me.

I’d told Zach and Yasmin of my plan to help get Hendrix friends, and they’d agreed to help to. The more the merrier, right? Hendrix blushed slightly but did so, smiling at Yasmin.

“Hey, Drix,” I said warmly, ruffling his hair.

He smiled sweetly up at me.

“How are you finding ERHS? Is freshman year going alright for you?” Yasmin asked sweetly.

I was distracted from Yasmin starting a conversation with Hendrix because Dakota sat down next to me…with another guy on his other side. For fuck’s sake. This means Dakota’s keeping the guy around for more than one fuck. No more than two weeks, mind you, but it still means I have to remember their name. Fucking hell, Dakota!

Sometimes I worried that Dakota would want to keep his weekly fling around for longer, a more permanent fuck, but so far this hasn’t happened. I really hope it doesn’t happen with this guy. Slightly wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, a tan…and a massive smile. Fuck, this kid is way too eager, even for Dakota’s tastes.

“Everyone this is Joey. Joey, you know Angel, Yasmin and Zach, right? Ooh, and my baby brother Hendrix,” Dakota introduced.

“ ‘m not a baby – I’m taller than you,” Hendrix grumbled, picking at his salad.

I laughed softly, taking a bite of my chicken. I’ve missed Hendrix’s sharp retorts.

“Hi everyone!” ‘Joey’ said cheerfully.

Only Yasmin replied. Zach rolled his eyes at me, smirking slightly. Yeah, he knew this one wouldn’t last long either. It didn’t take long for Dakota to be sitting on Joey’s lap and making out with him, so I turned my back slightly to be able to block it out as much as possible.

“Why is everyone always so eager to talk to you, Angel? I know you’re awesome and everything, but I don’t understand,” Hendrix said suddenly, frowning.

“That’s because you’ve had me around all your life, Drix. You’re used to my awesomeness and you actually know me. No-one outside this table, not including Joey, really knows much about me,” I explained, smiling slightly.

“But what do they want to know?” Hendrix asked, confused.

“About my family. About the divorce. About the money. About my dad’s job at American Vogue. You know, the stuff they don’t have,” I mused.

They know that my parents divorced when I was 14 (I went to middle school with most of these kids so they noticed when only my dad started showing up to parent-teacher conferences) – but they don’t know that the divorce was because my dad announced that he’s gay and that he’d been hiding it most his life.

They also know that my twin brother Rocco went with my mom back to Italy because of the divorce (when he didn’t come back after middle school, they figured it out) – but they don’t know that he left with her because he was an angry little shit at the age of 14 and decided that Dad’s sexuality wasn’t a good enough reason for him to destroy our family.

They know that my dad works for American Vogue as a photoshoot director and gets loads of free designer clothes and stuff for me (not that we can’t afford them anyway) – but they don’t know that he had an article written about him by a certain Scott Richards a year ago and that sparked a fiery romance that led Scott to move into our house this summer. If they ever got ‘married’ or whatever it’s called by law these days, Scott would have to take our name, or my dad would be Richard Richards – and that’s just stupid.

They don’t know the hurt and frustration and fucking betrayal that I felt from my own twin choosing to leave me. They don’t know the anger I felt at my parents tearing apart the life I’d known. They don’t know the deep fucking hate I have for my mother for making what could’ve been an amicable break-up into world war fucking three. They don’t know that sometimes I wish all of it had never happened, so that I could have my whole family back again.

There’s so much the kids of this school don’t know, and that’s how I’m going to keep it.

“Well that’s just stupid. You’re just a normal guy, like all of them. I mean, you are super cool, but they don’t have to drool all over you to find that out,” Hendrix said, rolling his eyes.

Yasmin, Zach and I all looked at each other, before bursting into laughter.

“I think you’re going to fit into this school just fine, Hendrix,” I said between laughs, patting him on the shoulder.

“Thanks,” Hendrix beamed, “Oh, and Kota? Do you reckon you could stop swapping saliva with fuck-of-the-week please? I want to be able to eat my lunch without throwing up,”

Why haven’t I asked Hendrix to eat lunch with us before?