It's All About Reputation.

"So, what happened between you and the fag yesterday?" Ray asked as we walked into school, like normal. It'd been a quiet morning for me, so Ray did most of the talking, muttering something about two girls getting into a fight sometime after school yesterday and how I 'totally should of fuckin' been there!' My head was in other places this cool and quiet morning. My head was swimming with thoughts of Alex and the kisses he had left lingering on my lips.. The nips and licks he had left upon my neck.. The way he made me feel.. I'd never felt like that before, let alone with a.. "James! Dude. You keep zoning out on me." Ray yelled. I looked around us to find we had stopped walking and were now in the building, though we were earlier than usual, so we still had time to talk.

"Sorry, Dude. Anyway, I went over there and.." I smirked, thinking of a witty response. "I beat the crap out of him." I said with and cocky and confident tone. Ray's eyes widened slightly before a smirk also fell upon his lips.

"Fuckin' really, Dude?!" He shouted, earning a few furious gazes from a couple of teachers walking down the corridor beside us. I nodded, proud of my lie. "That's so fucking cool! How hard did you hit him? Does he have any nasty bruises or cuts?" Ray asked excitedly.

"A split lip that probably swelled pretty hugely, black eye.. Maybe. Stomach bruising, definitely and a few cuts in other places too." I said, still smirking. I'd thought this through pretty damn well, if I do say so myself, and well. I do...

"And he didn't get you at all? You're not marked.. Like, anywhere." Ray stated, confused. Well shit. "Did he even try to defend himself? I mean.. He's taller and bigger than you."

Take that, fucker. My head whispered. The prick.

"Oh.. Uh, he didn't fight back really. He threw a few punches, but I dodged them." I replied. Ray seemed skeptical of my answer for a second before patting my shoulder and smiling at me. "I may be small, but I'm quick.' I said, proudly. This will never work, you know.. My head whispered, but I shook the thoughts away. To pull this off, I'd have to be careful about seeing Alexander, if I did at all.

"I proud of you, Jamie. Now, I'm off to class, as you should be. Meet us at lunch, yeah? Normal place." He shouted, walking down the hall. I nodded before heading off to my own classroom, pride and cockiness still lingering in my thoughts.

What have you got to be proud of? The fact you didn't beat up a helpless and suicidal gay guy? Get over yourself.

***

The 'Normal place' Ray had mentioned had been the place our friends would meet, sit and eat lunch with ever since I joined this school. It had been the first place I had met Bob, Matt, Brendon and Alex, my friends, and it was the place I headed to after Math class. This 'place' was towards the back of the school field beside a huge tree that we all liked to sit under. Bob, Matt, Brendon and Alex were all already sitting under our tree when I walked over to our group with Ray and each of the guys greeted us.

The first of the guys I had been introduced to out of our little group was Matt. Matt was extremely tall, had dark, short raven hair and green eyes. He was a previous friend of Ray's and I shared a couple of classes with him, but he was much brighter than me and the rest of us, so I didn't see him as much as the others. He was quiet but seemed to randomly pull jokes out of nowhere most of the time, shocking us all when he would speak, but sending into fits of laughter when he did.

Then there was Bob and Alex. I met them both at the same time as they met Ray. It was at a party one night Ray had invited me to. Bob and Alex were closer to one another than they were to the rest of us, but it never caused any problems. They were very close and had been friend's since their early childhood, so it was understandable how they acted from being clumped together so often when they were younger. Bob looked the eldest out of all of us, in my opinion. He was bulky, blonde and had a stubbly face, whereas Alex had darker hair, not quite black but a very dark brown, and was like a stick. He was the skinniest of us (though he'd eat the most), and had long arms and legs.

Alex and Bob both had lip piercings on the right side of their lips and Alex had a small scar from where he'd had his nose pierced, but he'd taken it out and it hadn't quite healed over completely.

Finally, there's Brendon. He'd only started hanging around with us a couple of months ago, but we had all clicked with him as soon as we met him. He was hilarious but had a very dark sense of humour most teenagers understood and had. He wasn't very smart, but he was creative and could make the best excuses and stories up you could ever imagine.. He was the creative one of the bunch, you know? He was also one of the better looking of us, though we're all pretty damn attractive, if I do say so myself.

I sat down next to Brendon and crossed my legs, waiting for a conversation to unfold. I wasn't exactly a conversation starter, though I was the loudest in the group...

"So, did anyone else hear that our dear little Jamie beat the absolute crap out of some gay kid yesterday?" Ray asked the group, grinning. They all cheered and began asking questions of the fight and I filled each of their heads with my lies. The only one not to ask any questions, or even talk was Brendon. He seemed in a world of his own..

"Bren, you okay?" I asked him. He looked up from his fixed glaze on the grass and nodded.

"I'm fine.. But don't you ever get sick of fights?" He asked me, looking up to the others now, too. "Don't any of you? You can't all go around beating the crap out of anyone who has a different opinion to you, you know.. It's not right." He spoke, aggressively. I looked down and away from him, ashamed, while the others laughed.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks you're being a prick.

"What the fuck's gotten into you Bren? You're not a fag too, are you?" Ray asked Brendon. Brendon looked down. "Because if you are, we'd all love to know so we can.. help you out. Got it?" Ray threatened. Silence overcame the rest of the group as we all watched in fear for Brendon. He nodded, slowly. "Good."

Since when did Ray become such a mega-prick? Poor Brendon..

Poor Brendon, indeed. "Ray, I can't walk home with you today. Mr, Fuck face gave me another detention." I said, trying to resume a normal conversation. Ray nodded and nobody spoke for the rest of our lunch.

***

Lies had become a very frequent thing for me lately. It soon seemed that every word to fall from my mouth had been a lie, apart from that of which I told Alexander. It was funny, because most of the time, I was lying about Alexander, but never to him. I wanted to be completely real around him, yet to everyone else I seemed to hate the guy. It was a strange feeling, caring enough about someone to never lie to them, but to lie to save them from others.

Basically, I lied to Ray again. I hadn't been kept behind that day by some random teacher. I just didn't want him to see me with Alexander again, and therefore, I waited. Much liked he'd waited for me the first time he'd come to see me after school. I waited for a while, knowing he'd turn up eventually, but then realizing I'd just left him the other night... I realized he probably had no intention of seeing me. Weirdly, this angered me. I'd been waiting for 45 minutes when I finally received a text.

'Sorry for not showing. I didn't want any trouble.. And it seems you don't want any more either. Forget everything I told you, it's no longer important. - Alexander.'

I re-read the text a couple of times to actually make sure it said what I thought it did.. More anger flooded my thoughts as I began walking home. "That fucking little bitch. I don't need him anyway. I don't need anyone. I'm too good for them. If he doesn't want me, he's not going to get me." I angrily muttered to myself.

James, come on.. He's just a little scared.

"No. I don't care anymore." I said, feeling my phone vibrate in my pocket again, signalling I'd received another text. My hopes suddenly rose when I thought it could be Alexander apologizing and asking me to go and see him or something, but they dropped again when I'd seen that Ray had sent the text.

'Dude, Jessica has a friend called Beth and she wants to double date with us. Cinema, tomorrow night. Help me out here. Come with? - Ray.'

I thought about it for a moment before replying. I could make this work to my advantage.. I could get back at Alexander. I could get this chick to be my girlfriend or something, it'd totally work out! I'd make Alexander jealous and see what he's missing without me.

James, that's silly.. Why would you even want to make Alexander jealous, he might not even be attracted to you? Unless, of course, you're attracted to him...

"Fuck off!" I shouted, approaching my house. A smirk fell upon my lips. "It's just to screw with him. And besides.. it's just harmless fun, okay?" I whispered, opening the front door and stopping after I closed it to reply to Ray.

'Love to. Is she hot? - James.' I sent, walking into the living room and falling back onto the couch, still smirking at my devious little plan.

This can only backfire, you know..

'Of course. - Ray'