Steam Punk Goggles and Ink Stained Hands

BARRONE’S POV

~

It felt weird to actually be sitting with people at lunch, rather than just on my own, under whichever stairwell was currently unoccupied. Drew included me in the conversations in as many ways as possible and I could tell that his friends were trying to make me feel comfortable as well, but I just wasn’t used to being around people, especially people who actually want to talk to me. I was sure I’d get over it in time, but it knew it would take a while. Thankfully, even though I was the newcomer, the attention wasn’t focused on me. Instead, it was focused on Kier and Laurence, who seemed to be having an argument over a girl named Vicki.

Lunch had started out as you would expect it to; we complained about the quality of the canteen food while Drew introduced me to his close friends, the only one who appeared to be missing was the repeatedly mentioned Vicki.

“So yesterday, Vicki and I went to see this movie called After Earth and it was really good! There was a couple of jumpy bits though but it was really funny ‘cause we both jumped and like, grabbed each other? But yeah, it was really good and we like, shared popcorn and stuff and-” Kier said in an excited rush before an annoyed sounding Laurence cut him off.

“Can you please stop with the girlfriend talk for five minutes?! You don’t have to mention her all the time; we know your together and all happy, okay?” Laurence snapped, probably sounding ruder than he intended.

“Wait, what? What’s wrong with me talking about her?” Kier retaliated, sounded pissed off.

“Nothing, it’s just that we don’t need to know absolutely everything about everything you two do together!” Laurence replied, sounding irritated and also slightly… hurt?

“Well exuuuuuuuuuse me! Didn’t realise I wasn’t allowed to talk about people who make me happy!” Kier shouted at him.

Oh great, people are looking over at us!

“If she makes you so goddamn happy then why don’t you go see her?” Laurence said with a glare.

“I would’ve, but I wanted to spend time with the guys and you - my so-called friend who isn’t acting much like one!” Kier fumed.

“Maybe I’ll just leave then!” And with that, Laurence rose from the table and stormed out of the cafeteria, leaving our table open mouthed. I didn’t know Drew’s friends particularly well, but from what I’d heard, Kier and Laurence were the best of friends and never fight.

“I’m going to go see him, find out what all that was about, okay?” Drew asked, excusing himself from the table and heading off in the direction that Laurence had gone.

I turned my attention to the two other people still at the table, Kier and Luke. It felt slightly more awkward without Drew there, but not unbearably so. Kier seemed to sense my slight discomfort, and smiled easily at me. He just shook his head lightly in the direction that Laurence and Drew had gone in and huffed before perking up again; I’d sensed a change of conversation coming.

“So, I heard that you and Drew hung out after school yesterday… and he sounded rather pleased over the phone, what happened?” Kier grinned, shifting as close to me as he could with a table inbetween us.

Good guess work, that was.

“Um, well, we went to this park Drew goes to for a bit and um, we were jumping off the swings and
umm, I fell over and then, he helped and me and we, um…” I don’t know why I couldn’t just talk normally to Kier, he seemed like a really nice guy, someone who I could actually talk to without feeling judged.

“Yes?! Then what happened? I know there’s gotta be something if you’re blushing!” he teased, reaching across the table to tug at my sleeve slightly.

“Well, we, um, kissed” I practically whispered; Kier still heard me though.

“Really?! Oh my God, that’s amazing! Are you two going out now?” Kier asked gleefully. I noticed that Luke had yet to comment on the issue, he was just sitting there with a little smile on his face.

“Well, no…” I murmured. I’d been thinking about this most of the night; I wanted us to kiss again if I was being honest with myself, but did he?

“Well, do you want to be?” Kier asked, looking at me with caution, like my answer was going to affect how he felt about me.

“Um, yeah” I admitted, looking up at him through my fringe. I was actually a little relieved when he beamed at me across the table, like if I would have said no he would have been mad at me.

“Well then, why don’t you ask him?” he smiled across at me, reaching out to squeeze my hand in encouragement.

“What if he says no? Or doesn’t like me back?” I asked, wanting to know what one of Drew’s closest friends thought on the matter.

“Trust me, just… ask him, okay?” He grinned, his tone kind. It made me want to trust him.

“O-okay then” I breathed, a sudden burst of encouragement flowing through me because of what Kier had said. I stood up from the lunch table and thanked Kier, before grabbing my bag from the floor and starting to walk out of the canteen. I only stopped when I felt someone pull at the back of my shirt and yank me back gently. Turning around, I saw that it was Luke who had pulled me back. He leant forward slightly and started to speak but quietly.

“You seem like a good guy, and I’m sure you’ll be good for him. The only word of warning I’ll give you is not to hurt him, ‘cause I’ve seen him hurt before and I won’t see it happen again, okay?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me to add effect, the threat implied but not spoken.

“Of course not! He’s too perfect to even think about hurting!” My response seemed to please him as he smiled and let go of my shirt.

“Off you go then, go get yourself a boyfriend” he cheered, making me grin as I exited the lunch hall with one intention – to make Drew mine.