The Last Good Thing About This Part of Town

It was the first day of my senior year and I was running late as usual. I desperately needed coffee in order to endure the first day of torture. It didn't really help that I had a massive hangover from the kickback that my friends had the night before to celebrate the last night of summer.

“Ahh I see this is how were going to start the year Ms. Porter” My first period teacher said as I walked into class about 5 minutes after the late bell.

“I wanted to make an entrance Mr. Martins” I shot back right away.

“Well just take a seat Nicolette” he said obviously annoyed with me already.

I noticed someone near the back of the class laugh a little at my remarks to Mr. Martins while everyone else just snickered or rolled their eyes. I had never seen him before and even though I didn't like or talk to everyone at school, I still knew everyones face.

There was a seat open to the left of him and with curiosity taking over my mind, I walked over and plopped myself down right next to him.

The first day of classes are always the teachers going over rules and the syllabus if you were in Advanced Placement classes, which all of my classes were. So Mr. Martins talked for about 40 minutes and after he was finished he let us have the rest of the 10 minutes we had left of the period to talk.

I know it seemed like I was really confident and could just gather myself up and talk to the guy that had laughed at my smirky comment to the teacher in the beginning of class, but I didn't really know how to start talking to him.

He was wearing a pair of black ray bans over his eyes, listening to music with one earphone in. He was covered in tattoos, very fit, dark red hair and a beard, wearing a black “Hail Satan Drink Coffee” Shirt, black skinny jeans, and black boots.

I was thinking of something to say before he turned to me first and surprised me with a soft, slightly higher pitched voice that definitely didn't match his face.

“He seems like kind of a tool bag”

“He’s not really, I’m just always late and he’s always really annoyed with me for it. I had him for Trig 1st period last year”

“Ah I see." He shook his head a little. "Is that a real place?” He asked, referring to my Bad Ass Coffee cup, looking a little confused.

“Oh yeah! And I would say it lives up to its name” he laughed as I took a drink of my iced coffee and I noticed how nice his smile was. It made made me smile and bite my lip slightly after I put my cup down. “Maybe I should take you sometime” I said trying to make more conversation.

“Yeah for sure. I’m free today if you wanna just swing by after school.”

“I actually can't after school. I have cross country practice” I said kind of regretfully.

“A runner. Not really what I was expecting from someone who comes to the first day of school hungover” He said with a light laugh.

“That obvious huh?”

“Nah, I’m just really good at telling when someone had a wild night. It’s kind of my super power” He said as he just grinned widely again.

“Yeah I’m not really looking forward to practice later. I need at least 10 bottles of water to even make it through a 6 mile run” I said to him. I knew I wasn't lying either. This practice was going to be so brutal.
“So whats your story? I know everyones face in this school and yours is definitely new.” I asked him.

He just had a smug look on his face as he just laughed. Just then the bell rang and he just said “Well, I guess you're just gonna have to wait to find out”

As he got up and started walking out, I sat in my chair for a second smiling and I remembered I never got his name. I called out to him “Can I at least have a name for this new face in my memory?”

He did a full 180 to look at me as he was walking out the door and said “Andrew, but everyone calls me Andy” then he turned back around and walked into the hallway.