Distractions.

Part 2.

I could see Jess and the group from where I was sitting and I could plainly see that everyone, bar Jess, was staring at me curiously. Probably wondering why I wasn’t sitting with them. It didn’t take long before Pete walked across the concourse towards me.

“Where have you been lately? And why aren’t you sitting with us?” Pete asked curiously, sitting down beside me with his can of Pepsi.

“Around. And I’m just not,” I answered, biting into my apple.

“That’s hardly an answer, Gerard!” he exclaimed, frowning at me.

“Nothing, alright? Just leave it!” I snapped, glaring at him. I immediately felt bad after seeing the wounded look on Pete’s face.

“Dude, sorry I even asked.” He got up to leave.

“No! Pete, wait!” I called. He turned around and looked down at me but made no move to sit back down.

“Look man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you, I’m not in a very good mood. I’ve had a bit of a bad day so far,” I explained, quickly. Pete’s face softened and a smile spread across his lips again.

“It’s cool. I don’t reckon you should sit by yourself though; you might get mauled by girls, sexy.” He winked.

Cheeky little fucker.

“Nice, Pete,” I grumbled.

“Just wait a moment and I’ll get the guys and we’ll come and sit with you.”

“No, just go and sit with them. I’ll be fine on my own.”

“I’m not taking no for an answer so put up with it,” Pete replied firmly.

I gave up, watching him walk back to the group that was still missing Ray. I don’t know where he or Frank were. Usually I would have been too busy being annoyed at Frank to even notice anything else. Not this morning though; I’d only seen him for a couple minutes just before. Looking up, I noticed that I was suddenly surrounded by most of the group; Worm, Patrick, Bob and Pete.

“Hey guys,” I mumbled. “Where’s Jess?”

“She said she had some homework to do and went to the library,” Bob answered, sitting down in the circle that had formed.

“Oh.”

The comment set all the guys off, talking about the most ‘unfair’ teachers who gave out ‘too much’ homework. I never had any trouble with it. But I guess that’s what happens when you’re really smart and had no social life apart from the date with the library in your house.

I sat silently, listening to conversation absentmindedly until it came back around to Jess.

“– yeah, Jess’s going to start getting in trouble if she keeps on with him.”

I caught the end of what Patrick was saying, picking up on it only when I heard Jess’s name.

“What about Jess?” I asked, now alert.

“You know how she’s going with that new guy, Sam, yeah? Well, she’s been wagging class and stuff like that with him lately. We’re all worried about her. It doesn’t exactly help that you haven’t been around,” Patrick replied, scepticism in every word.

“Oi! Patrick, cool it. Leave Gerard alone. He’s not Jess’s fucking ‘Guardian Angel’ and he might have some stuff of his own to deal with, so lay off,” Pete growled, unexpectedly coming to my defence.

“I’m just saying that it’s a little coincidental that she started all this shit right after Gerard stopped sitting with us. You and I both know that she’s not going to the fucking library; she’s probably gone with that stupid son of a bitch and is gonna wagging class. So don’t you fucking tell me to lay off,” Patrick retorted, glaring so intensely at Pete that I wanted to hide.

“We all know that you like Jess but blaming other people is not the way to go, Pat,” Bob said calmly. “You can’t blame Gerard for this. It was Jess’s choice to get involved with that guy and wag class with him.”

Patrick sat silently, a frown on his face. I wanted to go and give him a hug and tell him I was sorry, but somehow I don’t think that would be appropriate at all; he was already mad at me.

“Look, Patrick, I’m sorry,” I whispered, causing everyone to look at me as if they’d forgotten I was even here. They probably had. “But there’s not much I could do anyway, Jess is mad at me and won’t speak to me. She told me not to come near or talk to her at all.”

Everyone fell silent, letting this sink in before Worm, speaking for the first time, asked if I knew why.

I shook my head, “No. Not really.”

“Sorry to interrupt our little debate or whatever it is –”

“Discussion,” I said, interrupting Pete.

“Whatever. Shut up, Gerard. But I have a question: where the hell is Ray?”

“Last I saw him he was in the locker rooms but he didn’t follow me out,” I answered, glancing over my shoulder towards the gym.

“Oh. Well maybe he’s talking to Miss Thomas?”

“Yeah, probably,” I said, knowing that he wouldn’t be.

There was a short silence between us all the only sounds that came from any of us was the chewing of food.

“Hey, who’s the guy walking over to us?” Pete whispered. I thought it was only to me but everyone seemed to answer whit shrugs and small grunts of ‘no’. I was the only one who knew who it was.

“Yeah, I know him. That’s Frank,” I answered softly, trying to hide a small smile that had appeared on my lips.

Frank stopped right next to me and said hello to everyone as if he did every day and then turned his attention to me. “Hey Gerard, will you come and sit with me?”

“Uh, Frank. I can’t leave these guys,” I whispered, though I was well aware that the guys could hear me.

“Go and sit with him. We’ll be okay,” Pete said, obviously confused.

“Are you sure?” I asked, looking around at all the guys worriedly. They all nodded so, with a small sigh, I stood up and followed Frank away.

“Is there a specific reason why you want me to sit with you?”

“Yes,” Frank answered. I waited for him to elaborate but he didn’t. “Careful of the step.”

“What ste–”

Suddenly I was flying forward, only to be caught by Frank.

“That step,” he laughed.

Once I had righted myself Frank continued through the building we were now in and I followed, all the while grumbling to myself about his lack of specification.

We walked all the way to the other end of the building, where Frank finally stopped and turned back to me. He raised his pointer finger to his lips and made a barely audible shushing noise. Confused, I followed him the last few steps to one of the art rooms.

Stopping in front of the door, he motioned me forward and pointed in through the little bit of glass located in the middle of the door with an apologetic expression. Shooting a quick look of confusion at him, I stepped forward and looked through the window.

My mouth was quickly agape.

Jess and Sam where in there making out with not many clothes on…