Take My Hand

The school day was like any other school day. Except for the fact that my mind had been obsessing over that Brendon kid all day. When I would finally get him out of my mind, I would see him passing by in the corridor or something, etching him into my mind once again. It was finally the end of the school day and I had managed to see Brendon approximately ten times during my walk to each class, exchanging awkward 'hellos' as we passed each other. I stayed behind in school, so that I didn't have to walk home with anyone. Besides it's always a rush to get out of school, turning all the students into savages, aggressively pushing passed each other basically turning the corridors into one big mosh pit.

I waited beside my locker, waiting for everyone to pass. As soon as there were no students left in the corridors I began to make my way out of the building. It was quite creepy to walk the school corridors alone, hearing the sound of your shoes squeaking against the lino floor, hearing the sound of your own breathing as if it was echoing off the walls. As I was walking I heard footsteps getting louder, I wasn't sure if it was my own or someones behind me. Never the less, I carried on walking and decided to ignore it, but soon after they sounded as if they got louder and closer. My pace began to quicken, the same time as my heartbeat did. I could feel someones presence behind me. As I was about to turn around, a person placed their hand on my shoulder making me let out a high-pitched shriek. It echoed around the corridors and I'm sure half of china heard me.

"I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Brendon stammered. There was shock written all across his face and I some how felt bad for him.

"I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to scare you neither." I chuckled slightly as I scratched the back of my neck feeling awkward in front of him. "So...um. Why are you here so late?" I asked, trying to make conversation, so that things weren't so awkward. We continued walking down the corridor in synchronization. One thing I was taught by mother was to be polite to people and converse with them, no-one likes an awkward silence.

"I could ask you the same thing." Brendon pointed out, cockily. He glanced at me quickly, with a smug grin on his face.

"I asked you first."

"If you must know, I had to collect all the text books for my last lesson with Mr Peterson, who addressed me as 'new kid'." Brendon replied, then stared at me waiting for my answer. After a few seconds of silence, he made hand actions as if trying to speed up my reply.

"What?" I asked, playing dumb. When I tried to do this, I could never manage to keep a straight face making it obvious that I knew what he was on about.

"Why are you so late out of school?"

"It may sound stupid, but I don't really like to walk home with people. So I wait inside the school for everyone to go, then when it's quiet enough I walk home. Obviously, my plan failed today since you're here with me, walking me home." I glared at him with fake evilness, making him smirk at me.

"Well, I'm sorry if I intruded on your privacy, but I don't like to walk home alone. You're going to have to put up with me." He smiled, that beautiful smile of his, making me melt inside. I cursed myself for having these thoughts, but I couldn't help it. "Why do you like to walk home alone?" Brendon asked. I stopped walking and firmly grabbed Brendon's shoulder stopping Brendon from walking too. He shot me a confused glance.

"Do you hear that?" I asked. He tilted his head upwards, while searching the street for the source of the noise.

"I don't hear anything." Brendon whispered, continuing to listen hard for the slightest noise.

"Exactly. The sound of silence. It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Not really. It's kind of scary." Brendon replied then continued walking down the deadly silent street. "So, are you a outsider or something? You seemed to have a lot of friends in that school."

"Yes, 'friends'." I said, making air quotations with my hands. "I know them all so well. I know why they like me and it's all for the wrong reasons. They know that my parents are loaded, that's why they like me. Everyone is the same in that school. Everyone is exactly like each other, like sheep."

"I'm not like everyone else." Brendon said, quietly. I only just managed to hear what he said.

"How would you know? You've only been in this school for a day." I looked at him confused. He stopped walking again, but this time he stopped me.

"I'm not like them. I'm different. Trust me." Brendon said with sincereness in his voice, as he slipped his left hand into my right. He stared down at me with his dreamy eyes. His eyes looked so serious, but not in a scary way, in a gentle way. I looked at him, then down at my hand in his, then back up at him. All of a sudden he realized what he was doing and abruptly let go of my hand, then rubbed the back of his neck showing that he was nervous.

We continued walking, like nothing happened. "Anyway, speaking your first day of school. Why did you come here?" I asked, not being able to stop myself from being nosy. My mother always shouts at me to keep myself to myself and not to intrude in any other peoples business, but that is one thing I can't stop myself from doing. I'm a naturally nosy person.

"My old school thought it would be best if I moved to this school." He replied, smiling slightly.

"Oh, so your parents didn't force you to move here or anything. My parents always force me to do things I don't want to do. They seriously suck sometimes. I bet your parents are way nicer than mine."

"I- I don't- I don't have any parents." Brendon choked out, trying not to show his sadness. I immediately regretted starting this conversation. My stomach did flips feeling bad for him, he looked so sad as he looked down at his shoes. "I don't have any family." It just kept getting worse. It made me want to cry, seeing how sad he was.

"I'm so sorry. What happened? You've got no relations at all? Why did you have to move to this school? Was it something to do with your family?" I questioned.

"I don't want to talk about it, OK." He said, then began to turn off down a different street. "This is my street, I'll see you tomorrow maybe." He said, glumly.

Me and my stupid mouth. I should just learn to keep it shut. Now I had to walk home with guilt written across my face.

There's a few things I want to know about Brendon. What did he mean by saying that he was different? Why did his school want him to exchange? What happened to his family and why didn't he want to talk about it? Maybe some things are supposed to be left alone.