Chapter 20 A Friend
5 years ago
Rain
It’s just another ordinary day here at school. Right now I’m in the cafeteria, looking at the lunch in front of me, trying to convince myself that I really do want to eat it. Suddenly I hear a throat clear and I look up.
Standing at the table where I’m sitting all alone, like I always do, is a boy I have never seen before. I have no idea what he’s doing so I just wait, “Ah, do you mind if I sit here?”
I look around, realizing that the cafeteria is quite full, but normally people avoid me like the plague, so for him to come and talk to me or want to sit by me is actually a big deal to me, “Sure, go ahead.”
He smiles and I find myself smiling back. As soon as he puts his lunch down and pulls the chair out, as he sits he holds out his hand, “My name is Haden, and I just moved here, well my dad and I just moved here, so this is a bit weird for me. I have seen you in a couple of my classes, but we haven’t spoken before.”
“Well, Hayden, welcome I guess. I don’t think this school is all that welcoming personally. I have been here for a while. This is my 5th year here, and as you can see I have no friends, so please feel free to sit here if you want.” He smiles at me.
“My dad got married, and we moved into her big huge house, and now she enrolled me in this very fancy private school, so I feel like I’m kind of out of place or something.”
“Oh my god Haden. I moved here when my mother married my step dad and then just like you I got enrolled here, and personally I hate it. I mean the classes are okay, but not really all that different from public. However, the company sucks.” He laughed a little at that.
“Well, this seems to be fate then. Both here because of a marriage, and we know nobody, so now we know each other.” I smiled.
“I like that Haden, so since you are in some of my classes and evidently I pay no attention, which ones do we share?’
“We are in the same English, and History class.” I do the whole Ah ha thing.
“So Haden, do you have any brothers or sisters, step or otherwise?” He finishes chewing before he says.
“Yeah, I have a stepsister now but she’s like 4 years younger than me, so we don’t really have anything in common.”
I nod, “Well, I have 2 stepsiblings, a brother who is older and just turned 17, and a sister, who is also older and is 14. We don’t have anything in common either, so I don’t do much with them. My stepsister hates me and she used to bully me a lot, but now she just ignores me, which I don”t’ really mind.”
His eyes got big, “Wow, okay that sucks. Damn, so your stepsister used to bully you? That’s messed up. At least she leaves you alone now. Any problems with the kids here being mean to you?”
“Ah, there used to be some of my stepsisters friends who helped her bully me, but when she stopped, so did they, so it all worked out okay. Most of the time I am pretty much invisible to be honest.”
He tilted his head a bit to look at me, “Well I see you, and I personally think you can never have too many friends. So, now I’m your friend, so you’re not invisible.” I’m sure my smile was huge.
That was when I met my very first friend Haden Driscol, I had thought I would go through school a pariah with no friends and completely alone, but finally I had a friend. He was funny, and he liked to read the same as me. He was not into the same books, but that was okay. He had slightly curly blond hair and hazel eyes, and he was fun and upbeat, and we were good friends right from the start.
It's December, and the bulletin boards are all “Christmas” themed. The break starts in a week. I am dreading it honestly. Now that I have a friend and someone to talk to I find I don’t want to lose that for the 2 weeks I’ll be away from school.
“So what are your family’s plans for Christmas? We never did talk about that. They didn’t come home for Thanksgiving, so they’re planning on coming home for Christmas right?” Haden was walking with me to the cafeteria for lunch. Our History class was the one right before we had lunch so now we walked together.
“Haden, my mom hasn’t been home in a very long time. I talk to her on the phone once in a while, but I pretty much don’t have a mom anymore. The minute she married Derek and they started traveling all over the place, she kind of forgot about me.” I look down as I say it.
He stops with his jaw hanging on the floor, “Hold up, what now. What the fuck are you talking about?”
I smiled at the swear word, the staff here was very particular about not hearing us swear, so you had to watch where you were and how was around before you let the f bombs fly. I shrugged, as there was no changing it. I didn’t see them getting a divorce, and she had decided what was most important, and that wasn’t me.
“That is so fucked up. Do you want to come and spend Christmas with my family? Do you and your step brother or sister do anything since your parents aren’t home?”
I shook my head, “No, sometimes my stepbrother Sade will do things with me, but the staff decorates, they fix the food, and presets are either delivered via mail, or most often, cash is deposited into our personal use accounts.”
He just shook his head, “I mean it, Rain. I will talk to my dad and step mom, maybe you can come and spend Christmas day at my house. We watch Christmas movies, and make smores, we do all kinds of things.”
“That actually sounds really nice. Okay, as long as it’s okay with them, then yeah, I’ll have my driver bring me to your house on Christmas day.” I was smiling thinking about it.
There wasn’t anyone I needed to ask permission from, the only 2 parents I currently had could care less, they wouldn’t give a fuck if I did go to his house for Christmas with his family. So, why not.