Friend Without Time

Chapter 3

                                            No matter how much I smile,

                                            Regardless of how much I choose to laugh and enjoy the beautiful things around me,

                                            Because it only stays for a while,

                                            As I am always a bother and nobody will ever let me be.

Silence and tension, the two words I am using to express my experience at our lunch table. Everyone was walking on eggshells for the most part and that was obvious in our faces with all of the sneaky glances we were taking at one another, eating silently which never happens because we are chatterboxes when we eat and our conversations range from gossip to debates and many more. But today, nothing and I blamed Pinky for this and Steven to an extend because honestly, we are making things worse for Nick and everyone because this is not helping him at all. But I have to be a good person and not talk about it because tough love, so yea doing that right now. But I could see the look on Nick's face that he wasn't enjoying this little bit and because it really was awkward and not something that he wants in any situation with his friends. And I could see that happening and he was going to blow up in 3..2..1...

BANG! He pounded his fist he was holding his sandwich which made us all turn around to him. And here we go;

"Can we stop doing this bullshit?!" he exploded to all of us.

"What bullshi-" Pinky said but he cut her off before she could say anything.

"This not talking about what happened to me? Walking on eggshells okay?" he said to me. Well! Look who should have asked in the first place.

"But I thought you didn't want to talk about-" Steven said, but he cut him off again.

"I don't! But I wouldn't mind if it was you guys! I am sorry Steven for blowing but that doesn't mean you guys shouldn't be enjoying your lunch okay? If I was the problem then I wouldn't have joined you guys okay? But still, its bullshit to tell each other not to say things they want to because of me okay? I can see you guys giving me glances okay? f**k! I am out of here." he said as he grabbed his bag pack and walked out of the cafeteria.

Then there was silence for a few minutes over what just happened right now. Then I broke the silence by saying;

"Great plan about not talking it," I said to Pinky sarcastically before, I packed my lunchbox and grabbed my bag and ran out of the cafeteria to find Nick.

I headed to the one and only place I could see Nick being at a time like this. Arriving at the back of the school, I crossed over the wire fence to the ruins or The Kingdom Of Lost Time as Nick and I liked to call it. This was the place where the two of us came to whenever we needed to get away from something in our lives, and we have been doing this since the day we met each other on the playground at three years old. We would sometimes sneak out of our rooms and go to school at night on our bikes just to come here and play. So yea, I thought about the good times we had as I walked into the old building, and walked straight towards the end of the hallway until we finally made it to the only room in the ruins that wasn't smashed with bricks. And I turned to go in and I saw him there all crawled up and crying into his jeans and the black hoodie that he had on.

"Awful selfish of you to be crying by yourself ain't it?" I said to him as I slowly walked towards him. He looked up and smiled at me as he quickly tried to dry his tears.

"Don't even try dude, you have always been awful at lying anyways Nick," I said to him, as I sat beside him.

"I am just glad that it is you and not one of the security guards because for a second I thought that somebody found out about this place," he said to me.

"Well, we have been at this school for about 12 years now? And nothing till now, so I would say we are doing just fine." I said to him and then we sat there both silently, not uttering a word to one another but it wasn't awkward at all. In a way, it was quite comforting. Then, Nick started talking;

"Remember in 8th grade when the two of us promised each other that we would get out of this city after high school?" he asked.

"How, could I forget. That was like the first real conversation that we had with each other about life." I said and smiled at the memory.

"It was and it's sad that now only one of us is going to fulfill that wish," he said sadly. And that threw me off a bit because that wasn't Nick. Nick would never give up so easily.

"Nick, don't give up yet. I mean that there is still something we can do in this situation." I said to him, but he just looked back at me with this defeated look on his face and said;

"How can we do anything. It's done and there is nothing I can do to change that. I had it all Benji, I really did but I blew it and although I don't regret the reason why I blew it, I do regret that I let my anger get the best of me. There were so many things I could've done but I beat him up which was my biggest regret." he said and he started balling his eyes out. And I just hugged him even though, I am pretty sure my arms weren't long enough for him but I still did anyway and he hugged me back and just sobbed into my shirt. Come to think about it, I never knew why he did what he did to Tayler. But I decided not to ask him about it and just let him cry because I could see that he was going through a lot right now so I just stayed silent.

After Nick's breakdown, he felt much better and I was left with a very wet hoodie, he apologized but I said it was okay and nothing to worry about. Then I asked him the big question that I just thought about just now;

"So why did you and Tayler even fought in the first place? I mean I know he can be a b***h but that can't be the only reason why." I asked him and he thought for a while and sighed then asked me;

"Do you really want to know?" he asked me.

"Yea, so I can help you," I said to him, he sighed for the second time than finally said;

"The reason why even me and Tayler even fought in the first place, wasn't because of Madi but instead it was because Tayler called you a fag and that made my blood boil." Nick finally said to me, and I was shocked for a moment because I never talked to Tayler and I never really knew except the fact he had a tendency to make his skin crawl. But nevertheless, I didn't really expect him to say something like that, so I mean shock and also in a sense hurt. Than Nick snapped me out of my thoughts by patting me on my head and said;

"See this is why I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to upset and now you are mad not only for you but also for me. Also, we have class in like five minutes so we gotta run." he said to me as he lifted his hand from my head grabbed me by the wrist and we ran out of the old building into the school compound trying to make it to the third period, English without being late.