What Happens in High School

Max’s POV

Bob and I had second period with Frank. The two boys met and seemed to hit it off well enough. We sat in class which was pretty uneventful. Well except… I was sitting next to Bob and, maybe I was imagining this but, I could swear Bob was looking at me. This made me kind of nervous which was weird considering I’d never been a self-conscious person before. I never really cared what others thought of me, I guess until now.

The bell rang and we all went our separate ways and I told the guys I’d see them under the tree later for lunch. When I got there Ray was already sitting under the big oak tree we had kind of claimed as our own over the years. No one else really ever tried to take it from us, I guess the other kids figured it had already been contaminated with our outcast-ness. The tree was tall and big and secluded from the rest of the outdoor tables and we liked the privacy. It must have been a hundred years old, but no one was really sure, not even the teachers.

I sat down next to Ray who turned to me and asked, “Hey, how’s the first day treating you so far?” I wasn’t going to tell him how excited I was that I had so many classes with the extremely attractive and ever so mysterious Bob Bryar. Instead I opted to tell him how I liked my US History class and how Chemistry was going to be way too hard to be even close to fun. He smiled and responded, “Yeah, my chem class seems pretty tough too and I’m not even in honors like you.” He nudged my arm a little as he said this. I took a lot of advanced classes and Ray was really proud of me for that. One of the things I loved about my and Ray’s friendship was how we shared our successes and accomplishments with each other and were proud of the other.

I saw Bob and Mikey come over and sit under the tree with me and Ray. We made small talk while we waited for Gerard and Frank. Ray started out the conversation; a skill neither Mikey nor myself possessed. We were shy and awkward and willing to accept that. “Hey Bob, how’s Belleville so far?”

“Not bad, it’s actually not that different from Chicago, just with different people.” We all let out a laugh, Bob was funny and he didn’t even have to try. “Oh and have you met Mikey yet?” Ray added as he presented the boy with sandy brown hair over his forehead and thick black and white rimmed glasses. “Yeah, we have Math together.” Mikey answered for him. Bob smiled his alluringly shy smile, which I couldn’t seem to get enough of, to confirm this.

The other two nimrods came a little later. We heard them before we saw them, like usual. Gerard and Frank walked over arguing about some lyrics or something. “I swear, he says it’s ‘held’.” Frank pleaded to Gerard who looked at him and retorted, “Go look it up, he says, ‘tied’.” I knew exactly what this disagreement was about, they’d been talking about it for days. I sighed and looked over at them. Sometimes I thought Frank was deaf, or never heard the song. “Gerard is right, it’s tied to the tightrope walker.” I was surprised to hear Bob say this, and he was right. Desolation Row by Bob Dylan, one of my favorite songs, a little slow though.

Frank didn’t seem to like the fact that he was wrong. He slumped down against the tree and said, “Fine, I’m wrong, just pick on the short one.” Everyone laughed at this, except for Bob; I guess he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to or not. Frank seemed to get over himself pretty quickly and snapped his attention to Bob. “So, Bob, let’s hear something. Tell us about yourself.”

He looked a little confused about where to start. “Well, I’m from Chicago, but you all know that already.” I could see he was kind of stuck. I tried to pull a ‘Ray’ and help him along. “You play the drums.” I reminded him, as if he needed reminding; you don’t forget skills like his.

“Oh yeah,” Gerard chimed in. “You’re gonna play with us on Saturday, right?”

“Yeah, should be fun.” Bob replied with that smile again. I swear, it was like a drug and I was addicted.

“Well I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like.” Ray added. “Seriously guys, Bob’s amazing, no like beyond amazing. Help me out here, Max.” This was the first time I had ever felt uncomfortable around my friends but I think it was just because Bob was there. I wasn’t going to lie though, “Ray’s right,” I said to my friends before turning to Bob. The first thing that hit me were his eyes again, god they were gorgeous, and so was he. I felt my pause becoming too long so I spoke up again. “Uh, Bob you really are an incredible drummer.”
There goes the smile again, and cue the butterflies erupting in my stomach while we’re at it. It wasn’t any ordinary smile this time, it was just for me. He looked me in my eyes and I felt my face start to get warm. I treasured the moment in my own little world with Bob until Frank crashed landed on our planet.

“So, Bob,” he said totally ruining the moment, but somehow he managed to make it worse. “Have a girlfriend?” As Frank spoke this his gaze moved to me letting a big, stupid grin take up half of his face. Was he high? What was wrong with him? Was he doing this on purpose? Bob looked awkward for a moment as he looked down and let out a breathy chuckle. “Uh, no. No girlfriend.” He said this and looked right at me. Awkward much. I had to leave before things could get any worse.

“Sorry guys but I need to do something.” I awkwardly said as I stood up and straightened my skirt. “See you later.” I said as friendly as I could without sounding like one of those bitchy-blonde-Barbie cheerleaders. I grabbed my bag and walked toward the secluded hall way behind the gym. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty mad at Frank, granted I didn’t know if he was trying to do it or not, but come on he smiled right at me!

I sat down on the bench away from anyone else. No one really ever came back here because everyone had kind of forgotten it existed. Well that is, everyone but Frank and I. I sat fuming for a moment but quickly gathered myself. I breathed slowly and thought about what happened. Maybe Bob didn’t really notice, then again he looked at me after he answered. I’m sure Frank meant no harm, but that was still a dick thing to do.

After the anger subsided another thought popped into my head. Just take it out, you know you want to. You’re hurt, go fix yourself. I heard the voice in my head. I knew exactly what it was talking about, and I wouldn’t do it. I refused.

A minute later I saw Frank poke his head around the corner. I sighed and slouched a little. He could tell I wasn’t the happiest of campers at the moment. He let out a whine and came to sit down next to me. “Ugh, I am so sorry Max. I am the worst cousin ever. I really didn’t mean to make things weird, I don’t even think Bob noticed.” We both knew this was a lie but I couldn’t stay mad at Frankie forever. What’s done is done and I can’t change anything now. And maybe Bob didn’t care; thought it was a joke.

Well it might as well be official now, Frank knew I liked Bob. “He’s nice, he’ll understand. Trust me, you definitely still have a shot with him, have you seen how he stares at you lovingly?” Frank said this like the goofball he was but I’d known him long enough to know that he was being serious about it at the same time. Maybe he was right, maybe I did really still have a shot.

I hugged Frankie as we got up from the bench. The bell was about to ring so I said, “Well there’s no use in going back now, walk me to class?” He smiled his signature Iero smile and hooked his arm in mine. “After you.” He said motioning for us to walk with his other arm. Frank was definitely the most courteous gentleman I knew. We walked arm-in-arm to class together. I forgave him for being an ass and he promised me he’d never pull such fuckery ever again.

I got to class and Frank let go of my arm to let me ride out the rest of this boring first day of school.

The rest of the week wasn’t much better. Bob had kind of become part of the group but I wasn’t totally comfortable around him yet. I was still my clumsy and weird self. At this point I was sure he didn’t like me, if he even did before.

It was finally Friday. Last day of the first week of school. I was excited to finally be done with week number one; now I only had about forty more to go. Ray, Bob and I got in on Friday morning and made our way to class. It kind of became a routine at this point. Bob and I would walk through the halls, I’d trip in some way and Bob would save me again and again. Today I made it to homeroom scot free and when we got in and took our seats Bob turned to me and said, “Successful morning, no near death experiences. I’d say that’s progress.” He smiled at me with his teeth this time. It was the first time he’d ever done it. His perfectly white, straight teeth only made his smile more attractive and him along with it. God he was so gorgeous.

The bell rang and quickly snapped me out of my daze. Gerard waltzed in late accepting the tardy slip that Ms. Brennan handed him as he passed her desk. This was nothing new. Gerard walked over and took his usual seat between Bob and me, cutting off my view of him. Dammit Gerard, you couldn’t have picked a different seat? The long period of ‘quiet study’ was made more bearable as Bob, Gerard and I turned our chairs to ‘review’ together. And yes by ‘review’ I mean talk about music.

“Gerard sings, he’s got the voice of an angel really.” I half joked telling Bob about Gerard’s incredible talent much like his own. “But me, I can’t play for shit.”

“Liar.” Gerard said looking at Bob giving him a sarcastic look. “She’s amazing.” I rolled my eyes at Gerard. Even if I was amazing, I played the dorkiest instrument ever. There was obviously a good reason I was the only kid in my school to play French horn in the last five years. “What do you play?” Bob asked, intrigued to see what I supposedly rocked at. I sighed and looked at Gerard bracing myself for the laughter when Bob heard, “I play the French horn.” I sat and waited for them to laugh but instead Bob looked at me and just said, “Hey that’s cool.”

Bob was surprisingly cool about it, even Ray had laughed when I told him what instrument I picked to play in the fifth grade, but then again that was in the fifth grade. “See?” Gerard pleaded, “It’s not a weird instrument.” He turned to Bob and continued. “It’s like the hardest brass instrument to play, you need some crazy lips kills to be able to play as good as our little Maxie over here.” He ruffled my hair a little with this last part and I laughed a little. Crazy lips skills? That was a new one. “Yup. You know, Max has got to be the best kisser in school, I mean she definitely has the control.” I kicked Gerard under his desk. What the fuck? Why would he say that to Bob? “Uh, oh. I didn’t know you guys…” Bob started off but I quickly interrupted. “No, Gerard’s just an ass who doesn’t think about what he says before he says it.” I shot the ‘ass’ a look as I said this.

“That’s true.” He said holding on to his knee. “I was just saying like, you know because she plays the horn, that she….” I shot him a death stare. “I’m going to shut up now.” Thankfully Bob didn’t seem to mind. I think by this point he’d kind of caught on to Gerard’s sense of humor, and didn’t take it too seriously. But what Gerard said was true, brass players do tend to be the best kissers, it’s just facts.

The bell rang releasing us to our next forty-two minutes of torture. Bob and I made our way down the hall and into room 137. We saw Frank was already there so we took our seats next to him. The class was painfully boring. No, Mr. Romero, I don’t care about the Civil War. We sat for our designated torture time block listening and writing down notes until the sweet ring of the bell set us free. Only two more periods to go and I could finally meet up with my friends and just hang out.

When lunch finally rolled around, we all met at our typical spot under the tree. As usual the Way brothers were late and showed up with their noses buried in some comic book. They sat down but totally ignored us, what else was new? Comics to them was like crack to a druggie, or Bob’s smile to me; they couldn’t get enough. Ray cleared his throat and the boys looked up. “So tonight you’re all coming to my house for movies right?”

Every few Friday nights we went to either Ray’s house or my house for scary movie night. Most of the time what ended up happening was we would put on a movie, Mikey would bitch about how scary it was when it really wasn’t, Frank and Gerard would laugh at how fake the death scenes were and I’d fall asleep in the middle of it and Ray would carry me up to his room and I’d end up sleeping over, unless we were at my house.

The Ways gave a quick ‘yeah’ and went back to their reading, Mikey complaining that Gerard was flipping too fast. Frank said he’d see us there and it was kind of a given that I was going. Ray turned to Bob and asked, “You coming too?” Bob seemed a little surprised that he was invited but accepted saying, “Yeah, sounds like fun.”

When the day ended Ray drove Bob and I home. I went inside and up to my room. I had to be at Ray’s by six to help him set everything up like we normally did on movie nights. I got home from school at around 2:15. I watched an episode and a half of Tom and Jerry and at 3 o’clock decided to start getting ready to go to Ray’s. I hopped in the shower while listening to some oldies-but-goodies. I got out of my 15 minute shower and dried my hair which took way longer than I thought it would because by the time I was done it was already 5 o’clock.

I know an hour seems like a lot of time but, boy does it fly. I still had to straighten my hair, get dressed, and put on some make up. I decided to skip straightening my pretty much already straight hair and went right to my closet. I stared inside considering my wardrobe. I wanted to wear something cute for Bob but didn’t want to come off as a slut or look like I was trying too hard. After a little trial and error I decided upon some high waisted black shorts with a purple and gray striped long sleeve tucked in. The shorts weren’t too short, plus it was still a little hot out so I figured it would be acceptable. I traced on a thin line of black liner on my top lid and slicked on a little mascara, not too much but still enough to make my blue eyes pop a bit.

I looked at the clock, I had ten minutes to get to Ray’s. I slipped on my black Chucks and grabbed my purse along with a light jacket in case it got cold later on. That is if I didn’t end up falling asleep at Ray’s again. I closed my door and headed downstairs. “Bye Mom, I’m going over to Ray’s.” I said as I passed my mother in the kitchen. She and Ray’s mom were best friends just like me and Ray, I thought it was kind of cute. “Okay, honey. Tell him I said hello. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She knew of my inability to stay awake during movies just as well as anyone. I smiled and walked to the front door.

Right as I opened it, I was surprised at what I saw, or rather who. I was suddenly face to face with Bob Bryar. He was at my house, and it looked like he was just about to knock on the door as I came out. He lowered his hand into his pocket and shyly said ‘hi.’ I did the same minus putting my hands in my pockets. I asked him the obvious question of what he was doing at my house. He looked me in the eyes and answered, “Oh well I was just wondering if you wanted to walk over to Ray’s together, for the movie.” I was a little shocked that Bob would come over just to walk with me to Ray’s, but hey an extremely attractive man was standing on my porch, I wasn’t complaining.

I smiled and bit my lip shyly, “Sure, that sounds great.” I closed the door and stepped out into the brisk New Jersey night air with Bob. We walked for a little while without saying anything. It hit me that I’d never actually been alone with Bob. Excepting the walks in between classes, every time I’d seen him thus far we’d had either Gerard or Frank or Ray there with us.Now it was just me and him and boy was it awkward. Luckily, he broke the silence. “So, the French horn, that’s the one that kind of looks like a circle right?” I held up my necklace to show Bob a small gold charm I had of a French horn.

“Yeah, I guess it kind of does look like a circle.” I dropped my pendant back down but Bob stopped and picked it back up to take a closer look. I felt his fingers brush my collar bone as he lifted the trinket. I could feel a tingle run through my shoulders and down my back. All that from one little touch. He looked down at it and turned it around in his hands.

Suddenly he looked up at me and put the miniature horn back down. “That’s so cool.” He said. Then he looked at me a little more uneasily and confessed, “Sorry. That was weird of me.” He slipped his hands back in his pockets and we began to walk again. “No, don’t worry about it. I’m glad you thought it was cool.” I tried to relieve some of the tension. “My mom’s friend played when she was in high school and college and last year I auditioned for the higher ensemble. She gave this to me when I got in.” Bob smiled at my apparently charming little story and replied, “Well congratulations and that sure was nice. Maybe you’ll pass it down some day.” I giggled at the thought of me in my forty-somethings giving a budding French horn player this keepsake. Bob softly laughed along with me, probably thinking the same thing.

We got to Ray’s house before the other guys got there. Generally when setting up for a movie night, Frank, Gerard, and Mikey were no help at all. Ray answered the door, gave me a quick hug and led us down to set everything up. We went down to the basement, our usual hang out spot, and got everything ready. We had popcorn and soda and various other snacks set down on a coffee table. We made sure to have extra pillows hanging around in case Mikey or I fell asleep.

The boys came round 6:30 and movie night began. We shut off the lights and popped in Amityville Horror. Everyone grabbed a seat either on the couch or nearby on the floor. I ended up sitting between Ray and Bob with Frankie insisting he lay across all of our laps. I felt a little nervous to be sitting next to Bob especially since I was notorious for falling asleep in the middle of movies.

Notes

I don't normally post on any day besides Friday, but I'm actually not gonna be around tomorrow, so I figured that instead of making y'all wait for the update that I'd just post today instead. Enjoy!! Let me know whatcha think, I love hearing your feedback and I'll see you on FRIDAY next week!! ^.^

BTW, Max is gonna be a bit of a Mary Sue in this story seeing as how I play the French Horn, so sorry about that. Also, since everyone always asks me, this is what a French Horn looks like --> https://www.google.com/search?q=french+horn&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=DwgiU5agB8uKkAeLyYGIBA&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=783#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=yoVdxLaDKfIJMM%253A%3BTCFaY7JQb6zKvM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.trevorjonesltd.co.uk%252Fimages%252FH378Holton378FrenchHorn_000.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.trevorjonesltd.co.uk%252FHolton_French_Horns_378_French_Horn.htm%3B370%3B432