They Came In Hoodies

Chapter 5: Was As Obvious As It Was Noteworthy

It's another Monday so it's a new chapter! 

Look out for the <>!

Stella's POV

I sat down in class the next mid afternoon and looked at Grayson's empty seat. The imagines of him ran through my mind on repeat from the day before. He looked so injured but he refused help from me as if I would cause more damage. But how could I cause more damage when what he was in? I wondered if he was ok but seeing his empty seat made me think otherwise.

"Hey you," Alice said as she took a seat beside me with a smile.

As the weeks had gone by, I learned to call Alice my friend. She was nice and though her friends I couldn't stand, I could stand her and her school gossip/information she provided. I knew that being the new girl brought challenges, especially when the town was small, like Jackson, so I relied on her to at least help me fit in. I had learned quickly that I needed to fit in because, as Alice said before, 'this town can eat anyone alive'.

"Do you know where Gray is?"

She frowned as she shook her head, following my gaze to the empty seat. "I have no idea. Sometimes he misses classes like this. Don't know why but I think he worked out some agreement with the teachers about it."

More questions filled me as I thought back to him yesterday. He handled his wounds like it wasn't a big deal, so it made me question if he was wounded often. "So he misses a lot?"

"Probably a day every other week or so," she shrugged as she got out her textbooks from her backpack that had a pinecone on it.

"You know why?"

"Have no idea. Some people say he goes on these hunting trips to keep his anger at bay."

Seeing him yesterday, it looked like he caught a bear with his bare hands. For a second, I let myself believe the rumor about the hunting trips because of what I saw yesterday. "Has he ever come to class injured?"

She frowned as she thought about it for a moment. "I don't think so. He just misses sometimes and comes back as if nothing has changed. I heard his grades are slipping because of it. Might not even graduate with us."

I nodded as her words dug into me, causing a bad taste in my mouth. She talked about it as if he deserved what came of him, but she didn't know what he dealt with. I didn't know what he dealt with, but something told me it was bigger than what both of us knew. She couldn't just judge him like this if she didn't know the truth.

"So, has Grayson's family always lived in Jackson?" I asked Alice before the teacher came in to class.

She shrugged as she swirled a stand of hair around her finger. "Nah, he moved from some city out east maybe a year and a half ago?"

So just like me, he was an outsider. The only difference was that I had Alice as a friend who helped me fit in. I wondered if he had a friend like Alice, if his life would differ from it was now. "And what brought them here?"

She eyed me with a frown, not liking all these questions related to this one person no one knew anything about. "Gosh, Stella, hell if I know. He doesn't talk to anyone besides you."

And he barely talked to me as it was. We shared very few words at school, normally just a hi or a pleasant greeting, as if to fill some quota he had. But I thought he did that to everyone and even if he didn't, I didn't think people paid attention. Gray seemed to fly under everyone's radar even though everyone seemed to have an opinion of him.

Alice's words were rough and caused me to frown back at her. All I was looking for was answers about a boy that everyone knew, but as I talked to her, I realized no one knew him. I didn't mean for these questions to be a trigger in any way. But it made me wonder why she was bothered by me asking all of these questions.