Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

LANDON

Landon

The teachers gave us ridiculous amounts of homework. Which made them extra moody when most kids decided to slack off, and not to the homework. My stress was up and out into the roof, colliding with the sky. Everyday I walked through the school doors, bags under my eyes, feet sliding on the ground, and my eyes dropping for need of sleep. Yet, somehow, when he met eyes with me...I became fully awake.

Like, happy and perky. Even if I looked like total crap.

Suddenly self conscious of my choice of clothing today and how I looked today, I looked quickly away with slightly warm cheeks. Today was Thursday, Bates came to our school Monday. I was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants with my converse, some girls could rock it. But me? No, I didn't. I looked like I just got out of bed, ran a brush through my hair, and threw on shoes. And I did do that, of course, I did squeeze enough time to brush my teeth.

He hasn't talked to me since the art class. I don't know what was with him, he was blank faced the rest of the time, didn't talk to me or Alice. When the ball rang, he was gone. Poof.

Completely gone and out of sight, it seemed.

Ever since then, no words passed between us. Except the occasional eye glances or passing each other in the hall. The rest was nothing.It did bother me, but it was expected. Like he'd actually want to be my friend and talk to me and just be with me, as if. But I was just going to get over it. As the saying goes, "Suck it up, butter cup."

I would. And I will.

He started hanging with these two boys. Jessie and Jonas. They were known as the J's. They never hung with anyone else. That was until Bates started hanging with them. That made me curious, well a lot of people were curious also. Did they do anything?

No.

That was because no one talked to Jessie or Jonas. They didn't let anyone, at all. They would snap and yell. I'd seen it happen before. Once, Jessie and Jonas beat up this kid who wanted to talk to them.

It was pretty rough.

But Bates? Not a single scratch on his face. Jessie and Jonas seemed to really like Bates anyways, and it was completely reasonable to me. But why did they let him in so suddenly?

"We should go talk to them," I told Alice at lunch. She looked up at me. "I mean," I flattened my hair a bit, "it can't be that bad, ya know?"

"Who?" Then she followed the direction my eyes were at: Bates and the J's. "No. No way, sweetie. You can, but me? Ha! I'll just sit here and disgustingly stare at those greasy fries." She hadn't even touched her food. I didn't blame her.

The fries were pretty greasy. The long fries were flimsy because they were so coated in grease, all these kids that ate them like they were nothing will more than likely have heart problems when they get older. "It's not like the J's have a disease. Neither does Bates, Alice." I told her, shaking my head. Everyone pretended like they were a parasite and if they got too close, you'd be sick.

But it wasn't like that; they were people too.

"Why are you so, so. . .infatuated with him?" Alice asked me, crossing her arms. "Why him? Why not Cole? Or Kyle?"

"Okay. First off, Cole has a girlfriend. Second off, Kyle is a player who dates any girl with a beating heart then uses them for his own needs then throws them away like a pile of garbage." I crossed my arms also. "So, tell exactly why I should like either of them?"

"Oh, whatever," She said, "but I'm not going over there, you can go by yourself."

"Alice, please!" I pleaded. "I'll need your help for me to go over there. I have no idea what to say."

"Which is exactly why you shouldn't go over there." She retorted, taking a long swig of her water. "Now, let's just be all nice and comfy and sit here and relax, okay?"

"Fine," I said. I sighed, wanting to know why he decided not to talk to me anymore. Had I said something? Been too clingy? I couldn't have been too clingy, I only talked to him, like, once.

"Come on," Alice said.

"What?" I asked.

"Stop sulking," she said. "I can't stand when you do that." She tried not to look at me, but I pouted by putting out my lower lip. "Ugh, fine! We'll go over there. You better come up with something fast!"

"Yay! I love you so much, you know that right?" I gave her a smile.

"Yeah, you better." Alice grumbled, standing up and strolling up to the J's table with Bates sitting there also. I followed her quickly, stumbling on my sweatpants -- they were a little long -- and I almost tripped, a few people say me and laughed.

"Hello boys," she interrupted their conversation. The J's looked up at us. Bates caught eyes with me, then brought his eyes back to Alice as she smiled at them all cooly.

"What do you want?" Jessie said coldly to her. But Alice only smiled, looking confident as ever.

"My best friend here, Landon, really needs to talk to Bates." Alice said without her voice shaking. "Isn't that right, Landon? Oh, I'm Alice by the way." She kept her eyes level and didn't look at all scared. I admired her for that.

But I, on the other hand, could barely say anything. I looked up at them all. Jessie, Jonas, Alice, and Bates were all looking at me. "Uh, y--yes. I--I do." I stuttered like the idiot I am.

"See? Now, Bates, can you quickly talk to her? I'm positive it's important." Alice smiled at them all, her straight, white teeth on show.

"Uh," Bates looked confused. "Sure, I guess." He then excused himself from the table and walked out of the cafeteria.

"Well, go!" Jonas told me, watching me stand there like a confused idiot. I was going to die of embarrassment.

I scurried towards Bates. He was standing in the hall. "Hi," I breathed, I needed to work out more.

"Hey." He said back, eyes meeting mine. He ran his fingers through his hair and my cheeks reddened, my breathing stopped, my heart literally picked up it's speed...

At that moment I realized that Bates was a disease and, to me, he was and I was just diagnosed with it now. He wasn't a parasite, no, just a full and consuming disease that had captured me fully.