Two Love

Chapter 2

The following day, Marty woke up with a horrific headache – the rum seemed to have hit him after all – but he couldn't miss the opportunity to have Biology with Lucy again, so he took some paracetamol and walked to school.

By the looks of it, Everett wasn't feeling so good either. He was wobbling on his feet and looked generally out of it. Marty wondered if he had a headache too.

"Are you feeling alright? I have some paracetamol if you need some, mate."

Everett turned to face Marty, and his face turned to fire. "No."

That one word was spoken with such anger, such hatred, that Marty flinched. "Are you angry with me?"

Everett laughed, but the laugh contained a furious bitterness in it. "Am I angry with you? Of course I bloody well am! You told me we wouldn't get drunk, and we did, then you told Mum that I came up with the idea! When I told Mum the truth, she didn't believe me, and now I'm fucking grounded for a month!"

Marty stared, a little scared. What kind of mother believed someone like him over her own son? "Man, that sucks."

"Yeah, it really does! And it's all your fault!" With that, Everett stormed off into the science building for his Physics lesson. Marty blinked.

"I think he's pissed off at you," said Jade.

"You don't say."

*

Marty's mood instantly lifted when he saw his favourite blonde-haired girl in Biology. Today she was wearing a smart blue buttoned blouse with flared pink trousers. 

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," she replied, and Marty couldn't stop himself smiling.

There was no more time to talk, however; Mr Sanchez wanted the class to work in silence for ten minutes, tackling the questions written on the whiteboard. Obediently, Marty and Lucy did so - though Marty may have spent some of that time admiring Lucy's neon green nails. Once Lucy had finished the questions, she scrolled on her phone under the desk. Marty was only halfway through, but his eye was drawn to her phone screen. He saw a name - Jayden Hall. That was the name of the best basketball player in their school year.

"Eyes on your own work, Pocock!" boomed Mr Sanchez. Marty's head snapped back to his work. 

The lesson was a mixture of the teacher teaching and pupils working hard at practice questions - a typical lesson with Mr Sanchez. When Marty filed out of the classroom upon dismissal, he noticed Jayden Hall hanging around outside, his head peering down at his phone. Lucy went straight over to Jayden, taking his hand in hers as they walked down the corridor together. Had Lucy found a boyfriend so quickly? Or was this just the way she acted with her male friends?

"I've heard Jayden's smitten with Lucy," said Everett when Marty joined his mates in the break hall.

"So are a lot of the boys, it seems," said Jade with a sigh.

"Do you think it's mutual? Like, does Lucy like Jayden back?" asked Marty.

"It's tough to tell. I saw them holding hands in Maths, but she also holds hands with other boys. She even shook my hand today when we were put on the same table," said Everett. 

Marty briefly wondered what Lucy's hand would feel like. It would be soft, he decided; treated with high-quality hand cream every morning, and it would smell like roses in full bloom.

"Anyway," said Everett, putting his half-eaten packet of crisps in his bag, "I've got some homework to do, so I'm going up to the study room. Bye."

For a split second, there was silence. Then Marty filled it up with his usual chatter.