Patterns of Blues

Chapter 19

Harry lost interest in school halfway through the day. He didn't try in class because there wasn't anything to motivate him. Sully was in most of his classes, but he wasn't fond of the edgelord-acting boy, which helped his indifference very little. At least he had threatened to beat up anyone who messed with him, and no one dared to try to find out if he meant it, so Harry was grateful for that.

If he thought Nate was an odd duck, he wasn't sure what that made Sully. Nate at least was fun to listen to, this kid mostly spoke in very cryptic threats or complaints, and his voice was scratchy. He hadn't minded it at first, but now hearing it so often, Harry decided there was no worse sound than Sully's voice. Respectfully, of course.

"Dude, Cally's so hot," he was going on, slapping his arm to catch his attention. Harry blinked confusedly before squinting at him,

"Huh?" Sully stared at him, his mouth partially opened, a slightly irritated expression on his face,

"I was saying that Cally's freaking hot. You think?"

"Who's Cally?" Harry replied, still thrown off, and looked around the cafeteria.

"There," Sully pointed across the room to a dark-skinned girl with wild ringlets of hair framed around her face, her head thrown back in a laugh, eyes scrunched shut, apparently very tickled by something one of her friends had said. Harry smiled at her positive energy, and then frowned when he remembered what they were talking about,

"Don't talk about her like that, Sully. I'm sure she's more than just a pretty face."

"Woah, you really are boring," Sully responded, eyeing him weirdly, "Technically I was complimenting her, don't act all righteous."

"Sorry," Harry mumbled, poking at his food again. Sully shifted from beside him,

"Who do think's the best-looking person here?" His vanity put Harry off, and he looked back up from his tray,

"I don't really think we should rate peoples' value by their looks. That's not what makes them important." Sully sighed, unmoved by his statement,

"You're killing me with this attitude, man."

"I'm just saying it's not right, is all."

"Okay. I'll drop it. But you should loosen up a bit, Nate would call you uptight." Harry nodded to appease him, not understanding how he was 'uptight' for treating girls like people too. Then he remembered how to talk and responded,

"I don't care if Nate thinks I'm an ape, honestly. If he thinks girls are only to look at then I'd rather not be his buddy." Sully scratched his nose momentarily before shrugging,

"Yeah, well I think he's pretty cool. Silvio too. You should hear some of the stories he's got."

"About what?" Harry asked, eager to change the conversation. Sully seemed genuinely excited now, the first time he had shown any emotion outside of obnoxious or rude,

"All the fights he's gotten in. One time he and Lucian got into a full-blown battle over. . . well, I don't know what it was about, but he won and walked away with just a black eye. Cool, huh? Lucian looked terrible for a week after that." Harry's heart sank. Of course, the only thing Sully showed an interest in was violence,

"Maybe we should get you some hobbies," he suggested, ensuring his tone was still pleasant. Sully gave him a funny look, but shrugged for the millionth time that day,

"Like what?"

"Well, how about art? You know, drawing and sketching and stuff. That's what Niall and I used to do," Harry proposed with a half-smile, trying to think of something that wouldn't end up used for brutality.

"Niall? Who's that, your dog?" Sully asked with a bark of laughter, leaning his head to the side inquisitively. Harry's face fell, and he flicked his gaze away from the older boy. He considered ignoring the question altogether, but decided that it was news that he'd probably find out about anyway,

"No, he's my little brother." Sully's eyes widened in surprise, and he repositioned himself to catch Harry's gaze again,

"Is he already adopted then?"

"No," he replied quickly, "he's in a different foster home until there's one that'll take us all. Ms. Claire said that we won't be split up for long."

"You know that all the case workers lie, right?" Sully grumbled, folding his arms over his chest, "She probably just told you that so you wouldn't freak out when she took little Neil off to his new parents."

"That's not right," Harry stated to assure himself and his companion, "Niall's only there temporarily. She promised that it wasn't forever." Sully sighed in defeat, glancing around the room,

"Look, I've seen enough to tell you that he's probably off living on a farm somewhere with some crummy couple he has to call 'mom' and 'dad', do all the work, and then get sent to his room without food. In fact, they've probably already changed his name to 'Tim' or something. People don't foster or adopt out of kindness, they do it to have a live-in servant."

"Shut up," Harry warned, finally letting his frustration seep out, "You don't know anything about him so don't act like you do. He's finally away from all the bad stuff, and we'll be together soon."

"Whatever," Sully responded, unphased, getting to his feet, "Oh, and art's stupid."

Harry stared after him as he walked away and rolled his eyes before poking at his food again.