Turning Tides

The Past Is In The Past

The day went by with a laborious drag and by the end of it Liam was just about ready to pitch his luck against berserkers rather than spend another minute in the school building. He followed his usual routine; the minute the last bell rang he put on his jacket, put his earphones in, to drown out the world, and started his journey to the main doors out of the school. He had made it to the bottom of the stairs when he saw a familiar figure lingering by the lockers, it was the boy from earlier- it was Brett.

He was leaning against the end locker, looking out into the distance through the small glass panes on the main doors leading outside- the exact same doors that Liam was headed towards. He wasn't in any mood to go second rounds with Brett after the incident at his old school, even with the new advantage of werewolf strength: so he made a break for it, he turned around to head for the fire escape at the opposite end of the corridor, but it was too late. Before he had made more than two steps in his chosen direction the sound of Brett's voice rang down the hallway. "Liam!" it was strange, Liam had expected to hear anger in Brett's voice but to his surprise his voice was calm, soft. He felt somewhat relaxed by its sound in his ears under the music he had playing.

"Hey Liam" he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, hinting at him to turn around without applying the force to make him do so. So he did- slowly. It was then a repeat of this morning's incident, their eyes locked in an intense stare without a word. Then, out of nowhere, Brett's hand was at the side of Liam's face but he didn't jump or feel intimidated, he felt relaxed. Brett removed his left earphone and Liam did the same with his right. There was an obvious smile on Brett's face and it was nice; Liam couldn't help but wish that Brett would've smiled like that more when they were at Devenford as it really was beautiful.

"Hi" Liam mumbled "Wha- what are you doing here?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess that would be a good place to start wouldn't it" he let out a slight chuckle before continuing, "I transferred in, just like you- there was a bit of a..." he made a slight pause, to work out the best way to phrase what he was going to say "disagreement, let's call it between myself and one of the teachers."

"What kind of disagreement?" Liam knew he wasn't going to get an answer but he had no idea what else to say.

"So how've you been doing? Ok I hope. Made friends?"

Liam was now seriously confused, he had recalled what had happened that morning and his confusion as to why Brett had smiled at him and now to add to this he was asking him questions with what appeared to be genuine interest.

"Yeah, yeah, all settled finally- got some new friends. How are..." but before he could finish his question, Brett interrupted, "You got a girlfriend?"

'Ok, wow' Liam thought 'that was forward'.

"No" he replied, somewhat awkwardly. Brett nodded and simply followed up with "ok, cool"

"Well I just wanted to say 'hi', I saw you this morning and you seemed to be looking on in horror- I just wanted to let you know that the past is in the past, I hope that we can put it behind us and have a fresh start here: I'd really like to get to know you, you know properly...if...if that's something you'd be willing to do?"

It was the first time he had ever heard Brett stutter and if that didn't ring sincerity from Brett Talbot then nothing would.

"Okay, yeah. I'd like that" Liam said and he was actually convinced himself that it was. 'who is this guy? Where's the Brett that I used to know?'

"Great, well listen I gotta get going but it really was nice to see you again and it was really nice talking to you Liam- see you around." And with that Brett was gone. Liam put his headphones back in, stood still in the corridor for a moment in silence, smiled at what had just happened and headed home.