Positively Negative [Rewrite]

Nov02: No Compañero, o No Comprendo?

Chapter Two; No Compañero, o No Comprendo?

JOEY

"Oh my God! You've got a friend request from Freddie fucking Lewis, man," Ryan laughed. What amused me most, however, was how we'd seemed to fix an expletive to the guy's name. "Should I accept? Wait- yes. Yes, I will."

I thanked him sarcastically for taking the decision out of my hands but he didn't even hear me, too busy sifting through Freddie's profile. I watched him from my cross-legged position on my bed as he snickered at photos or statuses or whatever, and sighed a little. Homework was scattered around me, but I had my phone in hand and I was reading a text from my girlfriend over and over.

Love you, it said.

"Hey, Ryan," I started, hesitant to continue.

"Yeah, man? Shit this stuff is seriously priceless."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot. Did you know Lewis had a boyfriend? Broke up a few months ago. New ass needed." Ryan cracked up, unaware of the minor commotion taking place in my head.

"Seriously, man. It's... It's about Courtney."

He stopped clicking for a moment then, and turned around to look at me over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"I don't know..." I stretched my legs and and swung them over the edge of my bed. Knowing my friend, it was likely that he'd only laugh and joke about shit, but he was better than consulting my own mixed up conscience. "She says she loves me."

Ryan blinked at me for a moment, and then his face relaxed into a mild scepticism. "That's it?" I shrugged. "So what? Probably doesn't mean it anyway-"

"Yeah but it doesn't feel right, you know. I feel like shit, being less into it than she is."

He turned back around. "Break it off then." He always said things as if they were black and white; obvious. Maybe it was. Maybe I was exaggerating the whole damn situation and- "She won't give a shit," he continued. "She'll get over it." He chuckled weakly, "Probably get under someone else. It's Courtney."

I nodded, but I wasn't completely convinced. "How are you?" I asked. Ryan turned back to me to throw an incredulous gaze my way but I simply shrugged. He laughed.

"I'd be better if we could watch some porn right now."

"My mum's home, man."

"Never stopped us before."

:

Morning came with an awful taste in my mouth and a muddy head. When I rolled out of bed, I did so more literally than I'd meant to and landed in a heap, twisting my arm painfully. On the way to the bathroom I stubbed my little toe and swore so loud I woke my mum up – so she was pretty pissy too. Then I burnt my toast, couldn't find clean socks, and took ten minutes looking for my damn wallet.

A pretty shit start to the day.

Unsurprisingly, when I met Ryan, Courtney and Abby at the corner we meet up at on the way to school, I made it obvious that my earphones would be my only company, and they let that alone. Probably saw the rain cloud hovering over my head, or maybe my expression said it all. Ryan offered me a cigarette that I declined, as I always do, and that was it for the rest of the journey.

:

"Could I speak to you for a moment, Joey?"

The end of registration bell was screaming out in that awful way it does as I stood up at turned to my form teacher. Mr. Chou was looking at me like he looked at everyone; as if he'd committed some sort of crime against me but just could not figure out how to right his wrongs. His blue tie was askew, his shirt was a little crinkled and his hair was messily tousled at the front, more due to a habit of absent-mindedly running a hand through it than an attempt at style. He corrected his thin frames – complete with white tape around the left hinge. He looked a little like he'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed everyday, so I felt something like sympathy for him and laid back on the scowl that had been commandeering my lips a moment ago.

"Yeah, sir?"

"Mrs. White sent me an email about your behaviour in her lesson yesterday." He blinked at me, and I did the same. He tugged at his tie. "She said to correct it by tomorrow's lesson or she'd begin issuing detentions. Would you mind apologising to her?"

I shrugged, murmuring that I could do that, then he thanked me and I headed over to Spanish.

:

[Date: November 2nd Word Count: 3132 Target: 3333. Not reached.]