The Best Friends

Three

Caleb's name seemed to be on my tongue all day long. I couldn't help but look at him the whole rest of the math class. He had ended up taking the last empty seat, which of course happened to be right next to me and we had started up a conversation. He had moved here from Florida because his father had gotten a job at a nearby college. He had an older brother who was in his twenties that the family never heard from.

"On his 18th birthday, he packed his bags and just..left. Without a word, just drove away leaving my parents and me standing on the driveway wondering what the hell he was doing." Caleb had said sadly as he traced the carved in initials on his desk. Caleb wasn't afraid to tell a complete stranger this either. If anyone had asked me about my dad leaving, I probably would have told them not to be so damn nosy. But then again even if I was able to tell them what happened, what would I say? That he simply just didn't want to be around my mom and brothers anymore? That sounds so pathetic on my part, and it's just easier to say nothing at all. He hadn't heard from his brother in years, and always wished to find him. I felt so bad for him. I had just met him but something about him was just..likeable. Like one of those people that you could just get along with, kind of like Zach. 

We had a couple of classes together. After Algebra 2 had ended, we had American Literature together, and he had brought up to me how it looked like the teacher didn't have any eyebrows. This caused me to just burst out laughing, and getting a warning from the teacher who said I was "disrupting the class". Whatever. 

For some reason, I just couldn't get my mind off of him all day. I guess Zach could tell this too, because as we were leaving Physics, our class right before lunch, he nudged me and smirked. 

"What?" I asked, somewhat annoyed. My thoughts of Caleb quickly vanished, as if Zach could peer into my brain and know what was on my mind. 

"Alex, I know what you're thinking about," he taunted in a sing-songy tone. The voice he'd always use when we were younger if he wanted to get on my nerves. We started to walk into the cafeteria. "Caleb Dawson." 

"Am not!" I replied a little too loudly and nearly crashed into a small boy carrying his tray of pizza. I shot him an apologetic look and glared at Zach, who just raised an eyebrow obviously not believing a word of that. 

"I am not thinking about him," I mumbled. We made our way towards the table and I sat down, avoiding Zach's eyes.

"Not thinking about who?" a smooth deep voice asked that made me jump. I looked up and saw, of course, Caleb Dawson sitting right across from me at the table.

"Oh hi!" I cried, mentally kicking myself for talking in my annoying voice I did when I talked to someone I thought was cute. Avoiding his question, I shot Zach a look. "What's up?"

"Do you mind if I sit with you guys?" Caleb asked shyly. "I know Jesse invited me, but.." He turned to look for the tall lanky boy. Jesse was one of our other friends, a pretty friendly guy too. It wasn't surprising that he had invited Caleb to hang out with us. 

"Of course not," I assured him, still shocked. I set my backpack down and unzipped it, trying to stop my hands from shaking.  Zach coughed beside me, and there was silence for a few minutes. I waited for my other friends to come to the table, but they weren't here yet. I could feel tension in the air. What was up with Zach?

"Hey man," I heard a famillar voice and relief washed over me. I saw Jesse and my other friend Marty high five Caleb and then sit back down. Alyssa was walking down the hall, on her phone, as usual, and when she got to our table sat down without a word. Alyssa was an interesting one. Her mood swings varied every second, and even though she was one of my closest friends, she sometimes really scared me. 

The four of us talked to Caleb the whole lunch period. He was a great storyteller, telling us about the time he got stung by a jellyfish at the beach and had to pee on himself because he went alone, and about the time when he first went to Disneyworld for a school field trip, having had to ask Minnie Mouse for directions because he was lost. It was hard to believe that the guy telling these hilarious stories had told me such a personal one earlier. He never brought it up to the others. The only one not in the conversation was Zach. He was usually a huge talker, the biggest talker of the group, but he was today focused on a video game on his phone, occasionaly taking bites of his sandwhich. Caleb tried to talk to him, but it mostly ended with Zach giving him one word answers. I felt like him and Caleb would have gotten along well if he hadn't decided to be on his man period for the day. 

The bell had rung, sadly signalling that we had to go to class now. Jesse, Marty and Alyssa had gotten their things and left. "What's your next class?" I asked Caleb, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. 

"U.S. History," he replied, handing me his schedule.

I grinned, looking up at him, and realized how tall he was, 6'2 at least. "Same." I tried to dim my excitement. We started to leave when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and it was Zach. 

"Just a second," I gave Caleb an apologetic look and faced Zach. He nodded and waited, looking at his schedule again. 

Zach opened his mouth and started to talk, but I cut him off. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked, angrily. "Why do you have to be such a dick?" 

Zach backed away and held his hands up. "Look, Alex, you need to be careful."

"Careful?" I almost laughed. "I'm not five years old." Zach had always been like an older brother to me, overprotective and annoying. Sometimes I liked it. Other times, like now,  it was just a bother.

"I don't trust him," he looked  a little to the side of me where Caleb stood and was watching people leave.

I scowled. "Why not?"

"He just spells trouble. He's not a good guy, I can just tell." Zach ran his fingers through his black hair, his brown eyes hard and serious. 

I bit my lip. "You don't even know him, you just need to give him a chance." This conversation was pointless. I turned around but Zach grabbed my hand. I let out a squeak, alarmed. Zach never made any physical contact with me, ever. 

"Just think about what I said." he said in a low voice, letting go and walking to his next class.