perhaps we'll last

1.

It was the first day of his junior year.
One more year and I'm out of this shit hole, was his first thought as he entered Palmetto High.
He was used to this kind of chaos. The ultimate, endless mess which could only be culminated when one decides to put hundreds of teenagers in a single building.
There was noise everywhere. Lockers slamming. People gossiping about the fall edition or the latest movie. Somewhere someone was crying about being dumped by a boyfriend and somewhere else, someone else was having sex. It was a typical high school day, and Neil hated every second of it.

It was the third period of the day. Spanish.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder and passed him a note.

Hey Josten. How many did you fuck this summer?, the note read.

He smiled when he looked behind and there in one corner of the room, sat Aaron Minyard.
He was looking at Neil, they hadn't seen each other almost all summer. He looked tired but then, he always looked tired. Aaron raised a single blonde eyebrow, a signal to answer the damn note.

Shut up. You know my rules about fucking. Speaking of fucking..how is Katelyn?, he wrote back.
The note was snatched from his hand.
He looked up and saw Mr. Gonzales, looking at him from underneath his half rimmed glasses.
He inspected the note like a police was inspecting evidence, as if a great secret, a mystery was close to being solved.
"Who wrote this?", he asked the entire class.
Some of them snickered and Neil resisted great urge to roll his eyes.
Aaron lazily raised his hand.
Now the thing about Aaron Minyard was that his parents were filthy rich. They paid enormous donations to the school. It was highly improbable that he would be punished for such a trivial thing.
Gonzales looked at Aaron and then back at Neil.
"Detention. Mr. Josten. Two days.", he said and went back to teaching whatever he was teaching.

Only people who knew Aaron could say he wasn't apologetic. Not at all.
Neil nodded at him. An acknowledgement of the favour that had been done countless times before.
Aaron knew that home was just as bad as school.

Millport was a small, lazy town with small, lazy people. The town bred on gossip. Everytime another freshman got pregnant, the town would be out to shame her. Everytime a jock came out of the closet, the whole town would be in uproar.

Neil didn't know what he was doing here. A single child, born and brought up in Millport. He hated this town and its small mindedness. Hated the fact that nothing great, nothing which made even a miniscule shift in the order of the earth took place here.
The only exciting thing about shitty, boring old Millport, was its Exy team. They were the second ranked Exy team in the South. Neil was its Vice Captain.
Neil loved Exy. Loved every part of it. The only time he felt alive was when he had a racquet in his hand and his feet on the Court.

Neil Josten was a jock. Well liked, but not popular, which was a blessing. "Popular" people here, usually had twenty different girlfriends and an ass for a brain. Neil didn't ever want to be one of them.
Aaron Minyard was his best friend. They'd known each other since they were kids, had joined the same Exy team a few years later and had been inseparable since.

"Ah. Mr. Josten. Welcome back.", Mrs. Shonda, the teacher in-charge of the detention students muttered, not looking up from the tests she was correcting.
"Take a seat. It looks like you might have a friend here today."
Neil noted the circular tables and the lack of windows in the room. He noted how much this place looked like prison.
There was only one person present here. It was like looking at the back of his hand, the face which was as familiar to Neil as his own was. He looked exactly like Neil's best friend. But it couldn't be possible. Aaron would've told him that his brother was back.

Andrew Minyard looked up from his empty notebook, a pen in his hand, his expression eerily similar to his twin's. He looked at Neil..no observed was a better word. Took a thorough observation of Neil. Neil wondered what he saw. Auburn hair. Blue eyes. A couple of scars.
Neil smiled at Andrew. It wasn't the smile he had given Aaron earlier. This one made him look dangerous. Made him look as if bits of his father were seeping through his teeth. Andrew didn't even bat an eye when he saw it. He just went back to his empty book.
Neil took a seat at his table.

"Can't say I'm surprised to see you here Josten.", Andrew said in a way of introduction.
"Likewise Minyard."
"Minyard's my brother. You should know that.", Andrew said lavishly. Every word he spoke sounded like poison covered with honey.
There was a beat of silence.
"What did my brother do this time that you're here again?", Andrew inquired, looking at Neil with the same hazel eyes.
"Passed me a note in Spanish. What did you do that you're here?"
"Tried to smoke in class."
"Really..", Neil said, not quite a question.
"There was a window. I didn't see the harm.", Andrew said and went back to his work.

There was complete silence in the room after that.