Back Alley Boys

Tommy

The fiery gates of hell met my eyes and it was a sorry sight to say the least. Maybe I was being dramatic, but I did not want to be here. The walls of this place we call school looked more like a prison with rotting bleachers. It wasn't the look that ruined it however, I lived in a damn alley for gods sake. It was the general idea of education. I wanted an education, and I was smart enough for one, but the teachers here just didn't give a crap about any of us. They just assumed we would never make it. So they treated us like dirt under their feet until it came to the day we could graduate.

A hand slapped my back.

"Come on. No point in prolonging all the fun." Ajax joked halfheartedly.

I didn't bother walking to my locker, it was missing a door, it was just a shelf. Instead I carried a single book with me and decided I'd nick a pencil off of the first girl ogling for my attention. 

The day went slow. It crawled along and my anticipation to leave this place was causing my knee to skip up and down faster than my heartbeat. The fist day was never worth anyone's while. 

Throughout the day I would catch myself thinking of Otto. The way he had fallen on me and looked shocked beyond belief at the situation. I could practically see the gears in his mind figuring out ways for him to get off of me. 

I don't know why I acted that way around him. I should have just saved him from going into the alley and then shooed him off. Or better yet, I should have been the one to kick him in the backside into the prying grasp of the boys. If anyone had seen how cosy and giggly I was around him I'd be dead meat.

"Urgh." I groaned out loud as I slammed my head against the lunch table and rather over dramatically threw my hands over my head.

"Yeh, we get it. We wanna drop out too." Grey said. It just made me groan again. They had no idea that I was really thinking about how much I was crushing on a guy and how I was petrified they would find out.

"You guys wanna ditch last period? We came, we showed our faces, I doubt Mrs Carter would twist her knickers too much if we left now." Ajax said. I threw my thumb up above my still table ridden head and that was all the confirmation he needed to put out his cigarette and casually stroll out. Grey followed, but not before winking at a blushing girl. 

"I thought you found 'the one.'" I muttered as I followed them out.

"Yeh, her Dad had some big break and she moved up-town into rich folk area. I wasn't gonna continue hitting that." I rolled my eyes and followed him out. 

We made it to the park and headed for the tree. Grey took up his usual position of the "laid back, I wanna get laid" look and Ajax jumped up onto the top branch. Dropping down into the grass I stared up at the clouds. My mum and I used to do this for hours. We would pick out clouds and make entire storylines and dramas on them. There was this one reoccurring shape of a dragon we always seemed to see. My six year old self very creatively and firmly set it's name in stone as Drago. Although I seemed to always envision it as a him, I always set out the same storyline of it somehow being a mother with a litter of twelve dragon babies that all had their own not so creative names too might I add. Maybe that should have been my first clue. A boy dragon, married to another boy dragon (that never really seemed to have a main role), who was also a mother to twelve other dragons. 

Another groan left me.

"You alright Tommy? That's a total of three groans in one hour. That's one more than usual." Ajax joked.

I groaned again.

That caused a thump to rattle the ground as he jumped off the tree. I felt two figures looming over me which meant Grey had left his post too.