The phone rumbled against my thigh as Mrs Greggs droned on about sedimentary rock formation. She was as blind as she was long winded, so I slipped my phone out and opened up the Snap that had come through.
It was a picture of a guy's naked chest, his hairy nipple right in focus.
The caption read: "Where you @ Lover?"
Diego.
My face snapped into a grin that felt alien after the last few days.
"In school, where you should be thicko...."
A reply: another photo. This time of his hand halfway down his pants.
"I was too busy thinking of you."
"I am not opening any more photos from you!" I shot back.
He replied, thankfully with just a message. I wouldn't put it past him to send a dick pic and knowing my luck, Mrs Greggs would catch me on my phone at that precise moment.
"Spoilsport 😜. You missed a bag of stuff under your bunk. I grabbed it before the vultures descended."
Diego had been roomed with me at the Group Home that I had been living in since Mum died. He'd looked out for me in a big way when I was in no state to do anything for myself.
"Cheers, I can meet you there to get it?"
"I got it with me. Meet me by the Rec centre after you have finished being studious 🤓."
Kate was working: I didn't have anything to do other than go back to an empty house so I might as well.
I sent back a thumbs up emoji.
A minute later my lap vibrated again. I opened it; it was a smiling picture of him with his middle finger up with the caption "Knew you'd look Perv!"
----
Christ, why did I agree to this? I had gotten to the Rec centre almost an hour ago and had walked around it entirely. No Diego.
He wasn't known for being all that reliable, but this was taking the piss.
I tried his phone for the dozenth time and his voice finally rang out. "You are eager."
"Where the hell are you D?"
"Got held up running errands. I am over behind the garages on Haselmere Estate."
That was a ten-minute walk. I gritted my teeth. "On my way."
The weather looked like it was going to turn, so I checked the way on my phone before getting up to a steady jog.
Haselmere wasn't the nicest place to go solo. It consisted of two high rise buildings and some single stories that used to have a few shops but was now mainly deserted - two shop fronts now used by charities that helped the people on the estate with work and housing. The garages were behind these depressing buildings. There was a completely run down playground opposite that had never been replaced and it was there I saw Diego on a bench as I rounded the corner. He had his back to me and I recognised his boyfriend Chris, who was draped across him.
There were a few people sitting and standing around the benches - with two girls dancing to some music that I didn't recognise. Two guys were tagging the back of one of the garages: bright-stylised letters bold against the gritty concrete.
A guy stepped away from the group and jogged towards me as I approached. He had one of those faces that had a perma-scowl.
"What do you want?"
YOU ARE READING
Given Up
Teen FictionFifteen-year-old Kyle Clark just wants to be left alone. No one seems to have gotten the memo. Everyone just wants him to talk about his Mum: his friends, his teachers and definitely his long lost Auntie that he now has to live with. He tries to...
