The New Kid

The Ride

(Narrator POV)
(A week later. It is now about a week into October in the story.)

Raven and Wick were dating now and he would occasionally hang out around her group of friends which was now also Murphy and his friends. Nobody liked Wick in the friend group. Everyone thought that he was a liar and a jerk, but they didn't badmouth him in front of Raven out of respect for their relationship.

Raven and Murphy's friend groups had essentially merged as one. They still did things separately, but they also did things all together and in a mix of both groups.

Emori and Murphy were walking to school together that day. Murphy's bosses at the two struggling businesses he worked at, gave him his original salary back so he was no longer as broke, but it was still a coin toss if he would eat today or not.

"I can't believe Raven is dating that jerk." Emori mumbled and Murphy shook his head. She had brought Wick up a couple of times, and Murphy shot her down every one of them.

"What do you want me to say? You were right. I waited too long and now it's too late." He mumbled back, not unkindly, just a tad irritated.

"I don't want you to tell me I'm right. I want you to realize that maybe it's never too late." She told him and looked at the bruise on his cheekbone with a sigh. "I can't wait for you to move out of that house." She said quietly and he nodded in agreement.

"By this time next month I'll be out of there. Even if I'm living in a car or a box in an alleyway. I can't take anymore of her crap." Murphy said as they started to approach the school.

"My home life isn't perfect, but if you need a place to crash, I'm always an option." She told him and he nodded with a 'thank you'. She started to walk away since Murphy had agreed to meet Jasper in the parking lot to give him the music sheets for the band performance.

It was too cold for Emori and as much as she loved her best friend, it was too chilly this morning to stand and wait for the other boy to show up.

As Emori was beginning to walk toward the door, she heard a familiar voice speak to Murphy. A voice that was 100% not Jasper. Emori turned and saw Wick approaching Murphy, so of course, Emori dived behind a tree and pulled out her phone to record everything. You never know when you may need evidence.

"Wick." Murphy said in greeting as the smug blonde came to a stop a few feet away. "Can I help you?" He sounded annoyed, but not too rude.

"Stay away from Raven." Wick said angrily and Murphy's eyes widened a bit before he schooled his expression back to indifference and sarcasm.

"I'm sorry, what? Shouldn't it be Raven's choice who's in her life?" Murphy questioned with a bit of a furrow to his eyebrow.

"It will be her choice when I tell her to stay away from you." Wick, oh so eloquently informed Murphy, who was now standing with his jaw dropped to the ground.

Then, he burst out laughing. "Wow, you got a lot of nerve, I'll give you that. I'm just astounded that you think you can tell Raven what to do. I'm even more amazed that you think you have the right to. Nobody has the right to tell her what she can do, especially not you." Murphy scowled a bit.

"She'll do what I say, just you wait." Wick smirked wickedly and Murphy suddenly felt like he was missing a big piece of the story.

"Why do want her away from me so bad anyways? She's dating you, and clearly you don't know Raven at all if you think she'd cheat." Murphy was genuinely confused now. Who does this guy think he is. Murphy bet that he was a rich kid. 100%.

Wick snickered, and Murphy couldn't help but think that Wick was acting more like Murphy, than Murphy was acting like himself in this conversation. "She loves you, idiot. I don't even care, I just want to make sure that she stays with me."