Think of me

eight: spaghetti and meatballs

Grayson

I woke up to the sun shining through a couple of cracks between my curtains. I rolled over to check the time on my phone. 10.19am. I had overslept. My phone had about 20 missed calls and text messages from Ben, who had obviously waited outside my house to take me to school but I never showed.

'For fuck sake.' I sighed as I lazily got out of bed. I didn't bother with a shower, not that I had time anyway. I brushed my teeth, flattened my bed hair and chucked on some dark blue jeans and a grey hoodie. I chucked a couple books into my rucksack without checking my timetable for today.

I had to drive myself to school since I missed my ride. As I drove, my mind started to replay last night. I didn't know what had come over me. I had spotted this girl walking in, and then my eyes just kept being drawn to her for the rest of the night.

She wasn't my usual type. I usually went for barbie type girls, blonde hair, too skinny and easy to get into bed. But I had recently start to go off those girls. Even though I would never usually take a second look at her, that girl had something about her. I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it was her hair, or her eyes. Or maybe it was the fact she was different. She obviously wasn't trying to be like every other girl at that gig, like her friend was. 

When I saw those two guys getting too touchy, I knew immediately that I was going to end up flipping my lid. That's just the kind of person I am. With my anger issues and all the shit that goes on at home, sometimes my body takes over and I just flip. I can't help it, and honestly I'm not really fussed. I know that whoever pisses me off enough to make me start throwing punches, deserves whatever I give them.

But last night went further than normal. I lost control completely when I was on top of that blonde guy. My fists just kept hitting his face, I could see that damage that was being done, but my hands just kept going. Somehow, her voice stopped me.

I got over it pretty quickly. Realising what I'd done, and having her say thank you to me. After I did that to a person. It pissed me off and I had to leave before anything else happened. 
Plus I needed a cigarette.

I soon arrived at school and went to sign in. I was tapping on my name on the screen to say I was there when I heard a voice that I knew all too well.

'Ah, Mr Wells. It's nice to see you've decided to show up.' He said. I spun round to see the dickhead of a head teacher, Mr Manson. I nodded my head at him and then started to walk away.

'And what makes you so late today, Grayson?' He said to my back.

'Just paying a visit to your wife, Sir. She was happy to see me.' I smirked without even turning to look at him. I knew those kinds of jokes pissed him off so I strutted out, leaving him with that image in his mind.

-

It was 10.45am by the time I got to the lesson I had been missing. There was only fifteen minutes left of the lesson but I thought I might as well show my face. I walked in and the teacher's eyes flicked up to the door where I was standing.

'Take a seat Grayson.' Was all she said before carrying on with what she was reading out of the textbook. 

I walked over to my seat which was placed in the front row. The teachers thought I needed to be close to them or they thought I wouldn't focus. They were probably right though. I lent back in my seat and turned my head to see Ben sitting in the back row. He was sneering at me so I gave him the finger.

'Grayson, that's an after school detention.' The teacher started writing on a small slip of yellow paper and then walked over to my desk, slamming the sheet in front of me. 

Detention Slip

Name: Grayson Wells

Reason: Inappropriate behavior towards other students during the lesson.

Date: 17/10/19

I screwed it up and shoved it in my pocket to join the others. I don't know why they kept giving me detentions. I never turned up and I was never going to.

-

At lunch, I walked to the canteen and sat down with the rest of the boys. We took up a whole table, and Megan and Amy had squeezed on the end next to Todd. As I sat down on the bench, I felt all eyes on me. I looked around but no one said anything.

'How's your nose?' Megan finally broke the silence, of course she had to. 

'Fine.' I grunted. They were staring at me because of that? I just wanted to forget about it. 

'And your ribs?' AJ, who was sitting opposite, said. He looked concerned, more than Megan who seemed to be amused by all of this.

'I said I'm fine. Drop it already.' I said aggressively. When Ben opened his mouth I could tell they weren't going to.

'Did you know that girl or something?' He asked. I glared at him, did he really have to bring her up? When I didn't reply he carried on. 'It's just that you never do that. So we thought maybe you knew her and that's why you went and started that fight.' 

'I didn't start it! They were the ones harassing that girl.' I slammed my fist on the table. I could feel a similar rage to the one last night start to build up in my chest. 'It was the right thing to do and you know it.'

'Yeah, but you knocked the guy out.' Ben carried on. Why wasn't he just shutting his mouth? My anger was building and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold it back. 'You broke his nose mate.' That was it. 

I jumped up from the table. I didn't want to hit any of them. They were my mates and I knew none of them meant any harm. I couldn't hit the girls, I'd probably get kicked out of the school if I did. But I had take my anger out on something. I looked down at the table which had trays of food scattered about from everyone's lunch that they were all half way through eating. I grabbed the one that was closest to me, I think it belonged to Theo. I lifted it above my head and chucked it at the wall opposite me. A couple of the boys on the table flinched as it flew over their heads. Spaghetti and meatballs slopped against the wall and slowly start sliding down the white paint, and the bottle of lemonade exploded everywhere. Some of it hit Megan and she screamed as if the world was ending. 

I then grabbed the next closest tray, probably AJ's and flipped it over so that his portion of pasta was spread all over the table. His lemonade began to leak across the table and a couple of the boys had to stand up so that it didn't drip onto their laps.

I looked at their horrified faces and stormed out of the canteen. By that point everyone in the hall had stopped to watch and a couple teachers, including Mr Manson, were hurrying over to the scene. I used the closest exit and stormed up to the back of the field where I knew no one was going to look for me.

Once again my anger had got the better of me, that was twice in two days. What was happening to me?