At the End of the Garden

Chapter Six

"I've got to tell you something!"
Angie didn't seem to be feeling the same excitement I was, not that it mattered to me.
"What is it? And how long until the bus?"
"The app said fifteen minutes when I left." I told her. That meant the bus was five minutes away now. There was a bus stop closer to my house, but I went to a further away one so I could meet Angie.
"Anyway, last night I was waiting for Eden and Sidney was there."
"Sidney? Did you ask him about the rumour?"
"Yes. Anyway, when Eden came out. He actually held my hand! It had to be because he was jealous right?"
I hoped this would get a reaction from Angie. I'd waited all night to tell her about the progression in our relationship personally. I'd wanted to impress her with this.
"What did he say?" She asked.
"Who? Eden?"
"Sidney."
I suddenly didn't want to talk to her anymore.
"He said he couldn't remember." I said anyway, crossing my arms and refusing to look at her. "It was too long ago. He also asked why I still cared about a stupid rumour nobody's talking about anymore." I lied.
"Dead-end then." Angie said.
The excitement had dramatically flooded out of me and into the drain on the side of the road. We stood in silence, with me still refusing to look at her.
"You look like a toddler."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Angie shook her head.
"So, Eden held your hand?"
It felt so trivial and small when she said it, like it meant nothing. She was asking out of courtesy and I hated it. But I suppose it did mean nothing. Once Eden and I had got back to his house that night, Eden sat in the dining room doing his homework and I went into the next room to play his Xbox. I spent the whole time waiting for my dad to pick me up too nervous to look him in the eye.
"Yes." I replied.
"And Sidney was there? He was definitely jealous."
"I thought that. Do you think that's... a good thing?" I asked her. I was still in a bad mood, but I had no-one else to ask.
"I suppose... I don't really know, I didn't have to make my ex jealous for attention."
As Angie spoke the bus turned the corner and was coming towards us.
"Eden's a special case though." She continued. She shrugged her shoulders while sticking her hands out into the road. The bus stopped for her.

Angie's ex-boyfriend didn't go to Quinn's Academy, but he didn't live far away. I only met him once, when he came to meet her after school. I couldn't see what she saw in him, he had a really thin face and greasy hair. At least that's how I remember him now. It's also how Angie described him when they broke up. He was definitely one year older than us, minimum, but Angie never admitted it to me. In fact, she didn't tell me a lot about him, but kept cancelling our plans to see him. It wasn't until I needed help with Eden that she told me everything her boyfriend had done for her and how far they'd gone. Frankly, these were things I didn't want to know and they made everything worse. But it made Angie more experienced than me by miles. If Angie thought that Eden was jealous, I had no better judgement to trust. So, that day, I decided to speak to Sidney again.
I waited until the end of our Maths lesson and then chased him out of them room when he left before me. I had to grab the sleeve of his blazer to get his attention.
"What's up?" He asked.
"I, um, wanted to learn more about the Luka thing." I said. I turned around to check for Eden, but didn't see him. "Can we meet again later?"
Some of our classmates passed, they would of been able to see me with a hand still on Sidney's arm and hear enough of what I said to him.
"Watch out Sidney, don't want to get in trouble with Mr Quinn for that."
Sidney scoffed as I quickly drew my hand back, he then shoved his own hands straight into his pockets dismissively. Like a teenage boy would.
"Man, shut up." Was all he said.
It was rare that Sidney struggled to find a witty response, I wondered if he was embarrassed. He waited for the group to move passed before he said anything else.
"Where do you wanna meet? The library?" He said. He had a cheeky expression that suggested the incident with the boys was forgotten.
"No way!" I reacted. "I'm not getting kicked out of there again."
"Fine." He said and rolled his eyes sarcastically. "We can meet at the gates then, after school right?"
I nodded.
"If you two continue to stand here you'll be late."
That was Eden's voice. He was standing behind me. That meant he must have heard some of the conversation.
"Oh damn, that wouldn't be good." Sidney said while looking at an invisible watch on his wrist. "Well, better run then." He continued and began walking in the completely wrong direction.
Eden shouted this to him.
"Nah way. Wouldn't want to listen to you two flirt the whole way!" Sidney said as he began to turn a corner. We heard a laugh follow that was quieter than his voice.
Neither me or Eden commented on it, we just began walking in the right direction.
"You got kicked out the library?"
I couldn't stop myself from laughing.
"It wasn't my fault, I promise."
I smiled at him but got a shrug back and nothing else.