Smile, Synonym

[12] A Favour

Fletcher ran the fastest he's ever ran in his entire life. God, why did he come to a self-realisation when he was three blocks away from school?

By the time Fletcher reached the top courts, he was panting. His forehead trickling with sweat as his eyes scanned the area until he found them — at the far-end corner of the court, with Levi and the other's backs shielding Fletcher's view of Sam, who was battered and bruised, eyes still blank and mouth sewn shut. Groaning at the distance, Fletcher ran to the other end of the court before kicking Levi straight at the back.

The three boys towering over Sam stopped, momentarily surprised by Fletcher's arrival. Even Sam, whose eyes grew as wide as saucers when he saw the him.

Yeah, Fletcher was surprised he was there too.

Upon seeing Fletcher, the corner of Levi's lips tugged to form a sadistic smirk. "Hey, Sam, your prince charming's come for you —"

His sentence fell short when Fletcher flew his fist across Levi's face.

In the new awakened silence, Levi instinctively touched the corner of his now bruised lip, wincing at the slight pressure of his thumb had on it. He laughed before charging at Fletcher, his friends, Andrew and Roman, following him in pursuit.

Fletcher first dealt with Levi, ducking when the other boy tried to punch him back and, in the process, striking him in the gut. Then, as Levi fell back, Fletcher took on Andrew, attempting to punch him in face like he previously did with Levi, but Andrew was fast this time and was able to defect it. Fletcher kept hitting and missing until he decided to grab Andrew by the arm and twist it. In the following instance, Fletcher should've kicked him forward or kneed him right in the balls right away. But instead he held his stance long enough for Roman to grab him from behind, lifting Fletcher up high that his feet no longer touched the floor.

"Don't just sit there," Fletcher yelled, trying to shake himself out of Roman's hold as his eyes darted to Sam, who was still on the ground, watching the madness unfold in front of him. "Help me out!"

Sam blinked. Then, he blink again and two more times until he slowly got up from his feet and did the unimaginable — he chucked his 500-paged Bio book at Roman's head.

Roman yelled out a sharp cry as he drop Fletcher to massage the side of his head. Fletcher stared at Sam in astonishment for a moment before tilting his head to Andrew's direction the Levi's. Understanding what he meant, Sam nodded and they both ran in opposite directions.

Fletcher confronted Levi, who greeted him with a successful punch in the chest. He fell back for a mere second, but quickly gained his composure and continued to attack Levi, who did the same. Somewhere in between the chaos, Fletcher began to get tired from all the running and fighting. Soon, his punched were weaker and his reflexes were less quick. It was enough of advantage for Roman to come charging at him in the midst of his and Levi's fight, his movements so powerful that he was able tackle Fletcher in a blink of an eye.

Now Fletcher was on the ground while Roman sat on top of him, his fist ready to strike. From the corner of his vision, he saw Sam being held to his sides by Andrew and Levi, struggling to break himself free and forced to view the scene unravelling between Fletcher and Roman.

But before Roman's fist could even collide with Fletcher's cheek, Sam yelled out, "Roman, stop! He's her friend!"

And at his words, Roman faltered. Fletcher saw in full detail the way his brown eyes softened, his iris hinting with nostalgia and grief, as the edges of his lips  unhinged and fell. All the adrenaline and fury was suddenly washed away with an emotion Fletcher knew all too well— sadness.

Standing up and fists to his sides, Roman said, "We're done."

"What are you on about —"

"You've had your fun, Levi," Roman said, his tone serious as his eyes narrowed at Levi. "Now let's go."

Scoffing and rolling his eyes, Levi, along with Andrew, released Sam and, together, the three of them silently left the top courts.

Fletcher sighed in relief, closing his eyes briefly before he sat up. Then he turned to Sam, his eyebrow raised in confusion.

"How'd you do that?" Fletcher questioned.

"Doesn't matter," Sam answered, forehead dripping with sweat and his hands on his knees. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to help."

Sam scoffed. "And you expect me to believe that?"

"Look, you don't have to believe me. Think of this as a favour," Fletcher said. "Like, you owe me."

Sam thought about it for a moment then he nodded. "Fine. I can live with that."

"Good," Fletcher replied before collapsing on the ground again.

—

"All you ever do is mope around the house all day! When are you going to do something useful with your life?"

"I'm trying, okay? God, why do you have to be such a loud mouth all the time —"

"Oh, I'm the loudmouth? Well, you're —"

Fletcher turned his volume up, lofi music practically drumming in his ears in hopes to drown his parents' argument out. His mum's shift at the book store got cancelled today. Her frustration couldn't be helped — not when their rent was due a few days from now and with less pay, his mum was bent over from stress. And that's what made it easier for her to attack her husband, highlighting every flaw she wished she could fix on her own but couldn't.

What made it worse was that Fletcher's father didn't want to face the reality of it all. That he was useless. Pathetic. Unable to pick up his pieces and build himself back up again.

This argument couldn't have come at a better time, considering the fact that Fletcher's AP Bio test was tomorrow afternoon.

Even though the music had helped in muffling his mum and dad's screams, Fletcher couldn't concentrate. The words he'd read from the page would pass through him, not stick his memory, which was a big problem because he needed to memorise at leave five pages of this shit to pass the test.

Having decided that studying in his room would no longer benefit him, Fletcher snuck out through his window, books and keys in hand. He hadn't bothered in leaving a note since he figured he'd be back home before his parents even noticed he was gone.

Fletcher took the bus on the way to the library, with the sun blocking his view out the window during the entire journey. So, when the bus happened to pass by Orchid's Park, he wasn't sure if what he saw at that moment was pure misconception —

Because there, sitting on the grass, was Roman Alonso, holding up a set of cards as he played Go Fish with Thea's grave.