Ice cream, Teasing and Awkward Situations

Ethan's POV-First day of middle school-Part 2

It was lunchtime. 

I was sat in the playground, slumped, down with my back against a tree. I watched all the other boys and girls in envy. They were running around, playing games, interacting with each other while I sat slumped down by this tree. They were having fun, and I was not. 

A part of me was itching to run up to the field, and join the other boys who were playing soccer.

 God, did I want to, but I couldn't.

 Rule number one was make no friends. I've already shit on rule number two, thanks to brown eyes, so the least I could do was keep the other two rules intact.

With a sigh, I fished out my notebook from my bag, figuring this was a good enough time as any to read ahead. As I flipped to a clean page, a small piece of paper fluttered out and onto the grass.

 I picked it up and smiled as I saw it was Mia's letter. All-throughout class, I kept re-reading it over and over again, like some kind of nutter. It was the only conversation I was ever going to allow myself to have with her, so I wanted to memorize it line by line. 

Yeah, I know, I'm pathetic...

"Woo, what a game," I heard a loud voice say before I felt a thud as someone crashed down onto the ground beside me.

 I lifted my head in surprise and found a random boy sitting beside me. He was a dark skinned boy with a mop of curly black hair and a bright warm smile on his face. I could just tell he was the type of boy who seemed to find happiness in everything. 

The type of boy I used to be. 

"Man is it hot today, I reckon it must be 100 degrees," he said as he wiped his sweaty forehead with his sleeve.

 "You've got the right idea, sitting here under the shade," he sighed. "Oh, by the way, do you have any spare snacks to share," he said as he eyed my bag in intrigue.

 I put a hand protectively over my rucksack, knowing there was a packet of Doritos in there, that I had absolutely no intention of sharing. 

"Look, no offense, but why are you talking to me?" I asked bluntly.

 He laughed. "Oh, right, how rude of me. I'm Lucas. I thought you were funny in class today, so I'm your friend now. Any questions?" he explained simply. 

He's my fucking what now?

 "Erm...look...as nice as that offer sounds, I'm not really looking to make any friends, right now," I said slowly, eyeing him the same way you might look an explosive bomb. 

This dude was weird... 

His eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Really? Why not?" he asked with the tilt of his head.

 "Because I'm violent," I shrugged. "If you hang out with me too much, there's a highly probably chance I might punch you in the face," I said with a smile. 

My tactic was to try and get him to back off by scaring him. Nobody's going to want to hang out with a boy, who just made a threat to punch them. 

He snorted. "Oh, is that it?" He asked. "Simple, if you punch me in the face, I'll punch you right back but harder. Then we'll be good," he said, returning my smile. 

Persistent little bugger this one was. 

"I'm sorry, Lucas, but I'm just not gonna be your friend," I said bluntly.

 I know I was being rude, but it was for his own good. Lucas kept his gaze fixed on mine, and his eyes sparkled with a challenge. 

"Look, Ethan, you have two options - accept me as my friend or have to deal with my annoying-ass-self bugging you for the rest of the year. Your choice," he said simply.