A sullen look plagued the boy's face as he dragged a finger across the surface of the dirty metal sheet.
"Did someone make fun of you again, Nick?" A quiet voice asked, the sound suddenly increasing in volume as its owner crouched down next to him. The boy let out a frustrated sigh, flicking the cold material harshly, only to wince and retract his slowly reddening finger.
"Agh! I'm going to get them back, just you see," he declared defiantly, tipping his head back and yelling into the concrete sky above. The girl next to him simply nodded appeasingly, seemingly more focused on clearing the concrete block beneath her of the loose bits of debris that covered it.
"You're saying that now, but didn't you chicken out last time we saw them?" She pointed out rather bluntly, sitting down at last.
"W-well... I really did have to use the bathroom! I wasn't going to fight them while I really needed to go," he answered quickly, face turning beer red as he averted his gaze back down at the metal sheet he'd been doodling on with his finger.
"You should stand up for yourself more, you know? You can do it; I've seen you do it for me before," she commented offhandedly, leaning forwards to blow at the dust on the ground. "It's pretty cool, honestly. Though I can't tell if it's more cute or scary to see sometimes."
What? She knew? He found his heart thumping louder; but how? He thought he'd been good at keeping quiet about it... his fingers laced together, fingers lifting and falling.
"I know you're not really as shy as you look. I'm not dumb." She frowned, straightening back up and crossing her arms across her puffy pale blue jacket.
"I'm not shy, Erin," came the mumbled reply. He really wasn't. He just didn't see a point in speaking loud and trying to make his presence known; doing so just got his hopes up, and made him think someone might actually listen. He'd long since learned that no one ever did, except for his best friend sitting next to him.
"Well then why don't you stop being such a wimp?" She continued. It was a full frontal assault, but not one that Nick wasn't used to. Such was their dynamic; she'd yell at him, and he'd half heartedly defend himself.
"You're a wimp," he retorted lamely.
"Your mother's a wimp."
He had no comment for that. A soft cloud left his mouth as he let out a breath, resuming the silence he'd been in prior to her appearance. He knew it was just a stupid, meaningless, insincere come back that her and everyone else in his grade used, but he couldn't help it. Any mention of his family always provoked this sort of silence in him.
"Sorry," she apologized, realizing her mistake. She was good at noticing the small things he did; he liked that. The attention made him feel a little more important than he was. A small smile slipped onto his face as he thought that; unconsciously, he found himself scrawling a faint smiley face onto the metal canvas under is finger.
"It's okay. How do I become less of one?" He then asked, looking back up at her, mismatched blue and honey eyes meeting simple brown ones.
"Well, firstly, you've gotta get rid of that dumb look on your face. Of course they'll pick on you if you always look like that."
In response to her words, he pulled the sides of his mouth up into a wide smile, one that bared all his teeth at her. He let the expression sit for a bit, before relaxing his face again.
"How's that?"
She gave him a look, shaking her head disappointedly. "If you're going to fake a smile, you've got to at least be good at it. But since you suck at that, that's why you should focus on getting a real one instead."
"That's nice to hear from you, when you never smile either," he shot back, reaching out pinching her cheek, wiggling it around. He let out a short laugh at the sight, before letting go and returning to his calm state. A petulant look fell over her face as Erin stared at the boy, one hand reaching up to rub at her right cheek.
"Shut up." The words were harsh, but slowly, a small smile appeared on her face too. Seeing that, Nick's returned, wider and a little brighter than before.
"See? That one's nice," she pointed out, reaching forwards and poking the black haired boy's cheek in return, provoking another small laugh from him. He liked spending time with Erin. Sometimes, he wished he could permanently forget his problems, but he knew that wasn't possible unless he went and gave himself a really good knock on the head, which wasn't something he wanted to do. When he was with her though, even if it was only temporary, he could forget about everything else that he didn't want to . Which was why...
"Erin, don't go." The smile left his face, a serious look replacing it. It was the type of look one wouldn't normally expect to see on an eleven year old, one that made a person like his friend blink twice before replying.
"Why can't you be this pushy all the time? No one'd bother you much longer if you did," she mumbled, avoiding the question. It was one she didn't want to answer. "It's my parents. We're moving away, so I can't come to school here anymore. I told you before."
So you're just going to leave me?
"But what if you lived here with me? My dad has a tent; I've seen it before. We could just live in that together!" They could make it work; he'd just tell his parents that he wanted to camp for a bit. The wouldn't care if he took a little more food than usual, and they wouldn't care if he slept outside for a few months.
She frowned, sighing. "I don't want to leave my family, Nick. I want to stay; really, I do. It's... weird moving to a completely new place, and completely starting over again. But I can't do anything about it. Plus, I don't think we'd last very long in a tent together. It's not practical."
"I can make it work. If I put all my effort in something, it can't fail. It's me, after all," he insisted, standing up, fists curling up tightly.
"Nick, we're eleven."
"Yeah? So?"
She shook her head, standing up as well. She patted at the back of her legs, brushing off the dirt and concrete pieces. "Anyways, that's just at the end of the year. You're stuck with me for the next two months. And..."
She turned her body towards him, reaching both hands out and placing one on either shoulder, gripping onto him firmly. He found their eyes meeting again, though this time, it was Erin's no-nonsense gaze that was clearly the initiator. He found himself wanting to take a step back under the intensity of her expression; what was going on?
"In those next two months, I'm going to help you. Just like how you've been helping me. First things first, we're going to make you smile properly more. Then, we're going to bring out that inner meanness and confidence of yours that I /know's/ in there."
Eh? She was? But he... A part of him was eager, but another part of him wondered why. Plan all she wanted, but the problem stil lay in the fact that she was leaving him. Why was she doing all this now? Nick wanted to ask. He wanted her to know just how much he didn't want her to go. He wanted her to know how important their friendship was to him. Would he come off as clingy if he said all that? Would she dislike him for that? He couldn't. Nick pulled her hands off of his shoulders. Not even a moment later, he felt them there again.
"We're also going to make sure you're less of a scaredy cat. You want to say something, right? Just say it; don't worry so much about what other people think." It was as if she'd read his mind.
"Ah, but you need to know when you're being too open or too mean."
She was still talking, but her words weren't what occupied his thoughts anymore. It was the sound of her voice, the touch of her hands, the look in her eyes.
"Also— Huh? Wait, wait Nick, why're you crying?!"
"I'll miss you."
"Oh come on; I'm still here," she sighed, giving him an amused smile. Of course he knew she was still here; she just didn't get it though. How much she meant to him exactly— His first best friend. He didn't reply, leaning forwards instead to give her a hug, sniffling quietly as he did so.
"I already miss you."
"...Oh man, Nick..."
He heard a soft sigh, followed by the warm embrace of her grass-scented t-shirt.
"Okay; I'm ready to learn," he finally said hoarsely, breaking away first and giving his friend a watery smile. She returned it, though ten times as brightly, and then began to speak once again.
"All right, so; like I said..."
--
I've had this sitting in my drafts for a while now tbh; might as well post it, I thought, while everyone's sleeping pffff
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