I turn to face Bailey, watching as he blanches. He shakes my hand off his sleeve and walks away without a word.
“Theo,” Shane says, nodding. “Any reason you’re stalking my brother?”
“I’m not stalking him; I just wanted to make sure he was alright.”
“Why wouldn’t he be alright?” he asks, cocking a brow.
A hollow laugh escapes me. “Oh, I’m not sure. Maybe the fact his brother fucked his face up, and I’m the one who had to clean him up.”
Shane hums. “Should have known he’d have found someone to feel sorry for him. He doesn’t need you to protect him.”
“I’m not?—”
“Bailey likes to play games. Just be careful, yeah?”
I search his face, not believing a word coming out of his mouth. His ice-blue eyes hold my gaze, cold and unblinking, lips curling up into a grin.
“See you around,” he says, turning to follow Bailey out of the building.
As soon as he’s out of sight, I pull out my notebook. Ignoring everything Shane said, I write my number down with a simple message to meet me in the woods tomorrow and slip it into Bailey’s locker.
It’sfour in the afternoon, and Bailey hasn’t texted me, even though school finished half an hour ago. I shift my numb arse on the moss-covered rock, looking at the trees surrounding me. There’s no sign of him either.
I’ll give it another hour but I can’t wait all night for him; Ma will flip out if I miss tea. I pull my phone out to check my messages. Maybe I can wait a couple more hours.
I’m picking at little bits of moss and throwing them into the water when a rustle comes from behind me. I turn around, jumping when I see Bailey closer than I expected. “I didn’t think you’d come.”
He nods and shuffles his feet, taking a step back as though he realised he was standing too close. He avoids looking at me, just like before, so I stand up and take a step towards him. “I’ve been in Surrey a while now and haven’t really made any friends …” I say awkwardly. He finally makes eye contact but remains silent. “I thought, if you wanted to, we could meet up after school and just, um, hang out?” Christ, this is worse than asking someone on a date.
After an excruciatingly long pause, Bailey nods, and relief washes over me.
“Do you game?” I ask, sitting back down on the rock.
He edges towards me, reaching out to stroke the soft green moss, shaking his head.
“Oh. Don’t you have a console?”
He shakes his head again.
“That’s okay, if you want to check it out, I got a game for my birthday that has a huge open world with dragons in it. You could come over on the weekend?”
He looks like he’s going to shake his head again, but nods instead, shoulders drawing up.
This isn’t really getting us anywhere. “Can we swap numbers?” I hold my hand out, and he passes his phone over for me. “You have unlimited texts?” I ask, putting my number in his contacts, texting myself so that I have his too. He makes a small sound of confirmation, and I hand the phone back.
Me
Hey
He looks down when his phone dings, then up at me, brows creased with confusion.
“I don’t have an issue with you not talking to me, but can you text?”
Looking down at his phone again, his thumbs start to move.
Unknown
Yes, I can text
