2. Shane
Shane
Sophomore Year
My first day at Ravens Ridge High School sucks ass. I’ve spent the whole day finding places to sit in the back of the classroom and keeping my head down.
No one really likes being the new kid, and I’ve never been good at making friends. Not that I give a shit really. I’m just biding my time until I can get the hell out of here.
My last class is sophomore algebra, and I make my way through a group of students mingling right outside the door.
This classroom looks identical to all the others I’ve been in today—rows of desks that aren’t meant for teenage boys of my height, a whiteboard at the front of the room, windows along the wall.
I find an empty seat at the back and drop down into it, letting my backpack fall from my shoulder onto the floor.
With my eyes fixed on the clock above the whiteboard, I pray for time to speed up.
If I didn’t know better, I’d honestly think the damn thing stopped.
A scrawny blond kid in a pair of light jeans and a black hoodie bumps my desk as he flops down in the chair next to mine
The girl sitting in front of me spins to smile at him. “Wanna come over tonight?”
“I don’t know.” He smirks. “Is your mom gonna be there?”
“Nope. She has book club tonight. It’ll be just us.” She beams, batting her lashes.
“Alright.” He winks, flipping his hair out of his eyes. “I’ll let you know.” Then, he turns his attention to me, his brows pinching in the middle as he looks me up and down. “You new?”
Not tearing my gaze from the front of the room, I pull the sleeves of my sweatshirt down and say, “Yep.”
He holds out a hand. “Gabe.”
“Shane,” I say, not taking it.
“Okay.” His eyebrows shoot up as he pulls his hand back. “Where are you from?”
“Raleigh.”
“No shit?” He laughs. “How’d you get stuck in bumfuck nowhere with us?”
“My dad lives here. I just moved in with him.”
He nods, looking like he’s thinking about something for a second before his face lights up. “Wait, is your dad Adam Michaels?”
“Yeah, you know him?”
Of course he does. Everyone knows everyone in this stupid town.
“He’s in the Ravens Ridge Riders with my dad. Man, that’s wild.” He smacks a hand on his desk, shaking his head. “I knew his kid was moving here, but I didn’t realize we’d be in the same grade.”
I nod, hoping he’ll take the hint that I don’t wanna talk to him and fuck off.
“We hang out at the club after school. Your dad will probably be there. Wanna come?”
I shake my head.
“Well, if you change your mind, JT just got his license over the summer and has an open seat in his truck. You can ride with us.”
“Mr. Abbott, are we going to have issues already this year?” the teacher calls from the front of the room.
Gabe leans back in his seat, rolling his eyes.
Eventually, the clock does move, and the bell finally rings, dismissing us. Hurrying out of the classroom, I throw my backpack on and push past the crowd to my locker before packing up my shit and hightailing it out of there.
Kids rush past me to get to their parent’s car parked along the curb in front of the building. While they’re all chomping at the bit to get home, I take my time. Ravens Ridge High is a far cry from the school I went to back home, but it’s somehow more chaotic.
There’s no way I could have walked home from school at my mom’s.
But here, it only takes about twenty minutes to get home on foot.
The sun shines down through the trees, casting shadows of the leaves on the concrete sidewalk as I make my way down the road.
Every house looks like it’s been lived in.
There are no perfectly manicured lawns or newly built townhouses.
Instead, there are porches with swings that look like they creak when they’re sat on, and toys and bikes scattered in the yards.
Don’t get me wrong, there are houses like that back home too. Just not in my mom’s neighborhood.
As I pass the little blue house on the corner that marks the halfway point, their dog yelps and jumps at the little white fence. The stupid thing was out here this morning barking his head off too.
A horn blares from behind me.
When I look back over my shoulder, Gabe hangs out the passenger window of a truck crawling along the curb, grinning like a loon. “Hey. Get in!”
Lifting a hand, I continue my trek and say, “I’m good.”
“Great. I didn’t ask how you were. I said get in the truck. Are your fucking ears broken?”
I stop, turning to glare at him. “Do you have a problem?”
“Yeah. I want you to get in the truck, and you’re still just standing there!” He waves his arm around like a maniac.
The kid driving leans forward to look around the goofy fucker. “He won’t give up. He’s annoying like that.”
“Are you even allowed to have passengers yet if you just got your license?”
“They ain’t stopped me yet.” He shrugs. “I’ll split my joint with you if you just get in so he’ll shut the fuck up.”
I take a deep breath and roll my eyes. If it weren’t for the joint, I’d say no again. But it’s been months since I smoked, and I’m in no hurry to actually get home.
So, with a long sigh, I drag my feet and climb into the stupid truck.
As I shut the door, Gabe teases, “Damn, if I’d have known you’d come running, I’d have promised you weed to begin with.”
“Shut up, or I’ll leave,” I grumble, crossing my arms over my chest.
He turns around in his seat to look at me. “You’re a fucking peach, you know that?”
I scowl and stare out the window.
The next day, JT’s waiting for me on the curb when school lets out. And again, the day after that. I’m not even sure when it happens, but at some point, I stop fighting it and start to actually look forward to hanging out with them after school.
Gabe’s like a cockroach and damn near impossible to avoid, but for the first time, I feel like I might actually fit in, which is strange.
It’s not that I didn’t have friends back home.
It was just different. These two are more like brothers than friends, and despite my resistance, Gabe’s hell bent on making me a part of their circle.
It’s actually perfect because the less time I spend at home, the better, and the two of them are always up to something.
I quickly fall into an easy routine of going to Gabe’s after school to play video games or fuck around with the old car his dad’s giving him when he turns sixteen. His mom’s almost as good of a cook as Gran, so I eat dinner there any chance I get.
“I’m starving!” Gabe shouts, bouncing in the front seat of JT’s truck after school like a Chihuahua.
The kid’s like a human garbage disposal, but somehow, he’s still a beanpole.
“We are not going to McDonald’s again,” JT barks. “That guy at the drive-thru never blinks, it freaks me out!”
“Okay, then Taco Bell.” Gabe shrugs.
“Fine.” JT gestures to me in the rearview mirror. “You want anything?”
“No.” Shaking my head I add, “I’d rather just eat when we get to Gabe’s later.”
“I’m gonna eat at home too, but that’s in like two hours,” Gabe groans.
“I’ll tell you what I’d like to eat at your house.” JT winks at him.
“Fucking stop.” Gabe shoves him into the driver’s door. “You know, if my dad heard you saying shit like that, he’d kill you.”
“Doubt it. He married her. He gets it.” A shit-eating grin spreads across JT’s face.
“I’ll gouge your eyes out if you don’t shut up.”
“Keep eating all that Taco Bell, you won’t be able to catch me.” JT continues to grin, staring off like he’s in a dream. “I’ll just run into the sunset with your mom.”
Shaking my head, I rub my eyes.
“Are you calling me fat?”
“JT, leave him alone.” Gripping the seat, I lean forward. “Gabe’s still in denial. He hasn’t realized every guy in school would kill for a chance to rail his mom.”
“You motherfucker!” Gabe yells, lunging at me in the back seat.
JT and I erupt into laughter.
He flops back into his seat, glaring out the windshield. “You two idiots can’t even pull chicks in our fucking class. I don’t know what you’re laughing about.”
Pulling up at the drive-thru, a cute, dark-haired girl hands a drink out the window.
“Hey, Ellie.” Gabe rests an arm on the center console, stretching across JT to wink at her.
She smiles shyly. “Hey, Gabe.”
Of course she knows him.
Gabe licks his lips and looks her up and down like a fucking idiot.
I roll my eyes, groaning. “Is there anyone in town you haven’t fucked?”
He drops the smile and shoots me a dirty look. “I haven’t fucked her.” He turns back to look at the girl, his smile reemerging. “Yet.”
“It’s gonna be pretty hard to do that after your mom grounds you for the rest of your life. You know Wallace called the second you left his office.” JT shoves the bag of food at Gabe.
Gabe groans, flopping back into his seat. “Don’t remind me.” His brows shoot up, and a grin spreads across his mouth. “Shit! We should do Wallace’s house next weekend instead of Mr. Gibbs.”
JT shakes his head. “No way. I’ve been waiting like a year to do him. That motherfucker has given me detention six times and it’s only midterms.”
Gabe huffs. “Fine. But Wallace’s next.”
He inhales his food as JT drives us home.
The Abbott’s have a big wrap-around porch with a swing, and the dark wooden front door opens to the entryway where you can see straight into the living room. Family pictures hang on the walls, and even though it’s lived in, it’s still tidy.
There are throw pillows tossed to the side and blankets on the couch, no doubt from where Gabe was watching TV with his bowl of cereal before school.
Gabe drops his backpack on the floor and heads down the hall.
The moment we step foot in the kitchen, his mom, Colette, pins him with her notorious, you’re in deep shit look. “Your principal called me this afternoon.”
“Huh… does Dad know? He’s got a real mean jealous streak,” he jokes, plopping down at the island. I silently sit beside him, knowing Colette’s about to chew his ass.
She glares. “Gabriel, did you get caught in the ladies’ room with a girl today?”
“No.” He grins.
She glares harder, sliding a plate of cookies across the island to me.
When she doesn’t say anything else he adds, “I got caught coming out of the ladies’ room.”
“Are you kidding me?” She smacks a hand on the counter. “What were you thinking?”
“You don’t want to know what he was thinking,” I mutter, shoving a bit of a cookie into my mouth.
Gabe swats the back of my head. “Shut the fuck up.”
“Watch your mouth,” she demands.
“Uh-oh. What did you do?” Jon asks, waltzing in still wearing his Ravens Ridge Auto jumpsuit and placing a kiss on Colette’s cheek.
“Nothing!” Gabe throws his hands up, feigning innocence as he leans back in his seat. “Apparently, you can’t even use the restroom in peace these days.”
“Not the ladies’ room, Gabriel!” Colette yells.
My eyes stay trained on Jon, my shoulders tensing and my heart kicking up a beat.
But he just rolls his lips under to hide a smile.
“It’s not funny!” Colette swats her husband, and the chuckle he was holding back breaks from his lips, melting all that tension that was just coiling in my gut. “The principal said he refused to come out when he caught him.”
“No, that’s not true. I just needed a minute.” He grins, crossing his arms over his chest. “I told him to hold on.”
I start to crack up before Colette’s eyes widen, and her jaw ticks.
RIP Gabe.
“Gabe,” his dad scolds, shaking his head.
“Okay, sorry.” He throws his hands up and smirks. “I’ll use the boys’ room next time.”
“Absolutely not! Gabriel, no funny shit at school! I want grand babies one day, but not today!”
“I’ll chaperone his bathroom breaks from now on.” I squeeze Gabe’s shoulder as I stand from the island. “Don’t worry.”
“No offense, man, but you’re not really my type,” he jokes.
“Shut up,” I say, shaking my head. “Let’s go.”