Misled Chapter 3

  It was 12:45 p.m. on the dot when I arrived at the local burger joint in The Vale. I had class at one but had decided to skip it to meet with Clint for lunch. We had made a deal to meet here just to show each other no hard feelings about our first encounter. Sure I could have met him after my classes but we were meeting in the vale where the preppies lived, the preppies as in rich kids, and Clint didn’t like rich kids. So I figured if we met here while everyone else was more than likely in school, there would be a lesser chance of a fight occurring. I stood there leaning up against the building staring down at my shoes when I heard that familiar raspy voice call out to me.

“What’s going on!”

Looking up I saw Clint approaching me and a light smile cracked across my face.

“You’re early” I laughed surprised that he had shown up at all.

“You’re one to talk” he replied, with both of us still grinning we made our way inside the restaurant and sat down at a table. Soon enough a waitress came by and placed two menus in front of us and asked if either of us wanted anything to drink, we both got sodas and watched her walk away.

Picking up the menu I glanced up and down it even though I already knew what I was going to order and apparently Clint did too as he placed his menu back on the table no sooner than I did mine. I glanced around the restaurant hoping to not see any of the preppies I went to school with, so far everything was going smoothly and the last thing I needed was some random rich kid strolling in and ruining our…. Meeting… I recalled straining to keep a smirk from stretching across my face at the thought of what had almost crossed my mind. Yeah I viewed it as a date but as far as I was concerned Clint didn’t. Continuing to look around my eyes landed on two familiar faces. I stared at the two of them for a moment hoping it would help remove the awkward expression that I knew I held but apparently it didn’t fade quickly enough.

“Something wrong?” Clint asked from his seat across from me, he looked rather amused as his eyes followed to where mine had been at the two boys sitting on the other side of the restaurant.

“It’s nothing” I quickly told him while waving at a smiling Trent and a blushing Kirby.

Clint stared at me for a moment still clearly amused before his face spread into a wide grin. I raised one eyebrow at him.

“Ex-boyfriend?” He asked trying not to laugh at me.

Evidently Clint was the type who could read peoples demeanor like an open book. “What!? No way they’re just two guys I go to school with!” A faint hint of embarrassment mixed with a massive dose of amusement overtook me.

“Whatever you say” He responded still grinning. I let out a fake sigh as the waitress returned and we both placed out orders. We sat there in silence for a few minutes before Clint decided to speak.

“So” he started still appearing somewhat amused. “What do you like to do for fun?”

That particular question had me reeling with excitement on the inside, there were something’s I wanted to know about him, and now that he had taken the liberty to try and prod me first made my plan all the more easier.

“Not much” I informed him while drumming on the table. “Just the typical, beat some random loser up, go hang out at the carnival, spray a few tags around town, you know same old same old.”

“Oh, okay cool… we have that in common” This simple remark struck a nerve, not a bad nerve but a nerve of recognition. It was as if he was trying to hint at something without making it obvious what he was hinting at. “Is that so” I told him as nonchalantly as I could. We stared at each other for a moment after that.

“You keep a lot of company” he continued. I remained silent for a moment before answering him.

“I wouldn’t really say keep a lot of company but I get around with my fair share of ….associates,” I looked at him blandly

He smiled at me as he drummed his own little beat on the table.

“Really?” He drew out the e in really

Silence

“Really,” I repeated him still uncertain of what he was getting at but knowing where I wanted the conversation to go.

He chuckled at my repetition of him

“So you like to get around do you.” He said as a statement rather than a question.

I felt my hormones start to kick in at this point, I now knew what he was hinting at and I could tell by the look on his face that he knew that I knew what he was hinting at but again, I stared at him not wanting to outwardly jump to conclusions but still thought it necessary to continue to play along.

“Yes, I do like to get around…” I answered even though it wasn’t really necessary for me to repeat myself I felt like doing so would get the point I wanted to get across. Assuming he knew how to read between the lines so to speak, surely he would get the idea now; I don’t think I could have made my motives anymore obvious without directly saying so even if I wanted to.

Again he laughed a small laugh

Leaning forward he placed his elbows on the table and rested his chin on top of his hands. “Glad to hear it Jimmy” He put emphasis on my name as he continued to stare at me only this time his hard yet amused expression seemed to soften.

“Why’s that?” I asked wanting to be certain I hadn’t misinterpreted the meaning behind his remarks.

“Because, it’s your world and I… just live in it” His emphasis on the words your and I should have confirmed my suspicion but you never can be too certain.

Leaning in on the table myself I crossed my arms in front of me. “Well then Clint, I’m sure that you and I will be very good friends” I cocked my head to the side and threw in a mischievous grin at him.

He smiled back, “Friends, you keep saying, you want us to be friends!”

I detected a hint of frustration behind his tone, “What’s wrong?” I asked making certain to sound a bit upset myself, even though I really wasn’t, “You don’t want my friendship?”

“I didn’t say that!” He insisted, “I mean I like friends… everybody likes friends I assume.”

“Yeah!” I quickly added in, “but we won’t be just any old type of friends we’ll be good friends!”

At this point in the conversation he furrowed his brows at me just a bit before he sat up straight and stated directly at me. “What do you mean?” He asked in a lower tone than before, seeming much more serious than before.

I retained my rather bland demeanor while answering him, “You know what I mean…”

The conversation was put on hold as the waitress had returned with our food. Being that we were at a burger joint we both had ordered burgers but with different toppings. I had ordered The Butter Burger with everything on it. Clint had ordered the cheeseburger with extra cheese. I took another sip of my soda before picking up my burger to bite into it but stopped just as I held it up to my mouth. Clint, who had already bitten into his burger was frozen stiff with a look of horror on his face as he stared at the food he held in both his hand and mouth.

“What is it?” I asked out of curiosity,

Clint glanced at me for a moment before he spit out what he had bitten off and threw the burger down on his tray before rapidly pulling it apart. He glared at it with a look of disgust on his face.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him again hoping to get an answer. When he didn’t respond I looked down at his food but couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with it based on my visual inspection.

Suddenly he clenched his teeth angrily; rising to his feet he banged his fist on the table and shouted to the top of his lungs! “A CHEESEBURGER IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE CHEESE! DUMB BROAD!!!!!” He pointed an accusing finger at the poor waitress as every head in the restaurant turned around to look in our direction.

Not really wanting to be a part of a scene, I quickly stood up and did what I could to calm him down.

“Clint! Chill! It’s cool man, we’ll get some cheese on that burger, not need to get up in arms, just sit down!”

He stared at me for a moment clearly pissed off at the situation a few more moments passed and he still didn’t sit. Worried he may spas out again I placed both my hands on his shoulder and gently pressed him back down into his seat. Once I was certain he wouldn’t snap out again I made my way over to the waitress and told her to give me four slices of cheese on the rocks! She darted to the back and quickly returned with them. I hurried over to our table where an angry Clint sat sulking. I handed him the four thick slices of cheese and sat down. I watched as he unwrapped them all and placed them on his burger he had torn apart and bite into it again this time with a happy expression on his face. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Thanks to that incident we ended up devouring our food in silence. The atmosphere had gone from being intriguing and happy to just plain awkward. When we were done and it was time to pay up I had no problem coughing up the money for my tab but Clint was a different story.

He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a few dollar bills and some change. Staring at the money he held in his hand his brow furrowed. Willing to do anything to avoid another Cheeseburger scene I attempted to reach out to him.

“Something wrong?” I asked casually

“I’m three quarters short of a dollar bill” was his reply

I felt sorry for him; he did live in the poorest section of town after all.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll pay for it”. He looked up at me with wide eyes

“Really? You will?”

“Sure” I told him, “After all I’m the one who asked you out, remember?”

“Thanks” Was cheerful reply.

After paying we got up to go, our date had pretty much come to an end, we came, we ate, and now it was time to leave, and on top of that we hadn’t  run into any preppies. Aside from the cheese scene everything had gone rather smoothly, we were just about to the door, when suddenly it opened from the other side and I found myself alongside Clint standing face to face with one of the last few people I wanted to see that day.

“Well Hello there!” Came a cheery reply from Gord Vendrome.

Taking a deep breath I could have sworn I felt a wave of heat hit me from behind where Clint was standing.  To make matters even worse Gord was not alone! Standing just slightly behind him was Tad Spencer, unlike Gord though, he didn’t seem happy at all, not because of our appearances but just fucking because.

Folding my lips in at the awkwardness of the situation, I searched for something to say that would let Gord know I really needed to get going and that would also let Clint know that there was no need to go off on either of the rich kids standing in front of us that I was having a friendly conversation with after telling him numerous times that I hated the rich kids! God Damn it Jimmy, why did you have to go and lie?

“Hey Gord, Tad, how you guys doing?”

“Fine” Was Gords response, “And you?”

“Great!” Was my only answer, “Excuse us!” I threw in at the last second. Thankfully neither of them were in a chit chat mood and just like that the encounter was over, or so I thought!

Exiting the restaurant I glanced behind me to make sure Clint was following me, unfortunately though that wasn’t the case. Still remaining in the doorway to the restaurant Clint stood his ground and glared hatefully at the two rich kids who stood in front of him.

Of course being preps both Tad and Gord turned their noses up at him. Before wither of them could utter a word I quickly dashed back over to Clint and grabbed him by the arm.

“Come on!” I told him sternly hoping he wouldn’t cause another scene. Tad and Gord watched the episode in front of them with confused looks. After several pulls Clint finally though unwillingly started to move, all the while his eyes never leaving Tad and Gord.

“Friends of yours?” He asked, rather crudely and shooting me a dirty look.

“I’ll explain later!” I nearly yelled at him, practically dragging him away from the restaurant. Not happy with my answer Clint stopped and turned around to look back at the two preppies who were still watching us. Realizing they hadn’t gone into the restaurant yet, I sought the opportunity to establish my dominance over the situation.

“What the fuck are you two looking at!?” I shouted at Tad and Gord hoping they would get the message and get going. Furrowing their brows they both turned to move along without a word.

Apparently that was enough to convince Clint to drop the whole thing, we began walking down the street side by side. I waited a moment before I turned around to actually look at his face. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find him staring at me with a ‘What the fuck was that all about’ look etched onto it, damn.

“Wait a minute Clint, before you make any assumptions, it’s not what you think” He stared at me and cocked one eyebrow waiting for my explanation.

“I wasn’t lying when I said that I hate the rich kids, I do for the most part, but some, ‘some’ of them can be okay people sometimes…. Alright?”

To my surprise his signature creepy grin made its way across his face, “Well I guess you weren’t kidding when you said you get around!” Amusement laced his tone and we both burst into laughter as we continued down the sidewalk. A few moments later and it had grown silent between the two of us.

“So” I started, not liking the awkward silence, “You got any plans for the weekend?”

“Actually I do” came his reply. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of any plans he had made that didn’t include me.

“Oh” was all I managed to get out before he continued.

“I have an appointment this Saturday with my shrink!” He replied in a proud manner.

I felt a little relived at hearing this. “Oh okay, I understand….. Anything else” I asked trying not to sound hopeful or anything.

“Yep” he responded stopping suddenly and staring at me with a big grin on his face.

“What is it?” I asked not sure I even wanted to hear the answer. “I can’t tell you.” Again my jealousy set in but I played it off, “ok that’s cool”

“Yet” he suddenly added in.

“Why not”, I quickly asked unable to keep my curiosity from getting the best of me.

“Cause!”

“Cause what!?”

“Cause it’s a secret! If I tell you now it will ruin everything!!” He sounded like a little kid planning a surprise for someone.

Before I could say anything else he left me with one last bit of info.

“Come find me Saturday afternoon in Blue skies!” With that he ran off leaving me stare after him dumbfounded.