You Were Never Honest (Never 2)

Ooh I have an idea. It could backfire spectacularly, he may even tell me to piss off when he sees it. But if it works, and he has fun, then it’ll be worth all the effort I’m going to have to put in to make it work.

“Come on H, no studying today.”

“What, where are we going? And are you ever going to stop calling me that?” He asks with a growl and I can’t help but laugh.

“I’ll make you a deal, you be nice for the duration of what I have planned and try to have a little fun and I’ll stop calling you it. Even better, I’ll call you whatever you wish,” hang on, do I sound flirty?

“Okay, deal,” he says and we are shaking on it and everything, damn.

“Okay, I’m going to give Benjy a couple hours off so he can video chat with his lovely missus and kiddies. Don’t worry I can get a hold of him if I need to,” I assure him, he looked panicked for a moment, I really should figure that out.

Benjy wouldn’t go until he helped me set everything up, I really hope he can get back home to his family for Christmas. He’s bringing Harrison in before he goes, even though I not so politely told him to sod off and I could do it myself.

“What’s this?” he asks as his chair comes to a stop in front of me and I drop a chair down beside him for myself.

“This is what we’re going to be doing for the next couple of hours, unless you’re not into shooting games.”

“I can’t believe you’ve done this,” he says as he takes in the projector screen, games console and the latest PVP shooter game out so far.

“We have shooting, racing and even Borderlands because it’s an epic game. No sports though, this is my break from all things tiring. Aside from you that is,” I say with a wink and he starts to smile before thinking better of it.

We sit here playing for the next two hours and we make a pretty good team, he’s fun to play with when he’s directing his anger at a different target. He’s more relaxed, he’s making jokes, and he’s even laughing. I’m counting this as a win, no doubt about it.

It’s nice to see this side of him, but it does make me wonder if he has any genuine friends here. He always seems to be alone, even though the Shepherds do as he says, he’s never actually with them.

“Want to play another round or do you fancy watching a film or something? Either that or I can get Benjy back and leave you to it,” I say, making it clear the ball is in his court.

I just want him to know that he still has choices even if everything seems different right now. It has to be hard for him and I still don’t know if there are any lasting implications to his injury. For his sake, I hope there isn’t.

“I could watch a film, unless you need to call one of your boyfriends,” he says and I’m choosing to ignore the way he said boyfriends this time.

“Okay then, I’ll get Benjy and grab us some food and then I’ll be right back,” I say, standing up and stretching.

Is he watching me?

“Is he joining us?” does he want me to say yes or no? He’s impossible to get a read on when he isn’t spewing his toxic hatred at me.

“Sure, if he wants too, but I thought you might be comfier out of the chair for a while.”

His face softens but I’m out of here, he won’t like knowing that I saw it so I’ll pretend I didn’t.

Nine

December is here, damn it’s gone so quick. Harrison is at least civil when no one else is around but he’s being his usual vicious self if we have an audience. He’s even going to start coming into the lunchroom next week, he’s not happy about that but Hutchy has put her foot down.

“Henleigh, I need to speak to you. In private please,” Mattias says which has Elijah's eyebrows disappearing into his hairline.

“Of course, I’ll be right back Eli,” I say as I drop a lingering kiss onto him and go with Mattias to his room.

“What’s the matter?” I ask, as he indicates for me to take a seat, this can’t be good.

“I haven’t been able to determine who PastFinder is yet, but I’m getting close. It’s definitely coming from someone in this school but it’s not always the same computer, and it hasn’t always come from here either.”

“Thanks for trying Matti, I appreciate it,” I say it as he puts his hand on my shoulder to stop me from standing before snatching it back.

“There’s something else, in regard to the other matter you wanted me to look into,” he pauses for a moment and I’m sitting here on tenterhooks. “I discovered a few things regarding your brother’s accident. He was travelling in a car with Devon and the others when a truck connected with the passenger side of the car. It rolled multiple times before connecting with a metal barrier.”