A New One

Riley stepped out of the car, but not without giving Donovan a lovely smile and a thank you.

Natasha walked up to him and gave him a pat, then she took a deep sigh as they watched Donovan drive off without sparing them a glance.

"I hope you get over him."

Riley chuckled at Natasha's attempt to console his broken heart.

They both turned and walked into the school.

"Donovan is kind of, how do I put this?"

"Cold?"

"Hmm, more like he does not know how to express himself, he's kinda shut himself off. It's been a while I've seen him just be himself, and let it all go."

"Ah!"

"Look, I won't tell you that he's an easy person to get along with, cause trust me, he's a hard nut to crack. I'm only this close to him, because I grew up with him, so he kinda treated me like his baby sister."

"You two grew up together?" the look of shock on his face was priceless.

"Yes, he was still a child when I was born. He's just ten years older than me."

"Damn. I would also love to have such a young uncle."

"Just get your grandparents to adopt a child if they are past the age of childbearing. Then you would have an uncle you are older than. Crazy, right?"

"Yeah."

Riley's voice was no longer as cheerful as before, and Natasha took notice of that. Was it because of what she said, did she make him remember something sad.

'Wait, don't tell me his grandparents are dead. Shit, why didn't I think of that.' she thought to herself.

"Are they, are they gone?" she asked as gently and as comforting as she could.

Riley turned to look at her, surprised at how comforting her voice sounded. He smiled

"They are alive. I'm just not on good terms with my family members, or should I rather say that they are not on good terms with me."

"Makes no difference to me. You and your folks are not on good terms."

"Yes."

"So, even if you had a young uncle, it would make no difference?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Don't worry bro. Starting today, my uncle is your uncle. You okay with that?"

"I'm okay with that, but don't we need Donovan's consent?"

"Trust me, he will be more than happy to have a second younger one."

"I see."

"Oh no, you don't see nothing."

"Huh!"

"Just kidding. Come on, let's hurry, class will be starting soon."

*****

Riley was sitted, waiting for Natasha to arrive before eating. Natasha had no idea what to pick, since everything was to her liking, so Riley left her and went on ahead to find a table for them.

He was busy fiddling with the edges of his tray if food, when he felt the presence of someone. He didn't bother looking up, since he believed the person to be Natasha or one of the trio. But nearly a minute had gone by, and the person was still not seated. He finally decided to look up and was a bit taken aback, seeing a senior at the other side of the table.

"Senior." he said and nearly stood up.

"Can I join your table?"

Riley looked around nervously. If this conversation was to go on, he knew it was not going to end well.

"I'm sorry, but they are all occupied."

The senior chuckled, then pulled a seat out and sat on it.

"All occupied by you?"

His smile looked nice and harmless, but Riley would be a fool if he ever trusted the smile of those seniors again.

"The rest are on their way." he replied, sounding bold.

"The let me keep you company till they arrive."

"I actually don't think that is needed senior, since they will be here any moment from now."

Rilwy was getting a little tensed up as he watched the senior ignore what he said.

The senior looked at Riley with a soft smile as he said

"I'm Bram."

Riley was losing his cool. It was his gentleness that ended him in a lot of trouble, there was no way he was going to let it repeat itself.

"I don't remember asking for your name senior."

The smile that made his face all cute was now gone, but he still looked gentle, or maybe not. His voice didn't sound gentle at all, but his face still looked like one who could not bear to piss off people. But that was all just Bram's speculations. As far as Bram was concerned, Riley was just pretending to be tough.

"You should at least hear me out Riley."

Ain't no way he was gonna fall for such gentle and caring look.

"The very last thing I want to do is to listen to a stranger, let me be a little bit more specific. A stranger, who happens to be a senior in this very school. They are the last people I want to listen to."

Riley got up from his seat, all the while holding his food tray. He was going to go sit elsewhere. He knew he just had to. Sitting still and expecting the senior to shut up or leave was something he did not believe would happen.

Just as he took a turn, he saw Natasha, looking right at the senior with a threatening look on her face.

Bram smiled as he got up from where he sat. His gaze didn't tear off Riley, ignoring the glare on Natasha's face.

"See you soon, Riley."

Riley let out a deep breath after the senior left. He looked at Natasha with a grateful smile. Back when he had stood up, he felt conflicted, wondering where he and his group would sit, since there were no empty tables around. He really was glad they didn't lose the table to the senior.

Natasha returned the smile and sat down. Just as she sat down, the trio also joined them. And they all ate and discussed, but no one brought up the senior.