Page 52 of Same One
Chapter Thirteen
Bayen walked right in front of Tabian’s truck without looking up. He wore a frown on his face and stared at the ground. He was the only kid out here who wasn’t with friends.
Tabian was sitting in the car line with the parents, waiting for their kids to get out of the high school, and he observed Bayen come out of the building alone, not say hi to anyone, and worse? He watched the groups of teens get quiet as he walked by and talk among themselves, tossing him dirty looks.
A low snarl was still rattling his throat.
Bayen was distracted and didn’t notice the empty parking spot until he was nearly on top of it.
He looked around and then turned and saw Tabian’s truck. Oh, he would recognize it from last night. That or from the channel, if Bayen really watched his videos.
Tabian rolled down the window and twitched his head.
“Where’s Tru’s car?” he gritted out as he approached the window.
“Tru needed it to run some errands. I told her I would give you a ride home.”
He huffed an angry laugh and clapped his hand on the open window frame. “No thanks. I’ll walk.”
“Face it.”
Bayen stopped and looked around at the two groups of kids watching their interaction.
“Face what?” Bayen asked, turning back around.
“The hard conversations. Look, you can get in and I can take you home, and you can listen to what I have to say for what? Ten minutes? And then you can get out and go inside and decide to flip me off at the door. I was tough like that too once upon a time.”
Bayen clenched his jaw hard and stared off to the side. “What’s option two? Fight you?”
“Ha!” Tabian cleared his throat. “Look, a part of me wants to tell you hell yeah, I love that response, but I’m pretty sure your momma would skin me alive if I encourage that.”
“She’s not my mom,” he ground out.
“Right.” Tabian sighed and corrected himself. “Stepmom.”
“She’s just Trudy.”
“I’ll buy you an entire pizza and give you twenty bucks if you get in my truck and stop giving me shit.”
“That’s bribery.”
“So?”
“Well…old people aren’t supposed to bribe kids.”
Old? Okay now he kind of wanted to fight this little idiot. Tabian pinched the bridge of his nose and counted to three before he responded. “Forty bucks and a pizza.”
“Fifty bucks, two pizzas, a two-liter bottle of Pepsi, and cheesy bread.”
Fuck. This kid was annoying. “Fine,” he ground out.
Bayen offered an empty smile and yanked the door open, then shoved his backpack in the back, whacking Tabian in the face as he did.
“Dude,” Tabian growled.
“Accident.” Kid didn’t even try to hide the lie in his voice.
Tabian’s eye was already twitching.
