Chapter Eight

A Chapter by Chris

Greg sighed as he sat down on a wooden bench in the park. He took the cowboy hat off his head and looked down at it as he started to think a little. School had ended about ten minutes ago and the Sophomore wanted to come to the park for a little bit to help get his mind off of what Sarah said during sixth period. He wanted to say that she meant well, but he wished that she would stop trying to persuade him into talking to Kyle. He didn't want to get back into a relationship with the Junior male again, but he didn't really want to tell Sarah that because he didn't want to upset her any. Not only that, but he was afraid she would ask why he didn't want to go out with Kyle again, and he just didn't want to tell her his reasoning.

“Hey.”

Greg was broken from his thoughts upon hearing the greeting and he looked over to see Zach walking over towards him. He smiled a little.

“Hey,” he said back.

“Everything alright?” the dark-haired boy asked as he stopped in front of the bench.

“Yeah,” Greg replied.

“You sure?”

Greg nodded.

“Alright,” Zach replied. “Wanna walk with me for a bit?”

“Sure,” Greg said, faintly smiling.

He got up from the bench and placed his cowboy hat back on his head. Zach laughed a little as the two started to walk.

“What's so funny?” asked Greg, smiling a little.

Zach smiled as he shook his head before saying, “It's nothing dude.”

“It's the hat, isn't it?” inquired Greg, chuckling some.

“Yeah. It just looks kind of funny, that's all. It's cool though. I like it.”

Greg nodded a little while giving a small chuckle, but didn't say anything else on the matter as he looked straight ahead. There was a few seconds of silence before Zach spoke again.

“So are you meeting your friends here or something?”

“No, I just didn't want to go home right away I guess.” He looked back at Zach. “And why did you come here?”

Zach shrugged. “Just wanted to take a walk.” Well, it was partly right. He had also been thinking about a couple things – mainly about the homecoming dance – and he wanted to come to the park to where he could think a little more without too many interruptions. He felt as though he picked the right moment to come too.

The two soon reached a cement bridge that went over a somewhat small stream. They slowed to a stop and stepped over to the metal railing at the side of it, leaning their backs against it as both of them looked towards the clear blue sky.

“So are you looking forward to the dance?” asked Zach.

“Yeah,” Greg replied a little dryly. It was kind of true, but he wasn't as excited about it at the moment because of what went on earlier with Kyle and Sarah.

“Cool,” Zach said.

Neither of the two said anything else. Zach fidgeted with his fingers a little as he looked down towards the ground a little, thinking some. Every now and then he glanced towards Greg, who looked over towards him about half a minute later.

“Something wrong?” he asked with a bit of concern in his voice as he stepped away from the railing of the bridge and turned to face the Junior.

Zach shrugged as he did the same thing. “Not really.”

Greg nodded before looking towards the sky a little. He wasn't really sure why, but he started to feel nervous and uncomfortable at the moment. He just tried to forget about it as he looked back up at Zach. His eyes widened afterwards though as he felt a hand being placed on his cheek as Zach leaned in towards him. Greg quickly pulled away, his cowboy hat being knocked off his head from it hitting against Zach's hand. Zach straightened himself as his hand slowly dropped to his side, a little puzzled and feeling bad at the same time.

“I-I—um, should probably go now,” Greg said, his voice a wee bit shaky.

Before Zach had a chance to do or say anything, Greg turned around and ran off, leaving the older male there by himself.

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