40 Blaze It
Travis rummaged through his bag for quite a bit. There were books and notes, papers, a pencil case, basically everything he needed except food. Which he neglected to make for himself in hopes that his father wouldn’t take him to school today. He sighed, checking the other pockets and finally finding a breakfast bar—probably really, really old but he wasn’t going to chance looking at the date.
He didn’t smile at Ben at first, but he breathed out and felt a lot of his anxiety melt away. “Normal,” he replied, placing his ‘lunch’ on the table and sliding Ben’s notebook over to him. “sorry about all the writing and doodles.” he rolled his eyes, smirking lightly. “Had to do something to ignore everyone.” he paused, grabbing his lunch and opening it. “What about you?” He didn’t look at him as he bit into the bar, examining it awkwardly. His notes were more organized this time. "Please don’t call me that, I might have to cut you. Unless you want me to start calling you Benny Boo, and I think we can both agree that it totally does not suit you. So let’s stick to names that are fine and at the least, borderline straight. As mentioned before, Coach Callen is a close friend of my dad. Well, family friend, whatever. My dad’s in special forces, so he’s away from home a lot. Callen has had to babysit me a lot before, and yeah, it really sucks. Don’t ever let him come over to your house, it’s a nightmare. I’d love to, and I do own one. But it might be a while, I have to convince my dad I have a friend first so he doesn’t think I’m sneaking out or something. I also have to convince him I’m stable enough…so, yeah.” The next page consisted of very intricate designs of swirls that resembled smoke and blood splatter, with the words “kill me” in small text in the middle, with a small silly looking crying face. Travis swallowed, shrugging as he mentally told himself the bar was safe enough to continue eating. It wasn’t great, it tasted a little stale, but it wasn’t horrid. He chanced looking over at Ben, but it was quick. Callen frowned and narrowed his eyes, not even bothering to look at his coworker. He sighed. “It’s all fine. I think he made a friend.” his features fell into something sorrowful, but he didn’t look over to let him see. Instead, he looked down the line, waiting. He looked over at the ginger with a stern expression, breathing out. He tried not to be self conscious, but he looked down, grunting and shaking his head as he reached down his shirt, pulling out his stupid ID. “Whatever.” he said, not putting his hands on the tray. “Maybe we just have our minds elsewhere, David.” he sighed again, grabbing his tray and sliding it, making a lot of noise with his jerky movements. He had to place a hand on his chest to avoid frustrating himself with the sound of his few neck accessories.
Ben thumbed through the notebook, finding their spot. He pushed his lunchbag over to Travis. "Dude, eat this. I'm not hungry, anyway." He muttered, sitting back to read the things Travis wrote to him. He laughed at first, and then got serious. He frowned and then put the book down, closing it on the table in front of them.
"...Callen's...not your dad. I'm sorry you have to deal with him, man, but he could still be your father and that would be just terrible." Ben grimaced, his frown quickly turning to a smile. "Hey, what do you say about me coming over today? After school. You give me your address and I can pop over, and--and your dad will have to believe you!" He practically beamed at Travis. "And--we could ride to school together!"
David huffed. "Cal, you're a problem. Did you know? You're just so scary that half the time I think you're about to kill me." David laughed, shaking his head and moving along with Callen. He wasn't watching and bumped him a bit, muttering a quick "shit, sorry".
"Are you having a good day? You're seeming a bit...stiff. Nerves about baby Wakely?" David looked more serious, grabbing some pizza and glancing up at Callen, knowing that he was going to judge him. "...you should try pizza some time. Its so much better than leaves." He laughed nervously, sliding the pizza onto his tray.











