Ren walked out of his fourth period class, holding a heavy-looking bag and talking to a girl with mousy brown hair and a lot of pimples on her face. She wasn’t the stereotypical ugly nerd girl, but she wasn’t particularly attractive either. He walked her to her locker where she took the bag, which was obviously hers. After saying a quick goodbye, he went over to the table he and his friends usually met up at for lunch. A good friend of his, a freckled redhead wearing a beanie and a black “I’m sexy and I know it” T-shirt came over to him and sat down with a heavy, dramatic sigh.
“Something up, bro?” Ren asked him, taking out his mom’s very traditional, Japanese bento boxes. The other boy looked up at Ren morosely, his chin resting on the table.
“You’re so lucky, man…” Jack said, laying one cheek back down on the table.
“Huh?” Ren gave his friend a strange look for just a second, then turned back to his lunch, which was brown rice, grilled fish, seaweed, and pickled radish. They were guys. Worrying about each other being dramatic was not a big part of their culture. He happened to glance at his friend as the other boy began getting his own lunch, and one eyebrow raised just incrementally. There was a distinct red mark on his cheek. “Uh… Jack? You didn’t happen to have some girl slap you again, did you?”
Jack grimaced and that was all the answer Ren needed. Most other guys would’ve laughed, but Ren hadn’t exactly grown up in a normal home. He just made a neutral expression and went back to eating as if nothing had happened. He was interrupted halfway through his meal by a moderately pretty blonde girl dressed comfortably but not fashionably, with her hair in a high ponytail usually used by the sportsy type. She tapped lightly on his wrist. “Hey, Ren. Could I talk to you for a second? In private?”
Ren looked up at her with no particular expression on his face, even though he was a little upset with what she’d just said. It always started that way. He glanced back over at Jack, still no emotion on his face, but saw that his friend was still… somewhat indisposed. He looked back up at her and tried to convince himself to be the bad guy and roughly tell her to go away. He couldn’t do it. He could even see a nervous expression blooming on her face at his delay. So instead of heaving a great sigh and ignoring her, he gave her a polite smile and stood, abandoning his lunch. “Sure.”
The “talk” took all 20 minutes left of lunch. He spent most of those 20 minutes smiling politely and using all of his considerable willpower not to interrupt her, while watching her stutter and blush. The final five minutes comprised of him watching her expressionlessly while she cried, until the bell rang and she ran off.
He turned and headed back towards the lunch table, but Jack intercepted him, holding his half-eaten lunch box. “Rejected another one, huh? She ran off crying a second ago. That one really liked you.”
Ren shrugged and took his lunch and bag back, only bothering to partially hide his annoyance. “Whatever, man.”
“What is that, the second one this week?” Jack asked, not hiding a kind of disgruntled resignation written all over his face. “You lucky bastard.”
“It’s been two months since the last one.” Ren said, casting a sideways glance of hidden laughter at his friend. “This is why you’ve got a C in trig.”
Jack ignored that comment and threw his arm around Ren’s shoulder. “You could have any girl here, but you don’t pay attention to any of them. You already have a girl, don’t you?”
Ren scoffed. “No.” Where had he gotten that idea?
Jack snapped his fingers. “It’s that Cora girl, isn’t it?”
“Cora?!” Ren asked, incredulously.
“You don’t have to hide it, man. We all know you guys got a thing going. She’s hot. I mean, I can see why you’d go for her.”
“Dude. That’s nasty. It would be like having a thing with my sister.” He said out loud. In actuality it would BE having a thing with his sister. Or what used to be his sister’s body anyways.
“What are you talking about? I seen you guys talk since elementary school. Every time you look at her you get this fucking scary expression.”
“What, like this one?” Ren asked, making a mock scary face.
Jack shook his head no, not letting the joke throw him from the scent. “Nah, like real scary. Like you’re ready to kill someone. But she still acts all sweet and nice and all. You guys don’t act nothing like siblings. AT ALL. Face it, the chick’s into you.”
Ren snorted and folded his arms across his chest. “You got it all wrong, Jack. She OWES me. She knows it, I know it, so she can’t say anything. You want a deal between us? Here’s our deal: she stays at least 200 ft away from me, and I don’t put her ass in the ground.”
Jack sighed a world-weary, all-knowing sigh. “You keep that up and you’re going to make her cry, Ren. Definitely not cool.”
Ren just continued wearing his expression of disdainful disgust. “Whatever. Just because bitches cry doesn’t mean they feel anything.”
Jack stared at him. “The fuck she do to you? You just stained your golden reputation as the gentleman in this hell hole.”
“Screw my reputation. It’s not my fault you’re an asshole to the ladies and I’m not.” He said, grinning teasingly at his friend.
“I’m not an asshole, I’m just looking to get laid.” Jack shot back, also grinning.
“Well there we go. All the bitches look the same to me.” He joked. It was, of course, not true, and Ren was nice to most girls because that was how he’d been raised, but it was the first answer that came to mind, just a natural part of bantering.
Jack stopped walking, made a mock serious expression, put his hand on Ren’s shoulder and said, “Ren. Are you gay?”
Ren burst out laughing and shrugged him off. “Don’t worry, Jack. Even if I was, I sure as hell wouldn’t be interested in a face like yours.”
(Original date written unknown as it was never publicly published.)