I Met My Love Playing Pool (BXB)

Chapter 11 - Scrawny Kid

Ally had shoved Kane towards the cafeteria; she had begged him to spend the lunch hour with her so he could build friendships with her friends, and Kane reluctantly followed her inside. He was one of the tallest at the school, meaning he had to glance downwards or else he would bump into too many people, and the number of girls that purposely eyed him, wanting to have him instinctively meet their gazes, was overwhelming. As much as Ally denied it, Kane was a very handsome man, and all the girls that were flustered by his mere glance in their direction, was evidence of his good looks.

Even though Kane knew he was good looking, he never went out of his way to entertaining a girl—unless he had a crush on her. He had dated one girl ever, and that was a relationship he would rather avoid ever mentioning.

Inside the cafeteria, he noticed that the football team caused the most raucous, banging on the tables, playing games and pushing a few heads into their meals. Jasper was at the centre of it all, and it was only a matter of time after Kane and Ally sat down, that Jasper made his way to their table. Ally cursed under her breath, seeing Jasper approach them and he wrapped an arm around Kane's shoulders, "Hey! I didn't see you in here yesterday—I thought you were pretty cool so I wanted to hang out with you a little."

Kane glanced towards Ally who turned the other way, before shrugging his shoulders, "Have a seat."

"Ew," they heard Jamie as she walked towards their table, sitting down beside Ally to be the furthest distance possible from Jasper. "Why are we sitting with Jasper?"

"I guess he's Kane's friend now," Ally grumbled under her breath, pulling the sandwich from inside her bag and pushing the one she made for Kane that morning.

Jasper placed a palm on Kane's back, "Anyway, you seem built for football. I wanted to introduce you to my friends," he made Kane face behind him to the group of six guys standing there around them, "that's Kyle, Sam, Bruno, Leo, Mitch and Zyder."

"Zyder?" Kane snorted.

Jasper chuckled, "Yea weird name." These comments were made in front of Zyder who sighed and had a few of his teammates pat his back for comfort. "But we're all on the football team, obviously I would love for you to join."

Kane snickered, glancing towards Ally who was not happy about this situation, avoiding Jasper's gaze completely, and even Jamie rolled her eyes and glanced anywhere else but those jocks. "I don't play football anymore," he admitted apologetically, "not my scene."

"Come on, that party was definitely your scene. What about being able to get with any girl you'd want? You got with Jamie without an issue."

Kane raised an eyebrow, wondering how low his IQ could be, "What does that have to do with football?"

"It comes with the life of being athletes. Think about it, why don't you?"

"Fine, I'll think about it but don't get your hopes up—"

"What the hell is he doing in here?" All of them followed Jamie's gaze and turned to look at what she was seeing. Instantly, Kane felt his entire nerve become paralyzed.

He heard Jasper chuckle, "I haven't seen that loser in a while—surprised he'd show his face in here."

"Right," Jamie agreed, glancing towards Ally, "remember when—"

"Jamie," Ally hissed, stopping her from continuing her sentence, and Jamie instantly realized why she had said it. They both turned to Kane who was followed every single of his movements.

Jay had not been in the cafeteria in months. He avoided that in all cost, most definitely because the people in there had not always been friendly to him, and he didn't have many friends that went there. All his friends were robotics kids, and they avoided the cafeteria, and Jay fathered hanging out by himself then hang out with them.

Until he met Kane.

He remembered Kane had promised that they would someday eat together in the cafeteria when he was comfortable enough. Well, maybe Jay was not entirely comfortable with that idea. His entire body was quivering as if he had been stuck in the freezing cold for hours, his teeth were even knocking into one another continuously. Even worse, he was starting to sweat, and his palms moistened in a way that it had never happened before, as if he had dumped his hands onto water. His glasses kept slipping off, but Jay knew all these things would happen.

All because he wanted to sit by Kane today, and that build enough courage to enter the cafeteria at least.

His eyes glanced around the student body, and when he found the black hair sitting at a table, he inhaled a sharp breath when he realized who was sitting there as well. Not only was there Ally, but the entire football team was there, and that was not something he expected.

But Kane had already said they could sit together in the cafeteria, meaning he must have been prepared to be openly friends with him.

That was why he walked towards him, each leg feeling as if it weighed ten times more than it initially did, and he was out-of-breath when he reached their table. The entire section fell quiet, Jasper's goofy stare instantly falling into a narrowed look, and Ally seemed as if she wanted to murder him right then and there. But he needed to fight all these things, everything trying to make him isolate himself again, because he had finally found a friend that he enjoyed being around.

Maybe there was a little more than that...

Eventually, the quiet was broken by his throat clearing, and Kane had not yet glanced over his shoulder to look at him. In a shaky breath, Jay stuttered, "K-Kane..."

"Leave him alone," Jasper spat, wrapping an arm around Kane's shoulders.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Jamie snapped next, raising an eyebrow.

"When's the last time you even came into the cafeteria?" Kyle spoke, pointing towards him and the entire football team laughing.

But Jay had been prepared for this, but he knew Kane would have his back since Kane had promised. He said, We're friends, right? And friends have each other's back. So I have you, no matter what. So regardless of who was around, it didn't matter if they didn't know each other long, for Kane to have said that, have introduced his parents to him, have spent the whole lunch hour in the bathroom—it must mean he meant all those things.

He ignored all of these eyes, feeling as if the world had stopped for a second, the clock had ceased to tick and it was only him and Kane against the entire world. And he quietly asked, "Can I sit with you, Kane?"

There seemed to have been an eternity of the silence that proceeded after that. Kane glanced over his shoulder, and instantly when he did, Jay knew this was a big mistake. Kane did not have the same friendly look in his eyes, in fact, it seemed as if Jay was nothing but a burden. He appeared disgusted, his navy eyes almost black, appearing way too cold that Jay shuddered.

Then, the entire table burst into laughter, Jasper slamming his hand on the table and Jamie laughing as if this had been the funniest joke ever. Ally only lowered her head, continuing to eat her food quietly. When they had slowly quieted their chuckled, Jay still had a bit of hope.

He shook his head, "Maybe not in the cafeteria today...but outside, like you—"

"Get lost," a palm slammed into his face, and Jay stumbled backwards, falling onto his back on the floor. He fixed his glasses on his nose, before raising his head and realizing he was surrounded by a few football players. "Nobody wants you here."

"But..." Jay bit his bottom lip, gritting his teeth for a moment before shouting, "he's my friend!"

Jasper sneered, tapping Kane on his back before pointing to Jay and asking, "That scrawny kid's your friend?"

Kane did not even turn. He simply unwrapped the aluminum foil from his sandwich and before he took a bite, he growled, "No."

All of them burst into laughter, Jasper grabbing Jay by the handle on his bag and standing him to his feet. They began shoving him towards the doors, "You're just a liar, aren't you? Remember when you lied a few months ago and almost got us expelled. We didn't do much to you then, but you should still be worried."

They pushed him against the door, his face slammed against the metallic fabric and he felt the inside of his cheek sliced by his teeth. Before he could receive anymore of this treatment, a teacher approached them and told the football players to knock it off, which they smiled and stepped away from him.

Jay sprinted from the cafeteria, vowing to never return ever again.