Chapter 12

*

"You'll be driving home with Jordan, don't make trouble, alright?" I tilted my head as I looked at Ben who was frowning towards Stanley who was seated on the back seat. Ben had tried to get out of this by saying we couldn't leave Nicole alone in our house, I agreed but it didn't matter because she had already left by the time we had.

Stanley – who had been on his phone most of the ride – didn't even look up from his phone. I was certain he had not even heard a word Ben said, Ben seemed to think the same because his knuckles grew whiter as his hands clutched the steering wheel.

I gave his shoulder a pat as we reached the school, the car coming to a halt finally making the boy in the back look up from his phone and immediately outside.

"Want me to drive you to the dock?"

"Why did you make me drive us all the way here if you were going to ask me that?"

I heard the door behind me and noted that Stan had left the car and was heading toward the school building ignoring the few kids that were there and silently questioning the new face they saw.

"So you could drop him off and I could keep an eye on the both of you while you did." I answered. That's why we hadn't taken separate cars.

"I'll call a taxi." He chuckled leaning to give me a quick kiss before he climbed out of the car but he stopped. "Hey, you had my keys." He said.

"Oh... they're on the nightstand. I can drive you home." I said. I had forgotten to give his keys back after we went to the docks on Friday morning. He didn't work afterwards so he also forgot about them.

"No, I got it." He laughed. I watched him walk towards the entrance on his phone before a car met him at the gate. He turned to wave at me before he climbed in and drive off.

I climbed out of my car and greeted everyone immediately around me.

"Who was that, Mr Brice?" I looked at Vanessa, a girl in the only 9th-grade class I taught.

"My husband."

"Not Ben, the boy." How did she know his name?

I opened my mouth to reply but hesitated. How do I introduce him? If I say my son I'm pretty sure he would deny it, and we look nothing alike. Saying Ben's son would bring up questions I wasn't obligated to answer but they would probably ask Stan later.

"Stan." I replied. I was relieved when our little chat was interrupted by another ninth-grader she hung out with as she walked into the school and called out to Vanessa. "See you in class." I smiled at them and left.

I tilted my head. I didn't want to answer any questions, even the staff here were very nosey though. Where did Stan go? He has no idea how to navigate this place yet.

I walked into the staff room and was surprised to find Stanley seated across the receptionist as she went through her computer.

"Hey, Jordan!" I smiled at her as she called out to me and Stan looked up with a glare. I chuckled. Was he still mad I signed him up here? He would just have to get over that. "Here you go, your homeroom is –"

"I'll figure it out." Stanley cut her off as he took the papers that she held out to him and got up. I grabbed his arm as he tried to walk by me and he looked at me. "I won't leave." He replied simply and I let him go seeing him roll his eyes and he passed my shoulder to walk out.

"He's... handsome."

"He is, isn't he? Sorry about that. He's tired."

"Is he adopted?" She asked.

"No, Ben's son. Don't ask. Did you make those copies I asked for?" After my question she didn't bring Stanley back into our conversation and I was happy because she didn't need to know about either of us beyond that we worked or schooled here.

I was looking forward to seeing Stan again. I had made sure he was put in my art class. When I asked him which subjects he was interested in, he hadn't replied so I just winged it and signed him up for what I thought he would like, he could always change them later.

I didn't have to wait until art to see him again though, I found him struggling to open his locker in the hall just outside the office.

"Need help?"

"Oh, you've helped enough, Jordan." He replied.

I grabbed the piece of paper from his hand with the code on it and re-entered it before I gave his locker a push and then pulled it open.

"We had a deal. You said you'd act like we don't know each other if I don't leave." He glared at me.

"No one's here right now and I was just helping. Fine." I raised my hands, "But did you take your lunch? It was on –"

"Yes." He hissed.

"Good." I said. I chuckled to myself as he slammed the locker shut again and walked away from me with quick, angry strides.

I went to my classroom to prepare before the bell rang and school began. Stan's class was the last one I would see and I was really excited about it, but also quite nervous since I had overheard some teachers complain about the new boy. It had made me grab a bottle of water and walk right back out of the staff room without saying anything to any. He had not done anything too bad or I would have heard about it, just ignoring teachers and answering back.

I stood from my seat as my last class began to file in. I wasn't surprised when Stan didn't walk in with everyone. I figured I would let it go just for today because a new high school in the middle of the year could probably be overwhelming.

"Good Afternoon, Every –" I stopped as the door opened and Stanley walked in. He paused as his eyes met mine and he glanced back down at his sheet before mumbling my surname. Right, he hadn't heard it before. "Hey." I greeted.

He gave a nod in response and turned to look for a seat but I pushed.

"You're a new face. Introduce yourself." I said.

"I already did that in PE and this is the same class." He said.

I looked at the class for confirmation and received some nods while Stan took an empty seat in the front of the class. I was surprised he didn't sit in the back. I set class off with half an hour of theory before I told them to sketch something based on what I had just run through. Shayne immediately ran to turn the music on and no one objected, he had mass taste that everyone was okay with.

I watched as Aaron got up and made his way to the front of the class, no one really cared, I was alright with people walking around during practical work because they had to fetch supplies. I raised my brows when he stopped in beside Stanley's desk.

"Hey." He greeted. Stan looked up and raised shook his head questioningly. "I'm Aaron. I wasn't in PE, had a meeting with –"

"What do you want?" Stan cut him off.

I wasn't surprised when Aaron just brushed it off. "Just to introduce myself. I'm the class president and –"

"If I need help, you're willing. I don't, go away." Stanley cut him off again, not moving his eyes from the boy in front of him.

Aaron gave a little breath of disbelief.

"Do you need anything else?" Stan asked annoyed.

"Yeah, I have a question. Why are you being such an asshole?"

I got up from my seat and placed my hands on both their shoulders, happy Stanley had decided to sit so close to me and that their seats were so far apart. They were getting more attention than they had initially, and I wasn't the only one that had been shocked to see Aaron ask him that. Aaron wasn't usually so blunt. The only people that didn't look surprised were his friends.

"If you had been in PE you would have heard me tell everyone to stay away from me."

"If I were in PE I would have told you to stop being a dick to everyone."

"Guys." I said.

"You talk a lot, President." Stan said with an amused smirk, it made Aaron visibly angry.

"Aaron, go sit down." I said. He glared at Stan but listened. I had never seen him angry before, it was a weird sight. I looked back down at Stan once Aaron was back in his seat but he had gone right back to sketching like nothing had happened.

I sat down and watched as everyone returned to their work. I looked from Stan to Aaron and back hoping they would just stay out of each other's ways. It seemed that Stan knew exactly how to bring out the worst in Aaron and I didn't want to see the worst in Stan if Aaron could do the same to him.

The rest of class went by pretty smoothly with everyone staying away from Stanley and Aaron returning to his cheerful social self.

When the bell rang everyone began to leave and I called Stanley to my desk.

"I'll meet you at the car." I held out my keys.

"Can't I walk?" He asked.

"Not today." I replied.

He grabbed the keys with a sigh and I peeked at his sketch. "Not bad," I said surprised. It was a very abstract forest.

"I know." I smiled as he gave a little chuckle at his own arrogance before he walked out.

I began packing up but stopped as my mind drifted to the day I met Sergio in the store and Ben had not told me he was here. Usually when he or Alex were in town they always stayed at our house, it was just easier that way. Sleeping on the ship was weird... Did he know about the drugs? Did he have something to do with it?

I grabbed my phone and dialled Alexander's number as I turned around and leaned back on my desk. It rang a few times before he picked up.

"Hey, J." He spoke sounding happy.

"Hey. How you been?" We went back and forth talking about random things before I decided to ask. "Alex?"

"Yeah? What's wrong?" He probably heard it in my tone.

"Uh... Nothing, really. I... I was cleaning up a few days ago and I found some coke in our house." I said. I furrowed my brows when he paused before he spoke.

"You – you did?" He cleared his throat.

"Did you know about it?" I asked slowly. "You knew about it... He was keeping it for Sergio..." I drifted.

"No – no –"

"Don't try to lie, Alexander. You know you can't. What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing! Nothing big. Look, we're... we're just tying up some loose ends."

"'We're'?" I asked.

"Yes – I-I was going to tell you, but I didn't want to stress you out or anything –"

"Come on, Alex." I gave a dry laugh, "You didn't tell me because you know this is fucking bullshit. How long? A week? Two?" I asked. Another pause.

"Few months."

"You're fucking kidding me!" I hissed.

"It's nothing big –"

"Nothing big? The last time you all were doing this type of shit Sergio nearly got killed. Ezra nearly got killed! How the fuck can you do this again?!"

"I can explain."

"Don't bother." I hung up.

I put my shaking fist onto the desk still clutching my phone in my hand. I was pissed. I gave Ben a chance to come clean about this! He played it off like it was nothing. Months?!

"Jordan?"

"Yeah?" I looked towards the door and calmed down instantly as I saw Stan.

"You... okay?" He asked slowly as he glanced at my hand. I let my phone go slightly loosening my grip.

"Yeah, of course. Sorry, I should have told you I would be a while."

I expected him to say, 'yeah, you should have' but instead he just gave a nod.

"I'll be in the car." He said and left.

I inhaled deeply as I looked at my phone again. I really can't believe them... I can't believe him. I was hurt more than angry. That he would keep this from me. That he would even do this after my brother got shot.

I glanced down at my phone as it began to vibrate in my hand and gave a laugh seeing Ben's name. Alexander is quick to report to him, isn't he? I ignored the call and grabbed the papers from my desk along with my class keys.

I'll just pretend nothing's wrong for Stanley. I wonder if he actually ate his lunch...

*