Donovan stretched his arms into the air and cracked his back on the chair. The end of the day had finally rolled around. I quickly threw my things into the broken bag and looked at it. The damage seemed to be getting increasingly worse with the hole about two centimeters wider than it was before.

I sighed. It’s only be a frozen yogurt place. - I told myself. Donovan walked behind me, swinging his keys with the ring wrapped around his index finger.

“So. Ready to go?” Donovan flashed his keys. “Henry and Rachel are riding together. Do you have a car?”

“No, I don't.”

A weird smile crept onto his face. “Can I drive you?”

“Fi-”

“Hey!” Marcus jumped on me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Going out?”

“Yeah?” Donovan's smile faded. The expression was replaced with mer annoyance. I mirrored that look. “What do you want?”

“Uh, to come with.” He stated plainly. “Hey, Keith!”

I pushed him off of me. I wouldn’t say these two were particularly mean. They did have a habit of saying nasty things about Lucas and would, on occasion, direct some of the hostility towards me, but for the most part it was fairly tame.

Keith strutted on over. “What?”

“Let's go to Smack Cow?”

“Why?”

“Peter's going.” Marcus gestured towards me with his thumb. Keith stared at me for a moment, then at Donovan, before rolling his eyes and walking off. “Where are you going, man?”

I scooped my backpack up. “Let's leave before they follow us.”

We left through the door before Marcus or Keith could notice.

“Do those two bother you a l-”

I cut him off. “Where are Rachel and Henry?” If there was one thing I didn’t want to talk about with the new student, it was my harassment problem.

He shrugged. “I dunno. They said they'd met us there after school.”

“Okay.”

“I have the address, but you should tell me where to go. You know where it is, right?” He fished around his pocket for a moment.

I nodded. “Yeah. You won't miss it. It's an eyesore.”

We got to the doors of the school. Normally I'd be walking towards the main road to catch the public bus. I'd been doing that for so long it actually felt strange to be with someone else after school.

“That's mine.” He pointed to a dark blue Honda Civic. “Why are Marcus and Keith harassing you?” He asked once we were in the car and moving.

“They're harassing me?” I played.

He frowned. “Yeah. Like yesterday and today. I asked Rachel about it, too. She said you get into fights with them.”

“Used to. I don't fight anymore.”

“So you used to fight?”

“Not anymore.”

He squinted his eyes in thought. “Okay. Why'd you stop? What changed?”

“I figured, what's the point? They used to say shit about my friend all the time. Of course, I'd be upset.” I paused. “They're really annoying.”

“What friend?”

“Forget it. Turn left here.”

“Okay.” We made the turn in the busy intersection.

Smack Cow was a colorful building on the corner of one of the many strip malls on that corner. The front wall was about two stories tall with a beautiful mural of a pasture with cows grazing on bright green grass. A large, over an exaggerated rainbow, hung over the cows protruding from a bright yellow sun.

Like I said; an eyesore.

“This is the place?” As if he had to ask, gesturing to the large fluorescent Smack Cow sign. “It's not that far from the school.”

“No. Which is why I could have walked.”

“Yeah, but I was happy to give you a ride.”

I didn't answer him.

If the outside was an eyesore, then the inside was the visual representation of a seizure. Every single one of its walls had some presentation of cows either grazing or performing some human activity in a personified manner. My favorite was probably the superhero cow. Lucas's was the cows playing pool.

“Oh, what the hell?” I looked up at the familiar voice right when we entered the establishment. My glare locked with my twin. She held two frozen yogurt cups in her hands.