“The kid’s a freak,” Jason shrugged at Tide, sticking his hands in his pockets and jumping down from the chair.

Tide had never liked Jason and his friends, despite them often frequenting the same social events; the other boy had always seemed like a jerk.

“Lucky he’s a queer I guess, it’s not like he’d ever score any girls with that face,” Trev guffawed, yelping a moment later as Tide rammed him up against the wall.

“Hey – hey Tide, calm down,” Ryan was by his side in an instant, gripping his bicep. “Come on man, we’ve got a big game next week, don’t get benched yeah?”

Tide huffed angrily, drawing back and leaving Trev gasping for air.

“Asshole,” Tide bit out. He turned round to see an abandoned inhaler on the table. “This his?” he frowned, looking up at small blonde girl who was staring wide-eyed.

“Yeah, that’s Forest’s,” the girl nodded. “The tray’s his too, he didn’t get to eat.”

Tide grabbed the inhaler and stuck it in his pocket before pausing and picking up an apple and exiting out of the cafeteria.

“Hey Vincent,” Tide jogged up to the nearest group of people in the corridor, one of whom he recognised as his lab partner. “You seen a small Asian kid come this way? Big blue rucksack twice his size, wearing glasses?”

“Yeah,” Vincent nodded, rolling up the sleeves of his football jersey that was evidently too thick for the heat of the day but he was still wearing as some sort of status symbol. “Looked like he was crying though, went into the bathrooms.”

“Thanks,” Tide replied, hurrying over to the boys’ toilets and pushing open the door. The place was empty and all the stalls but one were unlocked.

“Hey,” Tide called out, knocking lightly on the door. “It’s Forest right? You okay in there?”

“F-fine!” came a strangled reply.

“I’ve got your book,” Tide stated, looking down at the illustrated cover and blushing. “Also your inhaler and an apple.”

“A w-what?” the door finally creaked open to reveal Forest’s light brown face, his lips pursed tightly and his eyes reddened.

“An apple,” Tide repeated, feeling incredibly lame. “Um, your friend –the blonde girl, she said you might be hungry.”

“Oh,” Forest nodded slowly.

“So, you’re bilingual,” Tide cleared his throat and cursed himself for not thinking of something better to say. “That’s pretty cool.”

“I guess,” Forest shuffled awkwardly, still not making eye contact. Tide chewed on his lip, the other boy’s features were so delicate and petite.

“I’m sorry about those jerks back in the cafeteria,” Tide said quickly, “we’re not all like that okay?”

At this, Forest finally flicked his eyes up to meet Tide’s. They were large, brown and questioning.

“Just saying,” Tide grinned cheerfully, pulling the inhaler out of his pocket and placing all three items into Forest’s hands. “Don’t hold Jason’s idiocy against the rest of us.”

“Yeah, sure,” Forest gave a small, soft smile and Tide felt his stomach fill with butterflies.

“So how are you settling in?” Tide asked, clearing his throat and moving sideways to let Forest slip out of the stall. “You’re a junior right?”

“That’s right,” Forest nodded shoving the book and inhaler back in his bag and walking over to the sink to rinse the apple before biting into it with a tentative crunch. “It’s okay I guess. I like the art teacher Mrs Kittaneh.”

“Ah I don’t really know her,” Tide admitted, “I suck at drawing. Guessing you don’t though?”

“I’d like to go to art school,” Forest mumbled with a mouthful of apple. The two boys exited the bathroom. Vincent and his friends were still hanging out by the lockers and shot Tide and the younger boy a curious look.

“Hey Tide, I’ll bring a keg to yours Friday night yeah?” Vincent called out.

“Great, thanks,” Tide smiled “just try not to break any of my stepmom’s valuable antiques this time yeah?”

“You know that vase was ugly as fuck,” Vincent laughed as Tide grinned at him in agreement.

“So, a friend of yours?” Vincent frowned at Forest who, Tide noticed with some bemusement, had situated himself behind Tide so that he was mostly hidden from sight.

“This is Forest,” Tide explained. “He’s a junior and new here. I ran into him on the first day.”

“I see,” Vincent still looked slightly unconvinced, “you coming on Friday, Forest?”

“I hadn’t asked him yet,” Tide smiled, glancing round to see that Forest looked like a deer trapped in headlights. “But you should come,” Tide nodded at him.

“W-where?” Forest asked.

Tide bit down his smile and chastised himself at finding the other boy’s stutter cute. He had noticed it on the first day too. His crush was probably a little too far gone if he was already romanticising speech impediments.

“House party at mine,” Tide explained, “everyone’s welcome, might be cool for you as a new kid to meet some people? You could bring your friends?”

“My friends?” Forest looked incredibly confused.

“Yeah,” Tide huffed a laugh, “those people you were sitting with at lunch, aren’t those your friends?”

“Oh,” Forest swallowed visibly, his throat clenching. “Not really, I just met Cindy today.”

“Think about it,” Tide shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “It’s number 38 Ravenwood Drive if you’d like to come.”

“Forest!”

Tide looked up the corridor to see the blonde girl hurrying towards them. “There you are!”

“Cindy,” Forest replied quietly.

“Those guys are douchebags!” Cindy shouted loudly, sweeping Forest into a tight hug. “If it were up to me we’d just have a mass extermination of all the meathead jocks in this school.”

Her eyes flicked over to Tide and Vincent before she winced and quickly released Forest. “Oh, I mean, no offense.”

“None taken,” Tide laughed , “when the time comes though, please spare me from your purge?”

“Special allowances might be made,” Cindy nodded with a serious expression as if she was genuinely considering it.

“So I was just asking Forest here if he’d like to come to my house party Friday night,” Tide began, noticing the blush on Forest’s caramel cheeks had increased in intensity. “I’d love to extend the invitation, as a sign of gratitude for allowing me to live,” Tide grinned at Cindy.

The other girl however, was just staring at Tide as if he had grown horns.

“I’m sorry,” Cindy shook her head, “but you are Tide Serrano right?”

“Um, yes that’s me,” Tide swallowed, feeling embarrassed, Vincent and his friends were still watching this car crash of a social interaction.

“Tide Serrano the senior, captain of the basketball team?” Cindy continued.

“Last time I checked,” Tide nodded, he could see his own group of friends spilling out of the cafeteria and Ryan was waving across at him. Tide didn’t mind Ryan teasing him constantly but he could probably do without the rest of the guys seeing him failing so spectacularly at inviting people to his house.

“So Tide Serrano is asking us to –“

“Look, I’ve given Forest the address, feel free to show up!” Tide forced a laugh and plastered on his best winning smile before jogging over to his friends.

“Everything alright?” Ryan frowned.

“Fantastic, can we please leave now?” Tide muttered so only Ryan would hear it.

“You crashed and burned didn’t you?” Ryan gave a sympathetic wince.

“Crashing would imply I even got off the ground,” Tide sighed miserably through his smile that was starting to make his cheeks ache.

“You losers ready for practice?” Tide questioned cheerfully at the rest of his friends. He laughed at the responding jeers and catcalls and headed towards the courts.