Monday

Lennox heard the whispers that followed him ever since he left English class. He was kind of used to it, but that didn’t mean it was any easier to hear his classmates talk bad about him. He was well aware of his poor social status. One that became poor ever since he and Ben broke up.

He didn’t switch schools over summer without a reason. Ben and his friends made his life miserable by spreading rumors, by calling him names, by laughing at him for everything he said or did. Lennox’ grandparents, who he lived with, hoped he would have it better in a different school, in the next town over.

But Lennox had already known; escaping Ben’s wrath wouldn’t be easy, seeing the fact he was in fact a popular influencer in the area. He had lots of friends. Caproun, the next town over, wasn’t an exception, even if most people in this town were bigger fans of Milan Lohmann.

Who was exactly the reason why all of Monday, people had made fun of him. Lennox couldn’t, and didn’t blame Milan for it. But the fact he had seemed to be in a huge hurry to get away from him after English class had made him the laughing stock of school.

People had told him that when someone as kind and social like Milan didn’t want to be around you, you just had to be a freak.

By the time classes were over, he was getting sick and tired of the same bullshit, each and every day. He wished teens would understand how damaging it was to be all alone. No friends to hang out with because your ex ruined your reputation. No parents to go to, because your ex made you come out to them, getting you kicked out in the process.

Lennox hardly had anything left, and still he was trying his best to remain cheerful and happy each and every day. Still, he didn’t get angry at anyone for his misfortune—except maybe Ben. Still, he tried to be good, and do good. Because what goes around, comes around. Or so he hoped.

“Nana, I’m home!” He called out loudly, closing the front door behind him, heading into the living room and eventually the kitchen to see where his grandmother Millie was.

“Hi sweetie,” she greeted him with a warm smile, pulling him in an equally warm embrace. The kitchen, with flowery pattern on the wallpaper decorating the backsplash above the old dark wooden cabinets, smelled of cookies she had been baking and were cooling off on the countertop. “How was school?”

Lennox shrugged, trying to force a smile on his face to hide the fact he rather didn’t want to go back at all. “Teens be teens,” he eventually replied casually. But then he perked up with a genuine smile. “But guess what? Milan Lohmann returned! He’s in school and he’s in my English class and… well, it’s cool that he’s back because maybe he’ll make more video’s now.”

“Who is he again?”

“Ben’s biggest rival. The one he couldn’t ever defeat.”

Which was exactly why Millie was happy to hear he returned. As soon as she realized who he was talking about, she was hoping for the same thing; for Milan to defeat Ben once more and maybe tone his ego down a bit.

“Let’s give him some cookies for strength,” she said, tapping his nose playfully. “I’ll make sure I pack a few for school tomorrow.”

Lennox smirked and nodded in reply. Maybe it would be the perfect moment to apologize for scaring him away that day. Maybe that way he could actually start a decent conversation with the boy. Nobody would turn down cookies, right?

“Anyway,” Millie continued, gesturing for him to take a seat while she handed him a still warm cookie and a glass of lemonade, “I thought you would like to hear that Remy will be here during the weekend. Pops will take you two out to the arcade if you want.”

“Yes,” Lennox replied with big eyes, eagerly nodding. He was excited to hear his brother Remy would finally come over again, after not seeing him for months already. The only times he got to speak to him were the rare moments that Remy was by himself, and able to call him in secret. Their parents usually didn’t allow them to have any contact.

In fact, Remy coming over the weekend, meant their aunt Daisy would be with him, and she was on their side, enabling them to visit each other without their parents’ knowing.

“And don’t forget about physical therapy this afternoon. You know the deal.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll go,” Lennox nodded, speaking with a mouth full of cookie crumbs. “Or else no fun.”

Millie nodded in reply, returning to her cookies, packing most of them in small batches, while putting the rest in a glass yar she usually left on the counter. It gave Lennox a moment to check his phone for messages—all and only on Discord—and reply to a few private messages he had received since he left school. It was pretty much all the socialization he had left. Talking to a bunch of strangers online over shared fandoms like Star Wars, DC Comics Formula 1 and Milan Lohmann.

At least these people were talking to him with respect, and they were actually glad whenever he was online. He spoke to a few over voice call every few days, and some were friends in the gaming world. But ever since Ben had ‘accidentally’ broken his PlayStation, gaming wasn’t much of an option. Lennox didn’t prefer gaming on his pc, which wasn’t even good enough for most games.

His pc did the job it needed to do. It served the sole purpose for him to do homework, and his grandparents didn’t have enough money to buy him something more expensive.

Still, he did watch a lot of livestreams of his online friends, and at least he was staying up to date with their progress.

They were even planning a meeting. At least, once they would find a way for all six of them to get together. Two of them lived in another country, and the other three didn’t exactly live close by either. His gaming friends, Ralph, Rudy, Mio, Carmen and Nina shared one other interest with him; Milan Lohmann, ever since Lennox introduced them to his videos over a year before.

Which was basically why his phone blew up in the time he hadn’t looked, and all five of them had asked repeatedly if Milan had said anything about competing against Ben Welsh.

Maybe he should’ve never told them anything about being in class—or working on a project—with Milan. He clearly told them he had scared the guy away and vented about being made fun of for said incident.

Yet, they only focused on the fact he spoke to Milan.

He pushed the phone away, quickly took a cookie from the jar and left the kitchen after pecking a kiss on his grandmother’s cheek.

He needed to dump his school supplies in his room, dress up for physical therapy and get to the bus stop, and his therapy was way more important than answering his online friends, or overthinking the fact he scared away Milan.

They’d have class again tomorrow, and he’d have cookies to make up for his behavior that day. How could Milan still hate him once he tasted the cookies? It was one thing to have Ben hate on him. It would be a whole different level of being unpopular if he managed to have two  popular influencers hate on him.

He needed damage control, and he needed it fast. And the best way was finding a way to make Milan laugh over a joke, or enthusiastically talk back to him in front of their peers.

As if that would ever happen.