Little Life of Nolan Parks - 15. The Williams - Been There Done That

Nolan's POV

Henry had called earlier this evening and talked to Liam. Apparently between the two of them it was decided that I was going swimming. “I'll be fun; I'll stay with you the entire time. Henry won't even make you practice he said.” I reluctantly said yes.

By the time we got there the pool had been opened for half an hour. The moment I stepped out of the change room Henry shot out of the water and came over. “You doing okay?” I nodded, “Like I said to Liam, I won't make you swim. I just thought it would be good for you to get out of the house. You've been away from school a lot since you were in the hospital.”

It's true I have. Some days I'm too scared to leave Liam's side. He's also been missing school because of me, and I feel so bad about it. It's my fault he's missing out on making friends and learning.

Liam put his hand on my shoulder, “Let's go to the shallow pool shall we?”

With Henry leading us, we made our way over. When we got there, Justin had found Connor and his family. When his dad learned who I was, I was thanked for what I did for Connor. It embarrassed both of us a bit from his comment.

Some of the guys made their way over to the deep pool after that. The ones who remained were myself, Liam and Tobi. I just sat down at the edge of the pool looking at them having fun.

Mr. Buick came over after a bit, “How come you're over here and not in the fun?”

I shrugged, “I guess I just don't want to get wet.” truth being I didn't want to get splashed at all.

Mr. Buick looked at me for a moment and then continued, “Tell me about you Nolan. What is there to know about you?”

Again I shrugged, “I don't know... there isn't much to someone like me.”

“Sure there is Nolan. What makes you special?” The things that make me special aren't what they are cracked up to be. I didn't tell him that, I just looked into the water. “Listen Nolan, I think I know what makes you special.”

I looked up at him, “What is that?”

“No matter what kind of mood you're in, or what is happening in your life, you put your friends before yourself. You are someone who is a true friend.” I couldn't help but smile at that. “Let me guess, you didn't want to go swimming, but your friends pressured you into it?”

I nodded, “I'm actually scared of the pool, like the deeper parts. Henry has been teaching me to swim though... he's a good teacher.”

“Well, that's good, how are you liking learning from him?”

“Like I said he's a good teacher. He goes at the pace I like and no faster. He's gotten me into the shallowest part of the deep end before.”

“There ya go, see your, not to scared of the water.” Ignorance is bliss I suppose... “Nolan, the vibe I'm getting from you is you're going through something right now. I don't know what but that's what I get from you. Know that your friends are good guys, and you can trust them, okay?”

“Okay...” We sat in silence for a bit. I thought of a question to ask Mr. Buick, so I broke that silence, “Do you know a Sterling Williams?”

He looked over at me, “Yes of course I do. What about him?”

“Well, he's been bugging us and school... Connor doesn't want to report it to the office because he's scared it'll only make things worse. I'm just wondering if you had an idea for what to do about it.” I then realized what I had said, “And please don't tell Connor I said that please.”

Mr. Buick nodded. “Well, when Sterling bugged Connor in elementary school, talking to his parents seemed to settle things down. Though since he's a teenager now I don't know how well that will work nowadays. Maybe try talking to Sterling's sister.”

“Sterling has a sister?”

“Yes, she was Connor's best friend until Sterling started to make fun of him. Her name is Grace.” My eyes went wide. Grace, the girl who helped me in the middle of my panic attack, was Sterling's sister? She has to be able to do something about this. She's too nice not to help out.

The following day at school I set out trying to find Grace, It was actually the first day that I was not by Liam's side the entire time. I was a boy on a mission though, and I needed to find her.

I looked up and down hallway after hallway looking for Grace. I finally found her standing just outside the office. I walked up to her and gave her an awkward, “Hey...”

She looked over at me, “Oh hey Nolan. You look well today, where's Liam?” Okay, so Liam might be famous around school just cause of how he's always with me.

“He's with friends. I wanted to come and talk to you.”

Grace turned towards me. “Sure what would you like to talk about?”

I blushed, “Well first I would like to thank you for that day...”

“It's nothing really; you needed to talk to Liam. I would have done it for anyone.”

“Again, thanks. Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about your brother...”

She gave me a blank stare. “What about Sterling?”

“It's nothing too bad... It's just that.... well you see...”

“He's bugging you guys because you're hanging out with Connor.” I nodded. “And what do you want to talk to me about that?”

“Well, you're his sister so I was wondering if you'd be able to give me insight or help in dealing with this.”

Grace rubbed her temples, “Sterling is a complete ass when he's not at home, which is why he never gets in trouble. You have got to do something to show mom and dad he's doing it and have zero doubt about who it is. That's all you can do really.”

“Okay, thanks, Grace.”

I turned to walk away and find Liam. Grace spoke up though, “You guys will be at your usual table at lunch?”

I turned around. “Ya, every day.” She just smiled and walked off.

So to get too Sterling we need to get 100% certain evidence that it's him who's doing it. Our word won't be good enough for his mom and dad... I still don't see a solution in sight though. Though this is getting my mind off... well you know.

Henry's POV

I walked with Nolan and Liam to our usual table. Connor was already sitting there like usual. “Hey Connor!” I called out to him.

He smiled and waved at us shyly. When we got to the table, he passed me my bag back, “Here, everything is clean.” Connor blushed as I took it.

“How come he had your gym bag?” Liam just had to ask.

I quickly tried to erase the whole thing. “He got his pants dirty yesterday and I let him use my gym stuff. He's returning them now.” Liam seemed satisfied with that answer.

Suddenly my bag went up into the air. “What's in the bag, Connor?” Sterling had taken my bag and started opening it. “I bet it's something that no one else should see!”

When he emptied the bag, he was sadly mistaken. It was just my gym stuff, nothing else too special. “Can I have my bag back now, please?”

Sterling scowled at me. “Shut it Jacobs!” He threw my bag on the ground. “Why do you even hang out with this kid anyway? He threw away his best friend in elementary school. Did you know that? Ya, it's true isn't it Connor? You told your best friend to leave you alone.”

I turned to Connor, who was staring at his lunch like he wasn't hungry. “Connor...”

Anyone at the table could see Connor's eyes becoming teary. “Oh, come on BABY, no need to cry here.”

Liam and I stood up from out seats. “Sterling, fuck off.” But we were not the one to speak. From behind Sterling stood Grace with a full lunch from the cafeteria in hand. “Why don't you go back to your crew of phonies and leave Con alone?”

Sterling turned around, “Excuse me Grace? This kid treated you like shit, and you want me to leave him alone?”

Grace rolled her eyes. “You treated him like shit and as a result he was worried about me. He asked me to stop hanging out with him because I was being made fun of too. If you weren't such an idiot then maybe Con and I would still be friends.”

The stare down between the two got intense. The two of them weren't moving, but the entire cafeteria could feel the tension between them.

I heard a chair behind me start moving a lot. When I turned around, I saw Liam comforting Nolan. He was having another freakout. I quickly made my way around the table, “Nolan are you okay?”

Grace soon joined us too. “Nolan what's wrong?”

Nolan kept trying to grab hold of Liam. When he finally got a grip, it looked like he was pulling on Liam’s skin. “I... I don't know.” He was crying into Liam's shoulder. “I'm scared.”

Sterling had to speak up again too, “What the fuck is this? Cousins gay for each other?”

The rage that I saw in Liam's face... Fuck man that was scary shit. “Sterling fuck right off!” He wasn't loud per-say... but he projected that right across the cafeteria. “My cousin has some shit to deal with in his life aside from your blubbering idiotic mouth. He doesn't need you making things worse for him.”

Grace stood up, “Seriously Sterling, go away.”

“Who's going to make me?”

“Well... you know I could.” Honestly, I expected Dylan to have said that. But there stood Tobi, as serious as ever. “So how bought you be on your way Ster.” With a grunt, Sterling left without much else.

As the tension in the room fell, Nolan calmed down. Soon he wasn't holding tight to Liam. Everyone had gotten to the table by the time Nolan let go. No one really knew what to do except Liam.

We tried our best to continue our lunch normally. “So you and Connor were friends in elementary school?” I asked Grace, who had joined us.

She nodded. “Best friends actually. Sterling would pick on him though. As a result, he pushed me away.” You could tell she wanted to be friends again but why now?

Randi asked for me. “Why are you trying to be friends with him now then?”

She blushed, “I guess peer pressure from you guys. I've never seen anyone hang out with him so much and be such good friends. Then the other day when you stood up to Sterling together... I felt like I was needed over here.”

Connor hadn't said a thing all lunch nor had he had much to eat. He was looking at his plate though thinking about something. Richie tried to get him into the conversation. “What do you say Connor?”

He wasn't paying attention at all like he was deep in thought. “Uh, what?”

“I asked what you had to say about all this.”

Connor looked back down at his plate. “Oh...” He looked back at his plate. “Why now, Grace? Why didn't you come back before?”

“Because you punched me last time I tried to hang out with you.” Grace leaned back in her chair.

You could see how bad Connor felt just by the look on his face. “Oh ya...”

Grace smiled though. “We were kids then Con. You were worried about me; all is forgiven.” From there everyone went back to eating, even Connor. The only one who wasn't eating was Nolan.

I moved over closer to him. “How are you doing?”

“Good...” He quickly replied.

Liam gave him a look and then turned it to me. Nolan wasn't good; that's what the look meant. “Nolan, do you want to go somewhere else?” Liam asked him.

Nolan shook his head. “No. I want to hang out with my friends.” You could see shivers were still going through him at times.

“Nolan, it's not okay to lie...” I put my hand on his shoulder. Nolan quickly turned and looked at me dead in the eyes. We stared at each other for a few moments. “What's going on Nolan?”

Nolan looked like he was about to say something but stopped. He looked around the table. Everyone else was in their own world away from him. It was like he wanted to say what was going on but was too afraid.

He started to breath heavier. Liam pulled him in closer, “Okay Nolan, we're going to go. Sorry, guy's we'll see you later.” Liam and Nolan got up leaving their trays behind. “Henry, could you throw our stuff out for us, please?”

“Of course.” I watched Nolan walk off staying close to Liam. I wish I could help him, I really do. There is nothing I can do though. I don't know why he started having these freak outs or if they are normal for him.

I have to watch Nolan be in pain about something, and I can't do a thing. It hurts me every time it happens, when Nolan is shaking and hyperventilating; he looks so scared. I just want to be able to do something for him. Anything Would do...

Chapter end.