The Sound of Starting Over - 4. Chapter 4*

The kitchen and it is utter chaos when I walk in and all I want is coffee. Helen is trying to make a plate for Jake, I make a beeline to the coffee, and pour a cup, I catch Helen eyeing me. I don’t say anything; I just roll my eyes and grab a seat by Jake. “You ready for school?”

He shrugs his shoulders, “Just ready to see friends.”

“True, what grade are you even in?” I ask, blowing on the coffee.

“8th grade, I will see you next year! I will be a freshman!” he says, getting excited.

I ruffle his hair. “Yeah, you will, dude.”

“Don’t you need to get dressed?” Helen asks me.

“Thought I would go like this,” I tell her, gesturing to my boxer briefs.

She gives me a glare, and I just smile. “Calm down. I am going to get dressed here in a second. I just want a sip of coffee.”

I can see I am already irritating her from the way she is clutching her coffee mug, and this makes me chuckle. “Well, you have fifteen minutes. I have to take you to school so I can enroll you.”

This time she gives me a smirk, and she knows that I don’t like the idea of that. “Fine,” I say. Again, I know when to pick my battles.

Liam comes down the stairs dressed like a little American Eagle model, his hair messy, wearing a button-up blue shirt and torn jeans, with I have no idea what kind of damn shoes and a hoodie tossed over his shoulder. He takes a bite out of Jake’s toast and ruffles his hair, which Jake instantly starts to fix.

“Landon, dude, you need to get ready, bro,” he says.

“Yeah, I know, DUDE, BRO,” I say, taking off to my room.

Looking through my closet, pick out a light green polo, and throw it on. I find the pants I’m looking for; they hang right on my ass. Looping my belt through the loops, I walk to my dresser, throwing on deodorant and my Cool Water cologne.

Luckily, my hair just falls into place. Grabbing some socks, I put them on and slide my feet into my vans and sling my backpack over my shoulder.

Making my way back into the kitchen, Liam and Jake are already gone. Helen notices me looking around. “Liam wanted to pick up Chandler, so they already left.”

I just grunt and flop onto the couch, waiting on her to find the keys.

She looks me over and smiles. “You are such a handsome young man.”

I remember first hearing those words from Mrs. Heartlane. I had just turned 13 a few days before, and I was doing yard work for her because I needed some extra money, and she said her husband was too busy with whatever job he had. I remember it like it was yesterday I had my shirt off and was sweating so much in the Texas heat. She came up from behind me saying that she brought some water for me. She put her hand lightly on my back sending a chill down my spine.

I took the water, downing it in two gulps. She kept looking at me hungrily. “You look hot. Why don’t you come inside and cool off for a minute?” I thought it was a question I soon learned it was a command she didn’t make requests.

I agreed, and she led me into the house. She commented on how much I was sweating, and laid her hand upon my chest…

“Landon, sweetie, you okay?” I hear my mother say loudly.

I shake off the flashback, “Yeah, I spaced, thinking if I had all my shit together.”

She looks at me funny and picks up her purse. “It’s okay if you are nervous.”

“I’m not nervous, Helen, now can we go?”

I must act normal, can’t let something that happened back then fuck with me now, especially not in front of Helen. I don’t want to give her a reason to act like she cares. I follow her out of the house, and into her car. I don’t understand how it is a bit chilly out when it was cold yesterday.

“Hank wants to take you to some of the coffee shops this coming weekend. I think you will really like them,” she tells me, putting the car in reverse.

“You going to actually allow me to drink coffee?”

“As much as I do not like you doing it, I guess I can’t stop you. Besides, where did you get the taste for coffee at?”

Fuck, I walked right into that one. “Just a friend back home.”

Neither of us says anything for most of the car ride, which is perfectly okay with me. I don’t really want to talk about anything with her, but I do have a question that keeps nagging at me. “Is Hank actually going to have time to umm…you know, for me…I mean, take me to the coffee shops?” fuck why was that so hard to get out.

“Of course, especially if you really want to go. He was asking me this morning if I thought you would be interested in it he seemed to be excited at the prospect of asking,” she says, smiling.

I just nod my head, and we pull into the school. The size of it isn’t a surprise anymore to me since Liam showed it to me yesterday. Helen puts the car in park and I get out with her and walk in through the massive doors.

We walk through another door that has Office on it. “Good morning, Helen!”

I look at one of the secretaries. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. “Hey Terri, how are you this morning?”

“Doing great, how were the holidays?” she asks.

“They were great, and actually, my son just moved down here from Texas to live with Hank and I!”

Terri finally notices me. “Awe, well, I am happy for you, Helen. We need to have a ladies’ day out soon so we can catch up! I already have his old school records here. Landon, if you would go into the office to the right, Mrs. Mudd, she is the counselor and will set up your schedule for you, and I will have one of our office aides show you to your classes.”

I don’t even look back to Helen. I just go straight to the office. I can hear them talking about me, but I don’t give a fuck. I walk into the small office to see another woman tapping away on the computer. She doesn’t even look up when she says, “If you don’t have an appointment, then you need to make one.”

“Wow, you must be the employee of the year all the time. I can’t make an appointment with you if I am new” I say.

She looks up with her brow furrowed. She looked hot with her curly hair and green eyes. “Oh, yes, you must be Landon?” she asks, and she starts shuffling papers. I just plop myself in the seat across from her desk.

“The one and only.” I beam turning on that charm I have.

She doesn’t say anything at first. “Okay, so I see your transcripts from the old school. Quiet the underachiever, weren’t we?” she says, looking at me.

Her bluntness takes me by surprise. “I was passing, wasn’t I?”

“That you were, but from the looks of it, you can do much better. I am sensing you’re actually pretty smart, you are just doing as little as possible. I have seen all your files from the school. They emailed them right over, almost as if they were happy to have you gone. Maybe you can start new here. Seems like you need it.”

“Well, I am so glad I have a counselor to tell all my woes to,” I shoot back.

She just smiles. “I am sure I will be getting to know you very well.”

“I am sure you will enjoy that,” I say, smiling.

She hands me a piece of paper; it has all the classes on it. “Since you are new to Florida, you will have to work harder, because our state test is harder than Texas’. Our office aide Julie should be out there, waiting to show you the classes.”

“Can’t wait ‘til we meet again,” I say, winking at her.

I walk back into the main office, and there is this girl standing in front of me. She is fucking gorgeous. She has soft brown hair and eyes, skinny and just hot. “Hi, are you Landon?” I look at her, and then around, and notice Helen is gone.

“I will be whoever you want me to be,” I say, smiling.

This causes her to blush. “I am supposed to show you around if I can see your schedule?”

I hand it over, and she starts glancing at it. “I would have never pegged you for a freshman!” she says.

“Age isn’t anything but a number,” I say.

She just shakes her head, “You are funny. Oh, you have the same lunch as me! I can introduce you to Liam. He is a cool guy.”

I can’t help but laugh. “No need to, I already know him. I am his stepbrother.”

She looks at me with surprise. “Really, I didn’t know he had a stepbrother!”

“Shame, guess he didn’t want any competition.”

“What do you mean?” she asks, looking confused, as she hands me back my schedule.

“Aren’t y’all like, a couple?”

She blushes. “I didn’t know he liked me like really liked me.”

“Well, that’s what I heard yesterday morning,” I tell her.

We don’t bring up Liam again, as she shows me to all my classes, and then to my locker. “The teachers should be giving you books. So just stash them here and come find me at lunch. You can sit with us.”

“Will do. Besides, you just want to see me again,” I tell her, smiling.

I head to my first class, which is Algebra I. I walk into a teacher talking. He stops and shoots me a look. He is a younger guy. “Can I help you?”

“Well, I am told you can help me learn math,” I tell him.

This causes a few laughs. “I can try to teach you algebra, but I cannot force you,” he says, holding his hand out for my schedule. I hand it to him, and he looks it over. “Well, funny guy, have a seat.”

I make my way to the empty seat in the third row towards the back. A few people follow me with their eyes. I have no idea if they think I am going to do a trick or what. I sit down and look at Mr. Matthews.

“Hey, I’m Jared,” says someone from my left.

“Landon,” I tell him.

“Don’t mind Mr. Matthews. He is a really cool dude,” Jared says.

I look at Jared. He is skinny, dressed in a DC shirt and jeans. He has brown hair and green eyes. “I guess,” I tell him, but from the way he is dressed, I know he will know where to find some weed. That’s if he doesn’t deal it. I make a mental note to be friends with him.

Most of my classes suck. No one interesting in them at all. A few people tried to chat with me, but I wasn’t really in the mood to be chatty. Same shit from every girl - where you from, you’re cute, OMG, your accent is so sexy. OMG, your Liam’s little brother! So of course, when they said that, I shut them down instantly. I finally got annoyed and asked what the fuck was the big deal about Liam.

I think her name was Sara or something, finally told me it was because Liam made Varsity last year as a freshman. I just rolled my eyes. “You don’t like him much?” she asks.

I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t really know the dude.” I haven’t told her that he is my stepbrother.

“Well, every guy wants to be him, and every girl wants to date him,” she says, rolling her eyes.

“What about you?” I ask. Leaning in closer, looking in her blue eyes, I like how her auburn hair is shaped around her face.

“What about me?”

“Do you want to date him?”

She laughs. “Hell no, he ignores a lot of people, unless you’re in his little group of friends. Besides, he and Julie have been flirting back and forth, but he is really close with Chandler Burton. Chandler is a bit weird. He doesn’t date anyone, not that I have ever seen him even show interest in a girl, and he isn’t even popular at all,” she says, smiling.

“So, this makes him weird, because he has never had a girlfriend, and he is close to Liam?” I ask.

“Yeah, I mean, isn’t it just a bit weird? I have tried flirting with him, and he showed no interest in me at all.”

“Were you just flirting with him to try and get close to Liam?” I ask.

She looks at me. “No, I actually think he is cute in this innocent way.”

I laugh. “If you say so, he sounds like a loser.”

“So why all the interest in Liam?”

“Every girl I talk to is in love with him. I wanted to know the big deal,” I say.

“Well, most think he is a big deal, and let me guess you are just trying to find a girl that isn’t obsessed with him?”

“Yeah, it would suck to show interest in a girl who is flipping out over my stepbrother,” I say, smiling.

The bell rings, and I grab my things and take off before she can say anything. I am happy that it’s lunch. I drop my books off at my locker and head to the cafeteria, knowing I will probably run into Liam, not that I really want to.

Getting in line with everyone else to get food, I notice how it is completely different. You can pick what you want, so I just grab a sub sandwich. I grab a bottle of water and look at the label. It’s the same kind that I was given by Mrs. Heartlane.

*****

Mrs. Heartlane ran her hand up and down my chest again, causing my nipples to get hard and getting me really excited. “You are such a handsome boy.”

I smiled. “Did I do well?”

“My handsome boy, you did very well, made me a happy woman. I will go get us some bottled water. You should get dressed now, and don’t tell anyone about what we did.”

“I don’t really like water. I only drink it when I’m hot,” I tell her.

“Well, now you love water. My handsome boy won’t be poisoning his body with soda.”

 *****

“Hello, did you even hear me?” the lady at the register says with attitude.

“Yeah. I heard you. I was deciding on whether to answer you or not,” I say, annoyed.

I pay the bitch and start to look around. I see Chandler first, sitting with Liam and Julie and some other kids. I start to go over there, but that’s when I see Kelsey, so I make my way towards her.

She is in heavy conversation with some girl when I sit in front of her. “So that offer is still on the table,” I tell her, interrupting the conversation she is having.

She whips her head around and laughs when she realizes who I am. “Oh, is it?”

“For you, yeah, she can join, too. I don’t mind sharing myself,” I say, smirking.

“You are too much, Landon! This is Chelsea, and I don’t like to share,” she says, smiling back.

“Oh, so I guess the chase is over, then?”

She laughs. “Chelsea, this is Landon. He is Liam’s younger brother.”

“I didn’t know Liam had another brother,” Chelsea says.

“Step-brother, that is,” I correct Kelsey.

“Well, how is the first day of classes?” she asks me.

“It’s school, so it sucks ass. I’d rather be studying something more interesting,” I tell her, looking her right in the eyes.

She blushes some more, and I open my mouth to say something else when Liam drops next to me. “Hey, little brother.”

I glare at him, “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company? Big STEP brother of mine,” I ask him, hoping he catches the sarcasm.

“Just wanted to see how your day is going, and I spotted you over here. I know Julie invited you over to join our table. Was just making sure you didn’t think she was messing with you,” he says, smiling.

“No, I saw yall, but I also saw something more interesting. Besides, don’t you already have a charity case?”

“How are you, Kels?” Liam addresses her.

“I’m good, Liam, how are you?” she asks, uncomfortably avoiding eye contact.

“Never better. I have a solid relationship, and I get to know my little brother that just moved down here,” he says, with an edge in his voice.

“Yeah, we just met. He is a pretty funny guy,” she says.

“Why don’t you come over to my table, Landon?” he says, getting up.

I don’t want to cause a scene, so I grudgingly get up with him. “’ Til next time, Kels,” I say, mimicking Liam.

“Hey, there is a party this Friday. You should totally come… you too, Liam,” she says, as we walk off.

“What the fuck was that about?” I ask him.

He looks at me. “She is bad news, man, and I don’t want you getting caught in her web.”

“Well, I am pretty damn sure I can make my own decisions. Always have before I moved here,” I shoot back.

“Thanks for giving the push I needed to ask Julie out. I am just looking out for you, man. I am not trying to tell you what to do. I’m not your enemy, dude,” he says, leading me to the table.

I sit next to Chandler, who has his nose in some damn book. “Is it that interesting?” I ask.

I can tell I startled him; he jumps a little. “Yeah, more interesting then you are.”

“Well, you see, I can’t give all of myself away just yet.”

He just laughs, and I think it’s possibly the first time I heard him laugh.

“Julie,” I say, looking over at her and winking.

“Landon, I am taking it you got to all your classes?” she asks before she takes a bite out of her salad.

“Damn, are we always just about business? All work and no play?” I say.

She just rolls her eyes at me and throws a piece of celery at me. I throw it back at her, and then take Chandler’s book away. “Dude, you can socialize.”

“No one I really feel like socializing with,” he says.

“I guess I had that one coming,” I tell him.

*

I flashback to when I knew what we were doing was wrong. “I pay you good money, Landon. Why would you want to ruin a good thing?”

“Just, what if your husband finds out?” I asked innocently.

“Richard won’t. Besides, it’s not like I don’t know what he does. If anything, Landon, you are keeping my marriage together. Now, come on, I won’t ask again,” she said, pulling the waistband of my boxers away from my stomach.

After we finished, I laid in her bed, catching my breath. “I bet you just have all kinds of girls after you,” she said.

“Kinda, but I don’t do anything,” I told her shyly.

“Well, you should! You’re a young man. Have fun. It’s what you’re supposed to do, but you need to understand I come first…ALWAYS.”

I think that’s when I realized I was good at sex. Yeah, I was young, but I was taught well. Hell, and I wanted to have fun. I had a lot of fun and I kind of miss what I did. It didn’t stop with Mrs. Heartlane. She told a few of her friends and well, they wanted some, and I agreed. I loved the attention.

“Landon, dude, come on, it’s time to go to the gym,” Liam says.

I follow them into the locker room since I have no idea where it is. Liam takes me to Coach Brown and explains who I am so I can get locker and gym clothes. “Sorry, I won't be joining any teams. I don’t play well with others.” I tell him before he can ask.

I am assigned a locker right next to Chandler, and right across from Liam. When I show up at my locker, Chandler gets nervous. “Your locker is next to mine?”

“Yeah, looks that way,” I say, taking off my shirt.

I feel his eyes on me, and it makes me smirk. Of course, I don’t let him see; I turn my back towards him. I put the gym shirt on. It barely covers the bottom of my stomach, and it is a medium. Looking around, I see that none of the shirts fully cover anyone. Especially not the bigger guys - their guts are hanging out and make me chuckle to myself.

I slide my jeans off, folding them, and put them into the locker. I see that Chandler finally took his shirt off I didn’t think it was humanly possible for someone to put a shirt on so fast, but I thought I saw something. I wonder why his shirt is the only one that actually fits. He isn’t bad looking, just needs a little more muscle. I slide my briefs off and put my jockstrap on, and slowly pull the gym shorts on. I look at Chandler, and he turns crimson red. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear I see his shorts tenting. So, I decided to see if my hunch is right, and maybe Sara is on to something.

“It’s not a bad thing to think a guy has a solid body. Hell, you could use a little more muscle and you would look, killer, have all the ladies on you,” I say, smirking.

He just blushes a little more and doesn’t say anything. What was his deal anyway? “So, Kelsey invited me to a party. Care to join?”

“I don’t do parties,” he says, pulling on his shoes.

I keep putting my shoes on. “Come to the fuck on, dude, you are going with me,” I tell him, shutting the locker.

He gives me a shrug. “I don’t really get invited to these things, and I’m not interested.”

“Liam is going,” I tell him.

“He is?”

“Yup, Julie is, as well. So, you are bound to come. I mean, you are Liam’s shadow, right?”

“Fuck you, Landon,” he says, slamming his locker shut, and walks away.