Pinky Swear

A/n: Thank you to the people who reviewed! I've decided I'd really like to continue this story and see where it goes. This chapter isn't directly sequential to the last one, but I've decided to keep them in the same story. Knowing that people want to read it motivates me to write more, so please, if you enjoy what you read, drop me at least a small review to encourage more!

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She wore her hair up in a messy tangle with two ballpoint pens stuck through it, and her eyeliner was smudged at the corner of her lid, and she looked profoundly bored.

Jonah had no idea who she was. She was clearly new, and yet she didn't appear to be in any hurry to ingratiate herself with either her classmates or her teachers. When he glanced at her, sometimes she was taking notes on trigonometric functions, but more often than not she was chewing on the cap of her pen and staring out the window. She had a red streak dyed right through the middle of her hair, and as far as he could see from where he was sitting, she had three silver earrings in her right ear.

And when he looked a few desks away at Griff, he could see that Griff was staring at her almost nonstop, too.

When the bell rang she was practically the first one out of the room, dumping her shit in her backpack and bolting so fast that neither of them had a chance to talk to her. But as Jonah was lingering near the door and waiting for Griff to catch up, he realised that her pen was still lying on the seat of her desk. He picked it up, examined it for a moment--the cap was bent and scuffed with teeth marks--and then stashed it in his pocket.

"Who was that," Griff said, in an admiring tone, as they departed the classroom together. "I think she just brought our total Asian population up to three people."

She wasn't anywhere to be seen at lunch, so Jonah and Griff just ate in their normal corner of the quad, with Mark and Damon and Joel. Damon's girlfriend was there, too, a curvy blonde thing named Annamarie, and she and Damon were trying to hold hands while they ate. He kept dropping pieces of ham out of his sandwich, and everyone pretended not to notice. Joel and Mark played twenty-one with a pack of cards that had porn actresses on the backs, and betting with pennies, and Griff was kind of playing but he wasn't really paying much attention and they had to deal him out of every other round. He kept scanning the quad restlessly, dirty fingernails plucking at a bag of chips.

"You all seen the new girl?" he asked, turning back to the group. The guys shrugged.

"She was in my PE class," Annamarie said, tossing her head so her bangs fell more attractively over one eye. "She’s got a tattoo."

That made Griff's eyebrows go up. "Yeah? Where?"

"On her shoulder. It's a snake. There were some symbols on it, I dunno, Japanese or something. Dunno what it said." Her tone was clearly disdainful, in an underhanded, backbiting way that made it clear she'd never actually say it to the girl's face.

Griff fell silent, looking contemplative. Mark looked up from the cards. "Jessie Green's got a tattoo," he said in a hushed voice. "Right above her ass. You can see it when she bends over."

"Gotta get her pants off to see the rest of it. Not like half the guys here haven't already." Joel chuckled, unashamed. "That is one fine piece of ass."

Annamarie made an annoyed huffing sound, and set down her diet soda can with a harsh clang on the pavement. "You all shouldn't talk about girls that way," she snapped, and pushed herself to her feet. Her curls bounced as she flounced away to another group of girls across the quad.

Damon looked after her mournfully, his internal debate whether to follow her or stay put clearly written on his face. They were all silent for a moment. Then, "She must really be putting out for you to put up with that," said Joel.

Grimacing, Damon looked down at the remnants of his sandwich. "I like her," he informed it in a low mutter.

"Yeah? Which part of her?" This time Mark snickered along with Joel.

Griff frowned at them. "Guys. Cut it out," he ordered sharply, and tossed his cards towards Mark. They all went silent again as Mark gathered up the finished hand and stacked the cards, but as he went to deal another round, Joel shook his head. Sighing, Mark sat back, setting the deck down by his feet. The girl on the top card wore a cowboy hat, and a skimpy vest that just brushed the round curves of her breasts, and nothing else.

Silently, Jonah gazed at Griff, who had returned to staring moodily across the scattered clusters of students. In the sunlight, the gold tones in Griff's ashy-brown hair shone with a burnished sheen; it made him want to reach out and stroke it, comb his fingers through it and feel it slip beneath his palm. Where his own hair was dark mahogany brown and curled in rough waves, so prone to tangling that he had to keep it cropped short, Griff's was fine and pin-straight and looked like it would be soft to the touch. Jonah had never gotten to touch it.

The bell rang shrilly overhead, effectively ending lunch and his train of thought. The five of them slowly gathered up their things, ambled over to the trashcans to toss their empty paper bags, and diffused into the stream of students towards different classes. Griff lingered, so Jonah did too.

"We gonna work on that lab report after school?" Jonah asked, hauling his backpack up over one shoulder.

Throwing away the bag of chips he'd hardly touched, Griff nodded. "Yeah, sure." He still looked preoccupied. "See you later."

Jonah watched him stride off towards his next class--English, he knew. After a moment, he turned and left, too.