Page 1 of Loyalty, Lust, Love
Chapter 1
Flashback - Sixth Grade
Lynx hated having to attend a new school in the middle of the school year. Sixth grade was hard enough, and now, he was the new kid. He didn’t have any friends at his previous school, so he wasn’t optimistic about having any there either. However, he had no choice.
His mother had lost her battle with cancer, leaving his father to raise him alone. After selling their family home, he bought something smaller across town, near his job, to ensure he was more accessible to and for his son.
Lynx was known as the quiet, angry boy at his old school. Even as a young child, Lynx wasn’t a fan of people. As he grew older, not much had changed. He had come to terms with being socially awkward, and he was okay with that.
On top of that, he didn’t have the latest shoes and clothes, making him an easy target for bullies. He wanted to make his mother proud and promised her on her deathbed that he’d stay out of trouble. He knew his quiet nature and standoffish attitude were why kids always started stuff with him, forcing him to finish it, but he hoped it would be different at the new school.
It was his first day, and he was sitting alone at lunch. A group of boys walked by and knocked his milk off his tray. Luckily,it wasn’t open, but he was still annoyed. They laughed as if it was the funniest thing in the world and continued to their seats. He’d ignore them for as long as he could, but based on past experiences with bullies, he knew he’d eventually have to show them he was no punk.
Sighing, he got up to pick up the milk from the floor. When he returned to his seat, a girl he’d seen in all his classes sat across from him. She didn’t look like she was there to cause trouble, but he prepared himself just in case.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi, I’m Fateema Nesby. Lynx Patton, right?” He nodded. “Don’t worry about those guys. They’re jerks. I can’t stand them.”
Fateema had been watching Lynx since he walked into their first-period class. He was quiet, but she hoped he was nicer than all the other boys in the sixth grade. She was nervous when she sat across from him, but she hoped he wouldn’t be rude.
“I’m not worried,” he assured her.
“You’re not?”
“No? Should I be?”
“Yeah. They bully almost all the kids in sixth grade.”
He shrugged, not caring who those boys were and praying they’d stay away from him so he wouldn’t have to introduce them to his dark side.
“I’ll be fine,” he told her because she looked worried.
“Okay. So, where are you from again?”
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you just move here?”
“Yeah, but not from another state. I lived on the other side of the city and went to another school.”
“Oh. Why’d you move?”
Lynx felt a wave of sadness wash over him before responding to her question.
“My mom died from cancer. It’s just me and my dad now.”
She gasped. “Oh… I… umm… I’m sorry. My mom died last year. She had lupus. I live with my dad, too.”
It had only been a few minutes since they’d met, but a connection was made as they sat quietly finishing their lunch.
“Where are your friends?” he asked.
She looked down at her tray and moved the carrots around.
“I don’t have any friends. The girls don’t like me because they say I act too much like a boy, and the boys don’t like me because I’m a girl and better than them at almost everything we do in PE.”
“Oh.”
