Lost & Found - A Dark Small Town MM Romance

“If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”

—Jodi Picoult

~Monday, April 15th, 2024~

Clarton High sat perched on a large down slope mid-center to the town of Clarton Springs.

It was a fairly big community, but not big enough to have more than one high school and one continuation school dedicated to the influx of early pregnancies that permeated every small town in North America.

The town of Clarton itself was spread throughout a small valley in the northern California mountain ranges, three hours from the state Capital of Sacramento, and two hours from Reno, Nevada.

Kids from all over the Sierras made their way down from the hills in their daily migrations to seek some kind of mid-range education Monday through Friday.

Over four thousand of them, to be somewhat exact, and the population alone was bound to throw some stones into an otherwise still pond.

Clarton High was a three-tiered monster in the town built to cater to all these bodies, boasting a teaching staff in the dozens, over a dozen sports teams, six various fields dedicated to them, two tracks, and a massive gymnasium. There had been a recently rebuilt library stocked with computers, physical copies of books, sprawling tables, and endless glittering windows that let you look out and see the whole school beyond.

Everyone who actually attended Clarton knew there were three places where it was always popping off. That was the Senior-Junior patio area smack in the center of the school, the outer soccer field before classes started for the smokers and potheads, and the massive cafeteria that dominated the second tier level towards the front of the school.

It was also very, very easy to get lost in that kind of crowd. Most days, it was pretty average, serene enough considering, with just the average amount of bullshit that dominated every scene where a lot of people were crammed together against their will.

However, some people stood out more than others, and Colton Briggs was one of them.

It was his Junior year, and there were dozens of other people counting down the days until he and his posse graduated or dropped out. It was debatable which way it would go, but so far, they had all been hanging on by a thread. Somehow, despite a laundry list of grievances, filed complaints, and misdemeanors outside of school, the consensus was that they were all fast-tracking their way straight to jail, and maybe prison.

It was like a dark tidal wave coming through the cafeteria doors that particular Monday morning.

The tension in the room escalated the moment the foursome plunged into the mix in the crowded space. All around the entry, people began to nervously shift and avert their gazes from the quartet as soon as they shoved their way inside.

With Colton were Jenson, Tanner, and Oliver. Jenson was a tall, lanky blonde with greasy-looking hair that had earned him the moniker "Slick" behind his back. He was hawk-faced, a little acne-ridden, but no one was stupid enough to tell the guy anything about it.

He came from the trailer park, higher into the northern part of town, and spent his days smoking, fixing his dirt bikes, and working on some beater Chevy truck. He was notoriously pissy, over six feet already, stretched long and lean with wiry muscle, and had about zero sense of humor that anyone else would find funny.

Tanner Dohretry was from the mountain, one of the few kids from that area who had managed to mainstream it outside of the continuation school. He was about five foot six, with a chip on his shoulder about it, would fight anyone over nothing, and had the most malicious, pinched blue eyes that glittered with sharp intellect geared only to make the rest sweat.

Oliver Stenmire shared an apartment complex with Colton. He was a tall, good-looking guy with dark brown hair and a pretty mild persona until you looked at him the wrong way. As mild as he came across, he was the first one to back Tanner up over any damn hint of a cross word thrown their way.

Collectively, they were all sons of bitches from across the wrong various sets of tracks.

The real son of a bitch, though?

Colton Briggs.

The dominating backbone and driving force of the group.

He didn't like anyone outside the three at his back, and even that was debatable.

He was a good-looking guy, five eleven, and still growing, with a natural musculature that promised it would get taller, heavier, and more dangerous as he got older. He had thick, wavy black hair, stunning eyes so gray they looked steel cut and perpetually pissed off. His eyes looked like they should have been warm, softened by the length of soft black lashes, a heavy, languid bedroom eye that threw half the female population into a panicky chaos if he so much as glanced in their direction.

It all promised that in another year, Colton Briggs would come out of the gate as a fully formed heartbreaker ready to rock the world's panties right off its axis.

Not that he gave a shit.

Today, he was feeling a certain way and was a little more pissed off than usual.

He entered the cafeteria with a burn in his chest that was eating at him. He swept the area, ignoring the pansy-asses who swiftly looked away when his eyes bypassed them. He wasn't there for those idiots.

Tanner spotted their person of interest across the room at a table, then smacked his larger friend's chest. "There he is." He sounded pumped.

Colton zeroed in on the bastard before thrumming forward with a purpose that chased the air in front of him with heat and a sharp ripple of intention.

It wasn't Kolby who saw him coming, but one of his friends.

His eyes widened before he immediately tapped Kolby with a fast tap. "Dude..."

He got that far before Kolby twisted and saw who was coming. Instantly, he turned white as a sheet and cursed. "Fuck."

Colton was on him that fast, grabbed one of the dipshits beside him, and manhandled the little fucker to the side with a palm of hand so hard he rocked and almost fell off the bench.

Suddenly, the atmosphere was suffocating when he fell down tight and close next to Kolby on the shared seating. Kolby was staring at him with wide, frightened eyes, and you know, he should have been fucking scared.

"Hey, Kolby. Guess what?" Colton looked him over with a quick flick of his eyes. "Someone told me they heard you on the bus today, saying some bullshit about me?"

His lips flexed humorlessly, and Kolby looked ready to sweat. Not that it was hard. Colton looked him over with distaste before he could stop the inclination. On any given day, Kolby was about three hundred pounds, and Colton had always thought he looked like a slab of ham ten seconds from heart failure.

But Colton was about to shut his mouth for him and help him out with all of that. "You know, I hate hearing about things secondhand." He poked Kolby in one of his two chins before meeting the guy's petrified dark eyes with a tiny smile. "Why don't you tell me instead?"

"Dude..." Kolby glanced over anxiously when Tanner sank down on his other side.

Tanner just smiled at him like a ray of sunshine, Oliver smirked just a fraction, and Jenson didn't bother doing any of it. He just looked back at Kolby with flat, malicious eyes.

Kolby looked back at Colton, heart hammering, then glanced around the room. Half of the occupants were already watching him, and that was when he felt the first spurt of panic hit him.

"I...I didn't say anything about you?" It came out as a question and only made Colton's gray eyes shimmer with agitation.

"Funny, because I heard it from about three people. Apparently, it was really funny. I like jokes." Colton shifted a little closer and looked right at Kolby's mouth. "Tell me a fucking joke, Kolby."

It was getting quieter by the second. Voices dwindled. The tables patrons around the small group had twisted to watch the growingly tense situation. Half of them looked scared, and the other half looked like they didn't want a damn thing to do with it.

"I-I don't like...I don't know any jokes." Kolby jumped when Tanner bumped his back playfully with his knee, before flashing a sinister smile.

"I know one. What's got a big mouth, no backbone, and can flop real good on the floor?" Tanner's eyes narrowed mischievously. Kolby looked about ready to sprint, and honestly, Tanner would have loved to see him try.

Kolby looked right back at Colton, eyes shining with true terror. "Look, I'm sorry. I was just talking to Charlie. I swear to God, I'll never say it again."

Charlie froze up hard when his so-called friend rolled him right under the bus, especially when all four demon-spawned monsters looked at him in question. He put up his hands and pointed silently right back to Kolby.

Colton was over it and frankly didn't give a shit about Charlie. He cared about this garbage fire and his endlessly loud running mouth.

He nodded and licked his teeth before making a show of mildly perusing over the table. "Well, I'll tell you what, Kolby, next time you have a comment about kids from the apartment, what was it? My family's bank account looks like the number they use when they see me coming?" Those gray eyes flicked to him now, and honestly, it had been a funny joke. However, that wasn't the point. "What was it?"

Kolby looked ready to piss himself before whispering, "9-1-1."

It made Oliver grin, and Jenson even laughed. Tanner clapped his shoulder happily and shook him in a jiggle. Colton just let his lips curve before he picked up the dumb bastard's donut.

Perfect; cream-filled and everything.

"It was a good one. I guess we can't all be rich little fat fucks though, right?" He took a bite of the filled pastry, eyes pinning Kolby down the whole time Kolby watched him do it. "This is good. I see why you'd like it. Maybe, if you keep eating, Kolby, you'd spend less fucking time talking shit, you know what I mean?"

He reached out, and the rest of the table scrambled up to their feet and away from the explosive next few moments. The surface of the table rocked when Colton slapped Kolby's face into his tray of food, then got up high to grind his face into the mix of mash and vegetables.

He hissed out from between his teeth, "Don't you fucking worry though, man, we can solve that fucking problem right now."

He'd give Kolby this; he tried real damn hard to wrench himself out from the pincer of hell that descended upon him. It actually took some effort for Colton to pry the son of a bitches jaws open.

Kolby broke down, tears racing free, and finally screamed, "I'M SORRY!"

Colton used it as a good opportunity to shut him up in a gagging choke-down of white pastry cream and smashed the entire six inches into that crying piehole.

"I'm sure you are." Tanner was visibly thrilled, eyes lit with the heat of the moment, before he leaned over the kid and smacked his head playfully. "Chew before you die, Kolby. How you gonna eat dinner later if you're dead?"

Colton wasn't laughing.

He straightened and slapped his palm over the greasy ruin of his mouth, eyes blazing. "Next time you have to shit to say, maybe think real fucking hard about who you're talking about. Next time I'll beat your ass right into the fucking hospital." He smeared whatever shit was on his hand over Kolby's entire face, palmed it, then shoved the unlucky prick right off the seat onto the floor. His eyes were furious when he spat at him. "Stupid fucking asshole."

Oliver squatted down and patted Kolby's streaked face, then smiled brightly at him while the dude gagged it up onto the floor. Kolby had curled up on his side and appeared to hit a new level of anxiety-ridden nightmare.

"Next time bring enough to share, you know? We can't afford shit from Terry's Bakery." Oliver straightened before catching Colton's shirt. His friend looked like he sincerely wanted to start kicking the stupid dumbshit across the floor, but he got him turned around. "Let's go before someone calls a teacher."

As soon as they left, a lot of people looked pissed off. They looked disgusted, and a few of the girls got up to run over to Kolby and help pick him up off the floor. Immediately, the consensus was that Colton and his crew were a bunch of fucking assholes.

Funny thing, everyone had seen it. Everyone was there for it, and everyone had an opinion, even the very quiet lunch lady in the backroom.

Not a single person had done anything to stop it, though, and that was the sad truth of the day and age.

Through the whole event, a pair of soft blue eyes watched from the cafeteria line, following Colton's progress out the door while peering around the hem of a pulled-up dark gray hoodie. He glanced back at Kolby before turning back to put his quarters into the pop machine.

Just another day at Clarton High.