One hand shoved into the depths of his pocket, he ventured into the locker room, chewing on one of the fingernails of his other hand. It was almost down to the quick now. He’d change fingers soon, just before it started bleeding. The whole building seemed empty. The echoes of his footsteps were the only noises that reached his ears.
The locker room appeared as empty as the rest of the building, and Zaiden slowed his pace as he made his way inside. He stepped lightly, not expecting anyone to be there, but not wanting to be surprised. In the middle of the room were two rows of lockers, facing each other, with a mirror on one end, and on the other end, where Zaiden stood, was the entrance to the showers. On the bench in between the two rows of lockers were laid four orange jumpsuits.
Zaiden walked over to the suits and inspected them. On top of each was laid a piece of paper with a name written on it. Zaiden read them all before grabbing his and pulling it from the bench. Just then, he heard a shuffle and turned to look at the source of the noise. At the end of the lockers, to the left of mirror, was a small boy, obviously a teenager, but looking much younger than Zaiden himself. He was staring at Zaiden, his hands pressed to his suit as if he had been trying to straighten out the wrinkles, and he looked terrified.
Zaiden kept eye contact for only a second before quickly looking back down the suit in his hands and then turning to walk towards the showers. He’d always avoided changing in front of people in school, and he didn’t plan to start now. It wasn’t so much that he was uncomfortable with his body, though he was, but the fact that he’d discovered early on that the less he gave people to bother him about, the more he’d be left alone.
He slid off his jeans and pulled the jumpsuit up over his boxers, leaving his green t-shirt on under it. He slid his arms into the sleeves, then fiddled with the zipper for a second before finally zipping the front of the suit up to his neck. He stared down at it for a second, then pulled the zipper down slightly and then back up again after a moment of contemplation.
Zaiden inched slowly to the exit of the showers, craning his neck to see if the one boy had moved, or if he was still in the same place, hidden from view. Sure enough, he appeared to be where Zaiden had left him. Stepping the rest of the way into the doorway of the showers, Zaiden looked at himself in the mirror across the room, squinting his eyes in an attempt to see a little better at such a distance.
After a moment of his hands dancing around, in and out of pockets, attempting to find a place that felt safe, he finally crossed his arms and brought his right hand up to his mouth, starting to chew on his thumbnail. His eyes flashed back to the corner of the room. He wondered if, perhaps, he should say hello. For once, maybe, he should be the first person to speak. The risk was there, sure, but the other boy definitely wasn’t going to say anything first, and he didn’t look to be someone that would give Zaiden a hard time.
Zaiden bit down harder on his nail then took a step forward. Just then, the front door to the community center opened, just around the corner from the locker room, and Zaiden turned to stare at the entrance. A set of footsteps made their way towards him and he quickly dropped his hands into his pockets before backing up to lean against the first locker.