Chapter Three (part two)

Classes passed away like a breeze. I'm not quite comfortable with all the attention I'm getting, quick glances, and obvious stares. It's even worse now that I'm in the cafeteria.

I sighed, checking my messages on my phone. I smiled finding one from Chris. Opening it I tried to muffle my laughter with the back of my sweater sleeve. I couldn't help laughing and ended up doing it out loud, earning a few stares from nearby tables. It was a picture of a badly drawn man (Did I say badly? I meant horribly) with a fishhook passing through his guts, and not surprisingly the caption read:

I'm hooked to you.

Well that's interesting, Chris might be an amazing poet, but he's still a horrible artist, and he could send the whole renaissance era into a coma.

I was brought out of my thoughts of Leonardo Davinci falling into a coma after receiving fan art from Chris from a very unwelcome 'hey'.

Looking up I was face to face with one of the school's outcasts. The typical gay kid that got bullied repeatedly, I've seen him before getting his homework torn in half by some bully. I watched his hands fidget as it struggled to keep the lunch tray up, his eyes avoiding contact with mine. I didn't say anything just looked up.

"What you did this morning was for all of us... thanks," he stammered, suddenly finding the courage to look me in the eye. I blinked once or twice before digesting what he had just implied.

"I didn't do anything special," I said, feeling bored.

"Umm—"

"Can you leave?" I asked, letting my annoyance slip into my tone. His eyes widened enough for me to notice that they were a red-brown color — maroon.

"I was—I was actually hoping I could sit here," he said, looking down at the floor. The usual me would have said yes, waited for his face to lift in relief, then crush it by saying no. I'm not in the mood today so I just murmured a quick 'yes'. I watched his eyes widened in surprise before he took a sit on the closest empty chair to him.

"How's it been?" I heard Sky ask as she grabbed a seat. I farrowed my brows in confusion. Weird, I didn't see her coming. Her curly hair was held back in a ponytail, her small oval freckled face being more obvious a feature now. Sky and I have an odd relationship. It all started in chemistry class when I figure out I didn't have my textbook, Ironic right? I had asked Sky to place hers in the center. She had just wrinkled her nose and said "Get your own fucking textbook." but scooted the book to the center anyway.

"Horrid, people are actually looking at me, some even invading my private space in the name of making my acquaintance," I said quite calmly as Sky laughed.

"Like us?" Sky asked, resting her head on her palms. Her eyes moving to the kid whose name was apparently Paul.

"Like you guys," I said, smiling before looking down at my phone not quite believing I was making acquaintances.

*

"Alex?" Travis asked as I sighed in annoyance. School hours were over, and we were having the usual tuition period.

"What?" I asked, putting my book down.

"Err I was wondering about that... gay thing," Travis said, drawing imaginary circles on the table.

"What about it?" I asked, figuring if I humored him he'd concentrate more on the task at hand, which was writing his essay on the French revolution.

"Well err, do you like, kiss and stuff?" he asked as his face turned a deep red. I chuckled, closing my book. He wasn't really asking that, right?

"Well of course," I said, placing my legs on top of my table, my worn-out sneakers dangling off Travis' pile of books.

"Um, okay," he said, his hand tightening around his pen, the room falling into that odd silence again. I returned to my phone, texting my aunt that I was probably going to be at Chris' place after school.

"What do you see in him?" Travis asked, startling me. I looked up at him. Did he really want to know?

"I don't know I just fancy him — why am I even telling you this? You're meant to be writing your essay," I sighed in frustration, as I fumbled around with some textbooks that could help him write faster.

"Just one more question," Travis said sitting up. I raised a brow before sighing.

"Fine."

"Do you guys have se..."

"Do your homework," I said before Travis could finish. There was no way I was answering that.