Chapter 22

They met Sara outside the school gates, and she urged them to follow her. She took them to a park and talked to them. “So, Sara.” Began James. “I know very little about you, so tell me.”

“My family and story aren’t anywhere near as interesting as yours.” She explained. “As well as that, I have never been in a proper relationship in my life. Something interesting involving me did happen last year though. So basically, I was into this guy write, good-looking but very shy. I asked him if he wanted to watch a movie, but he didn’t show. And I was like, why is he messing around with me? If you don’t want to go out just say that. So, I’m in a mood in school the next day but he’s still not there. Turns out he was dealing drugs that whole time, and he’d been arrested.”

“Wow.” Said James confused, and unsure how to react. “That is quite a story.”

“I know.” She replied. “Anyway, I want to know somethings about you. How about when your first kiss.”

“So, I guess we need some context. I came out when I was fourteen and people learnt I had a thing for Michael. I won’t go into detail about the bullying, but it was pretty bad, and I nearly killed myself.” He exclaimed. “Michael texted me at the end of the day right towards the end of year nine, telling me to meet him in the woods, and we had to talk. So, I was worried and was all-like he’s probably gonna’ beat me up or abuse me, but maybe he really wanted to talk, so I decided to go. I arrived and told me I was sorry, and I should have suppressed my feelings, but as I was talking, he kissed me, and smiled.”

“That is so adorable. Sorry to hear about how bad the bullying was. But that is an adorable story.” She responded.

Michael chimed in. “By the way that me day James fell over into my arms, and I picked him up like a baby. I reckon he did that on purpose.”

“It wasn’t.” Laughed James. “Well, maybe I didn’t have to go so far forward when I fell, which may have not happened, and may have just been me jumping into your strong arms.”

They kept on talking and laughing in that park until it was time for Sara to go home. They had made their first friend as a couple.

School moved by fast. The days all merged together and weekend after weekend passed. Exams came up, the boys spent a long time revising, they both worked hard, and didn’t really stress about exams, because they knew that whatever happened nothing could separate them at this point. They would go meet Sara every now-and-then, chatting about school mostly, but she seemed to enjoy being around them, which was nice.

When they were’t revising, they looked at universities. They didn’t want to have to go apart, but they both knew they shouldn’t try to go to the same one, and just choose the one that they wanted. James wanted to study maths, and Michael was going to do English, but he wasn’t actually sure that he wanted to go to university anyway. James wanted to become a teacher, not for the pay, but mainly because he wanted to feel some sort of authority in his role, and didn’t think he was cut out to be a politician. Michael wanted to do something to do with writing but he wasn’t sure between journalism or writing booksvor maybe PR, he was ggoing to decide later.

The day came when they received their grades. James wanted to get into Warwick, and to enter, he neede two A stars and an A. He knew that with those kinds of grades he could have tried a bit harder and gone to Oxford or Cambridge, but bothe of the somewhat scared him. Michael wanted to go to Birmingham, and needed two A grades and a B. They were both predicted those grades and it’s exactly what they got. Opening the results letter was terrifying, so they each opened the other persons letter to make it easier. They both decided to go to the universities, and the best part of it was that they were both near, so they could still see eachother everyday.

They completed their year at school and vowed to keep in contact with Sara. Then it was onto preparing for university.