Chapter 4

 

        The next day the two boys were awakened by Jake's alarm clock like they always were every morning. Jake emerged from his covers and looked over towards the other bed to see Adam turn in the opposite direction.

        “Rise and shine, time for another day of school,” Jake said, a small smile on his face as he reached up to turn the light on.

        “Oh how wonderful,” Adam mumbled sarcastically.

        Jake chuckled a little. The two boys got ready for school. Adam left the room before Jake did and made his way to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. Once he ate, he headed off to his first few classes. Unlike the past two days, they didn't move that slowly. Adam still found the classes to be real boring regardless, but he was a little happy that they didn't go as dreadfully slow as they have been before.

        When lunch was over, Brad and Jake began to make their way to Chemistry. When they were about halfway there, Jake ended up walking over to them.

        “Hey Adam,” Jake greeted.

        The two friends stopped in their tracks and looked at the blond-haired boy. Brad kept looking at the two, a confused look on his face. Adam was starting to worry a little because of it.

        "Uh, hi?” Adam said as though he never even talked to the boy before.

        “How's it going?” Jake said, trying to ignore the way Adam greeted him.

        “Why are you talking to him?” Brad asked. “Didn't I make it clear to you not to bother him?”

        “Yeah, I don't want to talk to you,” Adam said in a slightly mean way.

        The small smile that was on Jake's face slowly faded after he heard what Adam said. He looked down towards the floor a wee bit before giving a slight nod.

        “Okay, I understand,” Jake said before starting to walk off in a somewhat upset manner.

        “What was that all about?” Brad asked Adam, still confused about the reason why Jake tried talking to him.

        “I don't know,” Adam lied. “Don't worry about it though. Let's just get to class.”

        Brad didn't say anything but just nodded. The two resumed walking and it wasn't much longer until they finally reached their class. Adam wasn't able to pay attention at all to what the teacher was talking about. He was too busy feeling bad about doing that to Jake, especially since they were getting along so well last night.

        Even during gym class Adam wasn't able to pay attention. Unfortunately, they were playing volleyball today, and every time the ball went to Adam, he ended up getting hit by it. The gym teacher yelled at him about the tenth time the ball hit him, but even that couldn't really get Adam's head in the game.

        “Something wrong dude?” Brad asked Adam as they left the gymnasium.

        “It's nothing,” said Adam. “Just got my mind on a couple things, that's all.”

        “About what?”

        “Nothing important.”

        “Oh, I think I see now.”

        Adam looked up at Brad in an almost surprised way. “Huh?” he asked.

        “You have a crush on a girl don't you?”

        “No, it's not that.”

        “C'mon dude, don't bother trying to hide it from me,” Brad said as he put a hand on Adam's shoulder. “I'm not that stupid.”

        Adam almost blushed when he felt Brad's hand on his shoulder and this scared him. He casually pulled away, trying not to accidentally make a big deal out of it while turning his head away to try to hide any possible blush that was on his face.

        “No, I don't like anyone,” Adam said a little irritably.

        “Alright, if you say so dude,” Brad said. “Let's go play some basketball.”

        “Sorry, but I'm not in the mood today,” Adam said. “I think I'm just gonna go to my room and relax a little.”

        Adam began to walk off after that. Brad stood where he was and watched him for a few seconds before heading to the basketball court. The brown-haired boy walked a little quickly to the room, wanting to apologize before his guilt could eat at him anymore. However, before he could even make it halfway to the boys' dormitories, Katie ended up walking up to him.

        “Hey Adam,” she greeted.

        “Hey,” Adam said, giving a small, false smile.

        “How you doing?”

        “Pretty good,” Adam lied. “What about you?”

        “I'm doing good.”

        “That's good.”

        There was a moment of silence as the two walked. Adam almost wished that Katie would just walk away. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like she was going to leave him alone anytime soon.

        “Hey Adam, I was kind of wondering if you would maybe go see a movie on campus with me sometime,” she said.

        Adam stopped in his tracks and Katie did too. He was almost a little surprised by what Katie said, but he didn't show it.

        “The movies?” Adam asked with a hint of surprise in his voice, but it wasn't too noticeable.

        “Yeah,” Katie said.

        The boy mentally cursed at this. It was already bad enough that he was feeling bad about being mean to Jake earlier and now he just had to have Katie ask him out. She couldn't have picked a worse time. Adam really didn't want to go on a date, but he knew it was expected of him and he was afraid that people might realize who he is, so he felt as though he had no choice.

        “Sure, I'll go to the movies with you,” Adam said, another false smile coming to his lips.

        A large smile crossed Katie's face when she heard the answer. “Awesome. How about Saturday? We can meet there at about seven.”

        “Okay, that's a great time,” said Adam. “I'll see you there.”

        Katie left afterwards. Adam was a little relieved that she was gone. However, the fact that he now had to worry about a date with a girl he wasn't even interested in still remained. Thinking that there wasn't anytime to sit and worry about it now, Adam resumed making his way to the boys' dormitories, trying to get there as soon as possible before anyone else could bother him and give him something else to worry about.

        When Adam got to his room, he saw that Jake was there at his desk. The blond-haired boy looked upset too and this only made Adam feel worse about what he did earlier. He slowly crossed the room and went to his desk and sat down.

        “Hey,” Adam greeted in a even quieter manner than what he usually did.

        “I won't talk to you,” said Jake. “You obviously don't want me to so there's no point in even trying to bother.”

        “I didn't mean what I said earlier.”

        “Really? Because you sure sounded like you did.”

        “I didn't, and I'm sorry for doing that too. It's just that...well...”

        “Oh, I get it now. You just don't want me to be seen around you, is that it? Well sorry for just being who I am.”

        “I just don't want anyone to think I'm—well, you know.”

        An angry sigh escaped Jake's mouth. He slammed his pencil down on the desk and stood up from his chair. “I'm not in the mood for this,” the boy said as he headed out the door.

        Adam sat there and stared at the door that was closed behind the other male. A heavy sigh left his mouth before he turned around and tried to start on his homework. There wasn't really that much that he had to do, but it took him a lot longer than it should have. He still felt bad for upsetting Jake like that and it was bothering him the whole time. It bothered him so much that he could barely even concentrate on what was in front of him.

        When it was time for dinner, Adam went down to the cafeteria. He sat with his friends as usual, but didn't bother saying anything. He wasn't even paying any attention to what they were talking about. Once he was finished eating, he headed back up to the dorm room where he found Jake, who was currently continuing his homework.

        Adam didn't speak to the other right away, figuring he should probably just leave him alone for a little bit. Instead he just continued to do his homework too. When he was finished, he walked over and sat down on his bed. Once Jake was finished with his homework, Adam figured he would try to apologize again.

        “Jake, I'm sorry for what I did earlier,” he apologized. “I know it was wrong of me and it wasn't true. I don't mind talking to you. You're a pretty cool person.”

        Jake didn't speak right away. He thought a little about it. “It still hurt though. You acted like a complete a*s.”

        “I know and I feel completely bad for it.”

        There was a couple seconds of silence. A halfhearted smile then came to Jake's lips and he gave a small nod his head. “Alright, I forgive you.”

        Adam smiled. “Thanks.”

        The brown-haired male was relieved that the other forgave him for what he did. Both of them started to talk a little and after a little while, they were acting pretty friendly towards one another like they did the previous night.

        After several minutes, Jake started to read a book. Adam looked towards it, but was just a little too far away to see the title of the book. It didn't look like anything they have to read this year for English though and it made Adam a little curious.

        “What book are you reading?” he asked.

        Jake looked up from the book and at Adam. “You wouldn't like it. It's a gay romance novel.”

        “Oh,” Adam said.

        The two didn't really say much of anything else after that. When it got late, they decided to head to bed.

Reviews

[Eidolon Michael]

Wow, a pretty rocky relationship :-/ those are the worst