Chapter Two

A Chapter by Chris

The next two weeks rolled by pretty smoothly. After having U.S. History, Greg noticed that Spanish was the only class that he had with Kyle. Fortunately though, Mrs. Smith assigned seats the next day, and Kyle sat on the opposite side of the room. They never had a chance to talk and Kyle never really tried to talk to him anyway, but if he ever did say anything to Greg, it was just a simple greeting.

Because of Sarah's warning, Greg was a little cautious about Zach. However, they still sat next to each other in Study Hall and they did talk every now and then. As the days progressed though, Greg was starting to doubt what Sarah said; Zach didn't really seem to be the type to beat someone up because of who they were.

It was now a Friday. The first three classes rolled by somewhat slowly for Greg. They were the classes he disliked the most, and the fact that he had them in the morning didn't make it better. Luckily though, Study Hall was next, which was never too bad of a class for him. When he got there, he sat down at the desk he had been sitting at ever since the school year began and Zach sat down next to him right when the bell rang.

“Hey, what's up?” greeted Zach as he removed his iPod from his jeans' pocket.

“Nothing,” Greg replied.

“Cool.”

The two didn't say too much of anything else. Zach listened to his iPod while Greg worked on the homework that was given to him in Spanish. Every now and then Greg noticed Zach glancing towards the teacher, but he never asked about it. When the teacher left the classroom though, Zach whipped out his cell phone.

“Tell me if the teacher comes back,” Zach said, almost in a whisper.

Greg nodded as he looked towards the door and then back down at Zach's phone.

“Who are you texting?” he asked.

Zach shrugged. “Just a friend.” Once the text message was sent, Zach was about to put his phone away before he looked towards Greg. “You have a cell phone?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool, what's your number?” he asked as he flipped the cell phone open again.

Greg didn't answer, but instead looked at Zach questioningly.

“What? We can talk sometime or maybe hang out.”

The Sophomore smiled and nodded before getting his cell phone out. They exchanged numbers and added each other to their contact lists. By the time they put their phones away, the teacher came in. Greg couldn't help but to feel a bit of hope that had long been dead beginning to rekindle. However, he tried to smother the flame, not wanting to have to go through the same trouble he had to go through before. There was no sense in possibly putting himself through that hell again.

When it came time for lunch, Greg joined Andrew, Heather, and Sarah at their usual lunch table. Greg had been sitting with them ever since the second day of school. Since Sarah warned him about Zach, he didn't want to sit with him and his friends anymore in case she did happen to be right. He figured he would just limit it to Study Hall so that if he did ever happen to find out that Sarah was right, then he could easily pull away from Zach before he could get himself hurt. Besides, Sarah and the others had been his friends longer than what Zach had, so it only felt right for him to be sitting with them during lunch.

During that entire time, Greg kept looking over at Zach and his friends talking and joking around. He wasn't really paying too much attention to what the others were saying, and if they asked him anything, he usually just gave them a nod of his head.

“Who do you keep looking at?” Heather inquired about five minutes until lunch ended.

“Hm?” Greg hummed as he snapped back into reality.

Heather craned her neck a little to look over all the other heads to try to figure out where Greg kept looking.

“It's Zach, isn't it?” asked Sarah.

“Really?” questioned Heather as she looked at Greg. “So that's who you're into now, huh?”

“Don't forget what I told you about him,” said Sarah.

“I honestly don't think he would do something like that,” replied Greg, finally able to get a chance to talk in between the two girls. He ignored Heather's question though. “It just doesn't seem like he's that mean of a person.”

“Well, even if the rumor isn't true, you wouldn't stand a chance with him anyway,” said Heather. “He's been going out with Lisa ever since the beginning of summer break.”

“Yeah, but they keep breaking up,” said Andrew.

“Yeah, well, they're going out now,” replied Heather.

“Whoever said I wanted to go out with him anyway?” asked Greg.

“Don't play stupid,” Heather replied with a slight smirk. “It's obvious you do. Why else would you keep staring over at him with goo-goo eyes?”

“I honestly don't see how he can be going out with Lisa though,” stated Sarah. “She doesn't seem to be all that great.”

“I know!” cried Heather. “Remember the time when she. . .”

Greg stopped paying attention after that, not really interested in the girls' gossip. He was glad that Sarah changed the topic a little though so he wouldn't have to answer Heather. Maybe what Sarah told him was right though? Maybe Zach did beat up someone for being gay? It wouldn't have been the first time Greg was mistaken about someone. He slightly shook his head to clear his mind of the memories that threatened to attack him as he looked over towards Zach and his friends. Greg didn't really think he was ready for another relationship yet anyway.

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