Chapter Twelve

 

        The next couple of days went by almost agonizingly slow for Greg. Study hall had become a complete frustration to him now due to his fear continuously combating his wants. Every time he saw Zach during that period, he wanted to ask him out, but his fear of what could happen if he did get in a relationship with the older male kept shooting him down.

        It was now Thursday. During study hall, the same thing happened, and his hesitation about asking the Junior male out was beginning to upset him to where it was hard to concentrate on anything else. During fifth period, he failed to pay attention to what the teacher was saying, making him miss the entire lesson.

        Greg sat down at the lunch table where his friends were sitting before pulling his sandwich out of his lunch bag. He joined in on their conversation, but every now and then he would zone out in the middle of it before realizing that he had missed a good chunk of what the others were talking about. Even being around his friends was failing to get his mind off of his frustrations towards his hesitations.

        However, that lunch appeared to only get worse from there. After about ten minutes, Greg felt a cold hand fall into place on his shoulder. He froze from it for a moment as he saw the familiar body in the corner of his eye.

        “Hey Kyle!” Sarah greeted cheerfully as usual.

        “Hey,” the blond said back. “Mind if I sit here for today?”

        “Go ahead,” Heather replied.

        Greg just stared at the table as he heard the chair next to him being dragged away from the table so the older male could sit down. All of them started to talk except for Greg, who just fidgeted with his fingers as his eyes remained glued to the table. About half a minute later, he felt the cold hand returning to his shoulder.

        “Hey, everything alright?”

        The Sophomore managed enough courage to look at Kyle. He saw the kindness on the blond's face, but also noticed the subtle, contradictory meanness his gray eyes held.

        “Yeah,” Greg replied dryly while trying to offer a weak smile, not wanting to get off as being too mean since it would probably only end up getting him hurt.

        The hand fell from his shoulder and the others continued on with their conversation. Greg looked back down at the table's surface, gulping a little as he tried to maintain his cool. He didn't want to end up leaving the table again just because of one particular person who was sitting there, despite what his mind screamed at him.

        However, Greg's strength was tested during the next few minutes. Every now and then he felt Kyle's arm brush up against his and the blond also tried to talk to him a lot—some of it being compliments. The Sophomore tried to say as little as possible if a simple nod or shake of his head wasn't good enough, knowing that if he tried to talk too much he would probably end up freaking out.

        During this small amount of time, Greg was able to refrain from running out of the cafeteria like last time, but it didn't last too much longer. The cold hand returned again, but this time it went to rest on Greg's thigh. The brown-haired male jumped a little in his chair from the touch and he quickly stood up afterwards while grabbing his lunch bag.

        “Something wrong Greg?” questioned Heather.

        “I need to go talk to a teacher about something,” Greg answered, using the first excuse that came to mind.

        After throwing away his trash, Greg left the cafeteria, telling the teacher who was guarding the way out that he was going to the restroom, and this time he did just that. When he got there, he sighed heavily as his back fell against the wall. His head soon rested against it too shortly afterwards as he closed his eyes. He hated this. He hated being chased away from his friends just because of Kyle. Even though they weren't in a relationship anymore, the Junior still seemed to be able to keep him away from his friends, and it was completely working too. Greg wanted to get over this fear, but it was nearly impossible. Every time he was near Kyle, the fear consumed him and the memories of all the things the blond did to him flooded his mind, only submerging him in fear even more.

        A few seconds later, Greg reopened his eyes upon hearing the sound of footsteps. He quickly stepped over to the nearest sink and turned the faucet on before sticking his hands under the running water. As he acted like he was washing his hands, he looked into the mirror to see Zach walking up to him.

        “Hey dude, everything okay?” the dark-haired boy asked, concern in his voice.

        “Yeah,” Greg replied as he looked down at his hands while washing them.

        “You sure?” Zach questioned as he stood next to the younger male now.

        Greg nodded, his eyes still fixed onto his hands. There was a brief moment of silence and Greg could feel the other's eyes on him.

        “Why are you lying to me?”

        Greg let out a weak chuckle as he faked a smile. “I'm not lying. I'm fine. Honestly.”

        There was another short moment of silence.

        “It's Kyle, isn't it?”

        The Sophomore froze in place for a moment before turning the faucet off and letting the water drip off of his hands as they rested on the edge of the small porcelain sink. He sighed.

        “Yeah,” Greg replied.

        “That prick didn't hurt you did he?” Zach asked, a small inkling of anger in his voice.

        “No.”

        “What did he do then?”

        “It's nothing important.”

        Zach gently spun Greg around so that the younger male was facing him, his hands somewhat softly – yet somewhat firmly – gripping onto his arms. He looked down at him for a moment before saying, “Don't lie to me dude. It had to have been something if it upset you like this.”

        Greg looked up at the Junior for a couple seconds before sighing. “He was trying to flirt with me.” He didn't go into detail though, not wanting to make it sound worse by doing so.

        Zach let go of Greg and turned around, taking a couple paces forward while letting out an angry sigh before turning around again. He felt like punching something—specifically Kyle. However, he tried to ignore the urge, knowing Greg probably wouldn't be too happy if he tried to do something like that.

        “Just tell him off,” Zach advised. “Tell him you're not interested and to leave you alone.”

        A picture of what would happen if he tried doing something like that popped into Greg's head. He could see himself getting a face full of fist – or worse – for trying to pull that kind of a stunt. The last thing Greg wanted was to have something like that happen. However, he wasn't going to try to protest with what Zach said, knowing the Junior wouldn't leave him alone if he did.

        “I will later,” Greg said.

        “No dude, you should do it now. The sooner you get this over with, the better.”

        “No, I'll just wait until later.”

        Zach sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with this. “Alright, whatever you say.” He smiled a little. “Wanna sit with me and my friends until lunch is over?”

        Greg smiled too. “Okay.”

        The two headed back into the cafeteria and sat down at the one Zach's friends were at. Greg didn't talk much, but instead just listened to the others talk. He had to admit though, he was a little puzzled by the fact that Zach's friends kept looking at him and Zach with smirks on their faces the majority of the time. The Sophomore dismissed it though, thinking it wasn't really anything important.

        Every now and then during the remainder of lunch though, he would glance towards Zach. He felt like he had much stronger feelings towards him now after what had happened in the bathroom. The urge to ask the Junior out was almost unbearable to him now, and the more he thought about it, the more he thought it was a great idea to do so. However, the thought that maybe Zach didn't say anything to his friends about his sexual orientation yet occurred to Greg, and so he figured he would wait until they weren't around his friends to try asking.

        Fortunately, it wasn't long until Greg got his chance. When lunch ended, Zach's friends somewhat quickly made their way out, leaving Greg and Zach behind. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, Greg stood up from the table when Zach did before turning to face him.

        “Hey, Zach,” Greg began.

        “Yeah?” Zach asked as he turned to face the brown-haired male.

        Greg opened his mouth a little ways as he was about to speak, but as soon as he did so, the fear struck him and he started thinking that asking Zach out now wasn't such a good idea.

        “Uh, never mind,” the younger male said.

        “Alright,” Zach replied.

        The two headed out of the cafeteria and parted ways after saying their good-byes. When Greg got into sixth period, Sarah was already sitting at the table. He walked over and sat down while greeting her. She didn't say anything, but instead looked at him in a slightly disappointed manner. The smile on his face slowly faded upon seeing this.

        “Something wrong?” he asked.

        “Why were you sitting with Zach and them?” questioned Sarah. “Did you lie to us?”

        “What?” Greg asked in a slightly surprised manner before trying to smile. “N-no, of course not! I really had to go talk to a teacher about something, but when I got to his room, he wasn't there, so I headed back. I met with Zach on the way back though and we started talking, and I guess I just decided to sit with him.”

        Sarah looked at him for a moment before asking, “Is that really the reason?”

        “Yeah,” Greg said, giving a false reassuring smile.

        The Sophomore girl sighed and said, “Okay.” She softly smiled a couple seconds later. “Sorry, I guess I just got kind of mad because I thought you lied to us. I don't care if you sit with them or anything. I just don't want you to lie to me, that's all.”

        Greg nodded and smiled before saying, “It's okay.”

        “So did you talk to Kyle at all yet?”

        “No,” the Sophomore boy said, trying to hide the annoyance in his voice upon hearing the blond's name.

        “Aw, why not?” Sarah asked, the smile widening. “I really think he wants to get back with you again; the signs were pretty obvious during lunch today. Don't you want that? I mean, I really thought you two made a good couple and everything.”

        Greg looked down at the table and gave a small shrug. “Maybe. I'll think about it.” He looked back at Sarah, giving a weak smile.

        “Good,” Sarah replied.

 

        Zach walked through the empty hall, his footfalls almost clearly heard due to the silence that subdued the hall. As he walked, he thought about what Greg and him talked about. Something told him that the boy wasn't really going to do what he had advised him to do. Zach wished that Greg would listen to him though because he thought it would help him out a lot. The thought about Kyle trying to flirt with Greg sickened Zach and it only ended up making his anger towards the blond return too.

        When he reached the restroom, he walked in. Upon doing so, he spotted Kyle washing his hands. The black-haired male couldn't help but to mentally smirk at this coincidence. Since he knew that Greg probably wouldn't do anything to stick up for himself, Zach figured he would help him out a little. He walked over to the other male and tapped him on the shoulder.

        “Hey, I need to tell you something,” Zach said when Kyle turned his head to look at him, a cold smirk coming onto his face.

        “Too bad,” Kyle replied coldly.

        The blond tried to push the other male out of the way, but upon doing so, Zach slammed him into the wall with his hand tightly gripping the front of his shirt collar.

        “You better watch it you little s**t,” Zach spat venomously. “Now listen to me. Leave Greg the hell alone. If you do anything to him, I swear to God I'll beat you into a f*****g bloody pulp. Got it?”

        “Yeah,” Kyle replied almost indifferently.

        Zach abruptly let go of Kyle's shirt collar about a second or two later before stepping backwards. Kyle eyed the dark-haired boy a little coldly before walking out of the bathroom. Zach watched him for a moment before sighing heavily, trying to calm himself down now as he walked over to the urinals to take care of more personal matters.

Author's Note

Is the last part believable enough? The dialogue doesn't sound forced, does it?

Reviews

[Rhea752]

Gosh Sarah needs to drop it!!

No, it does not sound forced. Honestly, I think it would've been more exciting if Zach had just smashed Kyle's face into the sink and went from there. You did great with the dialogue and actions. And I was amused by Kyle's cold reaction, adds a twist instead of fear.