The Green Rose bxb

Chapter 5

Oliver's POV

"Ollie, hun, you gotta get up," Mom's soft voice fills my room.

"What?" I groan, lifting my head from my pillow.

"Come on, you have school today. Your dad's in a bad mood this morning so hurry and get ready."

"Okay," I nod and start stretching as I hear Mom leave my room, closing my door behind her. I slowly get out of bed and throw some clothes on my bed before going to the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth. When I get back to my room I throw on the clothing I grabbed, buttoning the dark blue shirt and tucking it into my jeans. I'd roll up the sleeves but they're already short.

Dad drives me to school and on the way he starts lecturing me. "Oliver, if you're late today, your punishment won't be as forgiving as a stern talking to. No excuses. Be home by six or else," he finishes his lecture as we pull up to the school doors.

"Yes, sir," I nod and quickly get out of the car to go into the building.

"Is it true?" Danny asks, pushing off of his locker as I open mine.

"Is what true?" I give him a confused look as I put the stuff I don't need yet into the locker.

"You're gay," he says, as if it's a bad thing.

"No, I'm not. Why?" I close my locker, holding the strap of my bag now.

"People are saying you were hanging out with that Sam guy. The one with the motorcycle and stuff," he explains.

"We got ice cream on Saturday," I shrug and start walking to class.

"What?" Danny follows beside me. "Why would you even associate with him? Do you know how many times he's been suspended? What he's done?"

"He's not that bad of a guy. He's actually really nice if you bothered to talk to him." What am I doing? I don't get angry! When I do I don't say it!!

"A good person!? He beat up an innocent kid last year! And have you seen him at school yet today? He's suspended until tomorrow!"

"You only know part of the story. I can't judge someone based on rumors." I didn't know he was suspended. Or that he hurt someone. Why is Danny so upset?

"Fine," he scoffs. "When he beats you up too, don't come running to me." I go to my class while Danny goes to his. Instead of pulling out my book, today I pull out my phone to text Sam.

O: You're suspended?

S: ya, thought you knew

O: What happened?

S: it was nothing. Why are you asking about it?

O: Can we talk after school?

S: sure, I'll pick you up

O: Okay

With that, I put my phone back in my bag and read for a few minutes before class begins. Danny ignores me at lunch today, not that I really want him to talk to me anyway. When I glance up he's sitting across from me, at a different table on his phone while I read my book.

I can't stop thinking about what he said. Did Sam really hurt someone? Wouldn't he have told me? Danny's likely lying. Or exaggerating.

What about the school thinking I'm gay? I'm not. I was just hanging out with a new friend. Right? But why did we hold hands? And why did he make my heart stop half the time? What's going on with me?

By the time school is over I've only been able to focus on my school work long enough to manage no homework while all my thoughts have focussed on Sam. As I walk to my locker I feel people staring at me. I get my stuff and start walking to the door as two people start walking at each of my sides. When I look over, Ash is smiling on my right while Leah is only slightly smiling on my left.

"Uh, what's going on?" I ask.

"Sam told us about him picking you up today, we thought we'd say hi first," Ash shrugs as they pull their jacket more onto their shoulders.

"And everyone's talking about you guys and we don't want someone to start messing with you just because of a rumor," Leah adds.

"Thanks," I can't help but smile as we walk down the halls, some people minding their own business while others staring intensely.

We leave the building, Sam leans against his bike with his helmet next to him and a kind smile on his face as we walk over. He's wearing his leather jacket today with black, cuffed jeans and a t-shirt. "Hey," he nods as we all reach him.

"So, what are you two gonna be doing?" Ash smirks.

"No idea," Sam shrugs.

"Well, text us later, we have homework to get to," Leah pulls Ash away from us.

"Homework is boring," Ash groans as the two of them disappear into the parking lot.

Sam turns his attention to me after chuckling at Leah and Ash. "What's the plan?" 

"Wanna go to the diner? I haven't eaten all day," I suggest.

"Sure," he hands me his helmet and I put my glasses in my bag before sliding it on. He gets on his bike and starts it before I get on behind him, wrapping my arms around his stomach. He takes off, driving just under the legal speed limit to the diner, not too far from the candy store. Once we get there I give Sam his helmet before we go inside and order our food.

"What did you want to talk about?" for the first time, Sam looks nervous.

"Why'd you get suspended?" I ask, bluntly. I don't want to beat around the bush with this.

"I told you this morning, it was nothing," he shrugs. I give him a pleading look. If it was nothing he would've told me already. Instead, he sighs, "Fine. I called one of my teachers a lazy bitch."

"Why?"

"He kept yelling at me for everything and wouldn't let me go to the bathroom even though I finished my work and I didn't do anything wrong that hour," he scoffs. "So I called him out and got suspended."

"Okay," I nod. That's not too bad. Our food comes and Sam immediately starts eating the burger and fries he ordered. I can't help but only pick at the fries I got. "I thought you said you haven't eaten all day," he points out before taking another bite of his burger, letting ketchup get on the corner of his lips.

"Yeah," I nod. "It's just something Danny said." How am I supposed to ask him something so out of nowhere!?

"What'd he say?"

"He- he said you hurt someone last year. Someone that didn't deserve it."

"Of course he did," he sighs, setting the burger back onto his plate. "Look, whatever you heard from kids around school about that, it's not true. They don't have the full story and they never bother to ask. Only Ash, Leah, and two other people know."

"What happened?"

"Nothing fun," he seems upset.

"Okay," I try to compromise. "You don't have to tell me everything if you're not comfortable with it. Just, promise it's not something extremely bad, like you killed the guy or something."

"I promise, it wasn't anything like that." We both nod and I manage to work my appetite back up to eat.