Love and Other Diseases (bxb)

Chapter Thirteen

A doorbell ringing startled me and made me choke on my cereal.

"Jake!" my mom screamed. "See who's there!"

It was 6:30 AM, before school, so whoever was there was psychotic.

I opened the door to Blake the snake. Which made sense. He was psychotic sometimes.

"Hey, dude," Blake said. He was wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt even though it was cold, and gray joggers. Horrendous. "I missed you."

Even though his fashion was the worst, my heart stuttered a bit when I saw him.

"You're an idiot," I noted, making him roll his eyes. "Why aren't you wearing a jacket? Come on."

"It's not cold!" Blake whined. "Plus I'm a high school boy, be grateful I'm not wearing basketball shorts right now."

The thought was cringy.

I led him upstairs to my bedroom. He looked around in interest as I fished a sweatshirt out of my closet.

"Wow, this isn't what I expected," Blake noted. "It's messy. Dude, you need to tidy up around here. Want to clean it after school?"

I stuck my head out of the closet and observed. There were a few shirts on the ground, a couple of notebooks, and a few McDonald's wrappers. It was nothing crazy.

"You're anal retentive," I decided. "Here, take this. You're going to be chilly if you don't wear something."

Blake plucked the sweatshirt out of my hands and raised an eyebrow at me. "First you hate me, now you're coddling me? Maybe you're bipolar."

"Don't you like psychology?" I argued. "I'm obviously not."

I grabbed my backpack and looked back at Blake when I realized he hadn't responded. He stared at me. "You actually remembered that?"

He was that shocked that I remembered something. That was... frankly, insulting.

"I know I'm a jock, but I have a few brain cells," I grumbled.

Blake raised a finger. "Highly debatable, dude—" I swung my jacket at him and hit his ass. "Dude!"

He scampered down the stairs and I chased him halfheartedly. "You're an ass," I grumbled. "I have a brain. I also remember things. It's a miracle, I know."

Blake grabbed the sunglasses that had fallen from his head in our little game of chase. "You're a brute. No more shoving me against lockers once we get to school now that we're... kissing. Right?"

I shouldered my backpack and lead us outside. "Fine by me."

"Can I sit next to you in class again?"

"...I guess."

"Can we sit at lunch together?"

I tried my best to stop a smile. "You're pushing it, Beckson."

He shoved me to the side with his hip and smiled. "You're so mean, dude. I'm sitting with you at lunch."

I reached over and grabbed his hand, deciding that I really wouldn't mind if he sat with me and my friends at lunch. "I guess that should be fine. Just don't let Ben talk to you about being my catamite."

Blake shuddered. "Oh trust me, I don't want to hear it."

—//—

Weirdly enough, Blake waved off his friends once we got to school and headed to mine. I had significantly less, and they were weirder, so it was bizarre that Blake actually followed through with his plan to talk to us.

Ben gasped the second he saw us. "Look, guys! Look! What the fuck! Jake is holding his hand! That is so kindergarten of them!"

Unfortunately Ben got the attention of more than my group, so we got a lot of attention from his outburst. Blake shrunk into my arm a little, but I squeezed his hand a little and he straightened up.

I kissed the side of his head and whispered, "Just ignore them. They really don't care at all."

Blake turned his attention on me, eyes wide. "How did you tell people you were gay all by yourself? Even with you here, I'm nervous."

I smirked a little. "I knew I could kick intolerant asses."

Blake rolled his eyes and thankfully we made it to my friends without any sort of commotion. The whole group was looking at us, but Ben was staring. "Guys, like what?" he whispered. "I didn't think your date was going to end successfully."

Blake glared. "And why is that?"

Uh oh. I didn't expect that they wouldn't like each other.

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Well, no duh. Because Jake is emotionally constipated."

Blake snorted. "Okay, that's true."

"Very rude," I told them.

"How awkward was he on your date?" Christi snorted. "Did he even hold your hand? Wait, did he kiss you at the end? Doubt it."

"I had to kiss him," Blake outed me mercilessly. "I also had to hold his hand. And when he played go-carting, he destroyed six year olds emotionally."

Ben grimaced. "I should've warned you about the competitive streak. He's pretty bad. But the go-carting was a good idea then?"

Weirdly, Blake smiled at him. "It was an awesome idea. You're a great wingman."

"Wait!" I interrupted. I pointed at Ben. "You helped him pick out our date? How could you?"

Ben looked smug. "What can I say? I'm a pretty good gay wing man. I think it's my straight guy perspective that brings a new flavor."

Kay rolled her eyes and patted him on the shoulder. "Okay, Ben. We believe you."

"What?!"

Because it was best to not work up Ben, we all headed inside the building as a group ignored his indignant whining.

I squinted at Blake. "You told Ben about the date?"

He blushed. "I wanted advice from your friend and, ya know, another other gay guy. To make the date good."

I couldn't stop my own smile. "That was—"

"Excuse me?!" Ben sputtered.

Blake and Ben began bickering, so I focused on my two girl friends to give them details of my date.

And I pointedly ignored the fact that we were surround by people whispering to each other.