Mismatched (boyxboy) ✓

Fourteen

"Let me get this straight." Tristan's attention dated between the phone and Zachary. "You drive him to school. He ends up in the bathroom. Shawn attacks him. And then you get this picture. That doesn't add up and I think you put Shawn up this—"

"You're poking holes where holes are meant to be poked, Tristan." Jordan cut him off with a sigh. "If you really think Zach had a hand in this, you're fucking stupid. And if you believe with all your heart that he meant for this to happen, then you can take your happy little ass and walk right out of the damn house." He paused when Nolan returned the sodden, dripping rag to clean a bit of blood from his lip, but looked back at his friend when he was done. "And don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Tristan shot Zachary a sulphurous look. He wasted no time in throwing the phone onto the counter and leaving.

—

Zachary was still thinking about the encounter the next morning in his microbiology class. The seat in front of him where Jordan should have been was empty. He spent the night but had chosen to skip school for the day. A few people caught wind of what happened, they questioned him on the incident and what went on in the locker room, and they asked questions too specific about Jordan and himself, but Zachary blew them off. If they continued to press, he'd give them a venomous look from his bruised face.

Halfway through the first class of the day, the classrooms and lessons were interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Mr. Byers looked over with a sour look on his face as one of the administrative staff came into the room. They exchanged a few quiet words before the teacher cleared his throat. "Blaylock," he called out in a tone that was more than irritated, "go to the principal's office."

This didn't surprise Zachary at all. Stuffing his things into his backpack, he pushed up from his seat and followed the staff member out of the room. He expected a chorus of ooo's to follow in his wake, but only his teacher's dry tone picked up from where he was interrupted. The door clicked closed and the only sound between the two of them was the scraping of his backpack on the ass of his jeans and the staff members heels on the polished tiles beneath.

The principal's office was joined with his secretaries, the counselors, and a few others. It made no sense to Zachary why they would want to be so close to one another, it was bad enough that they were in the positions they were in- Zachary saw no appeal in what any of them did -but he kept his opinions to himself as he was herded through a set of double glass doors and through a second heavy door that opened to the principal's office. When he walked through, he was dismayed to find he wasn't the only one in the room.

Principal Cole, a kind, portly woman with beady eyes smiled at him. Red lipstick stained her teeth, and he hid his grimace with a smile when she swiped her tongue across them. "Please take a seat, Zachary," she instructed and waved her hand to the one empty chair in front of her desk. There were three others, all of which were occupied. Shawn and who Zachary assumed as the guy's father were in the two chairs left and his own mother was in the remaining seat.

Zachary took the last seat and immediately felt his mother's hand on his forearm.

"You should have told me what happened," Kaye hissed.

He had refused to tell her anything that happened upon his returning home. Zachary brought Jordan and a bag of his things to his house, telling his mother nothing other than that Jordan was staying with them and everything was fine when she touched his face. Kaye was smart and hadn't pressed. She knew Zachary would tell her when he was ready, but she had not anticipated receiving a call from the school that would have her leaving a quiet breakfast with Jordan and running to her car.

"Is Jordan okay?" Zachary pushed her statement off the same way he pushed her hand from his arm.

"He's fine, Zachary, I want to know what happened—"