Unconditional Validation

Chapter 6

Tyler.

To my surprise, Friday came by faster than expected. Between Tuesday's gym class and a bland school morning today, nothing really happened. The people in my art class, after two days of freaking out over my internet status, finally understood they needed to give me my space.

"Oof!" Justin blurted as I accidentally ran into him around the corner.

Oh. My. God. Again?! I wailed to myself.

"I'm so sorry Justin! Please don't be mad!" I pleaded to him with a blush.

"Hey man, it's okay," Justin smiled, "I'm starting to think you just like running into me?"

"W-What?! N-No I just can't seem to figure out where I'm going! I get lost in my head sometimes," I replied nervously while scratching the back of my head.

"Hey, I get it, we all do that sometimes," Justin smiled softly as if he was trying to comfort me.

We were standing by the doors to the gym with an awkward silence floating around us. I was on the verge of saying something, but of course, that stupid bell for our fourth-period classes started to ring! I decided to walk over to where Cameron and his friends were sitting on the bleachers, today would be the last day for us to chill out in class. I enjoyed your typical every day workout, but I was really dreading having to change in the locker rooms.

"Don't worry about it hun, changing with all the guys won't be so bad," Cameron said to me with excitement.

"But what if I don't want to see other guys' bare chests!" I whined with a pout.

"Wait, are you-" Myles started to ask before I interrupted him.

"No, I don't like guys like that!" I quickly exclaimed.

My friends looked at each other then at me with very stunned expressions on their faces. My face began to turn red and heat up with embarrassment.

"Hey it's okay, hun. We weren't trying to assume anything," Cameron reassured me.

"I'm sorry for having an outburst," I said softly.

"Hey it's okay," It was Myles's turn to reassure me.

I nodded in acknowledgement. The feeling of needing to use the restroom was growing. I excused myself from my friends, headed down the bleachers and walked to the bathroom. It was a good distance from the main gym to the bathrooms that were located in the gym hallway. This made the urge to go an even bigger problem. If I didn't move fast enough both me and my pants would regret coming today.

When I finished with my business, I washed my hands in the sink with cold water. While I was in my own little world, I heard the squeak of sneakers against the laminate tile floor. I turned off the sink quickly. Trying to dry my hands off swiftly, I felt a presence behind me! With a turn, I faced the person I did not want to see after running into him on Tuesday. It was Killian. My mouth went dry, so I couldn't really say anything at first. He just kept staring at me, looking up and down my figure. I noticed that he weirdly licked his lips. It took everything in me to not make a disgusted look.

"Look at who we have here!" Killian sneered.

"W-What's that?" I stuttered while dropping the piece of paper towel I held in my hand.

"Rumor has it, you're a secret celebrity hiding away at this school," Kilian smirked. He was starting to corner me against the bathroom wall. "I also heard that you and your triplet Skyler are not just secret celebrities trying to be normal, you two are also some sort of freaks!" He was inches away from my face, trying his best to intimidate me, and it worked. My back was pressed against the wall, heart racing, this couldn't get any worse.