One Shots 3.0 [boyxboy]

Schoolboy Love

When we left Jessica's a couple of hours later the sun was bright and high in the sky and we traipsed home exhaustedly, tired and dopey and carrying our suit jackets over our arms, silent for the most part except when one of us caught the other looking and we quickly looked away again, giggling and blushing.

We made our way across town, oblivious to the traffic and the pedestrians and the people ducking in and out of shops, until finally we made it to Doyle's house and stopped, unusually shy with one another, hesitating and wondering how to say goodbye now.

Doyle glanced back at his house; it was a Sunday afternoon and his whole family would be home. I took a subconscious step back from him, not wanting to make him uncomfortable or force him out of any closets.

'See you tomorrow?' he asked, turning back to me, and I nodded, squinting at him through the brightness. He stepped towards me, his shadow falling across my face as he obscured the sun, resting one hand on my chest as he kissed me softly for a second before smiling and disappearing into his house.

I continued to mine in a daze, letting myself in through the front door and then leaning back against it in the coolness of the hallway, hugging my jacket to my chest as I tried to process my life.

'You look like you had a good night.'

I turned to see Megan standing in the doorway of the living room, smiling at me with one arched brow.

'You have no idea,' I told her.

'He likes you back, huh?'

'He likes me back.'

Summer passed quickly, much faster than any before. My days blurred together in a collage of bright sunshine, green leaves, fresh grass, cold water, and brown eyes, laughing at me and moving closer across an atlas of different settings; the park, the lake, his front garden, my bedroom.

I'd never been so happy.

I met him shortly after seven-thirty on the first Monday back to school, where he was sitting on the wall outside his house as usual, waiting for me.

'Hey,' I said happily, stopping as he hopped down to the pavement, yawning.

'Morning,' he said around the yawn, picking up his backpack and heaving it onto his shoulder. 'I can't believe summer is over already. I'm disgusted. Why aren't you disgusted?'

I gave a small shrug. 'There are elements of the school day that I've been all about for a while now,' I confided as we began to walk towards Main Street.

'Teacher's pet, huh?'

'Not exactly.'

'Well, what then?' he asked, when I didn't elaborate.

'Seeing you, you idiot,' I told him, rolling my eyes and bumping my hip off his.

'Oh,' he said, grinning. 'Right. Too early in the morning for my brain to engage. I suppose I like that part as well.'

I picked him up again outside Willow Hill High on the way home that afternoon, both of us laden down with books and homework and projects; our teachers taking no mercy on us for the first week of senior year.

'The others are all already like, "Can you get Adam to come in early tomorrow, I don't understand any of my assignments",' Doyle grumbled as we made our way home.

I laughed. 'They could just ask me themselves,' I pointed out. 'I've never said no.'

'I think that's the problem. They don't want you to think they're taking advantage of you. But I'm allowed to take as much advantage as I want, apparently.'