Yours Is The First Face That I Saw

There were a lot of thoughts bouncing around in Sebastian’s head on his first day at school, but the one thing that kept popping up, like one of those balls in children’s sing-along videos, was that he didn’t even want to go here.

Here being the Luna East Arts Academy, or LEAACCCKKKK, pronounced with the most vehement chocking noises he and his friends could make. The animosity was understandable, or at least Sebastian thought it was. Luna East, with its unnecessary vest and unnecessary crest, was where you came in a decent and down-to-earth person and came out a snob.

That was what happened with Bernard, who used to be Sebastian’s friend before he transferred to Luna East. Two years ago, Bernard was one of them, snickering behind the Luna East kids whenever they saw them in a mall or any of the public spaces they shared with those kids. But then early last year Bernard’s mother had come home from the Netherlands with a rich Dutch husband, and within a month, Bernard was pulled out of “regular” school, transferred to Luna East, after which he stopped talking or texting anybody from the gang. He even un-friended them on Facebook. Sebastian was happy  to see Bernard’s family move to one of those gated communities where those Luna East kids always seemed to come from.

But while Sebastian thought the arrival of Bernard’s mother was the beginning of the end, his mother had seen it as a template on how to move a few rungs up the social ladder. She had stopped calling him SebasTYAN and started calling him SeBAStian, and began to unsubtly hint that he was smart enough to get into Luna East, and wouldn’t he consider transferring if the opportunity presented itself? For a while he managed to shut her up by pointing out that they simply couldn’t afford the tuition, but then one day his mother had come back home flapping a bunch of scholarship applications in his face and he couldn’t very well refuse her then.

Everything else snowballed from there. He found himself, in quick succession, taking Luna East’s rigorous entrance exam, passing it, and getting measured for one of those unnecessary vests. His mother couldn’t stop crowing about it, and one by one his friends had started giving him the stink eye. He was constant in reassuring his friends, telling them that nothing would change, but already he could feel them pulling away from him.

That was how he found himself here, on the sprawling grounds of Luna East, practically friendless and with a grudge in his heart. He had already judged Luna East and found it wanting, and his insistence on turning a blind eye to everything around him -- from the fancy bags to the foreign accents that popped up every now and then -- made him miss the steady skritch of wheels heading toward him.

“Dude, ge--” was the last thing he heard before he found himself flat on the ground and something else other than his backpack on top of him. He only had a few seconds to enjoy his view of the floor before he found himself being dragged unceremoniously to his feet.

“Dude, you shouldn’t be spacing out when there’s this many people in a hurry,” said a definitely male voice form behind him. He turned around to give him a piece of his mind -- and found himself face to face with a nipple.

Or at least, a nipple straining against Luna East’s regulation short-sleeved button-down shirt. The skateboarder wasn’t wearing the Luna East vest; Sebastian could see it hanging from where it was shoved haphazardly into the back of the guy’s pants. When he finally moved his head to see the body that the nipple was attached to, he found himself staring at a face that was just this side of handsome. If you tilted your head just so you could see that his jaw was just a little bit uneven, and the almost unnoticeable scar just a few centimeters underneath his left eye stopped him from becoming too picture perfect pretty.

Now that face was focused entirely on him, and he could feel the boy’s brown eyes quietly assessing him. There was a group of two or three boys right behind the skateboarder, and they were also looking at him curiously.

“Did you hit your head? Do you need to go to the clinic?” the skateboarder asked, lifting his left hand and and placing it on Sebastian’s shoulder. The sleeve of his buttown-down rolled up, and he could see two black bars, one thinner than the other, tattooed on the boy’s arm. He could feel the heat of the boy’s hand on his shoulder, and Sebastian could feel the color rise up from his neck up to his cheeks.

He was shrugging the guy’s hand off before he knew it, and already he could feel the judgment emanating from the guy’s companions.

“Leave him alone, Tyler. He obviously doesn’t want any help,” said one of them. The boys began to move past him, bumping against his shoulders as they walked by. Only Tyler stayed behind, head tilted to the side and looking at Sebastian curiously. Most of the student body were already off the grounds and in the building; there was only Sebastian, Tyler, and a few stragglers who were scurrying quickly to class.

“What?” Sebastian finally asked, unable to keep the irritation from creeping into his voice. It didn’t seem to matter to Tyler anyway, who only shrugged and smiled back at him.

“”Nothing,” Tyler said, walking past him and making sure not to hit his shoulder. With a sigh, Sebastian turned around to head into the school building and his first class, but suddenly Tyler was there, his hand on Sebastian’s neck and his mouth so close to his face. Tyler’s breath was so warm on his ear.

“I’m sorry about bumping into you,” Tyler whispered into his ear, and he could feel Tyler’s hand softly squeezing the back of his neck. And then he was pulling away from Sebastian, a knowing smile on his face. Sebastian could only watch as he walked away, and to his horror he found himself eyeing Tyler’s ass.

“I really do not want to be here,” he hissed through gritted teeth.