Top and Tail [boyxboy] [slash]

Chapter 16: Kiss It Better

From the corner of my eye, I could just about make out Lee eyeing us curiously. But I didn't care.

"Um, we could go home if you want," he suggested quietly, his voice so low only I could hear it. "You know... um..."

"Are you, Jay McCallion, model fucking student, suggesting that we dog it?" I asked, grinning widely. He blushed but nodded, avoiding my gaze.

"Um... maybe..."

"I'd love to," I told him, coughing rather violently. "But we've got a chem test next period, so I'm gonna have to suck it up."

"Oh ok." Jay looked slightly disappointed, and his shoulders sagged forward. "But, um, yeah..."

I laughed at his eagerness to skip out. "You look like a kicked puppy. Something you wanted to skip out on?"

The teasing was somewhat ruined by the loud echoing sneeze the followed but Jay still had the decency to blush. I laughed and ruffled his hair, enjoying the rare height advantage him being on his knees gave me.

"Well guys, as much as that's cute and all," drawled Lee, "I've gotta get to my locker. So can you, like, shift your legs a bit Jay, because I really don't want to have to crush you."

Jay hopped to it and sat up in a rickety plastic chair right away. Can't say I blame him really, we all knew how dangerous Lee could be when she wanted. And again I noticed Lewis sigh wistfully as she wandered over to her locker.

"Dude," I scolded, waving my hand in front of his face to get his attention. It worked and he jumped, snapping out of his daydream.

"Uh... yeah?"

He genuinely looked confused. I rolled my eyes.

"Come on! Just fucking man up already and ask her out!"

His eyes widened as though he was appalled by the very idea.

"I- I mean, what- Um..." he tried numerous times to form a sentence, but failed miserably. I gave him a dunt in the forehead out of sheer frustration and he yelped.

"Ow!"

"Good," I said. "Seriously, just ask her out already. Your lovesick teen act is pissing me off..."

I was a bit of a hypocrite for saying that, considering that way my stomach fluttered and my knees shook every time Jay was in the vicinity. But at least I had the decency to pretend it wasn't happening. Lewis wasn't even trying to conceal his feelings.

"I swear, I don't like Lee like that," he insisted, but I cut him off with a loud, gooey sneeze.

"Ugh..." I groaned. "This is really quite minging, you know that?"

When the bell rang for the next period, I wished I'd taken up Jay on his offer.

After school I was met by a (not so) pleasant surprise in the form of my mother. She stood at the gates, nervously eyeing the crowds of teens pouring from the main building and then waving in an embarrassingly dramatic way that only mothers can when she spotted us.

"Mum?" I croaked once we'd made our way over. She did a double take when she caught sight of my paper-white face. My condition had only worsened throughout the day and despite the fact I knew it was just a common cold, or the flu, I still felt fucking awful. I could barely breathe through my blocked up nose and it felt like I was suffocating every time I closed my mouth.

"Hi boys," she whispered, ushering us inside her lemon yellow car. "Listen, the hospital called me at work this morning but I didn't want to pull you two out of school again. It's Linda... she's taken a turn for the worse..."