The New Boy [boyxboy]

Chapter Four

                The burden of conversation fell on Teegan, which was never a good thing, seeing as she doesn’t particularly like to talk.

                ‘So,’ she said after a while. ‘Paulie Morgan asked me out today.’

                Andie choked, immediately cheered, if only marginally, by this news. ‘What did you say?!’

                ‘I told him I don’t date.’

                Dexter looked satisfied.

                ‘Do you not like him or something?’ Andie asked.

                Teegan shrugged. ‘I do, I guess.’

                ‘Then…’ Andie looked confused. ‘Why did you turn him down?’

                It was Teegan’s turn to look confused. ‘If he likes me enough he’ll ask again.’

                Andie and I both raised our eyebrows. For somebody who seemed locked up in a pretty tight shell, that was a massive display of confidence.

                ‘But… What if he doesn’t ask you again?’

                Teegan continued to look perplexed at our bewilderment. ‘Then he doesn’t like me enough,’ she explained, as though we had learning disabilities, ‘and doesn’t deserve me.’

                This was a compelling point. We looked at each other and frowned, both trying to comprehend it.

                Andie took a breath to say something else, then stopped and reconsidered, then took another. ‘How many times did Gary ask you out?’ she demanded, looking at me.

                ‘Uh.’ Embarrassing. ‘He didn’t.’

                Teegan blinked in confusion. ‘Then how did it happen?’

                ‘He just sort of… Told me when and where to meet him. And then he told me I was his boyfriend.’

                Teegan squinted as she mulled this over. ‘… No,’ she said eventually. ‘No. I don’t think I’d like that.’

                ‘How many times did you ask your girlfriend out?’ Andie demanded of Dexter, which I thought was brave. I didn’t even want to think about him having a girlfriend, much less talk about her.

                ‘Three or four,’ Dexter admitted, and Teegan snorted once before collapsing outright in laughter – which was surprising, seeing as it was, well, Teegan.

                ‘Okay,’ she stuttered through her laughter. There were actually tears forming in her eyes. ‘So get this. We’re hanging out outside school one day, waiting for the bus, and this chick walks by. And dude – she is stunning. Totally gorgeous. She looks about our age but she doesn’t go to our school, so we’re all a little in awe of her. She sees Dex staring and gives him this little smile, so he waves, and she waves back. No big deal, right?

‘Then the next day we see her again, because for some reason our bus driver has decided that being late is a cool new thing he’d like to do regularly. She passes again, and seeing as he’s an arrogant douchebag, Dex goes up to her and just blatantly asks her out, without asking, like, her name or anything. She just gives him this weird look, stares at him for a second, and then walks away. The same thing happens every day for the rest of the week, and Dex is getting really confused, right, because she always seems really friendly before he tries to talk to her, and then she just ignores him.

                ‘So he spends that whole weekend coming up with a really romantic way to ask her out. He has a big test on Monday, but he doesn’t even study for it, just holes up in his room working on something.

                ‘Then Monday rolls around, he fails his test, and purposely misses the bus so he can see the girl again. As soon as she rounds the corner he starts fumbling in his bag for something, and pulls out this massive banner which he’s designed, which says “Pretty Girl! Please Go Out With Me!” and holds it up over his head like he’s freaking John Cusack in Say Anything with the radio. She sees it and starts laughing, then walks over and…’ Teegan paused, obviously about to deliver the punchline to this hilarious anecdote, ‘signs at him that she will. She’s totally deaf! And she can’t read lips. She had no idea what he was even saying to her all the other times he asked her out.’

                Okay, so it’s a totally adorable story. It just makes him seem even more amazing than he already seemed. Andie looks totally overcome and has her “Awwww!” face on; sure enough she follows this expression up by verbalizing it.

                ‘You didn’t have to make me seem like such a massive idiot,’ Dexter interjected, rolling his eyes. ‘She didn’t seem like she was deaf. She just seemed like she was repulsed by me.’

                ‘How could anybody be repulsed by you?’ Andie muttered, but luckily only I heard her.

                ‘You were a massive idiot,’ Teegan countered. ‘If I were Olivia I wouldn’t have gone out with you.’

                ‘If you were Olivia I wouldn’t have asked,’ Dexter teased, and Teegan made a face at him.

                ‘So, like…’ Andie started, looking slightly uncomfortable. ‘How did you guys… Talk?’

                ‘I became very proficient at the art of note-writing,’ Dexter told her, grinning. ‘And eventually I learned how to sign.’

                ‘And she’s still in Brighton?’

                ‘She is. She’s visiting this weekend though. You guys could meet her, if you like.’

                Great.

-

-

-

-

Vote and comment? :D