The New Kid (Book 1)

Chapter 23

Colton

"Are you sure you're alright, Colton?" Elliot asked me, for the hundredth time this morning.

I nodded, pulling a couple notebooks out of my locker. "I told you I'm fine, babe." Closing my locker once I had everything, I turned to face my boyfriend. "Totally and absolutely fine."

He gave me a small smile and I could tell he didn't believe me. I mean, I probably wasn't as fine as I keep saying I am. It's just that too many people recently have had an issue with me being with a guy. I'm starting to wonder if going through that all the time was worth it. I knew Elliot was worth it, but was I worth it for him?

The walk to his class was quiet, both of us thinking about our own things. When we got there, I gave him a quick kiss. He was still looking at me worried, but I gave him a reassuring smile before continuing down the hall to my own class before I was late.

Taking my seat, I didn't notice anything different about the class until my teacher started talking, saying there was a new student in our class. I looked up to see the new kid sitting down in the empty desk next to me.

I knew what it was like to be the new kid, and he was probably even more nervous because he came in a month after school started. I turned to him with a smile once the teacher told us to work with a partner for our assignment today. "Hey, I'm Colton. Do you want to work with me?"

He returned my smile, gratefully. "Sure. I'm Jake."

I was glad that I actually read the homework last night, because, even though Jake's read the book before, he read it awhile ago, and he said the details were a bit iffy. So I basically ended up doing the whole assignment while he occasionally added in a comment of 'oh yeah, now I remember that part'. I didn't mind too much, though, because I knew just how hard it was to be the new kid here, and I was pretty sure no one else would have partnered up with Jake today.

He was really nice, too, so I guess I lucked out there. I could have been stuck with him being this totally rude kid who didn't want anything to do with me. Granted, these partners were only for today, but I had a feeling this was a growing friendship and year-long partnership in the making.

"So why are you being so nice to me?" Jake asked after we had finished our work, but before everyone else did.

"I was new here last month. I know what it's like to not know anyone."

"Cool," he said, pulling out his class schedule. "What do you have next?"

Instead of answering, I just took the schedule out of his hands, reminding me of the first day of school, when Lindsey took my schedule from me to compare ours. I looked it over quickly. "We have almost the exact same schedule," I said, shocked. "Although we do have different lunches. I would have totally offered you to sit with us if you did."

Jake smiled as I handed him back his schedule. "That's fine. But thanks for thinking about that."

I shrugged, not sure how to respond. He was nice, kinda good-looking too, although I liked Elliot a whole lot more. I was just trying to be nice back to him.

The only thing I wasn't sure about was how accepting he is. If I told him right now that I have a boyfriend, will he still be as nice as he is now, or will he run the other way, or worse?

I decided not to find out yet. And it's not like I was trying to keep Elliot a secret or anything, it was just that the first thing people knew about me didn't have to be my sexual orientation, or whether or not I was single.

He would find out eventually, because it's not like we were hiding it. Besides, with the way I can't keep information to myself, I had a feeling he'd know before lunch even came around.