The Only Exception [BoyxBoy]

08 | ѕoѕ

That ungrateful piece of shit!

Why the hell was he mad? After everything I had ever done for him—did his chemistry homework, helped him get with girls when he was straight, helped him get with guys now that he was gay, found his birth mother, and had done everything in my power to be the shoulder to cry on when he needed me to—he had the nerve to overreact over a stupid joke?

The more I thought about Ryan's sudden outburst, the more angry it made me. My anger had surpassed levels that, before now, were unusual for me. Ryan had always called me a hot-head, said that I was quick to lose my temper, but I had never, in my eight years of being best friends, been so angry at him before. If anything, Ryan was always the person who could calm me down no matter what the occasion, and now he was the source of my anger.

And that rage continued to sit at the tip of fingers until I got to my dad's place.

His house was on the richer side of Summer Hill. Both he and my mother were well-endowed in their own right, but my mom tried to humble herself a bit more by choosing to live in a small, two-bedroom house. My dad, on the other hand, was an important guy who helped found vaccines to life-threatening diseases, so he made sure to flaunt his importance wherever he went—that included buying a seven bedroom house for just him and his cat, Sheila.

I stormed into the house with a vengeance in my step and stopped midway through the grand foyer to throw my backpack on the white marble floor. My father must've heard my raging entrance because he appeared from behind a corner that was marked by two large Greek columns, his eyes wide in terror. "How many times do I have to tell you not to throw your backpack on the floor!"

I rolled my eyes at him and moved to the kitchen, rushing to open the fridge and retrieve the latest of my dad's hand-delivered meals. As I pulled the food out of the fridge, I used my free hand to dial Ryan's number on my cell phone. I chewed on my bottom lip, anxiously waiting for him to pick up all while a strange sensation stirred within me, and an audible gasp escaped my mouth when he finally did.

"What do you want, Bobby?" His tone was dull and uninterested.

"Are you mad at me?"

There was a slight pause. "No, Bobby."

And with just those words, the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach disappeared altogether. "Oh, okay, um ... well we have a chem test coming up soon. I can come over and we can study together."

Ryan breathed a long sigh into the phone. "Bobby, I'm not even doing well in that class."

"Yeah, that's why I should come—"

"Mr. Adney offered to tutor me. I think I'm going to take him up on his offer."

I couldn't stop the laugh that erupted in the back of my throat. "Why, so you can ride his dick for an A?" I had expected him to laugh, but the line had gone so silent that I thought he had hung up on me. "Ryan?"

There was an undercurrent of something sad in his voice when he finally responded, "Why are you making fun of me when you were the one that made him kiss me?"

"I'm not—I'm not making fun of you..."

Another sigh. "I gotta help my dads make dinner."