Take Me to Church (boyxboyxboy)✅

Chapter 10

Liam

We were supposed to be at St. Anthony's by 10:00 a.m. I really wasn't surprised when I was the only one to show up on time. I was sure Nick would be late since he was always late for class. I also brought all the raking equipment since Nick claimed he didn't even own a rake and we couldn't expect Jeremy to carry all that stuff on the train with him.

To get this day over and done with, I went to work first, not waiting for either of them. Around 10:15, Nick's mother dropped him off in front of the church.

"Where's Ugly?" were the first words out of his mouth. He hadn't called me "Hey beautiful" in awhile. I hated it when he called me that, but now I kind of missed it.

"Not here yet," I said.

"Should I call him?"

"You have his number?" How come he had his number? I didn't have either of their numbers.

"Yeah, I gotta keep tabs on this guy," he said. "I don't want him skipping out on us."

Nick's blue eyes widened brightly as a boy in a maroon hoodie walked down the street heading toward the church. As he approached the church, the boy pushed his hood back, revealing a Boston Red Sox cap. He looked as though he hadn't even bothered taking a shower. I wanted to say something to him, but Nick beat me to it.

"Ugly, you're late," Nick said. Why did he have to keep calling him that? He just made me feel guiltier for what I did because everyday he looked worse. I guess that was a sign his nose was healing, but it still didn't make me feel any better.

"I got up late, missed the eight o'clock train so I had to wait until the 9:30 train," he said. "Do you think we'll have to do this every Saturday? I didn't get to sleep until midnight because I had a game and..."

"No one really cares about your stupid football games," Nick said.

"Can we just get to work and get this day over with?" I said, not in the mood to hear those two bicker back and forth. They were like a couple of first graders.

As we raked, Nick kept purposely bumping into Jeremy who only laughed while telling him to stop it. I thought Nick was obnoxious, but Jeremy obviously didn't. Come to think of it, Jeremy could be obnoxious, too. As Nick raked, he raked the leaves in Jeremy's direction, using large sweeping motions with his arms, getting Jeremy in the back.

"Did anyone bring any bags to bag the leaves?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah, they're in my car," I said. "I knew I couldn't count on you two."

After returning to my car, I found Nick lying on the ground while Jeremy raked leaves over him, covering him from neck to foot. These guys were always mucking around.

"We really are going to be here all day," I said.

"Calm down," Nick said, getting up. "It's not like you have anything better to do."

"How do you know?" I said as Nick brushed the leaves off his body.

"Am I right?"

Sure, he was right, but he didn't have to know that.

After hours of raking, Nick decided to jump in one of the big piles, ruining all of our hard work. He laughed hysterically, just lying there, amused with himself.

"What the fuck?" Jeremy yelled at him and kicked his foot. Nick grabbed Jeremy's leg, causing him to stumble into the pile of leaves.

"Cut the crap," I said. "Seriously."

Jeremy wrestled him, shoving leaves under his shirt as Nick laughed uncontrollably. Apparently he was very ticklish.

"Stop!" Nick shouted. "Stop!" But I didn't think he really wanted him to stop. They pissed me off so much, I emptied an entire bag of leaves over Jeremy's head.