Take Me to Church (boyxboyxboy)✅

Chapter 13

Liam

At close to seven o'clock, I found my mother at her desk, still in her work clothes after what looked like an exhausting day for her. I carried my wet school uniform in a ball.

"I'm home," I said. She looked up from her book or whatever she was looking at and dropped her reading glasses on top of her head.

"What happened to your uniform?" she asked.

"It got dirty when I was cleaning," I said, hoping my cheeks weren't too red as I remembered the afternoon. My crush for Jeremy returned with a vengeance.

Over the past two weeks or so,  I had come to realize that Jeremy Sawyer wasn't like JT and his other friends. He was just a bit of a coward, easily succumbing to peer pressure.

And he was hot and he saw me naked and I wouldn't mind if he saw me again and I'd really like to kiss him and do other things with him and to him even though I knew his heart was with Nick. I liked to think he liked me a little. I saw it in the shower. Maybe he didn't think I noticed.

"How's it going?" my mother asked. "Detention with the boys, I mean."

"It's okay," I said. It was actually more than okay.

"Ericka's missing you," she said. "You're not home as often as you used to be."

"I'll have to make it up to her," I said. As much as I adored my baby sister, I really enjoyed spending time with Jeremy and Nick and hoped I'd continue to see them after detention was all over.

***

Anxiously waiting for Nick to enter the classroom, Jeremy distracted himself by talking with his friends, especially that jerk, JT. His eyes occasionally shifted from his friends to the door. These days Nick sat behind him. I missed those days when he sat behind me. I never appreciated him before. In class, Jeremy and Nick would flirt back and forth like no one noticed. Maybe I was the only one who noticed.

Minutes after Mr. McGuiness entered the classroom, Nick made his grand entrance. With his blond hair half flopping over his eyes, wearing dark framed glasses, Nick walked with his head down toward the back of the class, sitting directly behind Jeremy. He looked good in glasses. He must have worn contact lenses most of the time. He waved to me as he sat down. From across the room, I saw Jeremy turn around to hand a pen to Nick. Jeremy didn't seem to care that Nick was openly gay and that he was seen talking and socializing with him. They never left class together, though. Nick was always the first one out.

Everyday at four o'clock, we met in Father Davis's classroom, almost always waiting for Jeremy to show up. As usual, Nick sat slouched in his chair, Father Davis standing in the front of the classroom, leaning on his desk, his arms folded across his chest in annoyance and impayience. I thought he was going to say something about our shitty work, but Nick was right--he didn't seem to notice. Nick stared down at the floor while we waited for Jeremy.

"Where's Jeremy?" I whispered to Nick. He was more than his usual twenty minutes late.

"How should I know?" he said.

Dirtier and sweatier than usual, Jeremy limped into the classroom, holding an ice pack on his knee. He looked like he had been pounded and kicked in the dirt. His cheek was a dark shade of pink, his bottom lip slightly swollen. He held his right side as he sat down at one of the desks.