Dead Boys (boyxboy)

Chapter 17

"Bye mom, by dad." I say and kiss my mother on the check and give my dad a quick hug.

The guilt follows me out the door and all the way down the driveway as I start walking to school.

"Hey, dead boy!" Toby hollers out to me and I see him coming out of a house just a few away from mine, just on the other side of the street. His blonde curls bounce with every step he makes.

"Hey, Toby!" I holler back as he gets closer to me. He smiles cheekily and slings his arm around my shoulder as we walk.

"Good morning?" He asks and it's almost like he can hear those thoughts that have been rotating in my mind all morning.

"Uh, not really," I say scratching my head.

"Wanna talk?" He asks, his cheerful eyes suddenly becoming a lot more serious. Something that I haven't seen from the goofy boy before.

"I don't want to drag you down," I say and he rolls his eyes, smiling once again almost instantly.

"You're one of us now. That means what concerns you, concerns me. Now tell me your damn problems boy!" He says and I laugh.

"Okay, okay. At my last school, my 'best fried' outed me to the whole school so my whole lacrosse team beat me to a pulp for two years almost daily. Before I moved here, I was hospitalized by them and that's when my parents found out. They feel bad because they never noticed until then. You know that and stuff, but I don't think I mentioned the whole 'hospital' part."

"Holy shit, you didn't." His voice is a whisper and I have to look away so I don't see the look of sympathy on his face.

"And now, to protect me, they moved me to a different town that none of us knew was one filled with homophobes," I say the last part sarcastically to try and lighten the mood. I don't think it did a good job unfortunately.

We continued to walk in silence for a second before he responded. "Look, we're gonna protect you. We won't let you get hurt again."

"Thanks man," I say and we give each other a small smile.

The rest of the walk was quiet but not at all awkward. I've haven't had a deep talk with Toby before. He's normally just this goofy kid with curly hair, freckles and the same green Coco-Cola shirt and jeans everyday. I never really thought he could be one who is able to switch a flip and turn into someone so serious.

"Hey guys!" Toby yells as we approach the school and see everyone else. My heart stops when I see Aaron. Oh lordy, I'm going to be sick. I will actually puke right now.

"Hey! Bellamy!" Azul says, snapping me out of my thoughts to shake up.

"Hey man," I say smiling. "Hey guys,"

"Excited for tonight? Time to make plans!" Bentley says evilly and I'm thrown into a memory of jumping off a cliff.

"Oh, I love the plans you guys come up with." I say sarcastically. Everyone laughs and I pay special attention to Aaron's small chuckle.

"It'll be your turn soon," Caleb remarks and I give him an interested look

"What do you mean?"

"We all have to do it, we draw from a hat. You just weren't one of us the last time we drew. Tonight we draw again," Bentley explains.

"Oh god," I whine and they all laugh again.

"You'll be okay," Aaron says, finally speaking up. I look up at him and smile. My insides turn to gush as I look at him. His shaggy, dark hair is in his eyes currently and it is the cutest but also the sexiest thing I have ever seen. He looks too good. Oh my, oh my.