Beautiful Secrets (Cranksepticeye Fanfiction)

~10.09~ Gathering Days

After the Cineplex, it didn't take long. Word got out that Old Man Ravenwood's nephew was hanging out with Ethan Nestor. If I wasn't Ethan Nestor Whose Mamma Died Just Last Year, the talk might have spread with more speed, or more cruelty. Even the guys on the team had something to say. It just took them longer than usual to say it, because I hadn't given them a chance.
For a guy who couldn't survive without three lunches, I'd been skipping half of them since the Cineplex - at least, skipping them with the team. But there were only so many days I could get by on half a sandwich on the bleachers, and there were only so many places to hide.
Because really, you couldn't hide. Jackson High was just a smaller version of Anston; there was nowhere to go. My disappearing act hadn't gone unnoticed with they guys. Like I said, you had to show up for roll call, and if you let someone get in the way of that, especially a guy who wasn't on the approved list - meaning, approved by Savannah and Emily - things got complicated.
When the guy was a Ravenwood, which is what Jack would always be to them, things were pretty much impossible.
I had to man up. It was time to take on the lunchroom. It didn't matter that we weren't even really a couple. At Jackson, you might as well have parked behind the water tower if you were eating lunch together, Everyone always assumed the worst, more like, the most. The first time Jack and I walked into the lunchroom together, he almost turned around and walked back out. I had to grab the strap on his bag.
Don't be crazy. It's just lunch.
"I think I forgot something in my locker." He turned, but I kept holding on to the strap.
Friends eat lunch together.
They don't. We don't. I mean, not in here.
I picked up two orange plastic lunch trays. "Tray?" I pushed the tray in front ofhim and shoved a shiny triangle of pizza on it.
We do now. Chicken.
You don't think I've tried this before?
You haven't tried it with me. I thought you wanted things to be different than they were at your old school.
Jack looked around the room doubtfully. He took a deep breath and dropped a plate of carrots and celery onto my tray.
You eat those, and I'll sit anywhere you want.
I looked at the carrots, then out at the lunchroom. The guys were already hanging out at our table.
Anywhere?
. . .
If this was a movie, we would've sat down at the table with the guys, and they would've learned some kind of valuable lesson like not to judge people by the way they look, or that being different was okay. And Jack would've learned that all jocks weren't stupid and shallow. It always seemed to work in movies, but this wasn't a movie. This was Anston, which severely limited what could happen. Mark caught my  eye as I turned toward the table, and started shaking his head, as in, no way, man. Jack was a few steps behind me, ready to bolt. I was beginning to see how this was going to play out, and let's just say no one was going to be learning any valuable lessons. I almost turned around, when Earl looked at me.

That one look said it all. It said if you bring him over here you're done.
Jack must have seen it too, because when I turned back to him, he was gone.

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That day after practice, Earl was nominated to have a talk with me, which was pretty funny, since talking had never really been his thing. He sat down on the bench in front of my gym locker, I could tell it was a plan because he was alone, and Earl Petty was almost never alone. He didn't waste any time. "Don't do it, Nestor."
"I'm not doing anything." I didn't look up form my locker.
"Be cool. This isn't you."
"Yeah? What if it is?" I pulled on my transformers T-shirt.
"They guys don't like it. Go down this road, no going back."
If Jack hadn't disappeared in the cafeteria, Earl would've knowing I didn't care what they thought. I hadn't cared for a while now. I slammed my locker door, and he left before I could tell him what I thought about him and his dead end of a road.
I had a feeling it was my last warning. I didn't blame Earl. For once, I agreed with him. The guys were going down one road, and I was going down another. Who could argue with that?