Straight Boys

Straight Away

"Today's special for lunch today is Hot Wings with macaroni and cheese! The cafeteria staff have cooked this meal vigorously so you brats -"

"- Ms. Hughes! -"

"- ahem-hem. . . Uh so enjoy. And uh we hope you all spent your Halloween safely this past weekend. That's all."

I shook my head at the voices above on the intercom, finding these adults humorous, before I turned to start towards my locker. When my locker came into view, a sudden image came flying in front of my eyes at the sight before me, reminding me of the beginning of the school year.

Zachary Rogers and Taylor Haynes stood blocking my locker, except, instead of showing their public display of affection, Mandy Hartfielf stood in between them, laughing at something Zachary was saying. The little scene made me slow my steps and reluctantly slide up to them.

Well, actually, Zachary's presence alone made me reluctant to go to my own locker.

You see, the days before Monday came around were probably the first time in my entire life I had ever been rejected by, well, anybody. Then again, Zachary was particularly good at rejecting me for some unknown reason. So I guess you could say I was awkwardly battling with myself, not knowing how I was going to respond to this boy. I mean, obviously, I was just the tiniest bit scared of his reaction when he would see me; scared that he would leave me like he had in the past because I was just so used to him now. And I was scared because this experience I was going through was something all new to me.

I was probably a wreck by the time I made it to the small group.

"Andrew!"

"Hey, Drew."

"Andy. . ."

The nickname only Annie and Lola called me by slipped past Zachary's lips, and I somehow instantly perked up. Deep down I knew now that he was not going to run away, but I still was very skeptical of him.

"Hey-y guys," my voice subtly cracked, causing me to clear my throat before going on, "This brings a little deja vu, don't you think?" I spoke this just as I came to a stop in front of them. It sounded awkward and nothing like me, but hey, I was experimenting and experiencing new things, so it was whatever. As the adults like say, high school is the time to explore who you really are, find out what you're going to be like when you become an adult.

"Hmmm- I guess it does Drew-bean." Taylor's voice sounded sweeter than usual, almost an overbearing kind of sweet that made you cringe and stick your tongue out. I narrowed my eyes at her, shoving my hands into my pockets deep enough to catch a bit of lint between my fingers. As I did so, Taylor smiled her signature cheerleading smile and circled Mandy to clinge to Zachary like the leech she always has been.

Something about her look wasn't quite right.

"Andrew! Good morning!" I shook my hatred off my face to give a little smile down at Mandy. "Good morning, Mandy." I think I was purposely avoiding Zachary's eyes, probably still scared of what he was going to say or do or even something more. Who knew even though Taylor was there. Who knew? Zachary was pretty good at pissing people off, but would he piss his girlfriend off by mentioning the little, itty-bitty, slight fact that he and I almost did a little more than just kissing?

I was going in circles, wasn't I?

"What? Do I not exist?" Zachary's voice suddenly sounding made me jump out of my bones. I snapped my eyes up to meet his, and even though his red-headed leech was clinging to his waist, I found my eyes widening and neck getting sticky. He was staring back at me, his nonchalant smirk ever present on his lips and eyes back to being mud holes I wasn't able to get a clear view into.