A/N: The first chapter! I love these boys sm they are amazing.
His lisp is always there! Yall.
When the hearts are: ❤️🧡💛 Its Rich's POV centered
If the hearts are: 💜💚💙 it's Jake's POV centered
Rich's POV
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I nervously looked at the opaque glass doors to the place I once called my school, what if they didn't like me when they actually met me? What if they thought I was a loser and bullied me? What if all I heard all day were whispers of what happened on Halloween?
What if Jake snubbed me?
What if Jake thinks I'm a loser?
What if Jake hates me?
After that thought I almost booked it home, I don't care if my mom berates me, I don't care if they kick me out for however long. If Jake hated me I couldn't handle looking at him, looking near him, being in the same building, the same *room* as him. I don't know why, but he drives me insane in the weirdest most random ways.
Keyword: almost.
"Dude?"
I almost screamed audibly, I settle for an almost inaudible squeak, I turn around and face my worst nightmare, Jake Dillinger.
"I've been looking around for you! Are you feeling okay?"
"Um, I'm awe- I'm great." I say, painfully obvious I'm hiding something, "You sure? You sound kinda choked up." damn, he saw right through me, "Of cou- yeah." I say, cursing myself again. He looked at me with an unreadable expression before deciding to drop it, "Okay. Wanna come into school?" He chuckled, "No." I deadpan, "Well you're going now, Richie." he chuckled once more, "um, okay!" as he pulled me into school and through the doors, I felt all eyes on me, but my eyes were on Jake.
"Oh, there he is!" I heard a familiar voice say, "The nerve!" I heard another familiar voice say, "No way, his story is so tragic, I need to speak to him for my blog at lunch!" I heard the first voice say, upon begrudgingly taking my sight away from Jake I spotted that it was Jenna Rolan and Chloe Valentine, I stared at them and finally waved at them awkwardly, Chloe just did a double-take and looked back at her phone with a grimace and Jenna looked at me pitifully. I sighed and looked once more at Jake.
He's cute, I mean, really cute. I realized I was bi in my hospital bed a while ago, I would be lying if I said Jake wasn't a heavy deciding factor, it all hit me like once like the Mountain Dew Red. I remembered the squip and my gaze on Jake *tightened* like a rope.
He noticed my broken stare, and that made him realize there was a stare in the first place, he looked back at me and it lingered, and I had to break the 'tension' whatever that tension was, "Um, why don't you hate me?" I said, with a tiny little voice, he immediately jumped, supposedly lost in thought, "Why would you think that? No, I could never." I looked at him and tilted my head, "But I burned your hou- home down." he giggled, he *giggled* no, Rich, this is important, "Why do you keep doing that?" he said once his giggling fit ended, "doing what?" I questioned, almost scared of what he'd say. He scoffed and looked me right in the eyes and my heart melted, "Cutting yourself off and choosing a new word, like an updating dictionary."
I flushed and looked down, immediately afterwards he did the same briefly, why? Let's not get off-topic and answer his question, but how? "Well I- Jake, I'm afraid you won't like- want me to be your friend when you actually meet me, I was under control before." Jake smiled to one side and I couldn't help but give a small smile, "I don't care, I'm just glad to have you back, you've been swell so far, yeah?" he chuckled his jock chuckle and my heart swelled.
"Really?" I questioned, smiling a bit more, "Yeah." he swiftly replied, just then the bell rang, "See ya soon, shorty." I turned beet-red and he had already walked off, I caught Jeremy's sight, after a second he strolled over and looked at me, we started walking to history, "So, how's life? Any um, instances with a certain pill...?" he trailed off, I laughed at him for being so nervous, "I'm fine! But um can I talk to you about something?" my lisp now obvious
"Shoot away!" he challenged in my direction, "So, uh, there's no good way to say this but I'm pretty sure I reallylikeJakeandihaventtoldhim."
He giggled, but it's not as cute as when Jake does it, "So are you like bi? Or gay? Or-"
"Bi," I answered, smiling tightly.
"Great! Uh, me too." I smile at him again and he laughs nervously, "I'm pretty sure he likes you back, y' know." I scoff, because I'm nearly 100% siree it's not true, nearly, "I could say the same thing for you too, geek." he flushed deep red and his eyes widened. He looked around and willed his blush to leave before just giving up and laughing, "I guess we're in the same boat then?" he breathed out nervously, "Not really, I mean it's obvious Michael really likes you." Jeremy bursts out laughing and I'm suddenly very confused, "I cOuLd sAy tHe SaMe tHinG FoR yOu, geEk." I blushed deeply, "What?! Is it really *obvious* I burned the man's house down for god sake!" and I chuckled out a very breathy laugh, he looked at me with his eyebrows raised, "You believe what you wanna believe, oblivious, we're here." and he pointed to Mr McNamara's (props to those who ACTUALLY get this) American history class. (hehe I mean in-character)
~ Time Skip Till After Class ~
"Anyway, what I'm saying is just tell him!" he practically yelled at me, I raised my left cheekbone due to being completely unsure, "I don't know-" he cut me off, "You have to bring it up at some point, you won't regret it, I'd bet on it." I looked at him and laughed heartily, "Says you! I bet you couldn't tell someone liked you if it hit you in the face! Tell him and I'll tell Jake."
Jeremy stared at the ground for a solid two minutes lost in thought before sighing and looking up, "Fine, but I get to do it first!" I raised my eyebrows at him, "Jesus, I'll be married already by then." he scoffed, "Do you want me to agree or not? I scoffed also in return," Anyway I need to get to English, scrub. " he laughed me away, 'Do I have actual friends other than Jake?' I pondered walking to Mr Matthew's (REE) class.
~ Class Skip (but not really bc they all attended class) ~
Free period time! I looked around for Jake and eventually found him on the bleachers outside, "How's the gym?" I say before clapping a hand over my mouth, my lisp had to show itself at some point, I shrugged off. He looked a bit confused then began speaking, "What was that?" he said and his face was dusted pink, "Oh- uh- nothing."
"N-no it was kinda cute..." he led off at the end, I flushed deep red and started fidgeting with my hands, he could've said the word 'funny', 'weird, he could've said it was fine and been silent afterwards, and Rich would have to avoid 'S' words forever when he was around him. But he said the word *cute* he called Rich *cute*. Why? How? He needed to break the silence, the unreadable tension once again, "Maybe I'll say s-words more often, Jakey."
