Better Late than Never

II. Duo

VALERIA

Walking into homeroom, I am already regretting my decision of not faking sick today. First days at new schools are never desirable.

Especially for my senior year.

I don't blame my mom for choosing a change in location, though. Opportunities of being Executive Manager at one of the top marketing franchises in America don't come every day. This is also a nice change from boring Montana.

I notice that everyone is deep in conversation with one another and the teacher is nowhere to be seen. It was expected that everyone would have their groups, it being the 4th year and all.

Or so I thought.

A boy is sitting at the back of the class with his head bent over his phone. He is alone, seeming to be dwelling in his privacy.

I am walking to the empty desk next to him when he raises his head.

Woah.

I lock eyes with one of the most beautiful boys I have ever seen in my life.

His head is covered with waves of dark, brown, almost black, curly hair. He is wearing circular, wire glasses rimmed with gold, which sit in front of beautiful brown eyes. He seems to be mixed with white and something East Asian. His skin is a fair olive complexion and is the clearest I've ever seen, sporting little to no blemishes.

After analyzing all of his distinctive features, I realize I have been staring for nearly 15 seconds, probably looking like a creep.

"Hey!" I start, hoping to erase my weird actions. "Is this seat taken?"

He seems to not have heard me, given he is still staring at me.

Who's the weirdo now?

He suddenly blinks as if he had blanked out. He opens and closes his mouth a little before settling on actual words.

"Uh, yeah- I mean, no!" he stammers. "It's empty, all yours!"

I chuckle slightly at his seeming nervousness and take the seat next to him.

"Thanks," I respond.

"I'm Valeria, but everyone calls me Val." I introduce.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jason, but everyone calls me...uh...Jason." he replies with a laugh.

Even his voice is beautiful.

"I, uh, haven't seen you before. Are you new?" he questions.

"Yeah, I moved here from Montana over the summer. My mom got a huge promotion." I answer.

"Oh, nice," he replies. "Do you like the town so far?"

"Yeah! It's a nice change and the people are so nice." I honestly may have expected to be approached by three mean girls as soon as I walked in, but that may have something to do with my chick-flick binge the night before.

"Well, you need to meet more people," he says with a laugh. "I can assure you that there are a few bad apples out there."

"Can I assume that's why you're sitting here by yourself?" I ask jokingly.

"I guess you could safely make that assumption," he says with a light laugh.

"I do prefer keeping to myself, though. Not really a social person." He elaborates. "I only have one friend, who's the opposite of me. His name's Alex. You might meet him at some point today. I think nearly everyone knows that kid. It still baffles me as to how I became friends with him in the first place but, it's hard not to love him."

"Aw, how cute." I tease. "I get it though. I had a best friend, Kenzie, who was probably one of the most important people in my life, aside from my mom."

"Oh, sweet. You said 'was' though...did something happen?"

"Oh, I found out she had been hooking up with my boyfriend last year. So..."  This also created my habit of unconsciously bracing myself when opening my bedroom door, because, guess where I found them?

Never doing sleepovers ever again.

"Oh! That's...horrible. I'm sorry." he says, obviously shocked.

"Sorry, I know that kinda killed the mood. I'm sure your friendship with Alex is great." I say, consoling.

"Ha, yeah. Hopefully, I don't have to worry about him hooking up with my boyfriend," he says, before stammering. "I mean- not boyfriend. Girlfriend. I just said that because of your- I'm not- I like girls."

"Don't worry, I know what you meant," I say, chuckling slightly.

"Not that there's anything wrong with boys liking boys. I just...don't. I'm straight." he continues. 

"I believe you, Jason."

There's a moment of awkward silence, as he's still hung up over his word choice.

"Okay, it's been like ten minutes, where's the teacher?" he says, breaking the weird silence.

As if summoned by the mention, a middle-aged man with a balding head and disgruntled clothing bustles into the room.

"Sorry 'bout the delay class. I have not had the best morning!", he explains with a chuckle. "First, my alarm didn't go off, then all the bathrooms were occupied, and then--"

"Um, sorry to interrupt Mr. Suthers, but this is homeroom and only lasts fifteen minutes. The bell is gonna ring in like two minutes so..." a girl interrupts.

Mr. Suthers glares at the student for interrupting the telling of his entire life story and proceeds to take attendance.

"Hey," Jason starts with a slight blush on his cheeks. "What's your next class? Maybe I could, like, help you find it...?"

"Oh that would be great!", I pull out my schedule. "AP Gov in room 234."

"Oh, nice! That's on the way to my next class," he says.

We gather our things and walk out of the classroom together.

I walked through my schedule this morning, so I know where each class is and how to get to them.

I guess it never hurts to have a little refresher, right?