Shipping Warning: Ranchers (Tango x Jimmy)
Tw: injuries, blood, and minor swearing
More School AU fyi
Enjoy!
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{Jimmy's POV}
It was a nice day outside.
Decently sunny, with just the right amount of clouds. Warm enough for shorts but not blisteringly hot. And a nice breeze kept you cool, even as you sweated during your PE class.
Perfect weather for biking.
And that's what I was doing. Biking laps around the track, AMRAP style, in our PE unit, popping manuals here and there. I was trying to get high enough to be able to jump a curb.
Stand on the pedals, push down to low position, bounce up with a slight pull on the handlebars. Not perfect form, but it worked - the front wheel would bounce up for just a second.
My friend Joel biked past me. "Top of the evening," he said, miming a tip of a hat. I laughed and he biked on.
He was about to turn the corner when things started to go wrong. I was going rather fast, as this side of the track was shady and easy to speed on. I stood up on the pedals, pushed down to low position, and bounced up. My wheel moved, but so did the handlebars as I landed, swerving.
I moved too.
The bike wheel pointed to the left while I kept moving steadily forward. I flew over the handlebars, skidding across asphalt, tearing up skin.
The wind was knocked out of me. I was bleeding. A lot. From a decent amount of spots.
Joel turned around. "Jimmy, you good?"
And because I was an idiot who was used to walking off scrapes, bruises, and falls, I nodded. He nodded back and kept biking.
I walked over to pick up my bike. The handlebars were shifted to the left, but the wheel faced solidly forward. A wire connecting the brakes mechanism to the wheel was out of place, too. When I tried to walk it - there was no way I was getting back on - the wheel would roll, then abruptly stop.
It was hard to breathe. I was taking shallow breaths. I let the bike rest against my leg as I checked my injuries. I heard multiple choruses of "On your right" and "Bike back" as I stood there.
Scraped up left knee and upper right leg. Bleeding right palm, right knee, both elbows, left wrist, and right forearm.
This was just great.
I checked my stomach, too, since I had skidded on that. Surprisingly and luckily, there were no scrapes.
I knew I'd hurt like hell tomorrow, though.
Alright, Jimmy. Class is almost over. Focus on one thing: getting your bike to the bike shed so you can go to the nurse.
Now you may be wondering: why didn't I leave my bike right there? Because I was injured, not an asshole. I didn't want to make more work for an innocent underpaid PE teacher when it wasn't very far to the shed anyways. I could walk. It was only half the track.
As I started walking, I realized that it was nearly impossible to walk with the broken bike. Every time I started to make progress, the wheel would stop, refusing to budge.
And to make things worse, my vision was starting to go blurry, like it did when I got dizzy playing my instrument. But unlike that, it didn't go away quickly. It just intensified, getting more pixelated.
"Are you alright?"
I turned around and met the flaming red eyes of Tango Tek.
Of course. My crush, of all people, had to see me like this.
The helmet tamed his usually wild blonde hair for the moment, but I could see tufts of it sticking out. Normally, people laughed at me when I was hurt or inconvenienced, like the bullies in our PE class, but Tango's red eyes showed no signs of that. He was genuinely concerned.
"Uh, well, I fell, and the bike's a little broken..." I stammered.
Tango dismounted. "Go around. Nothing's stopping you," he said to the group of popular kids that relished in people's pain. I briefly made eye contact with my former best friend, Scott Major, among them. He looked away and biked off with the rest of the group.
"Let me take that for you. You're bleeding pretty bad."
"Uh, okay," I said, letting him grab my broken bike and taking his functional one.
We walked side by side. Tango only lagged a little, muttering curse words when even his strength wasn't enough to yank the broken bike into submission.
We dropped our bikes off at the shed and took off our helmets. My vision was still blurrily pixelated, but I could see Tango's hat hair. It looked kinda cute.
Not that I needed vision to see him anyway. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Tango. He was that kind of out-of-my-league kid who I always seemed to fall for. First Scott, now Tango. I wondered if I'd ever learn my lesson.
"Let's get you to the nurse," Tango said. I followed him up the stairs, though I knew the pathway by heart.
I stumbled on one of the stairs, due to my crappy vision, and Tango reached out and grabbed my hand.
I prayed he wouldn't notice the fact that my face had just gone nuclear.
Tango explained to the PE teacher what had happened, and I showed him my injuries. We were dismissed, and we walked through the halls that were steadily growing more crowded, Tango's fingers still laced in mine.
I went into the nurse's office, fully expecting Tango to leave and go home. I got bandaged up as best as the nurse could. Luckily my vision had started to return.
I opened the office door five minutes later and met Tango's eyes. "What- why are you still here?" I blurted out, accidentally letting the door slam behind me.
"Why would I leave?" Tango countered. He grabbed my hand again and walked with me to my locker.
As I put my stuff in my backpack, Tango leaned against the locker next to me. "Don't you have, like, stuff to gather? A bus to catch?" I asked.
Tango walked to a locker a few feet away, spun the code, grabbed a bag, and slammed it shut. "Stuff? Gathered. I've got no bus, I walk home."
I closed my locker gently. The hallway was empty. "Why?"
"Why do I walk home?"
"No, why did you help? You could've biked by like everyone else."
"Why would I do that, Jimmy?"
Oh damn. I was not prepared for his intense gaze or the fact that he knew my name. "Well, it would've been easier! We're complete opposites of the social ladder anyway. You're totally out of my league." Crap, did I say that out loud? "Your reputation could be at risk for helping me! Why would you risk your popularity to help some nobody?"
Tango smiled. "First of all, you're not nobody. You're Grian and Joel's friend. You're a great student. You're an even better French Horn player. Yes, I've been to all of your concerts. And second of all, popularity isn't worth much. I'm considered attractive, I get people hitting on me all day, and I have an even worse- never mind. But I'm not popular like Scott, and therefore my popularity isn't worth shit.
"I've got nothing to lose, helping you, and everything to gain. A cool friend, and the relief that I could help someone and actually do something right."
I found it hard to breathe, and it wasn't because of my injuries. "Really? You'd want to be friends with me?"
Tango sighed, an exasperated sound accompanied with another smile. "Of course. Did you listen to what I said?" He grabbed a red marker from his bag and scribbled something on my hand. "Text me."
I nodded. "Thanks. I've, uh, gotta pick up my instrument..."
He grinned, taking my hand. "You take a bus or get driven?"
"My dad drives me," I said as the two of us walked to the band room.
I quickly grabbed my French Horn and walked back outside. We walked to the main entrance and stood alone in the empty hallway, in an awkward silence. I didn't know why we stopped.
Tango smiled again, this one more flustered than confident. "Have a nice afternoon, Jimmy."
Before I could reply with "You, too," he stepped in, kissed my cheek, and walked outside.
I stared after him, then down at the number on the back of my hand.
Tango Tek liked me? Impossible, yet here it was.
I just hoped it would last.
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Word Count: 1423
I fell off my bike like Jimmy a few days ago and this spawned.
Yeah, I know it ends like the Flower Husbands one. Shhhhh. Might write a popular Jimmy thing to balance it out.
Hope you enjoyed, see you in the next one!
~Ax