A/N: Hey guys! New story :3 Go on and read ^^ There's a bit of language, but I think you can handle it if you're on the internet xD
Suggested song: "Given and Denied" by Poets of the Fall
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“Hey man, that girl over there, she’s got the curves,” Bryan licks his lips and leans forward on the lunch table. Luke looked over in the direction Bryan was staring and saw the girl he was talking about. A young blonde, in a white blouse and short navy skirt.
“She’s cute,” Luke replied uninterestedly. He leaned his face on his left palm and took a sip of apple juice.
“Awh c’mon man, what’s up with you?” Bryan said, slapping Luke’s arm. Luke rolled his eyes and turned away, engaging himself in a different conversation.
“Hey so I heard your dad is finally letting you get an Xbox,” Luke said with a smile.
“Yup! Dude you have no idea how long I’ve waited for this!” Aiden replied, pumping his fists in the air enthusiastically.
“Is that all you guys ever talk about? Gaming and shit?” Gwen asked, a little annoyed. Melissa nodded in agreement.
“Woah, woah girls, that’s like when you ladies talk about make-up and fashion!” Taylor laughed, receiving a playful punch from Gwen.
“We need to game when you get that Xbox, Aiden!” Gavin grinned.
“Yeah definitely! I just don’t know what games I should get yet… and plus, my dad will probably limit how many games I can buy,” Aiden grumbled.
“I’ll lend you some of mine if you want,” Luke offered. Aiden’s face instantly lit up in excitement. This was a typical day for this group of friends, seniors in high school. It was the month of October, meaning almost two months into the school year. They chattered away when suddenly, a loud shout and the clang of metal hitting the floor was heard.
All heads turned towards the lunch line, where the noise had come from. A slender, pale boy had been shoved to the ground; his lunch was scattered on the ground around him. The boy that was originally standing behind him in line smirked and walked past him. Then, everything went back to normal. The lunch line kept moving and students babbled on. The boy on the ground picked himself up and slipped his hands into the pockets of his grey sweater. He had short black hair, bangs falling right over his eyes. He strode out of the cafeteria like nothing had happened.
“That really sucks, doesn’t it?” Gavin muttered, as Luke watched the boy leave.
“Yeah, I guess,” Luke nodded and took another sip of his apple juice. “I’m goin’ to the restroom, be right back,” he sighed, as he got up and headed out. He took his steps casually, humming a little tune that not even he could quite make out. He pushed open the door the restroom and walked on in. The door was slammed shut and he instantly turned around to find himself face to face with a notorious bully of the school.
“Well, look what we have here,” Seth smiled smugly. His two followers eyed Luke and blocked the only exit of the restroom.
“What do you want?” Luke asked as he crossed his arms, annoyance apparent in his voice.
“What’s with that attitude bitch? Should I change that for you?” Seth cracked his knuckles and advanced on Luke.
“Look, I don’t have anything to do with you and I don’t want to.”
“But I do. I’ve heard about you, Luke. You’re the one that gets all the girls with your romantic pick-up lines.”
“So what? You jealous or somethin’?”
“No, not at all,” Seth gritted his teeth, “I want to make a bet with you. I honestly don’t believe you can get all the girls. So–”
“So you want me to specifically ask this one girl out? You have no idea how many of these bets I’ve won,” Luke cut in.
“Is that so? Well then, I don’t think you can get a guy,” Seth smirked.
“What, you want me to ask a guy out?” Luke looked at him in disgust.
“Yes, because I say you can’t do it. What do you say?”
Luke hesitated for a moment, “Fine, bet is on.”
“Cool, cool. Now if you should fail–”
“Don’t tell me, because I won’t fail. And when I win, you will stay away from me for the rest of eternity. Is that clear?” Luke declared.
“Confident eh? Well, that’s fine by me. But I don’t want you asking a buddy of yours to work with you on this so I will specify someone: Noah Ephron.”
“Who the hell is that?”
“That kid that was pushed over in the lunch line just now.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Problem?”
“No.”
“Good, now, you can’t tell anyone about this bet, not even your buddies.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“You must also date him for three months,” Seth continued.
“Are you just going to stand there and keep adding to the list or what?”
“That attitude is going to kill you one day. C’mon, let’s go boys,” Seth snickered and walked out.
Just as they left, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Luke groaned and trudged out of the restroom and went to his locker to get his books for the next class. He sits through class, unable to concentrate at all. For the rest of that week, he couldn’t think about anything other than how he should approach Noah.
It was one fateful Wednesday after school when Luke, Aiden, and Gavin are on their way, leaving school. They turn the corner, Aiden blabbering on about his new stereo set, Luke and Gavin pretending to listen. There was a flash of red and Gavin was thrown to the ground, another boy on top of him. Aiden and Luke froze, glancing at the two on the ground and turn their heads to see a couple of jocks next to them.
The boy, wearing a red jacket and black jeans, push himself off of Gavin and scooted back. “I’m s-sorry!” he stuttered. “I’m r-r-really s-sorry! I d-didn’t mean to…”
Gavin pushed himself upright and took one look at the boy before putting a hand on his shoulder, telling him that it was alright. The boy refused to listen though and continued on with his apologies. Gavin ceased his movements when he saw droplets of water on the tiled floor. The boy was crying. Without hesitation, Gavin pulled him into a hug and patted his back comfortingly. He looked up to find a couple of jocks snickering back at him.
“What the hell?!” Gavin yelled at them and turned his attention back to the boy in arms. He brushed the boy’s black hair out of his face and saw a bruised cheek and busted lip. The tears wouldn’t stop falling.
Aiden, who had also seen the injuries on the boy’s face, starting fuming, “WHAT THE FUCKING HELL? Who gives you the right to do this?!” He steps forward with a menace at the bullies.
“What? Some little kid like you tryin’ to threaten me? Oooh I’m so scared!” one of the guys laughed sarcastically and shoved at Aiden. Just when they were going to start throwing punches at each other, Luke steps in and pulls Aiden back.
“If you guys don’t leave, I’m going to call the security,” Luke warns. They don’t move and he meets eyes with all of them. “The school only has cops on campus because of you guys.”
The jocks glance at each other and one of them steps forward and speaks to the boy over Luke’s shoulder, “You got lucky this time. We’ll make sure you stop breathing next time you little bitch.” He glares at Luke and turns, walking away. Luke watches as they walk farther down the hall and disappear from sight. Luke turns back, hooks his thumbs to the pockets of jeans as he watches Aiden and Gavin comfort the boy.
“Hey dude, you’re okay now. They’re gone,” Aiden grins and kneels beside the boy.
“Yeah, I doubt they’ll come back,” Gavin offers. The boy nods a bit and mutters a quiet thank you.
“Here, get up,” Luke smiles softly and stretches out a hand to help the boy up. The boy takes the hand as Luke pulls him up. But the boy looses his balance and stumbles a bit; Luke quickly grabs his arms to help him stand properly.
“Ahh… thanks,” the boy looks up at Luke and tries his best to smile.
Noah.
Luke’s mind blanked out for a moment. He recognized this boy; the boy he had to date for three months. He nodded as Noah headed over to his locker, where his papers and pencils were scattered all across the floor.
“Want some help?” Aiden beamed and rushed over to pick up the papers for him. Gavin and Luke helped gather Noah’s belongings as well. They watched as Noah sorts out the objects and places them neatly in his locker. He takes two books and closes his locker, clicking the lock shut.
Noah turned to them, a hand still on his locker, “Thank you guys so much.”
“It was nothing! Those ass-faces need to go to hell,” Aiden laughed, his hands on his hips. Gavin chuckled at Aiden’s silliness and shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest.
Luke didn’t say anything but he saw it. The word “fag” was spray painted onto the door of Noah’s locker. Even though his hand covered the majority of the word, Luke could still see it. Something stirred in his chest and it felt like someone had placed a huge rock on him, willing him to push it off.
“By the way, what’s your name?” Gavin asked Noah.
“Uh, Noah.”
“Noah? Noah,” Aiden nodded, saying his name a couple of times before smiling at him, “I like it! Noah’s a cool name!”
“R-really?” Noah had a bit of a confused smile on his face.
“I’m Aiden, this is Gavin and this is Luke!” Aiden introduced the trio and took Noah’s free hand in his, shaking it like a robot would.
“Stop it, you’ll scare him,” Luke rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Not everyone’s cool like you, Luke,” Aiden pouted and turned back to Noah, “Right?” Noah smiled at him and nodded. “See Luke; some people are actually nice.”
“Oh stop it Aiden, we both know Luke is nice,” Gavin sighed, placing a hand on Aiden’s shoulder.
“Whatever,” Aiden said in a girly way.
“Let’s get going guys,” Luke stated.
“Okay, okay!” Aiden waved his hand in a shooing manner and smiled at Noah, “See you around, Noah!”
Noah nodded at them as they started down the hall. He turned and sighed inaudibly. He swung his backpack over his shoulder and took a step forward when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He flinched and turned around abruptly.
“Sorry, didn’t meant to scare you,” Luke smiled apologetically.
“N-no. Overreaction I guess,” Noah shook his head.
“You…”
“Yes..?”
“You shouldn’t let them do this to you. You should tell someone,” Luke said plain as day.
“Um… I –”
“No one deserves to get bullied no matter what. You don’t seem like a bad person, Noah.” The two stared at each other a bit awkwardly. The eye contact was getting a bit too intense for Noah to bear. He averted his gaze to the ground and Luke turned away. “See you around.”
“Uh yeah, okay,” Noah mumbled, his fingers unconsciously tightening on the books he was holding.
Over the course of the next few days, Luke learns that Noah and he have third and sixth period together. Just as Luke had concluded before, Noah didn’t seem like a bad person at all. In fact, Noah was like an innocent puppy trapped in a cage with fighter dogs.
Ever since Luke had started talking to Noah more, he seemed to get attacked by bullies less and less. Luke was like his bully repellant. Even then, Luke always noticed small, fresh cuts on Noah’s face or neck. Sometimes, his hand was wrapped in bandages or he would limp a bit when they walked. Luke never questioned it though; it wasn’t his place to do so.
As Luke walked into his forth period class, he instantly saw Seth in his seat. He cross his arms and leaned against the wall. Seth got up and walked over to him, hands in his pockets.
He leaned in, whispering in Luke’s ear, “Don’t forget what you have to do, prince charming.”
“Fuck off, Seth.”
“Still think you can do this?”
“I’m taking my time, like I would with girls. Maybe that’s why you don’t get any; always rushing them to have sex with you.”
“You’re going to loose the bet anyways,” Seth said with a scowl and walks back to his own seat. Luke settles down in his own seat and flips through the pages of his textbook, waiting for class to start.
After one long, boring hour, class ends and lunch starts. Luke races out of class and rushes over to Noah’s locker. He came to an abrupt stop, causing him to almost fall over. Noah looks at him with surprised eyes.
“Wanna… wanna hang out with me at lunch?” Luke panted, a little out of breath.
“S-sure..?” Noah answers hesitantly.
“Great! Come with me!” Luke grabs Noah’s wrist and drags him away from his locker, towards the cafeteria. As the two wait in line for lunch, Noah fidgets and plays with his fingers, staring at the ground.
“Maybe I shouldn’t…” Noah starts.
“Hm? Shouldn’t what?”
“Shouldn’t… Maybe I shouldn’t sit with you today…”
“It won’t be just me; my friends are there too, remember Aiden and Gavin?”
“I just… I don’t usually sit with people at lunch.”
“Think of today as an unusual day then,” Luke chuckles. Noah doesn’t reply as they grab lunch and make their way over to the said table where Luke’s friends were gathered at.
“Ooh who’s this?” Gwen asked, interest sparking in her eyes.
“His name is Noah. He’s a new friend,” Luke explained before Noah could introduce himself.
“Hi Noah, nice to meet you,” Melissa smiled at him and shook his hand.
“N-nice to meet you too…”
“Oh my name is Melissa and this is Gwen,” Melissa indicated, pointing at the ginger next to her. Noah nodded at them when Aiden, Gavin, Bryan, and Taylor arrived at the table.
“HEY! It’s you!!” Aiden hollered and ran over, grabbing the seat across from Noah.
“Seriously, you’ll scare him away,” Gavin sits down to Aiden’s right, while Taylor takes the one next to Gavin. Bryan takes the seat across from Luke, a frown apparent on his face.
“Who are you?” Taylor’s monotone voice rang out.
“I’m… um, Noah.”
“Oh.” Taylor reverted his attention back to his lunch and started eating. Noah nervously glanced at Luke.
“Don’t worry about Taylor, he’s a bit weird. Actually, more like extremely antisocial,” Aiden reassured him with a soft smile, “This over here is Bryan. He’s our player. He’s got his way with the girls!”
“Except he always gets a slap to the face when the girl leaves him,” Gavin cuts in. Melissa and Gwen burst out laughing at Gavin’s comment.
“Luke’s the one who gets the girl and keeps her for long time. He’s really got the charms,” Gavin notes.
“Nah, not really,” Luke said, taking a bit of his sandwich.
“Why are you here?” Bryan inquired, looking directly at Noah.
“I brought him here,” Luke answered.
“Why did you bring him here?”
“He’s my new friend. Problem?”
“We don’t need some fag sitting here.”
There was a moment of silence at the table. Noah looked down at the hands in his lap. He bit his lip.
“What did you say?”
“I said, we don’t need some fag at our table.”
“Apologize.”
“No, why the fuck should I apologize to it.”
“Fucking apologize.”
“No man, what’s gotten into ya?!” Bryan stands up and slams his hands on the table. Aiden gets up instantly and places a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. Bryan roughly pushes him away; this time Gavin and the girls stood up.
“Bryan, stop this. You’re being stupid,” Gwen chimed in.
“What, you’re all going against me now huh? What’s this fag got that I don’t?”
“Some manners and etiquette,” Luke stands up as well, glaring at Bryan.
“It’s either me or him! I don’t want to be near this… this thing.”
“Bry–”
“Stop! Stop, everyone just stop!!” Noah’s shouts silence everyone at the table. “I’ll just go.”
“What the hell, no. You’re staying put,” Luke grabbed Noah’s arm and pushes him back down.
“I don’t want… to be the cause of a broken friendship,” Noah mumbled, his eyes watering a bit.
“Well you won’t be. If he can’t handle my new friend, then he can’t handle me. There is no friendship here.”
“Luke…” Bryan breathed in disbelief. “You would… choose that fag over me?”
“I’m not choosing anyone, you’re just–”
“FINE. I’ll leave! None of you bitches want me here anyways. Fuck you all,” Bryan yells. He grabs his lunch, chucks in the trash and storms out of the cafeteria. The group of friends glance at each other awkwardly and sit down again.
“Well that happened…” Taylor murmured.
“Eat your food,” Luke ordered.
“Why did you…” Noah’s soft voice rang out.
“Because I didn’t like the way he was talking. I didn’t like the fact that he doesn’t like you. Like I said, he’ll only be my friend if he can accept a new friend like the rest of the gang did,” Luke finished and took another bite of his sandwich.
“I’m sorry.”
Luke almost choked. “Don’t be sorry, oh my god. Seriously! I don’t know how to handle these situations.”
Noah looked up at him and they met eyes. Noah’s lips curve up in a soft smile, “Thank you.”
“Sure thing.”
Not another word was exchanged between the two, but both had a smile set on their face. One smile for the genuine friend that he found and the other for getting one step closer to winning the bet.
~~~
A/N: So... how was it? T_T I'm sorry if it wasn't very good. I haven't really written anything a looooong time. I'll try my best to improve and make this story nice. Please tell me if you spot any grammar or spelling mistakes. It's late and I'm tired ahhh and my verb tenses are just all over the place. I'm so sorry ahhh. Anyways, I'll have the next chapter up asap! Comment please!! <3