Farren turned to face Jesse as the two made their way off of the football field after practice. It was Thursday evening and the team was heading in for showers before travelling home.
"Jesus that was tough." Jesse complained, referring to the gruelling training session that Coach Carter put them through that evening.
Farren nodded in agreement. "The heat didn't do anything to help." He replied, pushing his damp hair back from his forehead where the sweat had made it cling.
Jesse let out a small chuckle of agreement. "Hey, we should hang out this weekend. I mean, just the two of us. I feel like we haven't hung out without Luke and Kaden in ages." Said Jesse.
Farren agreed. "Yeah you're right. Clay Dalton is having that party Friday, so why don't we hit the mall or something Saturday?"
Jesse hummed in agreement. "Sounds good to me. I need to buy more socks anyway, Luke keeps stealing mine." He huffed.
Farren snorted in reply. "Heartbreaking, Jess. What a real tough life you do live." He said sarcastically, earning him a glare from the other boy.
"Whatever bro. You'd get annoyed too." Jesse replied, and Farren just shrugged in response.
"Anyway," Jesse continued, "there's something I've been meaning to ask you." He said, clearing his throat.
Farren looked up at him curiously. "Ask away."
"I need a favour," Jesse said with a hopeful smile.
"I'm not shaving your back for you again, if that's what your going to say." Farren cut him off before he could continue.
"That's not what I was going to ask." Jesse replied with a laugh.
"Go on then." Farren said curiously.
"I was wondering, if maybe you could help me out with Rachel. You know, put in a good word for me or something." Jesse said, blushing in embarrassment.
Farren laughed at his friend's embarrassment. "Sure man, not that I need to anyway. I'm pretty sure she's into you too." He said truthfully.
"Really?" Asked Jesse excitedly, a quick smile spreading across his cheeks.
By this time they had made their way to the carpark. Both of them had decided to just skip the showers, which were full, and to just shower at home.
"Yeah." Farren replied with a laugh of his own.
"Oh man." Jesse said, practically grinning at this stage as he rubbed his hands together in excitement.
Farren watched on in amusement. "Bro your so whipped." He chuckled.
"Do you blame me? I mean, it's Rachel." He sighed, staring into a space with a dreamy smile on his face.
"Puppy." Farren snorted in reply, though he was happy for his friend.
Jesse just laughed, sending him a quick goodbye before making his way in to his car. Farren too sat into his, turning on the cd before pulling out of the school and heading home.
He was in a surprisingly good mood, as he bopped his head in time with the Imagine Dragons song playing through the speaker of the car.
He pulled up to his house, turning into the driveway and turning off the music. He sat in his car for a few more minutes, scrolling through his phone and replying to his text messages. Eventually he made his way inside the front door, making sure to lock the car behind him.
He could hear Grace and Jenny talking in the kitchen, and was going to head in to greet them when he heard laughter coming from the den on his right.
Wondering was was going on, he headed towards the door which was only slightly ajar, pushing it open all the way.
He was met with he sight of Kaden and Rowan on the couch, laughing together as they watch The Parent Trap.
What the hell was going on now?
He stayed silent, not wanting to interrupt them. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of them; Kaden spread out on one part of the couch, while Rowan sat next to him, clearly loving the attention.
His smile only deepened when they started arguing about who was the cooler twin, until Kaden begrudgingly agreed with Rowan, causing her to grin eagerly at him.
Seeing Kaden so good with kids.. he had to admit it was kind of heartwarming.
At that moment, Kaden seemed to sense his presence and turned around to face him. "Oh hey Farry, didn't hear you come in there." He said with a smirk, turning back to the television to pause it.
Farren greeted him back with a smile, somewhat confused. Ever since the weekend, Kaden had been really getting to him. He was just so hot and cold. One minute he was talking away to him, smiling and laughing, then it was like I switch had flicked and he resorted back into his closed off self.
"Farry!" Rowan exclaimed, bounding over to him eagerly and jumping into his open arms.
"Hey Rowan. What you watching there?" He asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"The Parent Trap." She grinned happily, as he set her down on her feet. "It's so good Farry you have to watch it with us." She beamed, heading back over to the couch and plonking herself back down next to Kaden.
"Yeah sure." He said with a smile, making his way over to the other side of Kaden and flopping down on the couch next to him.
He felt Kaden tense beside him, like he had been doing all week. What was going on? Just two minutes ago he was smiling at him and calling him Farry, for god sake!
If he was being honest, Farren was starting to get sick of Kaden being so goddamn indecisive. He rolled his eyes when his leg accidentally brushed against Kaden's and the other boy moved it away so quickly it was almost like he had been tasered.
A few minutes later, Kaden was slightly turned away from him as he focused all his attention on Rowan. Kaden and Rowan laughed and chatted as if they had been siblings all their life, and Farren had to admit there was something cute about their little friendship.
If only he knew what the problem was with his and Kaden's friendship at the moment.
XXXXX
Kaden slipped into his seat in the maths classroom where he sat next to Damon, one of the decidedly more bearable boys on the football team.
They were the only two jocks in their maths class, what with it being the 'gifted' class and all. Everyone else in the class were just major nerds, who spent all of their time studying and none of their time actually having a life. Seemed pretty pathetic to him.
"You going to Clay's party tomorrow?" Damon asked him, breaking the silence.
"Probably. I mean, yeah. Are you?" He replied, making small talk while waiting for the lesson to start.
What could he say, he was a math whore.
"Think so. Summer wants to go so I presume I'll be dragged along too." He said, rolling his eyes in mock annoyance even though it was evident he didn't really mind at all.
Summer was Damon's long time girlfriend and the two had been together since freshman year.
Kaden smiled in reply, though he couldn't relate to what Damon was saying. He never had a long term girlfriend, or even a short term girlfriend that he really cared about.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when the teacher entered the room, and the class fell silent. Even though it had only really been him and Damon even talking. As he said, the others were all nerds. No time for talking when you could be doing extra work, huh?
The lesson began, and Kaden found himself getting through it easily enough. But while he wasn't struggling, his heart wasn't in it either.
He couldn't help his thoughts drift to Farren, as they seemed to be doing so regularly lately. He wondered if Farren was good at math. He wondered what class Farren was sat in at the moment. He wondered what Farren's favourite subject was.
No matter what he did, he couldn't help his thoughts from drifting back to that brown haired green eyed boy.
How did the expression go? All roads lead back to Farren Milton. At least that's how the expression went for him.
He groaned and banged his head off the table, earning him a concerned look from the teacher and a weirded out look from the other students.
Fuck them. They didn't have to deal with this kind of shit.
He focused his attention back to the problems in front of him, getting through them quickly enough.
If only he could solve his Farren dilemma as easily as he could solve these quadratic equations, he sighed.
Eventually the bell rang signalling the end of class. He only had one more period left, study hall, before school ended and football practice began.
Sighing, he heaved himself up from his seat and made his way to the classroom, spotting his friends at their usual table, he made his way over and joined them.
Luke, who was deep in conversation with some guy called Nathan, didn't hear him sit down. A second later after noticing Kaden sitting there, turned to face him with a smirk.
"Well, how was nerd maths?" Luke asked him with a mocking grin.
Luke, along with some of the other guys who weren't afraid of Kaden, liked to take the piss out of him because he was in 'gifted mathematics.' Some of them probably couldn't even spell gifted mathematics.
"Are you jealous Luke?" He teased in reply, keeping a straight face.
"Why would I be jealous?"
"Maybe because I can actually achieve something with my life. The only course you'll get accepted into in college is basket weaving." He snapped back, feigning an innocent air.
"Well K, I hope you enjoy being the loser nerd in university. Hey, maybe we can all chip in for a pair of nerdy specs for the occasion?" Luke replied with a laugh.
Kaden shrugged casually. "Sure. They might help me read the menu board easier when I'm ordering food from you in McDonalds."
Luke sighed in defeat as the other boy's laughed around him.
The supervisor entered the classroom, but nobody bothered to stop talking. She never really made them actually study. She supposedly spent the whole period playing futuristic war games online, and as long as they didn't go too loud that they disturbed her playing, she didn't really give a shit what they did.
He tried to keep up with the conversation, but was having a hard time concentrating. After the fourth time he had zoned out, Luke leaned over to him.
"Hey man, everything okay with you?" Luke asked in a low voice so that the others couldn't hear.
"I'm fine." He replied with a tight lipped smirk that was only halfway reassuring and not at all convincing.
"Kaden." Luke pressed in a knowing tone. "What's up? You can tell me you know."
He gave Luke a somewhat more believable reassuring smile, shaking his thoughts out of his head. "I'm fine man, really. Don't worry about me, I'm just tired."
"If you say so." Luke replied uncertainly, clearly worried for his friend.
"I do. I do say so." Kaden shot in quickly, focusing back on the group's conversation and pushing all his lingering thoughts to the back of his mind, knowing that they would be keeping him up during the night anyway.
Hey, maybe he'll be awake longer than Farren. Then again, was that really likely?
The class went by at a fast enough pace and soon it was time for practice. The big game was in about seven weeks, so the coaches were really starting to put pressure on them.
As he came out of the changing rooms he walked with Luke and Damon. They chatted about the upcoming training session, deliberating about how much laps they would be made run today. Kaden's bet was on twenty.
And he wasn't wrong.
They ran their laps, attempting to talk as they went. Kaden was approximately halfway through his eight lap, Luke and Damon running with him, when he noticed a male figure standing stretching his legs outside the railings, casually observing the practice.
As he got nearer, Kaden could see that the guy was dressed in running gear, meaning he had either just came to run in the park next to the football field, or had just finished a run.
The man stood up, and suddenly Kaden felt a jolt of recognition when their eyes met.
The guy had black hair, was relatively pale, and stood about six foot tall.
And from the look of realisation that passed through this stranger's face when they made eye contact, Kaden knew this guy must recognise him too.
Then suddenly it came back to him.
He felt his stomach drop to his knees as he halted in his tracks, just staring at the guy who stared right back at him.
It all came flooding back, the memories from that night he had decided he had enough of being unsure and had decided to just go out and figure out this sexuality thing for himself.
The guy. In the gay bar. The guy he had made out with. The only guy he had ever kissed.
And here he stood before him, in shorts and a wind cheater, even on this relatively warm day with no wind to be felt.
No. Fucking. Way.
XXXXX
Wellllll.... I'm sorry !! Haha ;D
Hope you enjoyed, drop us a vote if you did ;)
Qotc; Biggest fear?
Aotc; Being buried alive, drowning, quicksand and wasps *shudders*
Ly all xx
-A