I glanced at Levi as we walked in to school on Monday morning. Yesterday after the car ride with Richie and Hans, it was surprisingly uneventful. Richie and Hans basically dumped me into a room that looked like a boxing practice room with boxing gear and punch bags. I couldn't ask any more questions to them until Levi came for me. They said I was welcome to visit them anytime. I ended up working out. I was able to do 16 pushups and do five sets with 10 pound barbells in that room. Then Levi had come to get me at 12. After making a quick detour home, we showered and left to buy my girl clothes and the mattress. Then at 3pm I went for my job and Levi left for his job as well. Even with Cade Pietro's threat hanging over us, life just went on. Levi wasn't back even when I went to sleep but still had woken up earlier than me. I wondered if he wasn't dying from lack of sleep, I thought as I glanced at him.
He looked fresh though and kind of annoyed as he held my hand in his. I looked warily at his hand enveloping mine. He said that was the way we were going to tell the school that we were going out without actually saying it. I still felt it was not necessary. His callused, big hand was making me too aware of my own hand. I mean my whole attention was on the hand he was holding, which makes me sort of nervous. I wish I could pull away my hands and rub it hard against something else to make the tingling feeling go away. But I resisted. Callused hands are sort of itchy and weird probably. I must be worried about my own manliness, I deduced. That's why I was thinking about the size and warmth of his hands.
My attention returned to the reality when I started hearing hushed voices and snickers. It slammed into me that I had entered the same hall in which I was shoved around only two days ago. Come on Elliot! That happened only one day. Some people tolerate it all the time and still come to school. Let's just forget about it, I told myself to cheer up.
"Is Levi holding the lesbian's hand?" I heard a girl say. I couldn't say whose voice it was as the hushed whispers became louder.
"Shameless bitch..she's now after Levi.,did she switch orientation suddenly?" I heard from among them.
It was like a walk of shame I guess. People kept staring at us from both sides of the hallway, whispering in groups and throwing me nasty looks. I had known people would say I switched sides but Levi insisted I didn't come out as a lesbian or anything else for that matter and so it should be fine. I wondered at that though. Was he pushing his own interest over mine because he loves me? At the moment though, I couldn't fault it. He could protect me from the other guys who bullied me yesterday. My own friends are too air headed and into their girl friends to notice things going on in my life. Being with them protected me a great deal but after Friday's disaster, I needed someone close by.
Was I being weak by accepting Levi's help? I wondered. I might be compromising my image by faking to be Levi's girlfriend but right now, I just wanted all the talk about me being a lesbian to die down. I know as a boy I liked girls because boys like girls. It was as simple as that. I confessed to my ideal girl. But after what happened, I am confused enough to want to back track a bit and think over it. I would never like boys though. I just need to find the right girl. The right girl will understand why I was faking a relationship with Levi. I am just trying to protect myself and Levi also knows that. He offered me this fake relationship for that sake. When I meet the right girl I will come out with her support. Until then, this should be okay. I hope Levi doesn't mix up his love with the real nature of our relationship, I thought uneasily.
"Did she wear her mother's curtains to school today?" Someone else asked and then laughed nastily.
"Or her great grand mother's clothes. Or she dug it out from a garbage bin." Someone replied with a snicker.
I glanced at Levi. He said the same thing when I wore the clothes. Yesterday, when I went for shopping girl's clothes I chose to shop in a second hand place simply because I didn't want to waste my money on girl clothes. I got a whole bunch of clothes for much more than my normal clothes. And as I was wary of Levi's interest in me, I had bought clothes that were baggy and covered me from neck to toe. Then I bought some lip stick and mascara.
Since it was the first time I applied it, I hoped it didn't look so bad. Levi had insisted it looked bad and wanted me to wash it off. I didn't though. That's the reason for that frown on his face. He hated my clothes and the make-up. He had insisted people would make fun of me. I didn't think he could actually be right. I didn't see any problem with my long skirt and baggy shirt which I had tucked into my skirt. I was even wearing a girly scarf around my neck. I didn't think heels were comfortable. So I wore my converses. I still think I look like a girl with my make-up.
"Look at that clown. Isn't Levi ashamed of her?" Someone asked and I glanced at him warily. He probably was ashamed of me. I mean that's what he was trying to say all along by trying to make me buy other clothes and arguing with me early in the morning. I tried to let go of his hands because I could hear insults to my clothes and make-up from all around me. But Levi held on tighter. He glanced at me and smiled. It didn't reach his eyes because I knew he was pissed. But to onlookers it would look like he was smiling at me.
People actually stopped talking at that. Levi rarely smiles. I tried a grimace of a smile as well to play along. I don't think anyone would buy that we were actually a couple. This was torture, I thought as I walked stiffly beside him with the accusatory buzz of whispers around us. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw my friends who were gaping at us. I ran over to them quickly and Levi followed after me.
"What the hell, Elle.. you and Levi..what's going on?" Ed demanded staring between both of us. I could see everyone eavesdropping on our conversation.
"We are going out." Levi said dropping his arm on my shoulder. I tensed uneasily.
"What?" Fabian and Kyle sputtered. I could hear more outrage from the others listening to us. I didn't dare deny it. It was very uncomfortable.
"Is this really true? Since when?" Ed asked me.
"The last we heard, you confessed to Naomi and now this? You got rid of heartbreak pretty fast didn't you?" Fabian asked insensitively. I mean I have the densest friends in the whole world. Ed, Fabian and Kyle were the school's famous soccer team leads. They don't realize they are followed by ears wherever they went. They think they can actually have a private conversation in the hallway. They are so foolish like that.
I grimaced. I didn't know how to play along with our farce of a relationship. I was still hurt over what happened with Naomi.
"I was the one who confessed to her. She agreed." Levi said and I swear the gasps were so loud at that admission. I glanced at Levi wondering if it was okay to say it. It just made me very uneasy. Was he somehow trying to create a situation to compel me to stay with him? It would be very hard to break away from him after all the drama we were creating.
I tried to divert the topic by asking about the soccer practice but the boys started admiring my clothes with wolf whistles and poking my cheek. I looked at them.
"I look okay huh?" I asked them hopefully and Fabian laughed. The others elbowed him.
"No babe. You look like a fabric roll with a clown head attached to it." Fabian said and we heard laughter from all around. My friends grimaced when they realized people were listening.
Perhaps it was my hurt expression that forced Fabian to amend it by saying "It's a very pretty head though."
Levi glared at them and dragged me along to my surprise to an empty lab room. I thought he would tell me "I told you so". But instead, he pulled down his bag and took out a small bottle with cotton balls.
"Here. Please clean up your face." He said. I sighed as I looked at the label on the bottle saying "make-up remover". When had he bought that? I knew he was looking around the cosmetics section with me. But I didn't think he was buying it. He had asked me to buy it but I thought those were useless items.
I grimaced. It was humbling to accept he was right. Grudgingly I took it and poured the bottle into my hands and splashed on my face.
"No. Wait. Not like that. It's not water." Levi said, getting a shocked look on his face.
"Shouldn't I then rub these cotton things on my face?" I asked him and he looked puzzled.
"I..don't think you splash it on the face but yeah you remove it with cotton. Let me check." He said quickly taking out his phone. I watched him type how to use makeup remover and then showed to me a video. I looked at it with a frown.
"It's not very different. They also put it all over the face." I said and Levi sighed.
"Yeah. Whatever. Just clean up." He said and to my surprise gave me a small compact foundation that had a mirror on it to check what I was doing. I removed the makeup on my eyes and lips. It stung the eyes a bit. I wanted to wash my face. Thankfully the lab had a tap and sink and I cleaned up my face there.
"Here. Keep this with you. Girls carry it everywhere I think." He said, giving me the compact powder. I didn't really see the point. Why would people want to powder their face anyway? It will feel so grimy and itchy. I watched Levi pull his jacket around me and remove the scarf.
"Wear this. At least the attention will be somewhere else other than your clothes for some time." Levi muttered.
I glanced at him. He was wearing a t-shirt under his jacket. He hates showing off his tattoos. You can very rarely see him without his jacket at school. People had complained about his tattoos before as well but for some reason the principal had allowed it. It causes a lot of resentment among other students.
I realized then that I could swap my long sleeved shirt with his jacket. I didn't want to go around showing his tattoos when it looked like he was uncomfortable like that.
I pulled off the jacket and Levi started to explain why he gave me the jacket. He looked with wide eyes as I started unbuttoning my shirt.
"Wait. What are you doing?" He asked, looking around.
"Exchanging my shirt with your jacket." I said and he looked confused.
"That's not necessary. Please don't remove it. This is a lab. Not home." He said looking panicky. I rolled my eyes. He's probably just freaking over that fact that the girl he loved was undressing before him.
"Just close your eyes. It will be quick." I said and Levi glowered. He tried to touch me to stop me but gave up with a growl and turned around muttering a curse. Why was he all jittery? I wasn't wearing anything under the shirt but it wouldn't even take a minute to change clothes.
I removed my shirt and tapped Levi's arms to give my shirt to him. Just at that moment someone entered the lab and we both stood there frozen. I glanced at our chemistry teacher. She had a class behind her. Oh my god! Classes have already started while we were here, I thought.
The teacher's mouth opened in shock and Levi and I saw more students come in. Levi spun me around and quickly pulled on his jacket on my shoulder. I realized he wanted to quickly cover me. I frowned. I knew it was embarrassing sometimes but boys exchanged clothes and sometimes went around shirtless. I don't like changing clothes with people around because I was shy compared to most boys, but Levi was practically like my brother now. It wasn't that much of a big deal right? I could see Levi's startled face.
"Shameless hussy." A girl growled at me from behind the teacher. The teacher shot her a frown. I could see everyone crowd around and stare at us. Wait! What were they thinking? Are they really thinking we were doing something perverted? I thought as I glanced at Levi who had a caught look in his eyes. Hey! Don't look like that! I wanted to scream at him. People will get the wrong idea.
"Students. Please go in and take your seats." The teacher said and then gave us a pointed look.
"Come out." She said tersely. Levi gave me a worried glance as he pulled up my shirt in his hands. I could see him try to cover his arms self consciously. He pulled on my shirt as he went out. Since it was very large to begin with, it fit him.
"That slut..she couldn't wait to jump Levi. So shameless!" I heard someone say loudly and my eyes widened. No! That wasn't the case. I hoped the teacher wouldn't think the same.
"Elliot and Leviathan. I know you are teenagers with difficult to control urges. But please take some consideration to your surroundings. This is the school. At least I hope you listened to the sex ed teacher well enough to use precautions." She said and I gaped at her.
"Ms. Parker, we were really just exchanging our shirts. There is nothing like that going between us." I said and then started hearing whispers. I glanced to see the class next door eavesdropping on our conversation. Our English teacher who never cared about controlling the class, didn't notice or care about students crowding around the windows. He was marking books and it looked like he had given a group work. I grimaced. We were practically getting a public scolding.
"It's as she says." Levi said in a clipped tone. He was also looking uneasy at the attention we were getting.
The teacher didn't look like she believed it. "I will overlook it this one time but I will report this to the principal. Next time, please exchange shirts somewhere privately." She said as she put snide emphasis on "exchange shirts".
"And Leviathan, as the older one, please try to control yourself. Elliot is still very young." She said reprovingly before going back to the lab. I cringed. Levi looked extremely uncomfortable and I bet I was blushing. None of us wanted to create a scene. So we didn't reply. We wanted it to be over as soon as possible. How could she just jump to conclusions because she saw me in my bra? Girls wear bikinis and stroll around on beaches. Nobody thinks they are having sex because of it.
"We have to go to class." Levi said tersely. He looked very uncomfortable and I was going to apologize. He must be regretting his decision to make me his fake girl friend, I thought uneasily. I hoped he didn't renege on our promise. I kind of need him to be my fake boyfriend as protection against bullies. But I was being selfish I guess, I thought as I stared at the floor.
"Ellie, are you okay?" He asked me and I looked up at that.
"Hey, don't worry. They stupidly jumped to conclusions. There is nothing you should be ashamed of. It's okay." He told me and my eyes glistened for some reason.
"Aren't you ashamed?" I asked him warily and he sighed.
"I was more worried for your sake to be honest. There was nothing for me to be ashamed about. To be honest, there's no reason why either of us should be ashamed. It was awkward as hell though." He said with a shrug.
"You know Ellie, even if you know you are a boy, you shouldn't forget that others see you as a girl. There are some things society finds acceptable among boys but puts out of proportion with opposite sexes. To them, we are a boy and a girl. Remember that, Ellie." He told me and I looked at him with wide eyes. He didn't have a chiding tone. He had told me that very gently. I tried a small smile. I knew Levi said what he did softly enough that others wouldn't hear it.
"They'll assume we are flirting now. Let's go to class without fanning the fire we had created." Levi said with a roll of his eyes. I looked at him. I just felt really terrible to put Levi through trouble because of me.
"Don't look like that. Cheer up and forget." He told me as he took my hand and dragged me along to class. We were very late but Levi dropped me off to my class before heading over to his class. My teacher scolded me for being twenty minutes late to class but allowed me inside. I could feel people's stares on me like cutting lasers directed at me. I sighed. They still didn't know about the lab fiasco. Suddenly, I couldn't wait for the day to be over and go back home with Levi.
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AN: Please vote and or comment if you liked this chapter :)