"They're staring at us!" Gabe whined
"They're not staring at us. Why would they even be staring at us? We don't know them. If they were staring at us that would be totally weird. You're just paranoid." Quent replied exasperatedly.
Quent and Gabe had decided to go to school together in light of the picture they'd seen last night on Facebook. Which meant taking the bus. The small, enclosed bus full of people, which when added to Gabe's over reactive imagination led to a whole load of stress they didn't need.
Even if everyone on the bus had been staring at them (which they hadn't) Quent wasn't sure why Gabe was bothered. "Everyone" consisted of a tired looking businessman reading a newspaper, a twenty-something guy with a mohican and massive headphones, and a couple of ladies so old they looked like they were about to keel over. Or they could just have been teenagers who had smoked way too many cigarettes. It was quite hard to tell nowadays.
"Even if everyone on this bus was staring at us, that would be a total of six people. Including us. And I don't know about you, but my staring at myself skills are not the most well developed of all my talents. And why would you care anyway?" Quent asked.
"Well... They're looking at us!" Gabe said, fidgeting with his hands. "I don't like people looking at me."
"Yes you do! You love people looking at you! Your while life is based around being the centre of attention all the time." Argued Quent.
"Yeah... But this is different! They're not just looking at us, they're judging us!"
"Didn't you come up with a scoring system for figuring out how hot a girl is? Which, is pretty offensive to any girls when you think about it."
"Well, that was easy. I'm not attracted to girls, but I know what makes them attractive. Every time I dated a girl it was entirely based off how hot she was, and how much it would convince everyone, including myself, that I wanted her. Instead of wanting her hot ex boyfriend. I wasn't really judging them. It would make no real difference to me if the girl I was with had a high score or a low score. I would still be equally uninterested. The scoring system was just convenient."
"You dated a girl, and you had a crush on her ex boyfriend?" Quent asked incredulously.
"Oh yeah. It's happened a few times actually. Surely you must have had this problem as well? Because I picked girls with higher scores, they usually had really hot exes. One time I was on a date with this chick, and we met up with her ex. She thought I was being all aggressive because I was possessive over her. The real reason was that I was trying not to drool over him the whole time."
Quent pouted slightly at this, so Gabe quickly backtracked, "But not as hot as you, obviously."
"Well duh," Quent replied, smiling along with Gabe.
"So what would the best combo be for a girl if you were going to date her?" Quent asked.
"Well, my ultimate combo would be... Ummm. Okay, dark hair, green eyes. Nice body. Athletic, but not dumb. Outgoing, but not slutty. Interesting, but not weird. Cute foreign accent. That's what I mostly used to say when guys asked me that question."
"You literally just described me but in girl form. I'm quite flattered actually." Quent said.
"Hmmph, I'm not sure 'interesting but not weird' really describes you," Laughed Gabe.
"You're saying I'm weird?" Quent questioned.
"You can read my mind." Gabe deadpanned.
"Fair point," Quent agreed.
"And for the record," He continued, lowering his voice to a seductive whisper, "You are totally my type as well." He hissed, causing Gabe to blush slightly, his cheeks going an adorable rosy pink colour.
Quent smiled to himself. He seemed to have distracted Gabe enough with their conversation so that Gabe didn't seem too nervous anymore. But that was bound to end as soon, he sighed.
The doors to the classroom were painted dark blue and were fairly unremarkable at first glance. And even if you stared intensely at them for hours, Gabe was reasonably sure that they would stay fairly unremarkable. What stood out to him was how large they seemed to have grown over the last twenty four hours. They seemed to stretch on forever, and was that barbed wire that had mysteriously appeared at the top of them really necessary?
Gabe sure didn't think so. But there was one thing that was bothering him a lot more than the door or the imaginary traps. Quent's arm was just sort of dangling, his hand hanging there not doing anything in particular. And Gabe really wanted to grab it. He felt like it would be so much easier if they could grasp each other's hands and get through this together.
But at the same time, he wasn't sure. If they went in holding hands, they were most likely going to even further alienate the rest of their class, and it might make it even harder for them. He knew what he wanted, to show the school that this was the person he loved and there was nothing they could do to change that, but how could he be sure that Quent wanted the same thing?
After all, they had only really been together for a few days. Sure, there was the whole bonded forever, eternal soulmate thing. But still, it wasn't quite the same as dating for months and being fully aware of each other. They hadn't set any boundaries yet, sorted out where their relationship was going and how far it would reach. There had been so much happening there just wasn't the time.
Because he knew those boundaries must exist, somewhere. They both had experience with dating and relationships, but not actual lasting, meaningful ones. None of their previous partners had really mattered, because they were all girls. Gabe knew there would be a point when things got a little too intimate, or they found out things about each other that nobody else knew about. And in his mind, this was one of those points. You could make out and tell each other inspirational things all you wanted, and it still didn't necessarily mean anything.
But being there for someone as they did something difficult, getting over big obstacles together, to do that you had to really care. It took commitment. There were certain walls you had to cross to do that. And he wasn't sure if he was ready for that kind of step in their relationship. Or maybe it was the opposite. Perhaps he was ready for that kind of change, but wasn't sure if Quent felt the same. Maybe he was just scared that he would reach out over the wall, and not find a hand on the other side.
It was then that Quent turned to him, panic darting behind his eyes. Inside, Gabe felt a sharp stab of pain go through his heart. He could tell what Quent was going to say next, it was obvious from the look in his eyes. It would be: "I'm not sure if I can do this," or "Can we just act like it was all a joke or a dare?" Or even, "Maybe we should just forget this whole thing anyway, nobody will ever accept us." Every different scenario sent another jolt of pain going through his chest.
But Quent didn't even open his mouth to speak, he just leaned forward and kissed Gabe full on the mouth.
"I'm sorry," he murmured against Gabe's lips. "I just...I needed that."
"Don't worry," Gabe smiled, "I think it's what I really needed too."
Tightly they grasped each others hands, shoved the doors open and strode confidently into the room.
Konnichiwa! Or, Ohayou Gozaimasu depending on where you are ( I spend way too much time watching anime)
Sorry this is late again, but it's near the end of the year so things are a little hectic with exams etc. In a few weeks it will all be over, school will be finished and I will have time to update more often. My aim is to get this finished before school starts again in September, but that might not be possible.
I hate how in England you get like one week off in July and all of August, and then it's back to school. You miss most of the summer! American schools are way better.
IF THERE ARE ANY SPELLING/GRAMMAR MISTAKES PLEASE TELL ME!