anna separated from daniel after noticing how his breathing calmed. her green eyes focused on the small tears that fell down her brother's cheek. "why haven't you told me about this?"
daniel shrugged and cleared his throat to speak. somehow he still felt alone in the cupid situation. "i didn't know if you would tell someone, we're always fighting and i didn't want you to use this against me."
"you're my brother, i like to annoy you but i would never, and believe me when i say never, try to hurt you." anna replied with a frown and pulled daniel's hand so that the two sat on his bed. "do you want to talk about it?"
"no."
daniel wanted to save everything for himself. he didn't want to talk about what the letter meant or what was her supposed to do now. nor that he began to see corbyn as an attractive and quite pleasant boy to be with. he didn't want to talk about new feelings or that his friends didn't speak to him. nor that he was feeling extremely alone.
"well, i don't care, because we're going to talk about this." anna said raising the letter again.
daniel shook his head and felt as the burden overwhelmed his throat asking him to scream, he had been like tjis since he read the fucking letter.
"yes, we are definitely talking about this. this is something serious, dani." anna spoke again.
"do you think i don't know it?" the blue-eyed boy's voice was broken, like him. "i know perfectly how serious this is. that's why it freaking scares the hell out of me."
anna put her hand on her brother's back and tried to find a way to support him. she hated seeing him like that. "you know what?" daniel shook his head. "since i learned about cupid's game, i was looking forward to see that letter sent to mason. that she had to conquer me in order to be together forever." daniel tried to smile but he had no strength left. "but when i read your letter i realized that this is not love, this is forcing someone to pretend. no one should go through this."
"believe me, it's better that mason conquers you because she wants to." daniel said making a grimace.
"if i have to wait for mason to try to conquer i will become old, i think i will have to do it myself." and for the first time all day, daniel laughed.
the blue-eyed boy took a deep breath before speaking. it was time to talk about it. "this is the third round of cupid."
anna stared at her brother's lost gaze. he was opening to her.
"the first was just to make contact, to know who i had to conquer. in the second i had to kiss him." daniel said biting his lip. kissing corbyn besson hadn't felt like an obligation.
daniel liked to do it. he liked it a lot.
"and this... well you know what it asks me in this one."
"tell me you're not going to do it." anna said clenching her jaw.
"of course not." daniel's response was quick. "this is something important to me, it is my intimacy and i choose with whom to share it." daniel let out a sigh. "i'm not going to have sex with corbyn besson."
anna removed her hand from daniel's back and opened her eyes in surprise. "corbyn? the one who beat you up? the asshole, corbyn besson?"
anna screamed so much that daniel was afraid that his parents would listen to them, so he got up and closed the door of the room to look at his sister confused from a distance. "why are you surprised? haven't you read the letter?"
"yes, i read it, but here it says.." anna took the paper and read directly from it. "had sex with your target, show him that he is important to you, dani."
"well my target is corbyn, i didn't remember that it hadn't mentioned him in this letter." daniel said dropping back on the bed. "that's why i fought at school with him. he was about to discover my cupid letter. and the rules say..."
"fuck the rules! and fuck cupid!" anna interrupted him. "you can't let it play with you like that."
"oh it's true, i should face it." daniel said smiling at her, raising his back from the bed. "oh, wait..." he frowned pretending to be worried. "i have no fucking idea who it is!" he finally yelled at her making anna scared.
"i was just trying to help you."
daniel lay back on the bed. "i know, anna. i wish you could help me. but nobody can."
anna lay beside him and the two stared at the white ceiling of the room. "and what are you going to do?"
"i'm going to have sex with corbyn besson."
anna punched him in the stomach causing daniel to complain. "you just told me you weren't going to do it! that it was important for you! besides, you're a virgin, you don't want the first one..."
"i already know." his brother intervened still complaining about the punch his sister gave him. "i just saied it to see it it works."
"what works?"
"you believed it." daniel said trying to calm his sister. "if i have learned anything from zach, it is that rumors sometimes have more power than actions."
ΩΩΩ
zach was doing something wrong. he knew it. but he could not resist.
he repeated to himself that he was doing it for daniel, but inside he knew that it wasn't so. he wanted be there. he wanted to look at hi mall day.
jonah was at the soccer field playing with the ball on his feet while training with his team. zach was amazed to see him play. the rumors were true, jonah was the star of the team. he passed the ball to eben and he finished off with his head scoring a goal. the white bib team went to celebrate it and even eben gave jonah a hug. that didn't usually happen because the two were practically rivals on the same team.
zach came back to reality when he heard gabbie's voice beside him.
it was weird not being in the stands next to daniel, he always joining him to see jonah. actually they were always going to see jonah because of daniel. but this time was zach's idea and daniel wasn't there.
"did you know that it is a lie that cleopatra committed suicide for marco antonio? that story is very shakespearean, they say she let him commit suicide after spreading the rumor that she had died, hoping that octavio augusto would forgive her life, committed suicide because she couldn't get the power she wanted, not because she wanted marco antonio. poor man, i read that they say he seemed bewitched. " gabbie took a breath when she finished her speech. when she had an idea she tended to speak quickly, it was as if she was trying to keep it in his memory so she could not forget it.
"why would we have tro care about cleopatra and marco antonio?" christina asked wrinkling her forehead.
zach also missed the presence of margo. she used to join them and even if she said nothing, her presence marked a pleasant feeling.
after all, they were his best friends, but lately they seemed like strangers.
"because it's history, general culture." gabbie shrugged, she also loved to comment like that, at first zach reminded him a lot of daniel when he got nervous. "besides, i think it's a delicious drama, we could tell mr. richardson."
blake richardson, professor of body expression and theater workshop, was the one in charge of deciding the works they would do for the school theater, also deciding what each course would take care of. zach was lucky because blake like him, he occasionally gave him important roles, usually he was the antagonist. but his favorite student had always been christina, mr. richardson clapped like crazy every time she acted.
"yes! i want cleopatra..." they hadn't even proposed it to richardson and they were already starting to fight. between gabbie and christina there was always competition.
"can you realize that cleopatra is not your type? she is the bad one, she is the villain, you can be octavia, the pretty girl who suffers the misfortunes that marco antonio does to her, not the damn sensual one who cuts heads and holds the snake bites."
"i'm a freaking sensual, i can do it." christina growled.
the two entered into a conversation that looks more like a battle while zach didn't take his eyes off the player with the fourteen back number on his back.
"but you would scream if you had a snake in front of you."
"stop." begged zach. he wanted to be calm with his thoughts not in the middle of a battle.
they continued with the tirade, so zach rolled his eyes and rose from his seat. they didn't even realize that zach was abandoning them there. the practice was about to end so there was no use staying there. he went down the stands and went to buy a coffee.
there was a cart near the cafeteria, zach came every day and always asked for the same. a cappuccino with whipped cream and a shortbread with chocolate chips. the lady didn't even ask him what he was going to order, she only showed him a smile when zach gave her the money.
minutes later she handed him is delicious order. zach looked for a little table among the crowd, found an empty one a few steps away, so, without further ado, he went there. along the way he greeted the familiar faces that smiled at him, among them he saw kay who even winked at him.
zach dropped into his seat and blew the smoke from his coffee. a strange sensation made him frown, he raised his head and looked around, but found nothing. he was about to focus on the chocolate chips again when he saw him.
his heart skipped a beat that, far from being pleasant, frightened him. what the hell is wrong with me? shit, zach.
his greenish eyes were fixed on the browns of zach, his face was imperturbable, but his intense gaze didn't leave zach despite the fact that the short boy had discovered him looking at him.
for some reason zach didn't stop looking, he stayed still.
his mind went blank, it was the first time his eyes met again since the party. since jonah asked him on a date. zach had feared that the green-eyed boy would have forgotten that, but it seemed not.
someone cleared his throat, so zach blinked and looked away from jonah, even though he didn't want to. why didn't i want to do it?
kay was standing in front of him with one of her sweet smiles, she raised an eyebrow in zach's direction. "it's been a long time since we've seen each other." said the blonde girl.
"we saw each other the other day."
kay licked her lips and made an effort not to laugh. oh, kay, you arrived just in time. zach didn't want to break eye contact with that sexy boy so he wouldn't look like a coward, but he didn't want to look at him either. zach's heart shouldn't beat so fast when he saw it, a zach belived that it was maybe because jonah had that effect on everyone.
"you know what i'm talking about, baby." er eyebrows raised suggestively, the only thing zach did with kay was talk to her the other night and ask how she was. since then the girl had been very kind to him. but that didn't bother zach, he thought he could even flirt with a girl, and if that girl was kay cook, he would be more than happy.
her fingers drum the edge of his table. "will you go to friday's party? maybe we can meet there."
zach didn't know if he was going. he loved parties but his mind remained focused on the double date with jonah and daniel on thursday. "maybe..."
"you like to play hard to get, huh?"
"i'm hard to get." zach gave her a wink. kay rolled her eyes so the brunet boy finally said. "i will go."
"i'll look for you." the blonde girl promised before leaving.
zach was left alone again, uncomfortable and desperate, because he didn't know what to do. he quickly looked for a solution. zach thought the best thing will be to get away from there, i can't stay here and pretend that a few minutes ago i couldn't stop looking at him, the brown eyed boy thought. he clenched his teeth until he felt them grind and stood up, making an effort not to lift his head to look for the sweet gaze of jonah marais.
zach started almost jogging, his heart rampant and angry at himself for paying attention to someone who didn't belong to him. to someone forbidden for him.
zach repeated that his best friend was in love with jonah marais and he wasn't going to get in daniel's way.
===
word count: 2241
so now you know what was the letter about. what do you think i'll happend next between corbyn and daniel?
𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚜, 𝚌𝚞𝚙𝚒𝚍