Chapter 1: The Meeting
Eric's POV:
I looked at my reflection. Gray eyes that looked like lead, black hair that fell across my face. I frowned. There were dark circles under my eyes from not sleeping for the past four days. My complexion was very pale and my lips were light pink. I put in my piercing and sighed. I looked washed out, just the colors of the gray scale shown on me. I walked out the bathroom and went to my closet. Like usual I slipped on a band t-shirt, but covered it with a gray v-neck sweater. I put on black skinny jeans that were loose, and my favorite gray blue vans that matched my eye color. Until the day I felt the need to look colorful, I would just stick with the gray scale.
I walked out my room looking through the kitchen door to see if anyone was inside. My dad was sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading the paper, my mom across from him working on her new book. I walked in, went to the fridge, and grabbed the milk. I was going to eat some nutritional cereal. My mom looked up from her pile of papers that she was probably reading through to see if there were any spelling mistakes and frowned. Probably disapproving my breakfast.
"You should eat something else than cereal everyday." I rolled my eyes and poured fruit loops into my bowl, followed by a ton of milk. I dropped a spoon in and sat it on the table sitting in a chair.
"You eat a bagel everyday." She frowned and looked back to her manuscript. Her pen working to make red marks over all her mistakes that she could see. Her editor would handle the rest.
"You shouldn't talk to your mom like that, she's the only mother you have." I sighed looking at my dad. His piercing blue eyes stared at me. I rolled mine and stuck a spoonful of cereal in my mouth.
"You just jealous that me and her are on friendly terms." His lips tightened into a straight line and his hands went into fist. I stopped myself from continuing before I was punched. He was a physical man, not one for a conversation. I leaned back in my chair and sighed.
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I walked to my locker slowly, my feet scraping against the tile floor. I sighed as I put in my books, not caring what I needed. I grabbed a notebook and a pen so I could doodle. It was better to not pay attention then trying to pay attention and get confused. I walked off to my first period class, looking straight ahead, ignoring all the stares I got.
Today was my first day of school if I forgot to mention that. I wasn't having a smooth time at my old one. I ran my fingers through my hair, nervous of who I would have to sit by, who I would end up talking to. What would the teacher be like? I walked into the class and walked up to the teacher.
"Where do I sit?" She looked up at me, smiling slightly.
"Ah, the new student. Sit where ever you like. We don't have assigned seats in here." I nodded and walked off to the seat in the very back. I sat down, leaning back and watched a cloud passing by.
"So you're new here, right?" I looked away from the window to see who was talking to me. A guy was smiling at me warmly, but I didn't return it. I didn't smile. I frowned, I pouted, sighed, and scowled, but anything that had to do with my lips pulling upward didn't happen. I looked at him with a straight face. So far I had nothing to be happy with. I had a lazy mom that didn't take care of me beside financially, and a dad that talked with his fist.
"Yeah, I am." He nodded slowly, trying to find a way to lighten the mood. It wasn't heavy to me, but my expression probably said other wise.
"I'm Zed and you are?" I looked at him closely. He was smiling widely, eyes bright, skin pale but glowing. He was the opposite of me, full of color.
"Eric, nice talking to you Zed." He looked at me with a confused expression until the bell rung. His eyes opened wide with surprise, wondering how I knew when the bell was going to ring. "Clock." I mouthed, pointing to the round object that told time. His cheeks flushed red.
Zed's POV:
I felt my cheeks turn red with embarrassment. Of course he looked at the clock. I turned towards the front, looking at Ms. Hill as she smiled brightly at her class. She was a good teacher that many took advantage of. I glanced back at Eric. He seemed to not like me much. I felt my face dropping from it's happy expression for a moment, till I felt a stare from where Eric was. I looked over at him and smiled. He nodded and looked back out the window.
I looked at his glossy black hair that the sunlight was resting on, his gray eyes looked like a dull version of liquid silver. I rested my gaze on his lips. They were light pink and bow shaped, slightly turned down. I looked back up to look at his eyes that were staring at me, watching me intensely. I felt myself blush and I looked back to the front of the room. I probably seemed weird staring at him like that. I mentally slapped myself.
All period Eric had stared out the window. The only time I saw him looking over at me was when he noticed that I was staring at him. He seemed to think that eye contact was important, but his expressions were lacking. The bell rang and he slowly got up, turning away from the window. His notebook filled with sketches that I didn't notice that he was drawing.
"What do you have next period?" He pulled out a slip of paper from his notebook and turned the sheet towards me. I looked at it, reading English. I smiled widely, glad that he had the same class as me. I looked at his other class. "We have English together and lunch, health, and art. Want to walk to class together?" He shrugged.
"Sure." I walked out into the hallway with him following me. My eyes wandering to him. I finally built the courage to look below his face.
He was wearing a t-shirt under a gray sweater, but it hugged his body nicely. I could see the faint outline of his chest and abs, my hand itched to touch him. He was wearing loose skinny jeans and gray blue vans. I looked up feeling him watching me.
"Liking the view?" He said tiredly. I felt myself blushing and looked away from him. It was obvious that I was gay and didn't think much about it since my shirt said "I like it in the rear", but I was worried about what he was thinking. He wasn't a homophobic, but he wasn't really being friendly with me.
We walked into Mr. Clark's room. I sat a desk away from him, knowing that he was going to sit by the window. Instead of looking out the window he looked at me, staring like he was reading me. I could feel myself blushing and tried my hardest to focus on the board.
"You want to eat lunch together?" I turned to look at him in surprise. He didn't seem like the one to ask stuff like that. In fact he seemed like the one to either be invited or go at something alone.
"Yeah!" I said a little to excitedly, blushing. His eyes brightened up slightly, enough for me to smile at him. I felt my mouth go dry. I conclude that that was his smiling face at the moment. I would get him to smile at me.
Eric's POV:
"I like it in the rear" Is what his shirt said. I frowned inside, hoping that he didn't have a crush on me. I wasn't a homophobic, but I wasn't gay either. I leaned back in my seat. I decided to pay attention in class for now.
My fingers drummed on the desk lightly, keeping my hands busy. It was really hard trying to pay attention to something so boring. I had read all the books that he wanted us to read last year. I forced my eyes to stare straight ahead instead of turning towards the window. A drifting cloud would be a lot more intresting. I finally gave in and looked out the window. My body relaxed from finally being released from such a tense situtation.
I heard a sheet of paper fall on my desk. I looked down at it to see my name written on it neatly. I unfolded it to read what the message inside was.
-Isn't Mr. Clark's class boring? It's so hard to listen to him talk. You'll like art though. <3 Zed
I kept myself from frowning at the heart. A lot of people placed hearts in their signature. I wrote back saying that it was boring and told him that I probably would like art. Anything to have the chance to look back out the window to the bright blue sky. Why couldn't my eyes be that shade? I looked down at my desk to see that the sheet was returned. I opened it slowly, wanting oh-so-badly to ignore it.
-Yeah, what are you staring at? Is there something outside? <3 Zed
-The sky.
-Oh, okay. Well meet me outside during lunch under a big tree. You'll know it when you see it. <3 Zed.
I nodded, tired of writing and turned back to the window. Letting the folded sheet of paper rest on my desk, my thoughts far from the letters written on it. I wanted badly to go back home and just listen to my iPod, to drown out the world's annoying noise. I also wanted to give Zed a friendly face, but I wasn't able to do that.
Zed's POV:
I walked out the class saying good bye to Eric. I felt my eyes water as I turned away from him and walked down the hall. It was obvious that he was saying that he didn't want to be "close". I walked to the restroom and released some of the building emotions. Was I not good enough? Was it because I was a guy? He probably didn't like me because I was a guy, but I wasn't enjoying his coldness. I knew he wasn't being mean and that he probably acted like that all the time, but I wanted to be special. I wiped my eyes and walked out the restroom, done with pitying myself.
Third period was boring without him. I wanted to stare at him as long as possible, memorizing the color and texture of his hair. Watching his eyes light up when he found something to be happy about. Most of all I wanted him to be staring back at me, watching me closely, seeing the want in my eyes for him. I sighed and looked out the window and stared at the sky. I watched a cloud pass by and frowned. What did he find so interesting about this?
Finally the bell rang dismissing me to A lunch with Eric. I practically ran to be able to have his gray eyes staring at me. To see his lips and think about kissing him. I thought about his abs and me touching them with my hands. Were they as hard as they looked. I felt my jeans tighten a little and made a quick stop to the restroom. It was no good getting excited over simple things no matter how amazing they were. After I was done I continued my journey to the lunch room.
A hamburger and fires rested on my tray. I walked to the big tree, seeing that Eric was already sitting underneath it. My heart started to beat faster, looking at his long lashes that curtained his eyes, his hair looking silky and smooth. I sat across from him and smiled.
"I see that you made it." He nodded, eating a french fry.
"Why is history so boring?" He was looking down at his tray, dipping a fry into some ketchup.
"Who knows, probably because everyone worries about the present and not the pass." He seemed to like my answer since his eyes lit up. He nodded, approving my answer.
"Probably." I watched him as he stuck the fry in his mouth completely. My eyes watching his lips. I looked up at his eyes, he was watching me staring at him. "So, you're gay?"
"Yep, you have a problem with that?" I watched him, he didn't even react as I asked, his gaze didn't even waver from my eyes.
"Nope, just wondering since your shirt seems to imply it. Can't judge a book by its cover though." He stared at me and I stared back, but I was the first to look away. He went back to eating his fries.
Lunch was awkward. He answered with short answers, not even trying to stretch the conversation. I felt kind of disappointed. I was hoping to get better answers than what he was giving me.
"What does your mom do for a living?" I asked him while he threw away half his fries and his hamburger.
"She writes books." Was all that he would say. I wanted to pull my hair out, beg him to tell me more, to let me into his life. Most of all, I wanted him to lean close to me, to want to kiss me. I wasn't sure if this was just a crush anymore. I frowned, finished with the day and just walked out the school. I was going to skipped the rest of the day.