It was the beginning of December, and they had already had a few days of below-freezing weather, showing that winter break was fast approaching.
Three weeks had passed, or, well, almost. Three weeks since William left consisting of good times after school and then going home and talking about 'Christine' who didn't even exist. Or, maybe someone at school was called Christine, but no one that Dylan hung out with.
Dylan was standing by his locker on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, way too early in the morning, and talked to Felicia. A murmur went through the crowd around them and Dylan could already guess that the football team was coming in through the doors.
"Has he gotten himself a new?" Someone next to them asked, and Dylan frowned.
Then, as if on cue, the team came by, and he immediately understood what all of the fussings was about. And it made him very self-satisfied.
When they'd hung out the day prior, he'd made sure to get back for all of the times he had to cover up his neck. Like, really, really, get back. But Chris hadn't covered them up, at all. He walked with his usual outfit like nothing was different. And everyone was staring, including Dylan himself. They made eye contact for a split second and Chris gave him that cocky, side looped grin that made Dylan's heart beat faster.
Then, the moment passed and Dylan continued getting his books out and made his way toward his first class of the day.
Hours later, Dylan was sitting in History, the only class that he and Chris had together. They were working on an assignment that was to set out events on a timeline that they had been provided with. Not that hard.
"This one is supposed to be here," Chris took a small note that said 'Vikings' and put it on the timeline. Dylan looked at the other notes. They sat huddled close together, whispering to not disturb any other students in the classroom.
"You really made quite the scene this morning," Dylan grinned, catching Chris's attention. He shot him a cocky smirk.
"I did. No need to cover up, right?"
"I suppose not," Dylan agreed, "everyone's talking about it."
"I know. They can say what they want, speculate all they want," Chris grinned, "they won't be right about it."
Dylan nodded. There was a sort of rush to people not knowing, and trying to hide it. Still, it was tiring. To be honest, he wouldn't even mind that much if the school would find out. As long as his parents didn't. But it was better to keep it on the down-low... for now.
"We study on Thursday, right?" He asked, though he absolutely did not plan on studying then.
"Of course," Chris looked up from the paper, making Dylan how close they truly were. It was only inches between them, and he had to stop himself from leaning in and blowing it all up. "In the library, though, 'cuz mom and dad are home."
"That's fine, then we can-"
"Mr. Davis, Mr. Brooks, while it's nice to see that you can actually get along nowadays, I really would appreciate you continuing with the assignment," Mr. Morgan said from behind them, and Dylan got a feeling of deja vous from the first week of school. When he'd met Chris for the first time.
"Sorry, Mr. Morgan," he mumbled, his eyes finding the paper on his desk again.
Suddenly, Chris shifted and got his phone out, looking around to make sure that the teacher was far away. "I got a text."
"From who?"
"The school newspaper," he frowned on his phone before a wide grin broke out on his face. "They want to do an interview for tomorrow's newscasting."
Dylan let out a short laugh. "What about?"
"I don't know. They asked if I would be available today after school."
"Well, you are free. You have to go," Dylan encouraged, "come on, it'll be fun."
Chris squirmed. "Oh, alright, I guess I don't have a choice." Dylan grinned wide and looked back down at the assignment paper. They were just about done as the bell rang and everyone rose from their seats.
"Read pages one-eighty through one-eighty-nine before Friday, please," Mr. Morgan sighed as the students filed out of his classroom.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Chris said as he and Dylan parted in the hallway. Dylan smiled.
"See you," he responded, walking in the opposite direction toward math class.
__
It was Wednesday and as usual, the weekly news-report played on the screen above the whiteboard.
"-and this week we've decided to interview our newest student from the same town, the bad boy football player himself, Christopher Davis!" Delilah, a junior and one of the news anchors exclaimed as the camera zoomed in on Chris's face.
"Now, we know that you came here from Wedgewood where you were a football player of the highest rank. You recently help our team win against your previous one, how did that feel?"
Chris hesitated. "It felt good. You have a great team and I really enjoy playing for it. Wedgewood is in the past for me."
Delilah nodded slowly. "And over there we've heard that you had quite the reputation with the ladies," she stated like a true reporter, "but until, well today for us but for our viewers it will be yesterday, we haven't seen a trace of a girl. Do you care to comment on that?"
Chris looked at the mic that she held to his face. "Well, I- you're right," he stated, "there hasn't been a lot."
"But now there is?"
He nodded and Dylan couldn't help but look away.
"There is, but is this really the most interesting news?" Chris asked, making Delilah laugh along with an awkward laugh-track.
"Sadly, it is. Now, are you open to letting the people know who this mystery woman is?" She continued, and the camera zoomed in uncomfortably close on his face. He was quiet for a moment before looking into the lens.
"Brooklyn, you know who you are," he winked at the camera. Dylan looked down at his desk and couldn't help but chuckle quietly.
Delilah gaped. "Oooh, look at that fellow students, we have a secret couple among us. But that is all the time we have for the interview today. Thank you, Chris, for joining us here today, and thank you all for watching this newscast."
The teacher turned the screen off and smiled toward the class. She started walking about the newest project in the class and even then, Dylan couldn't stop smiling.
__
"Do you want to do something after practice?"
Dylan packed his stuff into his locker as Felicia leaned against one nearby.
"You don't have plans with Maddie today?" He closed the locker and started walking toward the gym. Felicia followed.
"No, she has late lectures all week so we're going to hang out on Saturday," she explained, "and I- we don't hang out as much so I thought that you and I could grab a coffee."
Dylan smiled. "Sure, but it'll be a while because I'm pretty sure that you don't want me smelling like a sweaty pig when we go out."
"That's right, I don't want that, and I don't mind waiting," she shrugged, "I can sit in the library or something."
"Alright," Dylan said, opening the gym door with the hand that wasn't occupied with holding a duffle. "I'll see you then."
Felicia nodded as the door closed behind him. He was probably a bit early, so he calmly walked across the gym and into the locker rooms that smelled faintly of aftershave and sweat. Not that that was very surprising.
He pulled off his shirt, tossing it onto a bench and started searching for his gym clothes in the duffle.
A hum from behind him made him flinch, dropping the deodorant that he'd unpacked in his search for his shirt. He twisted around and, to no one's surprise, found Chris leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.
"What are you doing here?" Dylan smiled, repacking the discarded things spread out on the bench.
"We have practice, too, you know," he got closer in the room, his eyes roaming over Dylan's naked torso, "and I'm happy that I came here early."
Dylan grinned, playing with the ends of the taller's hair in the back of his neck. "Anyone could walk in, though."
Chris gave him a short smirk before leaning down and connecting their lips, making Dylan hum.
"But seriously, while it would be nice to not hide, I don't want to get caught red-handed," Dylan sighed, taking a step back. He did nothing to stop Chris's hands to wander over his shoulders and biceps.
"Yeah," the other sighed, "I suppose you're right."
"I'll see you tomorrow, though, after school," Dylan assured, quickly pulling the tee-shirt over his head. "By the way, it was a nice news interview."
Chris laughed aloud, throwing his head back. "So you got it?"
"Don't flatter yourself, it wasn't that discrete," Dylan sighed with a smile. "And I do know my own last name."
"That's good. That you know your name," Chris grinned, taking a step forward again. Dylan gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"-and if you- hey Dylan!" The door opened and he and Chris jumped apart, in an instant nine feet away from each other. Landon entered the room, followed by Cole and Jake. "And Chris, nice to see you, man." Landon walked up to the football player, giving him a bro-hug.
"Hey," Dylan smiled, blush coating his cheeks and all the way up to his ears, cocking his eyebrow toward Chris.
"You're here early, that's dedication," Cole joked, dropping his bag to the floor with a thud.
"Yeah, those extra eight minutes of being in the locker room were really tough to manage," Dylan shot back, "but I got through it."
"Well, you had Chris to keep you company at least," Landon added. If he only knew, Dylan thought with a small smirk.
"Yeah, that's good enough, I guess," he chuckled, making eye-contact with the football player standing in the corner.
"Hey!" He exclaimed, and the boys laughed.
"Alright, well Coach is already outside so if you're done then you can get out there," Landon smiled at Dylan, who nodded.
"I'll see you out there," he said, leaving the locker room with a sigh.
That had been really, really, close. Too close, even. He jogged lightly toward the bench where Coach Jones was standing with his usual clipboard and whistle.
"Dylan, good to see you," Coach exclaimed in that voice that always spoke a little bit too loud. Dylan smiled. "There are a few minutes left until we start, but you can jog a few laps to get the blood flowing."
He didn't say anything, just nodded and continued down the track, shaking his cold hands to warm them up. He then continued by rotating his neck and shoulders.
Felicia was probably in the library by now, he thought as he ran. And Chris was in the locker rooms still, pretending not to have kissed Dylan just a few minutes earlier and going about changing like normal. Butterflies fluttered in Dylan's stomach as he thought about hanging out with Chris the next day.
Fine, it was supposed to be a 'tutoring session', but that's rarely what it became nowadays. They did go over some things, mostly in Biology and sometimes other subjects as well, but it usually- always- ended in them either talking or kissing or attempting to do both at the same time.
And it was all nice. The only problem was that every time someone walked by, they had to jump apart, just like they had in the locker rooms.
"Dylan, come on, let's begin!" Landon called from the other side of the soccer field, making Dylan turn and run toward him. Against the odds, he had already started to sweat, even in the cold winter air.
"Alright, we're going to start with some laps, then move on to kick-technique," Coach yelled over the team.
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