_Chapter 22_
Ricky Martinez
"Are you going to their match tomorrow?" Derek questioned as he was leaning against one of the book shelves, waiting for me to finish returning the books in the library.
"Probably. It's an event you can't possibly miss out on. And maybe I get to see their co-captain throw a fist at Anderson," I smirked. It wouldn't be the first time for something like that to happen.
"How vicious," he chuckled. "Anyway, I'd suggest you not to get any near him today. He had already been on edge since the revenge declaration of Lenden's team last week. But now he's just out of hand."
"I get it, why're you still telling me that?" I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Why?!" He cocked an eyebrow at me an crossed his arms. "You know why! Because the only person Anderson is highly sensitive to is no one else but your block head. And for some reason you always happen to rip each other's throat out the mere second you meet in the hallway."
"I'm not the one looking for fights. Besides, if it was up to me, I'd just be minding my own business. But it's kinda challenging when he and his minions are spread around school like damn cockroaches."
"Whatever, go hit up Elliot, he looks like he needs someone to annoy him." He nodded his head in the direction of him in the corner, busy doing some school work I suppose.
"That, sir Derek, is a great idea," I smirked and rubbed my hands and made my way over to him. The thought of his annoyed face just made me chuckle. But unfortunately, my expectations were instantly crushed as soon as I took the seat almost next to him, waiting for him to notice me which of course never happened.
Perhaps, he just didn't realize I was there. At least, that is what I assumed but it wasn't the case. I knew once I purposely cleared my throat in an unnatural way without any following reaction of his. There was no way he misheard it.
"Hey," I tried again, this time actually without the purpose of annoying him. Not minding me like that was seriously irritating. "Hey pay me some attention!" His eyes were fixed on his laptop nonetheless.
What could I say to throw him off guard? I bit my lips, seriously contemplating my choices when something stupid came through my mind.
"Hey, Elliot," I grinned mischievously. "I was wondering whether I should buy some condoms you now, in case things get out of hand."
He immediately stopped typing, his expression changed, like he was ready to strangle me as he slowly turned his head to me, taking a pen out of his case and throwing it in my face.
Luckily, I could fend it off in the last second despite falling into a fit of laugh. "Go fuck off if you have nothing better to do!" He hissed.
"Instead of fucking off what about fucking you?" I annoyed him even more because obviously it wasn't enough. He turned beat red and shook his head like he didn't really want to deal with me any longer. "C'mon, I'm only half joking."
"If you don't shut up, I won't ever even consider." He turned back to his work and attempted regaining his concentration.
"Is that suppose to be a threat?" I smiled and eventually stopped joking. "Does that mean you have already thought about it?"
He sighed and and dropped his hands after closing his laptop. "Why must we talk about it now in a damn library when you have two eyes capable enough to see that I'm busy?"
"It doesn't matter when we talk about it, it is not like you'd ever want to," I shrugged.
"Then wait until I do," he whispered, barely audible. "Just wait until I do want to talk about it." He took the time to move right next to me after his eyes skimmed through the library to check if anyone was close. "And one thing," he whispered. My instincts guided me, making me lean in to catch what he was trying to say when all of the sudden I felt a sharp pain from him, harshly flicking his fingers against my forehead.
"Ouch!" I hissed an rubbed the aching spot in irritation. "Why did you do that?"
"Why did you do that?" He slightly pulled down the collar of his shirt, revealing the dark spots, clearly standing out as hickeys.
Oh damn... I didn't know that he'd bruise that easily. I even blinked twice to make sure that I wasn't confusing things but I wasn't.
"And they seriously hurt." He was about to pull his collar back up when I stopped him in tracks to give it a closer look. It was actually the first time that I gave someone a hickey. "I didn't think that liking someone goes along with multiple hematoma that look like the skin irritation you get from the fifth disease."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad... I think. It really wasn't intentionally though." Regardless, it was difficult to suppress the amusing grin of mine. I eventually let go of him as he straightened his shirt to cover up most of the bruises before he wanted to get back to his place. "Wait do you want to come watch the baseball game tomorrow? You should have already heard about it right?"
"Yeah I did," he nodded. Though from his eyes I could tell that he was meanwhile thinking about something else. Thus, I assumed that he already had other plans and didn't want to come.
"You don't have to if you don't want," I swiftly added.
"No, I want to," he smiled which surprised me a bit. "Gotta see what the deal with these baseball teams are."
I chuckled. "Yeah they both are far off."
Anyway. My next period was about to start therefore I stood up, pushing the chair back. "You ain't attending your class?" I wondered since he wasn't making any move to gather his stuff together.
"My teacher apparently had an appointment last minute and they couldn't find a substitute to fill in. So, I'm free for now."
"Aw, now I want to skip class," I pouted. "Much more fun than math with that crappy old man." I really didn't want to go and torture myself. Though, the eyes Elliot send me was enough to tell me he would knock the hell out me for skipping math class.
Hence, I just gave up and sighed. "Yeah don't look at me like that. I'm already leaving." I could see the satisfaction in his eyes and of course, I just had to provoke it. "But only if you give me a kiss."
"What here?!" He widened his eyes. "Are you insane?"
I tapped on my lips with my face almost directly in front of him. "I'm waiting." The troubled expression he had just made me want to melt away in the next second. And to be honest, I didn't even think that he was really going to pull it off but he proved myself wrong when he went on laid his hand on the back of my neck, pulling me closer in order to place his lips on the corner of my mouth.
He was ready to pull away again, although instead of letting him, I quickly wrapped my hands around him, preventing him to move back, and went ahead to deepen the kiss. I even dared to slightly tug and nibble on his lips, hardly even letting my tongue slip in when we heard a loud gasp from the side that made us pull away almost instantly.
I really wanted to let out a groan filled with annoyance because it was literally the second time that we got interrupted just before I could finally french kiss Elliot.
"For real, is getting caught a new hobby or what?" Elliot buried his face in his hands, just wanting to escape the situation. Meanwhile, my head turned to the side to see who we just gave the biggest heart attack to but the person standing with his jaw dropped made my eyes widen.
"Kisha?!" Why was she here, shouldn't she be on the way to our next class?
"You know her?" Elliot stared at me in disbelief.
"S-s-so the one you l-like is him? Elliot?" She gasped. "Oh my god, I didn't know. I'm so sorry, I was so far off. Why didn't you say you were already in a relationship, when I asked you?"
"Yeah well the thing is, we just recently got together," I scratched the back of my neck, slightly in guilt despite not knowing for what I should feel guilty for.
"Oh uh congratulations I think. I mean, I'll be keeping it a secret if you want to, I promise I won't tell anyone," she rushed. "God I was just send to heaven and back to earth, how can you two do something like that in the school's library if you want to stay in the closet?"
"Well we got a little careless, I guess" I chuckled.
"We?" Elliot cocked an eyebrow at me. "If you say so. Whatsoever, you should better go leave before your teacher gets upset with you," he hushed me away and reminded me at the same time that I still had to go to class.
"Right, let's clear things up on the way," I said to Kisha before turning to Elliot and messed up his hair. "I'll see you later, kay?" Not happy about that gesture, he accordingly scrunched up his nose in exasperation and went ahead to fix it while Kisha and I went to our class together.
"So Elliot, hm? I didn't know you swing that way," she chuckled as we were passing the, almost empty hallway.
"Yeah me neither." Whether she wanted to believe me or not, but I was still new to that excessively liking someone stage that I was in now. "Before I never understood what others had when they were in a relationship, I never even got why people seriously cried for days when something didn't go their way. And now I'm in that same spot."
I can't deny that I'd be a bit, no, very lost, when Elliot would really want to break up with me. I can't even help thinking about it. The insecurity is massive. Especially because Elliot was just not that kind of person that allowed you to know what he was thinking if he didn't want you to.
"Uh to be honest, I wasn't really over you the past few weeks after your rejection. But seeing you with him together... at least it lets me be at peace," she smiled.
"Why's that?"
"Because I seriously thought that there was something wrong with me after assuming you just said that you liked someone else as a petty excuse to not hurt my feelings. I mean it's not uncommon. Although it's not a bad thing to do, it just made me feel uneasy."
I didn't know what to say to that. But one thing I noticed is that I didn't really consider her feelings, didn't even spend a second thought about it. Maybe El was right. I tend to get a little inconsiderate towards others.
"However, it's fine now. I mean, you and Elliot look so cute together, there is no way that anyone could be upset about it," she smiled and stopped as we reached the classroom, knocking against the door before we entered.
"Martinez, Grover, finally blessing us with your presence," Mr. Hendry said.
Just the mere sight of that grumpy white haired man and I wanted to turn around and leave. And other people be wondering why I'm failing math class?
How can I not?
*
"I hope you didn't forget your biology book, again," Elliot reminded me just before I wanted to start the car to drive back home.
"Oh shit, I forgot," I gasped and instantly jumped out the car, heading off with a brief "Wait a second I'll go and get it." I slightly jogged back towards the school on the way to my locker. Of course the school was empty, given that no one had classes anymore, maybe a few clubs were active but not any that I knew of.
As I reached my locker, I typed in the combination in record time, seeing as I didn't want to make Elliot wait longer than needed and was about to close the locker when all of the sudden it got snapped shut with a heavy impact that made me step back in reflex.
"Did you miss me?" A mischievous petty voice appeared from the side.
Anderson.
"What do you want?" I huffed. "Make it quick, I'm in a hurry."
That is when he started laughing for no reason because I clearly don't remember saying anything funny. "I guess someone is waiting for you, am I right?"
"And?" The annoyance was not only written on my face but was also affecting my voice. "You might as well get to the point before I just turn around and go."
"Chill dude, your little boyfriend can wait. He is your boyfriend now I heard, or am I wrong? Did you get too blue-balled from girls or what's with the sudden change."
"How do you know?" I narrowed my eyes. How come there had already been rumors passing between the students without me noticing anything? And I'm pretty positive that Kisha did keep her mouth shut. Moreover, she caught us just earlier, even if she snitched there was no way that it could have already reached that bigot by now.
"I'm pretty sure almost half of them students know by now. I just wanted to confirm it myself though. The Rick Martinez going out with a guy, this is a highlight. Do your teammates know?"
"It has nothing to do with them! You should rather focus on your team. Looks like you'll be losing another game tomorrow," I mocked him. He didn't take that too well as his playful expression instantly darkened.
"Shut the fuck up, what do you mean lose? A shitty fag like you who ain't even capable of bringing a cup home should seriously seal his mouth shut!"
"What did you just call me?" I was slightly trembling and my voice unconsciously lowered as soon as I grabbed his collar ready to stuff his head in his dirty little ass.
"What? So you belong to the sensitive kind of guy now? Indeed a naughty fag." I was just seconds away from hitting him, just mere seconds. I swear, it could have all gone well if he had shut his mouth. Just once. Just once! But no, that idiot had to add on and tilt the cup. "Just like Elliot. I don't even know what a cripple like that is doing in our school nor do I see how you can get your dick up for that sissy. You must be frustrated as hell to be ready to suck his dick."
Okay that was it! I couldn't hold back any longer, throwing a fist straight at his face, not caring whether I could break anything or not.
He, on the other side, didn't expect the sudden movement and groaned in pain when I hit him.
"Who do you think you are? Talking down on someone you know nothing about. You think you are better than him? So what if I'm going out with him? Has it anything to do with you?" I gripped his collar and violently pushed him against the lockers at the same time I was putting pressure on the grip around his throat. "You seriously have guts to spout shit in front of his boyfriend. Or maybe you're merely a mad man, begging me to break your leg just before your rematch."
"Wow, so you're already that much into him, huh?" He just chuckled as a drop of blood ran down his lips. "Just a few words about him and you already explode."
He was strong enough to forcefully remove my grip from him and wipe the blood stain from his jaw at the same time. "Perhaps you should start keeping an eye on him. I won't promise to keep my hands off of him whenever you piss me off," he threatened.
"You wouldn't dare," I challenged him as I narrowed my eyes, making a step forward.
"Try me," he whispered. "You can't do anything about it. Even if you'd tell, you don't seriously think that anyone would rather believe you over me after what you pulled off the last time." I was about argue with him but once I realized that he was right, I was forced to keep my mouth shut.
"Know your place, bastard," he cussed and went to leave but not before purposely bumping against me to push me out of the way.
I bit my lips and tried my best not to get mad, but I just couldn't help the frustration. It was nothing but a disadvantage that he knew about Elliot and I, now that he could constantly use it against me whenever he felt like it.
It's best if I keep it from Elliot for the time being. It would just worry him.
Oh shit...
Elliot,
he was still waiting!
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Here I am with another author's note thingy. I'm actually no fan of it because I always feel forced to write something no one will read anyway.
Whatever, to get to the point; this story will end in about 7 chapters if my imaginary storyboard drafts are accurate enough.
Btw, the next chapter could take a couple days longer than usual since my father got upset with me for forgetting to do the laundry and thus took my electronic devices from me. Meaning I didn't have the chance to continue writing.
... yeah we all love strict parents -.-
~J🎨