Alex Yates was laying in bed on a Tuesday night, unable to slow his mind down. He'd had a tough few days, starting with the previous Friday night. He'd been bullied pretty viciously but one of his classmates had come to his rescue, Jacob Andrews. He'd call Jacob his friend but the last couple days had confused him immensely.
Jacob had befriended Alex. Alex bonded to him rather quickly and he thought Jacob truly cared about him. After he'd stopped Alex's bullies, he had taken him back to his house. They had a short but fun night before they'd shared a passionate kiss.
Immediately after the kiss, things got awkward. They went to bed soon after and Jacob took him home first thing in the morning. He had an excuse but Alex knew he'd made it up. Jacob didn't try to call or text Alex the rest of the weekend. On Sunday night, Alex finally broke down and texted Jacob. He got his feelings hurt further when he got no response.
In school on Monday, Jacob was at school but he didn't go to 6th period, the class of the day that he shared with Alex. Alex tried texting him again that night to make sure he was okay. This time, he got a super short reply.
Apparently, Jacob had to get his hand wrapped at the doctors office if he had any chance at playing on Friday. He was starting quarterback and he'd hurt his hand punching Alex's bully.
This made Alex feel terribly guilty, even though it really wasn't his fault. He told Jacob he was sorry. Jacob simply told him it wasn't his fault but then quit responding.
In all honesty, it was very possible that Jacob's short responses to him made Alex feel worse than being ignored. And then at school earlier today, Jacob didn't speak to him at all.
Alex really wanted to cry but refused to. He wondered whether Jacob was acting the way he was because of his hand or because maybe Jacob just needed some time to process what happened on Friday. He was quite sure that it had been Jacob's first kiss with another guy.
In all reality, Alex knew it was because of the kiss but you know how it is, you try to find any way to explain things you don't understand and over-think so much that you confuse yourself even further.
Alex knew he was gay himself despite the fact it was his first kiss ever. Of course he was confused, mostly about Jacob's feelings and not his own but even still. He was just trying to think rationally when he really was riddled with anxiety.
He struggled to try to go to sleep for a couple hours until he'd finally rocked himself to sleep. Maybe tomorrow would be different.
**********
Jacob was feeling torn. He knew how he felt about Alex at this point but he was too afraid of what it meant. He'd spent all of Saturday and Sunday with his girlfriend, Kelly. Then she went with him on Monday to get his hand wrapped before they spent the day together since he couldn't practice. But the whole time Jacob was distracted: he knew he wanted to see Alex.
He'd already been asked about Alex and what had happened to him on Friday. The rumor was that Alex had been gay-bashed. Which wasn't necessarily true but it also wasn't far from the truth either.
Jacob was afraid of any rumors starting up about him, since it was well known why his hand was wrapped. He didn't need his team to start to feel uncomfortable with him. He was a team captain, de facto leader as quarterback. He and the team needed to stay focused for Jacob to impress college recruiters. He was trying to get an athletic scholarship to continue pursuing football in college and that kind of thing could ruin his chances with many programs, no matter how "inclusive" schools and sports teams had begun to try to present themselves as. He'd be labeled a "distraction" or "controversial." Damn labels.
He felt so badly that he just laid in bed all afternoon and night on Tuesday after school. He truly didn't know what to do. He tried to weigh the pros and cons of pursuing this with Alex but it was like his brain wouldn't work right. He was spinning wheels in his mind.
It was Wednesday morning and he didn't want to go to school but was going to have to make himself. He was going to have to talk to Alex so they could do their project that was now due tomorrow. So, after groaning loudly and attempting to smother himself with a pillow, he got up out of bed and got ready for school.
**********
Alex was at his locker, changing out some books for his classes after lunch. As usual, he'd ate lunch alone quickly and went to the library to read some before he'd come to his locker.
As he searched his locker for a specific textbook, a boy named Thomas came up to him. It startled him at first but he knew Thomas about as well as he did anyone else at school.
Thomas was openly gay and people were always talking about him behind his back. Because of this, Alex related to him. If it weren't for the fact he was in the closet, he'd probably have tried to be better friends with him. He didnt find him attractive but Thomas was always nice enough to him that Alex could see himself being friends with him.
Alex wasn't aware of any of the rumors going around about him being gay-bashed, he didn't really talk to the kids at school. So he had no reason to believe there was any reason for this interaction other than maybe the fact he'd been attacked. There had been about a dozen witnesses, after all.
"Hey Alex, I heard what happened to you this weekend...I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Thomas said to him compassionately.
Alex knew that he was blushing furiously, the humiliation of Friday night rushing back to him.
"Oh--uh, thanks Thomas," said Alex awkwardly.
"If you ever need to talk about anything, I want you to know I'm here for you anytime." As Thomas spoke, he placed his hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex suddenly felt pretty confused by the other boys touch. Was this a come-on or something? Surely not...
At that moment, Jacob happened to come down the hall. He felt a surge of jealousy and felt his stomach drop when he saw what was going on. He'd been planning to speak to Alex in class but when he saw Thomas the openly gay kid with Alex, he immediately decided now would be a better time.
When he walked up on the two of them, he was totally in Thomas's personal space. He wasn't intending to make anyone feel unsafe but he also couldn't help being somewhat intimidating. Thomas was somewhat taller than Alex but Jacob towered over them both. Thomas didn't think much about it though, Jacob had always been kind to him like he was to everybody.
"Sup," Jacob said to Thomas a little stiffly. Thomas just smiled at him and nodded.
"Hey Alex, we really need to get our project done. Can I come to your house this afternoon?" he continued to Alex.
"Oh...okay, yeah that's fine Jacob," Alex stammered.
He noticed Jacob's demeanor and was unsure how to take it. Alex expected Jacob would just turn around and walk off after he answered him but he did not.
"So, what are y'all talking about?" He said with a superficial smile, looking more stereotypical dumb jock than Alex had ever seen him look.
Alex was confused why he cared but Thomas had no reason to think anything of it.
