*It's been almost two years since I set this story aside but it was always my intention to come back and finish the story according to the vision I have. This chapter is similar to chapter one in that it is simply meant to reintroduce the characters and further the romance between the two main characters. It's also to get me back into the minds of these characters. There is no sex in this chapter (just romance) but I promise there is more to come! There is another chapter already in production and will be published soon that will get back to the steamy sex scenes! Thanks for all the positive feedback over the last year and a half guys (and gals), I'm so happy that this story has some dedicated readers and I can only apologize for leaving yall hanging for so long! I hope I can give this story a reasonable conclusion that you guys will enjoy, there will likely be 3 more chapters after this but may be more depending!*
Alex Yates was sitting at lunch with the drama club seniors that had sort of adopted him into their friend group these last couple of days. Thomas Johnson was something of a ringleader for them, being an outgoing personality which contrasted with the rest of the more reserved drama club members. The table was rounded out with Tracy, Ethan and Kayla.
Alex was not a member of the drama club despite now sitting with them at lunch. It's not that Alex wouldn't have enjoyed being in drama club, he just had always been very weary of drawing any attention to himself and he figured standing on a stage at school productions wouldn't be conducive to his attempts to blend into the background of Washington High.
It was at this table a couple of days previously where Alex had been approached by Kelly Chamberlain, notorious mean girl and the ex girlfriend of star quarterback Jacob Andrews. He was immediately alarmed by this development for several reasons.
Firstly, Kelly was a popular girl that was known for being rather rude and mean, especially to students she believed to be of lower status than herself. The second reason was that Alex had only begun to come out of his shell in the previous month and he still found it jarring to be approached by other people for no apparent reason regardless of who it was. He'd kept to himself all of high school in an attempt to avoid the bullying he suffered in middle school and, for the most part, his endeavor had been successful.
The third reason was the biggest reason for his apprehension of all. Alex had been secretly seeing Kelly's now ex boyfriend Jacob. The time they'd been spending together had actually overlapped with Jacob's relationship with Kelly and Alex felt a certain amount of guilt for that fact.
From the outside looking in, nobody would have ever envisioned the two boys as any sort of match either as friends or otherwise. Jacob was a popular, tall and gifted athlete. He came from a prominent family of lawyers and the friends he had were of similar backgrounds. Alex, on the other hand, was a rather scrawny and reserved guy that had no real friends, though that was admittedly his own doing. Alex came from a broken home, his mother had passed when he was young and his father was a neglectful alcoholic.
Despite these differences, it was as if there was some magnetic force that drew the two boys together. Jacob had felt a pull towards Alex since the first time he'd ever seen him freshman year of high school. It almost mirrored the attention Alex received from bullies, it was like they could sense that he was an easy victim. The only difference for Jacob was that he felt a desire to protect him rather than pick on him. Despite this, he never pursued a friendship with Alex until earlier in their senior year when he asked Alex to partner with him for their science project.
Their connection was nearly instantaneous and their friendship quickly developed and evolved into something different that confused both boys at first. Ultimately, they came to accept that this was something very real and special between them. Jacob dumped Kelly just last week and asked Alex to be his boyfriend, a term that still made Jacob cringe to think about but he was still extremely happy. The boys had fallen quite quickly for eachother but were still very intent on keeping things secret, as Jacob was trying to get a scholarship for football and was worried about how him having a relationship with another guy would affect that. As for Alex, it sounded like a beautiful nightmare for the school to know he was dating the most popular guy at school so he was very much so on board with keeping things under wraps as well.
So, when Kelly had approached Alex and told him there were rumors he was gay and had an obsessive crush on Jacob, Alex was incredibly alarmed. Unbeknownst to the boys, it had been Kelly who started the rumors in the first place. She had been suspicious of the odd new friendship between them and her suspicions were confirmed when she spotted the boys kissing in Jacob's car when she went to return some things to Jacob post-breakup. As a result, she had put a plan in motion to ruin Jacob's reputation and out the boys to make their lives a living hell. The results had been underwhelming to this point but Kelly, vengeful as she was, patiently waited for things to slowly unfold.
After the conversation with Kelly, one of Jacob's teammates, David Grady, had confronted Alex about the rumors in their science class which quickly escalated to him calling Alex a gay slur and threatening him. This incensed Jacob to the point he almost got into a fight with David but he stormed out before things went any further.
After school, coach called Jacob to his office and said, in carefully chosen words, that he was aware of the rumors and that whatever was going on with Jacob should wait until state playoffs were over. He also expected Jacob to apologize to David.
Alex and Jacob discussed what to do about the rumors and they agreed that they should stop trying to hide that they were spending time together but they would not address any of the rumors just yet. As a result, Jacob had started to pick Alex up in the mornings. This was not a detail the rest of the school missed and only heightened the rumors swirling around them. They had not yet started hanging out much at school though and still had lunch separately.
So, while Alex sat with the drama club discussing the school's upcoming first stage production of the year, Jacob was sitting with his teammates across the cafeteria. He hadn't yet apologized to David despite it having been 2 days since their altercation. This meant that they haven't spoken a word to eachother despite being around eachother in school and at practice. David was the starting center, which made practices rather uncomfortable. They communicated the bare minimum at practice to avoid coach chewing them out but that was the only time they really acknowledged eachother.
Lunch the last couple of days at the jock table had been much more quiet than usual. Finally, wide receiver Sam Taylor was sick of it and spoke up.
"Yo yall gotta do something about this shit, we got our first playoff game next week and I'll be damned if yall make us lose because of some petty little argument," said Sam firmly, eyes darting back and forth to their faces.
Jacob took a bite of his sandwich as he considered what to say. David simply acted as if he hadn't heard a word Sam had said.
"Okay," started Jacob hesitantly, "Grady, I'm sorry for snapping at you. Even if I felt you were in the wrong, I crossed a line and I should have handled things differently," said Jacob, trying his best to sound genuine even though he didn't mean a word he said. In fact, he thought David should be thanking him for not beating his ass after the things he'd said to Alex.
David considered what Jacob said before finally looking at Jacob with a smirk on his face.
"Eh it's whatever dude, water under the bridge," said David with a non-chalance as if he never actually cared about the altercation. This wasn't really a surprise to Jacob, people never did seem to stay mad at him.
"I gotta ask though, what's going on with you and Yates?" asked David and Jacob noticed Sam sort of lean in to hear the answer himself. Jacob knew the question would come when this conversation finally happened and he had his answer ready. Jacob calmly recited the answer he'd rehearsed in his head.
"We've just been hanging out, he's actually pretty chill when you get to know him. He knows more about football than you'd expect man."
