“The Freshman”

By: Punk Ikhny Towryk

Chapter 7: Wednesday

Wes woke up rather early that morning. He was able to hear the car door slam as his parents left for work. He glanced at the clock. 7:15. Wes smiled, he felt completely rested. It was odd, he usually would have been extremely tired at this time in the morning. He tried to think back to when he fell asleep and for some reason, he couldn’t remember dinner or seeing his parents at all. Than it all came back to him. All at once he remembered the fighting, the screaming, and the rather kind and apologetic words spoken to each other afterwards. He remembered him and Raine beating each other.

Raine.

Wes glanced around, he remembered that he fell asleep next to him. He didn’t see him anywhere so he sat up and looked around. Still no Raine. So he got up and went into the bathroom, brushing his teeth and than taking a nice shower to wake himself up a bit more. When he finished, he returned to his room, grabbed his clothes for the day, and went back into the bathroom to change.

He reentered his room minutes later and checked himself in the mirror. Light blue collared shirt and black baggy cargo pants contrasted each other, but when he put the gel in his hair, the spiky look evened them out to a neo-school-punk look. He headed downstairs, hoping to find Raine down there.

Emerging in the kitchen, he found Raine leaning over the counter looking at a little green compact, oblivious to the presence of Wes. He looked super cute in a black T-shirt with a grey tie and slightly baggy black jeans. Wes had to hold back his thoghuts of how the pants showed off the shape of Raine’s butt rather well and think of other things to do when Raine was oblivious to him. Suddenly realizing what a grand opportunity this was, Wes snuck up behind Raine and slapped his shoulders. Raine jumped and let out a little scream

“Holy shit!”

Wes burst into laughter

“Dammit, Wes! It’s not funny!”

“Y-yes it is!”

Raine growled and waited calmly until Wes finished.

“What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“That,” Wes pointed to the compact, “What is it?”

Raine shoved a note in Wes’ face, “here”

“Let’s see... Wes, I left a little early this morning, there’s bagels in the, oh blah blah blah blahdy blah... Raine told me about your accident with the stairs—my what?”

Raine smiled smugly as if to say, it was way better than anything you could have thought up.

“Shut up.”

“Huh?”

“Here’s some foundation if you want to cover your bruises. Love always, Mom”

Wes glanced at the green compact, “Is that foundation, how do I use it?”

Raine shrugged.

“Christ.” Wes went of complaining about his mom to Raine, who wasn’t listening to begin with and just kind of fidgeting with the compact

“And I hate it when she expects me to know every little thing about all her girly stuff! Does she think I’m a woman or something?”

“You know, Wes?”

Wes stopped ranting and looked at Raine, “What?”

Raine smiled smugly and waved the little green compact in Wes’ face. It was opened to reveal a mirror on the inside lid, and the bottom was split into a beige cream and a spongy applicator. Wes blinked stupidly

“Oh.”

“Yep.”

“Umm, do you think I should really do this? I mean, what if one of the guys notices. Or even worse, one of the girls?” Wes shuddered involuntarily, “I could end up being their new Barbie doll. They’ll dress me up and put makeup on me and ask me for my opinion on what color handbag goes better with their eyes!”

“Calm down!” Raine practically shouted annoyed, “You’re over doing it.”

Wes pouted

“Just sit down and I’ll figure it out.”

He obeyed and sat down on the countertop, staring down at Raine.

“Thank you.”

Raine took out the spongy applicator and rubbed it in the cream. He pulled it out at looked at it, not too much and not too little. He looked at Wes and moved the applicator towards his face. He rubbed a little on a small reddish bruise above Wes’ eye.

Her pulled it back at looked at it triumphantly, it was blending in with his skin color

“How is it?” Wes asked impatiently

“Hold on, I think it’s working.”

Raine worked the cream on Wes’ face until he had covered everything. He stepped back to admire his work. It was really good. There was no traces of the numerous marks anywhere on Wes’ face. He grinned happily

“How is it? Can I see it?”

Raine handed him the compact and he looked in the mirror.

“Damn.”

“I know.”

“Damn, Raine. You’re good at this.”

“Dude, its not that hard. Just put a little of this on this and rub it on your face. It’s not rocket science.”

“Still,” Wes put down the mirror and smiled, “Thanks Raine.”

“Anytime.”

Wes glanced at the clock, “Aw crap, it’s eight already. We gotta get to the bus stop in a half hour.”

Suddenly Raine’s face turned three shades whiter “You know what Wes?”

“What?”

“We didn’t do our homework.”

“Oh shit.”

The two boys charged upstairs to Wes’ room and grabbed their backpacks, running back downstairs and throwing them on the table. They pulled out their books, extremely paranoid

“Okay, we have History, Math, and Literature.”

“Right, so... how about we do what I suggested?”

Raine blinked, “What did you suggest?”

“We have Literature and History. Think about it.”

Realization hit him hard, “Oh, come on! You can’t be serious!”

“We agreed on it! Besides, it’ll help us get done faster!”

Raine thought for a moment, “Alright, but only because we need to get this done quickly.”

“I knew you’d see my point of view!”

They set to work, Raine on their Literature work sheet and Wes on their History outline. When they finished they swapped homework and copied each other while putting their own creative spin on the wording.

By the time they got to math, their bus would arrive in five minutes.

“Oh crap.”

“It’s alright.”

“Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap...”

“Raine, we’ll do it on the bus.”

Raine calmed down considerably, “Okay. That’s fine, we can do that.”

“Good, now go get your shoes on and we can go.”

“Right.” Raine ran upstairs and got his shoes and Wes grabbed his from where they lay in the hallway. Raine returned with a black sweatshirt on and his shoes on his feet. They put on their backpacks and were halfway out the door when Raine’s stomach let the two know rather loudly how hungry Raine was. They halted and Wes turned around, reaching into the cabinet and pulling down two of the cereal bars Raine had taken Monday, ignoring his mother’s note telling them there were bagels. He tossed one at Raine, who caught it swiftly with his bad hand. Wes smiled, “Nice catch.”

“Thanks.”

They finally left the house and were down the driveway when Wes spoke up

“Hey Raine?”

“Yeah?” Raine looked over at Wes, who was fidgeting nervously with his wrapper. Wes finally looked at him and said what was on his mind

“Um... I’ve been wondering, errr... what are we? I mean, are we still just friends or are we something more...?”

Raine thought for a moment, “You know, I’m not sure.”

“What do you want to be?”

“I want to be with you, but...”

“But what?”

“Er... I- Wes! The bus!”

Wes looked up and indeed, the bus had arrived.

“Shit!”

The two ran to the bus as fast as they could. Luckily enough, the bus driver saw them and waited as they ran up and got on.

“Thank you.” Wes spoke, chest heaving with every breath

“Yes, thank you” Raine smiled, breathing heavily through his nose

“Ooh, you boys know it ain’t no problem. I’s gotta letcha on if I sees ya.” The bus driver grinned his crooked grin, showing off his minor lack of teeth

Wes and Raine sat in their usual seat and pulled out their Math books. They quietly helped each other through the problems and soon enough, they were stuffing their books back into their backpacks. They had some time left until they had to get off, so they sat in silence.

“I’d ask you to continue, but that probably wouldn’t be a good idea”

“Not really,” Raine sighed and continued, “How about after school?”

“Sure.”

“Hey what are you two dick-suckers talking about so quietly?”

A tall boy with fiery red hair and a familiar face sat down next to them, apparently he just got on the bus. Wes and Raine staring at him for a while, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar, Raine figured it out first.

“Holy sh—” Raine gasped, “Dave?!”

Dave raised an eyebrow, “You rang?”

“Oh my—Oh my god! Your hair!”

“Dude, no way!”

“You, you what?”

“Sally’s gunna flip when she sees it!”

Dave stayed blissfully silent through their exclamations. He was delighted that someone noticed. Eventually, though, he decided he should shut them up

“You two fags done yet? I’d rather not have drool on me, thank you very much.”

Wes and Raine exchanged a look, “Um, excuse me? Look, Dave, neither of us even said we liked it. We’re just surprised you did it.”

“You didn’t need to say anything. Flamers are always into that kind of shit. Ya know: hair, fashion, makeup, all that shit.”

Raine shut up immediately, he tended to get really shy and nervous when people made fun of him or teased him. Wes, though, was determined to figure out what was up with the new redhead who decided to come by so spontaneously

“Where is this all coming from? You were never the nicest guy in the block, but the hair’s bringing on quite an attitude. What’s with calling us ‘fags’ and ‘flamers’ anyway, what did we do that made us seem so ‘flamer-ish’?

“C’mon, you two are just screaming faggot and besides, I heard you’ve been sleeping over each other’s houses, man. That is so flaming, guys. I heard you two sleep in the same bed together. Dude, you two just reek of all things homosexual.”

Dave laughed as Raine turned five shades redder, the blush overcoming his face. The flush in his best friend’s face fueled Wes’ anger even more than Dave’s new attitude, harsh words, and his laughter

“Just shut your fucking mouth, Dave. This is getting ridicules, just stay quiet and keep from embarrassing yourself.”

Dave was silent for a moment, and in that glorious time slot, the bus came to a halt and they had to get off the bus. Wes and Raine hurried off and walked far ahead of Dave, who seemed to be telling some one in their year what just happened. Wes smiled good-naturedly at Raine who was absolutely panicking over what Dave might be saying to the other kid. Wes’ smile wasn’t returned

“It’ll be alright.”

“No it won’t!” Raine freaked “He’s going to tell everyone and it isn’t even true!”

“Look, Raine calm down we’ll worry about it later. Just remember, it isn’t true.”

Raine seemed to take his advice when his shoulders relaxed, “You’re right, it can’t get too bad if it isn’t true.”

“Good, now c’mon, we have to get to homeroom.”

As soon as they got into homeroom, Wes ran up to Sally, who was listening to her CD player at her seat. He yanked the headphones off of her head

“What the fuck did you do?! Telling Dave was probably the fucking stupidest thing you could’ve—”

“Dave?!”

Sally seemed to forget all about what Wes was saying when she saw Dave walk into the room. She grabbed his shoulder’s laughing and giggling with excitement as she lightly touched the spiky red demon on top of his head.

“Oh my god! It’s wonderful! And it’s so sexy! Dave!” Sally giggled uncontrollably

“I thought you’d like it.” Dave smiled smugly at Wes, silently mocking him

Sally noticed his adverted gaze and followed it. She was surprised when she saw that all the hatred in Dave’s eyes was directed to Wes, who wouldn’t never harm anyone or cause anyone to spite him like that. She also noted the fiery look in Wes’ eyes and the sad look in Raine’s as he stood not far behind Wes. Sally was extremely confused

“Dave? Wes? What’s going on?”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you until you ran up to him. Dave was, for some reason beyond anything in my imagination, ragging on Raine and I for being such ‘faggots’ and ‘flamers’. Now, I have no idea where he could have gotten the idea that Raine and I were sleeping together or that we were even gay in the first place, but it certainly wasn’t either of us.”

Sally’s face paled, “I only told him that Raine was staying over your house this week. I didn’t think he would—”

“You know what Sally, you’re right, you didn’t think,” Wes snapped, “Dave was never a really nice guy, but now that he dyed his hair to get you to like him, he’s acting like even more of an asshole. I don’t see why he thinks acting like he’s got a rabies-infected badger up his ass will make you be attracted to him, but for reason, he thinks you will and now he’s only making a dick out of himself and he doesn’t even realize it.”

“I’m sorry, Wes. I really didn’t think. I—”

“I swear to god, Sally, if you told him anymore than what you just told me you said, than just forget being friends. I don’t care if my friendship doesn’t mean that much to you, but it means a lot to me and if I have to drop it because of your jerk-off of a best friend, than I will”

By the time Wes finished ranting, the room was dead silent and everyone was staring. Sally couldn’t believe it, but she knew she had to say something. She just about opened her mouth when their teacher came in and ordered everyone to sit down. He took attendance and sent everyone off to their first class.

Wes was happy to not have Sally in his next class. He was so mad at her right now and poor Raine was hoping he’d clam down.

“Wes, she didn’t think Dave would tell anyone, Sally is a nice girl, she would have never said anything if she thought he was going to make a big deal out of it.”

Rather than responding, Wes just sighed and continued to class.

…………

Lunch time finally rolled around and both Wes and Sally were dreading seeing each other. Wes tried avoiding her by waiting for Raine outside of his classroom. Finally the door swung open. He grabbed the first kid, a quiet blue-haired goth girl by the name of Chloe who he knew he’s seen Sally talk to many times. He assumed Chloe would be Sally’s equivalent to a female best friend.

“Chloe.”

The girl gasped, “Go away.”

“Please, just one question than I’ll be gone.”

Chloe looked extremely nervous, “What is it? If it has anything to do with Sally, she’s not in the mood to talk to you.”

“I just want to know where she’s eating lunch. I’d rather not argue during lunch so I’ll try and avoid the problem.”

Chloe seemed suspicious, but she told him anyway, “The library, but you better not go after her.”

“I won’t.”

“Good.”

Wes didn’t say anything to her when she walked away, and continued waiting for Raine. He only waited a moment longer before Raine appeared and jumped slightly at the sight of Wes

“Oh, hey Wes, what’s up?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Alright, just let me put my stuff away.”

Wes waited patiently until Raine returned. By that time, the hallways had pretty much emptied out Wes pulled Raine into he bathroom to discuss one of the many things that were on his mind.

He first checked under the stalls for feet, than he turned to Raine

“I’m sorry I have to dump all of this on you now Raine, but I need you. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t have you the way I want and I, well, I guess what I wanted to say is...” Wes sucked in a huge breath of air, “Raine, will you be my boyfriend?”

Every doubt that Raine had about their relationship disappeared when Wes asked him the question and suddenly everything was right again. His face broke into a huge grin

“Of course I will, Wes. Nothing could make me happier right now.”

They shared the same 100 watt smile and Wes moved in to hug Raine, who was more than happy to return the warm gesture. They broke away slowly, and Wes’ face turned serious

“We can get through this, all of it.” Wes said, holding Raine’s hand tightly in his own

Raine nodded in agreement

“But you have to promise me that no matter what happens, we will get through it.”

“Of course.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

They left the bathroom and entered the empty hallway still holding hands.

“Um, Wes, where are we going? We can’t go to the cafeteria or we’ll run into Sally and Dave.”

“Nah. Sally’s in the library.”

“Where’d you find that out?”

“Chloe told me.”

“Oh.” Raine thought for a moment, well we can’t go to the cafeteria anyway, Sally defiantly doesn’t want to see Dave, so I’m sure he’s not in library so he’s probably in the cafeteria.”

“Good point.”

“As always.”

They heard footsteps and immediately dropped hands. They turned around to where the foot steps were coming from. Unfortunately for them Dave, Chloe, a neo J-pop fanatic with long black hair tied up in high pigtails named Ava, and Mark a hard rocker boy with a short orange Mohawk and hard grey eyes were the ones approaching.

Chloe froze when she saw them, “Umm, guys? Why don’t we head back that way? I think I forgot something and it’s really important.”

Dave rolled his eyes, “Chloe, what are you—Oh.”

Chloe covered her mouth with her hands, “Oh no.”

Rage consumed him and Dave came storming over to Wes as fast as possible and Chloe and Ava weren’t fast enough to stop him. Dave shoved Raine out of the way and got right up in Wes’ face.

“You fag, you lost me my best fucking friend! You lost me my chance to get with the hottest girl in the school. All I ever did was to try and get her to like me and you fucked everything up! You fucking faggot, I’m gunna beat the shi—”

“DAVID?!”

Dave turned on his heel. Standing in front of Chloe, Ava, and Mark was Sally. She looked absolutely horrified. She ran up to Dave and crashed into him, she grabbed a fistful of his baggy black shirt in each of her hands and drew his face down to level with hers she was practically screaming when she spoke, her voice was broken up and tired sounding and tears were building up in her eyes.

“What were you doing? Why?”

Everyone except for Sally stopped moving, everyone except for Dave and Sally watched the scene in either complete confusion or utter anticipation.

“Don’t hurt him, please. It’s my fault, he trusted me and I betrayed him. He didn’t ask me to keep it a secret, but he placed so much faith in me that he felt he didn’t have to say it. I didn’t let him see that I couldn’t handle it, I just led him on, thinking I was a great person to tell this stuff to, but I’m not. I don’t deserve to be friends with him and I guess I never did.”

When Sally finished, she looked over at Wes, and spoke quietly

“I’m sorry, Wes. You don’t have to forgive me, but just know that I’m sorry.”

She watched him sorrowfully as he thought about what she said. The wheels seemed to be turning in his mind and Sally’s stomach lurched with every passing second he kept silent. She could understand and was willing to accept any response Wes gave her without any questions to his judgment.

“Sally, I forgive you, but I do not think we can be friends again, at least not to the extent that it used to be.”

She was rather satisfied with his forgiveness, “Thank you.”

Wes nodded.

“And what about Raine?” Dave sneered, anger evident in his usually smooth voice

Raine’s eyes flashed with determination, “I forgive her, but you are still a major fucking asshole”

Wes turned and glared heavily at Dave, “No one asked you to speak. No one has forgiven you, or at least I haven’t.”

Dave raised an eyebrow spitefully

“I know what you did,” Wes glared hard at him, “You took advice from Mark over there, who tries so desperately to get into Ava’s pants. Mark convinced you that you just had to dye your hair. Than he told you to act like such a dick to me. If you were mean to me, than I would hate you and you would hang around Sally. I wouldn’t want to be around Sally if you were there. Than she’s go to you whenever there was a problem and you’re just waiting for her to come crying to you for you to take advantage of her vulnerability.”

“Oh come on!” Dave rolled his eyes, “That is such bullshit.”

Ava looked a little dumb-stuck and Chloe rested a hand on her shoulder

Wes turned back to Sally, “look, Sally, you’re a great friend, but if he’s got to come with your friendship than we might have some problems. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still gunna be your friend, but I can’t stand him.”

Sally nodded, “That’s fine.”

They smiled at each other. Wes and Sally reached out and shook hands.

Mark rolled his eyes, “We outta here?”

Chloe nodded absently, still watching Sally and Wes

“Good, I gotta take a piss and besides, this is boring the hell outta me.” Mark scoffed his dirty Vans against the floor

Ava rolled her eyes, “No one asked you to stay.”

Chloe smiled, “You’re presence wasn’t needed.”

Mark looked absolutely offended, but Chloe and Ava barely noticed when they’re attention was drawn to Sally, who came up to them with Dave in tow and smiled, “C’mon guys, let’s go.”

Wes and Raine watched as they all left together and listened when Sally spoke to her friends

“Hey girls, you wanna go for ice cream after school?”

“Sure!”

“Hey, err, Sally- What about us?”

“No boys allowed.”

Raine laughed to himself and he and Wes headed to their lockers and took out their books for next period just as the bell rang.

…………

It was after school when Wes and Raine finally saw each other again. They stood awkwardly side-by-side as they exited the building and walked home. Finally Raine said something

“There’s Sally, Chloe, and Ava,” Raine pointed them out to Wes, “They’re probably going for ice cream.”

Wes smiled and than pointed out a duo, watched them with slumped, disappointed shoulders, “there’s Dave and Mark, I guess they really are sad about not being invited.”

The two laughed

“Chloe’s cute, it’s a shame no one likes her.”

“You know, you sound like a chick.”

Wes laughed and playfully smacked the back of Raine’s head, “shut up, you’re just jealous because I’m more in touch with my emotions than you are.”

“I am too in touch with my emotions!” Raine exclaimed, “I’m just a man so I don’t let them show!”

Wes stared at him “That was too honest.”

“Huh?”

“It ruined it, it was too honest,” Wes blinked, “You suck, man.”

Raine rolled his eyes and they continued they’re walk back to Wes’ house. When they got there, they dropped they’re stuff in Wes’ room.

“So, um, video games and than homework?”

“Sure.”

Raine grabbed their favorite racing game off the shelf in Wes’ room (I’m referring to the one they played in chapter 4) and headed downstairs with Wes to the basement where they set up the game. Falling back on the couch, Wes smiled over at Raine

“You’re not gunna win this time.”

Snatching the second player controller from Wes’ taunting hands, he poked Wes’ side playfully

“Wishful thinking, but Wes, come on, you suck.”

Wes rolled his eyes a he picked his car, “You’re gunna be in for a surprise when I school you.”

“You know, I really don’t think you could.”

“Funny.” Wes said blatantly and watched with interest as Raine decided on what car to use.

The game started up and a pixilated blonde woman came onto screen. She began waving the flags and all too soon, she lowered the flags and the two cars sped away from the starting line. The race was pretty even and very well under control until Wes’ car skimmed Raine’s purposefully and Raine, going at nearly impossible speeds, skidded off to the right, and Wes’ was free to go. Happy with his new advantage, Wes laughed a bit at Raine’s misfortune.

Unfortunately for Wes, he laughed too soon. Like with all games, Raine was at least five times better and knew every secret to every game and even if he’d never played it before, he gets used to and masters games all too quickly and with way too much ease. This lead Raine’s Viper to zoom past Wes’ Corvette faster than Wes would have imagined he could have even caught up with. And, as with their last races, Raine came to an amazing finish, beating Wes by 3.09 seconds. He dropped his controller and Wes could see that Raine knuckles were white and his thumbs were pale with effort, but before he could say anything to him, Raine jumped into words

“Who’s laughing now? I ‘schooled’ you, man, I so did!”

Raine grinned and poked his tongue out at Wes, who reached out to grab it, but Raine squeaked and pulled it back in right before it was caught.

“What the fuck?”

Wes smiled and lightly punched Raine’s shoulder, “I was just joking, man, calm down.”

“Yeah, sure,” Raine sat forward as if to think a moment and than settled back, his shoulder now lightly touching Wes’, “whatever.”

A little shocked, Wes blinked and thought a moment: was Raine really sitting against him like this? Why wasn’t he moving away?

            His thoughts were cut short when he noticed Raine entering the one player mode and picking up where he left off. He watched quietly as Raine sped through the race tracks with an awe-worthy amount of control and skill and, after the fourth race, Wes realized that rather than focusing on the race, he found himself concentrating on Raine as he manipulated the car.

            He found it amazing that Raine could be so good at something and how, no matter what he doesn’t, he can’t seem to find Raine’s skills down-putting. In fact, he was finding that he really did like everything about Raine. He would admit that he did like some things more than others, but there was no dislike in his entire being reserved for this videogame master. He was just... too likeable and he’d be damned if anyone told him different.

            Later on, when time was lost, Raine put down the controller after an amazing victory and looked over at Wes who had the strangest glazed-over look in his eyes and he was looking right at him. He cleared his throat and Wes jolted back into reality

            “Do you know what time it is?”

            “Err...,” Wes glanced down at his watch and had to do a double-take, “6:30.”

            “Holy shit, was I really playing that long? I’m sorry.”

            “No, no! It’s no big deal, let’s just go upstairs, my mom’ll be home any minute.”

            They put the controllers away and turned off the games system and the TV, they headed up the stairs to the kitchen and just shut the basement door when the front door opened.

            “Wes, Raine, I’m home!” Wes’ mother power-walked into the kitchen, her high-heels clanking noisily against the tile floor. She dropped the mail on the counter and immediately went over to the pantry and taking out a box of pasta and picking up the phone, dialing and holding it against her ear, “So, boys, how was your day at school?”

            Wes and Raine glanced at each other, “Fine.”

            “That’s lovely, you two do your homework?”

            “No, Mrs. Jones, we were just about to start it.”

            “That’s good, but you won’t be able to concentrate on an empty stomach, wait until after dinner, for now go watch TV or—Oh hi honey, yeah I left the bread I was going to bring home on the—yeah, that’s it—it’s for dinner—no, we’re going to have pasta with a side of bread, we have a guest, I will certainly not feed our guest just bread!”

            Raine lightly tugged at the hem of Wes’ sleeve and the two walked out of the room and went to sit in the living room. They flopped back on the couch, making themselves at home, even if Wes was the only one home. They turned their heads to face each other and idly talked about how mean their teachers were until about fifteen minutes later when they were called for dinner.

            Although they didn’t hear him come in, Wes’ father was home and sitting at the table, which was adorned with the proper utensils, bowls for each of them, a big bowl of pasta in the middle of the table and a nice warm looking piece of bread.

            They sat themselves down at the table and Wes’ mother sat soon after. They passed around the pasta and poured drinks. Eventually someone spoke

            “Wesley”

            Wes looked up from his plate at his dad, who was looking at him over his glasses with a rather unreadable expression

            “Sam can’t do her shift at the store tomorrow, family business will be pulling her out until Friday. I’m sorry to have to ask you, but could you work tomorrow? I have a lot of work to do in the office and can’t bake. Seth and Lillian are going to work the registers and you’re only going to have to work until five when Zora and Karin’s shift starts. I’m sorry to do this since you have a friend, but maybe Raine would like to help out.”

            Wes took a moment to take it all in. The thought about it, “I’d like to, but... Raine, you don’t mind, do you?”

            “Of course not!” Raine smiled whole-heartedly, “I’d love to work with you.”

            “Really?”

            “Yeah!”

            Wes smiled at his father, “Alright, no problem.”

            Mr Jones chuckled, “good, just not too much horseplay, we’re running low on bread and I need to get the finances done in the back.”

            “We’ll be good, Mr Jones, you can trust me to keep your son in line.” Raine grinned cheekily at Wes

            “Sure.”

            They finished dinner and Mr Jones was the first to leave. When he was gone Wes’ mother spoke to the two boys dropping their dishes off in the sink, “I think it’s nice that you are helping your father out. You too, Raine, thank you.”

            “No problem.”

            “Now, why don’t you start you’re homework?”

            Wes smiled “On it.”

            Raine and Wes slowly climbed the stairs, dreading doing their homework. They got into Wes’ room and Wes shut the door, locking it absent mindedly and the two of them pulled out their books. They placed them down in front of them and looked them over briefly

            “Alright,” Raine said, “We have Math, English, Physics, and Biology, which first?”

            “How about we start with Physics and than to Biology than to Math and than English?”

            “Perfect.”

            They worked on the assignments until they were halfway into English, where Raine was busy trying to help Wes understand diagramming sentences.

            “Look, the prepositional phrase has a noun, a verb, and a receiving noun. You draw a line from this word and put these two here and you put this here, do you understand it?”

            “Mmm-hmm.”

            “Now you take the adjective and place it on a line underneath here, you follow?”

            “Mmm-hmm.”

            “Now, go back to these words and—”

            “Mmm-hmm.”

            “Are you even listening to me?”

            “Mmm-hmm.”

            Raine, frustrated with Wes, turned his head to look at him, only to find his face inches away from Wes’. He jumped slightly. Wes smiled weakly at him and he smiled back even weaker. When Wes didn’t say anything or move, Raine began to grow nervous. A million thoughts raced through Raine’s head at once and it only got worse when Wes leaned in closer.

            “R-Raine?”

            “Yes?”

            “What do you think of taking this one step farther?”

            Raine swallowed, his throat suddenly very dry, “like kissing?”

            Wes nodded slowly.

            “A-alright.”

            Raine wasn’t entirely sure whether what they were about to do was right or wrong, but he knew that he wanted it. He knew he wanted it and no one’s opinions would get in the way of this. He felt Wes’ breath on his face, it was fast and unsteady. He looked into Wes’ eyes and found he looked as nervous as he felt. He swallowed his doubts, leaned up, and rested his lips gently against Wes’

            Time suddenly stopped for a second and they felt like their hearts were beating faster and slower at the same time. It felt nice, but something was nagging at the back of each of their minds, like they shouldn’t be doing this. They shut the voices up by simultaneously leaning into each other a bit more. When Wes pulled away they felt surprisingly empty. There were no emotions, just bleakness. All too soon, thoughts came back and Wes, who had only kissed one person before, decided that this kiss was better and that it was probably because it was with someone he really liked. Raine figured that compared to all the girls he’s kissed, this kiss with Wes, although a bit awkward, was probably the best yet.

            They sat upright and looked at each other, a tinge of pink on each of their cheeks.

            “I can’t believe we just did that.”

            Raine had to breath before saying anything, “Me neither.”

            “I was good though, wasn’t it?”

            “Very.”

            “Do you want to do it again?”

            “Not right now.”

            “I agree.”

They smiled at each other and both returned to their work. Raine helped Wes through it, their bodies pressed a little closer together this time

Ahaha! Take that Freshman readers! They kiiiiiissed! giggle I’m so happy for them, I’ve had this scene planned out since before I started writing this story down and it was all an idea in my head. Anyway I hope you’re all not too PO’d with the throwing in of other characters, ‘cause the next chapter is gunna have these other people in it as well. I must admit, though, I like Dave the asshole and I do like Sally the backstabbing bitch even though there were no hidden intentions in what she did.

This story is winding down and there are only two chapters left and maybe, if I really really feel like it, a short third chapter. Speaking of chapter length, damn did you see the size of this chapter? It’s seventeen pages in Word. Holy crap. Go me. Well, until next time, here are:

The Ending Questions (ooooo)

Was the addition of the extra characters too much? I tried to make the kiss seem both enjoyed and awkward at the same time, did it sound like it was jumping around too much? Who thinks Raine’s turning too much into a woman (I’m trying to fix that, but it’s getting difficult)?