Chapter 3: Two People Bound To Stay

Dylan Reynolds was the kind of guy that everyone loved to hate, but no one did. He was smart, sexy, athletic, charismatic, popular, and all-around great. His buff frame and medium length blonde hair had girls swooning over him instantly. Little did they know he wasn’t all that into them.

He walked into the rowdy classroom and quickly took an empty seat. People instantly noticed him when he walked in. He was hard to miss, actually. After the bell rang, the small framed teacher spoke. She was loud and unnerving, but Dylan could deal with it.

“Quiet down everyone!” she said, “First things first, we have a new student today.” At this she automatically looked to Dylan, as if to say “Get up here.”

Dylan quickly got up, and stood beside of her. There was a great height difference between the two, which was a little awkward.

“Why don’t you tell the class a little about you, Dylan?” She said suggestively.

Dylan took a minute to find the words, and finally said “Uhm….hey everyone. I’m Dylan. I’m a Senior, and I moved here from Petersburg. Its about thirty minutes away, and, uhm…I like hockey. Well, most sports, actually. And…” he trailed off.

Suddenly, a bold girl made an effort to ask the inevitable, “So do you got a girlfriend or what?” There was some slight laughter after word.

“Uh…” he didn’t know how to answer the question. Whether he should be honest, or lie. He decided to be honest, “No, actually…I’m, uh….gay.”

The room grew silent. Everyone was shocked. Amongst the people in this room was Brady Wilson.

The rest of Ryan’s day was great. Better than he had had in a long time. He generally carried a smile on his face. He of course had hoped to see Dylan again, but he never did. During his lunch, Ryan went home, and on the way checked his cell phone.

One Missed Call. One Voice Message

He didn’t know if he wanted to listen to it or not. He knew it was Mark. Suddenly the guilt had set in. “How can I be thinking about other guys when I’m still…kind of together with Mark.” Ryan frowned and listened to his voice message.

One new message. From: Phone number 3-4-5, 3-3-6-, 7-4-5-9. Received; 10:34 am.

”Ryan. Hey. It’s me. Um.. I’m leaving tonight. I wanted to say that I was sorry for last night, too. I shouldn’t have been such a jerk. I’d really like to see you tonight before I catch my plane. How about coffee tonight? 6:30 ? I’ll buy. Later.

Ryan Sighed. He continued driving home, since that’s where he always went during his lunch. He pulled into the driveway and turned the car off. Once he was inside he had the usual; A cup of coffee. Ryan didn’t eat much, ever. Once when Mark told him he was fat, he decided to eat less, just to please him It’s just become sort of a habit to only eat when absolutely necessary. He couldn’t remember what hungry and full felt like.

He went back to school. The rest of the day was a little more sedate than the first half of the day, mainly because of the call from Mark and Ryan’s undying guilt. After school was out, he was in a rush to get home, and be ready for tonight’s coffee session with Mark.

Pulling up to the stoplight, something caught his eye. It was Dylan. He was getting gas. Of course, this made Ryan turn giddy, and he had to pull into the gas-station to make small talk. He couldn’t be too ‘friendly’ however, since he didn’t know his sexual orientation.

“Hey there” he said, hanging out the window.

Dylan turned around, and saw it was Ryan. “Hey, Ryan, is it?”

“Yeah” Ryan said, realizing he had less to say than he had thought. “How was your first day?”

“It was alright. I had to stand up in front of all of my classes and practically give a speech about my life” he said, “it was pretty nerve racking”.

“Well that’s never fun,” Ryan said, being as nice as can be, he then got to the point. “So what are you getting into this weekend?”

Dylan was stumped. He didn’t figure anyone would ask him to actually do something. It was his first day. “Uh…”

“Well” Ryan said, “Tonight I can’t. I’m saying goodbye to my bo-….” He looked down, then looked up once again, finding the words, “My friend, my friend is going away for a couple of weeks. I’m saying goodbye to him. But tomorrow, if you want to do something, that’d be awesome.

Dylan smiled, “Sure”

“Here’s my number”, Ryan said, fumbling around nervously for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote down his number, and held it out of the window. Dylan walked to the car door and took it from Ryan’s hand. “Thanks,” he said.

“Maybe we could get coffee, or something,” he said suggestively,

“Sounds great” Ryan said, he had nothing else to say, and his heart was racing. “Well, I’ll see you later.” He waved, rolled up his window, and pulled out of the parking lot.

Dylan watched as the car pulled away, and clutched the paper tightly in his hand. He put it in his pocket, and then he continued getting gas.