If you’re looking for something angsty, rest assured that this is not it. In fact, I’m feeling pretty juvenile at the moment and it’s starting to sound like some warped after school special. --;; But! It amuses me so I don’t really care. Read it if you want, but just don’t say I didn’t warn you that it would be fluffy. (And the clichés…rolls eyes at self  -;; I’m writing this strictly for my own amusement and not to further my writing skills, so kindly keep your constructive crits to yourself. I’m already aware of its failings.)

“So you’re out here waiting for someone too?”

Brandon glanced up from his book at the question, figuring that the person in question who was asking had directed it at some other passerby, but as he looked around, he realized he was the only other person within twenty feet.

Which was more confusing than he’d thought initially as he realized that the voice in question belonged to Jude Masterson.

“Excuse me?” He asked quietly, and maybe just a bit uncertainly. It had to have been a mistake of the wind or something. People like Jude, just did not randomly walk up to people like him and ask semi-polite questions. Maybe they’d come up to deliver a subtle insult or swift put-down to amuse themselves, yes. But to just ask a nice question? Not likely. Not likely at all.

“I asked if you were waiting for someone.” The blond offered with a small sigh before reaching down to the bag at his feet and pulling out a small carton and a lighter. Patiently, Brandon watched him pull out a cig and light it up. “Cause I’m telling ya man, this sucks. I can’t wait till I can drive and then I won’t have to wait around like this.” With a disgusted snort, the taller boy plopped down onto the gritty sidewalk beside Brandon.

“Er…” He returned unintelligently, wincing as he realized that to someone like Jude, he must seem like a complete waste of space. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Except I’m going to be doing this for the rest of my high school career. There’s no way my mom’s gonna be able to afford a car for me, and I sure as hell can’t scrape together the money for one myself,” and then he firmly told himself to quit babbling. It wasn’t as if someone like Jude would actually care.

But much to his amazement, Jude didn’t seem too put off by his short spurt of gregariousness. “Man, that stinks. My dad said if I do okay on my PSATs he’ll consider springing for an old used car. It’s either that or he gets to pick me up every afternoon, because I am not riding the cheese wagon.”

Brandon snuck a glance out the corner of his eye, watching as Jude drew inhaled and then blew out a small trail of smoke. For something that was supposed to be so bad for you, it sure did look pretty sexy when someone like Jude did it. Not that Brandon was thinking along those lines…Oh who was he kidding? He watched Jude and the crowd Jude hung out with at lunch sometimes. For all that most of them were deliriously popular and rather arrogantly aware of it, there was no denying that they were beautiful people. Jude especially. What with the straight honey blond hair that sometimes fell in his brown eyes, and the way that soccer had obviously toned what was probably a fairly decently well built body to begin with…

…Not that Brandon thought that Jude would appreciate it in the least if the blond knew where Brandon’s thoughts had wandered. As it was, there was a slightly uncomfortable silence between them that was beginning to really make him want to fidget nervously. Why did Jude have to come over and try to be nice to him of all people?   

“Not much of a talker, are you? I mean, I see you all the time during classes with your nose stuck in a book…”

Turning slightly and trying to keep himself from blushing, Brandon caught Jude staring at him out of the corner of his eye, the cigarette hanging limply in one slim hand as he regarded Brandon thoughtfully. “You know, those things are bad for you.” The words slipped out of his mouth, and immediately he cursed his own stupidity. You sound like some stupid drug commercial, you  idiot. Why don’t you just declare hunting season on bookish nerds? I wonder if it would be too much to hope that he just didn’t hear that...

“Er…well, yeah, I know. I only do it when I get really nervous.” Jude shrugged, looking momentarily flustered, which did more to alleviate Brandon’s worries than anything else.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that you don’t seem like the type to smoke, you know?”

“I suppose…don’t have the tattoos or the dyed hair.”

“You’re missing the random piercing too.” Brandon added with a small grin, sort of amazed that Jude was taking it all so well. “What are you so nervous about?”

“Huh?”

The urge to tease the blond about his confused expression was there on the tip of Brandon’s tongue, but he quickly restrained himself. He barely knew Jude, and something made him think that someone of Jude’s status here at the school probably wouldn’t take kindly to having the quiet weirdo make a few smart ass comments about him. “You said you only smoked when you were nervous. What’s got you so worked up?” He mentally winced at his choice of words, but couldn’t quite keep the friendly smile off his face as Jude suddenly looked like he understood.

“My dad’s new girlfriend is picking me up. I’ve never met her before, and I’m a bit freaked, you know? It would be one thing if Dad was here to break the ice and all that jazz, but it’s just going to us and…” Jude shrugged, and Brandon could see the worry playing at the blond’s features.

“You think she’s going to be a total she-beast?”

“She-beast?” Jude asked with a grin, and Brandon felt himself blushing again as he made a small apologetic gesture. He kept forgetting that people in this school weren’t used to seeing him joke around or well…talk even.

“Well yeah, I mean, are you expecting Kathy Bates from “Misery” or Mrs. Brady?” His face felt like it was on fire as Jude gave a short bark of laughter.

“There’s a relation between the two?” Jude’s voice was skeptically amused, and Brandon gave an inward sigh of relief. “Nah, I think she’ll probably be somewhere in between. I mean, it’s not that I care much, mind you. But dad seems really hung on her, and since mom went packing a couple of years ago…I just want her to be nice, you know? And it wouldn’t hurt for her to not hate me on sight…”

Brandon thought about it before nodding his agreement. “I can see what you mean.” Heaven only knew that his own mother had started dating a few months back, and god willing, this boyfriend would turn out better than the last. As it was, he was used to the whole parental dating scene. His mother had had him when she’d been a senior in high school, and she’d been dating zeros for years. It was almost standard for any one of the men she brought home to see her half grown kid and then run for the hills. And while he’d tried to quit taking it personally ages ago, he still found himself hoping that this guy she was dating now would be different.

“So whatcha reading?”

“Huh?” Brandon blinked as Jude’s full attention was focused on him. The amused grin on Jude’s face as he gestured towards Brandon’s book was enough to send the shorter boy to blushing again. “Oh…this. Er…it’s just a fantasy book. It gets boring waiting out here and Mom’s almost always late picking me up.” He tried to shove the book into his backpack and out of sight, but Jude snapped it out of his hands and started flipping the pages.

“Is it any good?”

“Er…yeah, I think so. I’ve read it like a hundred times, but you probably wouldn’t like it much.” Brandon managed, wishing the ground would just swallow him whole and end his misery. As much as he loved “Magic’s Pawn” by Mercedes Lackey, something made him think that for someone like Jude and his group, it would just be extra fuel to the fire when it came to teasing him if they knew what the book was about. He held out his hand for the book, and with obvious reluctance, Jude gave it back.

“Well, when you finish it this time, do you think you could lend it to me maybe?”

“Ah, sure. Er…just remind me, okay?” Brandon managed to get out through his slightly horrified shock. Hopefully Jude would forget his offer. Hopefully Jude would forget this whole conversation. It was one thing to watch one of the sexiest kids a school from a distance. It was another matter entirely to make an ass of yourself in front of him. And as far as people went…well, to say that he was not good with people was something of an understatement; Brandon couldn’t help but think ruefully. 

They lapsed into another uncomfortable silence, and it was great relief that Brandon finally spotted his mother’s old Taurus creeping into the school’s parking lot. Pulling his backpack up on his shoulder, he waited until her car came to a stop before reaching for the door. But as he opened it and tossed his bag in the back, he watched his mother stopped the car and climbed out. Confused, he frowned as she pushed her sunglasses off her face and scanned the sidewalk briefly before her eyes stopped on Jude.

Thinking she was taking in the fact that he’d been talking to someone who had been smoking, Brandon turned to see that Jude had gotten rid of the cig and was regarding the both of them a bit apprehensively.

“You must be Jude, right?” Gaping, Brandon turned to look at the friendly, albeit a bit nervous, smile on his mother’s face. “You look just like the pictures your father’s shown me. Brandon-bear, think you could sit in back and let Jude sit up front with me?”

TBC…