"Black boots, black boots, black boots!" Shy hissed urgently under his breath, causing the person sitting next to him to flinch and stare at him uneasily. Shy didn't care much though as he stared intensely at the pair of black boots he'd spotted among the clutter of people outside the class room window. Despite his manic stare, the person attached to the boots just wouldn't come into view. Then the sea of people seemed to part as someone pushed their way through and Shy gasped over-excitedly. The guy in black boots was rudely shoving his way towards the school building followed by his henchmen. Among him and his friends, he was the only one who didn't have a shaved head, instead he had an unruly tuft of white-blonde hair that fell into his eyes and reached his ears just barely. He was dressed in black jeans and a white wife-beater, his wrists littered with black leather bracelets. He could've looked like just any angry teenager if it wasn't for one teeny tiny detail; the five-inch tattoo of a swastika on his bicep.

Shy sighed contently, supporting his chin on his palm as he watched the boy walking with an air of superiority and determination surrounding him. Why he'd fallen for this guy, he couldn't really say. The fact that his appearance just seemed to scream "nazi" would've had others running in the opposite direction, but Shy had never even let his mind linger on that before he fell headfirst in love with him. With Noah. Noah the bad boy, Noah the nazi, Noah the bully, the homophobe and the rebel. Now, not even Shy was stupid enough to approach the boy as the rumours circling Noah were rumours involving a large dose of unprovoked violence. But a boy can dream, can't he?

"Shy? You coming?" someone asked and Shy snapped back to reality, realising that class was over.

"Uhm, yeah." Shy retorted absently, flipped his notebook shut and unceremoniously shoved it into his bag before he threw one last glance through the window, only to find that Noah had disappeared.

"Come on, Shy, today."

"Shut up, Maike." Shy snapped, scrambling up from his chair and followed the other boy out of the class room. Maike was about the only one Shy knew who accepted him without question, even if it was just barely. Besides, Maike didn't have much choice than to bear with Shy if he didn't want to be completely alone. Maike wasn't the most pleasant person to be around, nor was he in any way a particularly pretty sight with his round face, about forty pounds of excess weight and sandy brown hair that he kept less than an inch long. Shy on the other hand was perhaps skinny and looked somewhat like a deer in headlights with his big, brown eyes, but he was in the general opinion very cute. He had dark brown hair that was irrevocably straight, with slightly v-shaped bangs and the rest falling neatly over his shoulders. His most eye-catching facial features were his plump lips and what his sisters used to describe as "girly cheekbones".

"Wanna go to the arcade?" Maike asked, his voice sounding rather disinterested, like the very thought bored him, but the fact that he'd brought it up meant, as a rule, that he really, really wanted to go.

"Mmm, sure." Shy answered. Actually, he'd rather hang out in the park on the opposite side of the school where Noah normally walked on his way home. Shy and Maike didn't speak of things like that however, so he kept his mouth shut. All in all, the friendship between the two was more of a silent agreement to keep each other company so to not be alone or, in Shy's case, having to resort to hanging out with people who asked too many questions, argued or told him what to think.

The boys were silent all the way to the arcade and as Maike occupied himself with one of the games, Shy sat down on the floor next to him, staring at all the pretty colours and lights.

"I'm failing Biology." Maike said absently all of a sudden and Shy looked up at him slowly. His game of choice was one of those lame shooting games where you have to aim with a lump of black plastic that supposedly represented a gun. Shy flipped his hair back and sighed.

"Need me to tutor you?" He offered. He knew the answer already. Maike would never even consider making the tiniest bit of unnecessary effort, therefore tutoring was nowhere near what he had in mind.

"No. I need the answers to the next test." Maike retorted, no change in his tone whatsoever.

"What's in it for me?" Shy asked, not surprised in the least. He wasn't unfamiliar with slipping things out of the teachers' lounge. Or the nurse's office either for that matter, but that was a completely different thing.

"My brother knows Noah." was the answer and Shy's eyes widened. Maike really fucking needed to pass that test if he'd be willing to not only mention his brother but actually offer to talk to him for Shy. And how the heck did Maike know Shy liked Noah anyway? Was he really that obvious?

"And?"

"I'll find out where they hang out for you?"

"Okay."

"Okay."

After that, silence fell again, only the artificial sounds of gun-shot and blood splatter on the screen and Maike's slightly strained breathing.

"How long have you known?"

Maike sent a stray glance at Shy, frowning slightly at the question. Shy knew that Maike knew what he meant. How long had he known Shy liked Noah, or boys even?

"Since always."

"Okay."