Astronomy

Fourteen: Regulus

    Reggie sat under the tree, drawing random circles with his pencil. Leo sat with him, talking about something with Eve. Reggie had somehow managed to fix his friendship with her, even if things were still a little awkward.
He hadn't been able to sleep for the past few days because every time he tried, his mind wandered off. He tried to ignore the fact that he's probably gay, but it just seemed to keep coming back to him. Reggie understood a lot of people didn't accept being gay, so he decided it was best to just not say anything to anyone. He knew his parents definitely wouldn't like it, so he just stayed quiet.
He ripped the paper he was drawing on from his notebook and crumpled it up, throwing it in his backpack.
"I'm going to go back to my dorm," he said. "I'll see you guys later."
    "Bye Regulus!"
    He started walking to his dorm, and as he did, light rain started falling. The sky was a damp gray, and as he walked to his dorm he saw James watching the rain from a window in the hall.
    "Reg! We haven't seen each other in awhile. How are you? Do you want to go to the astronomy tower again tonight? Because it's the last day of school?"
    Reggie laughed. James was the only person who ever called him any variation of "Reggie" or "Reg."
    "Sure," he agreed. "Tonight at eight?"
    "Sounds good." James smiled and looked back out the window. "Maybe we can see the rain from up there."
    "Maybe," Reggie said as he continued walking to his dorm. "See you later."
***
Reggie walked up to the base of the astronomy tower, and made his way up the winding stairs to the top, waiting for James. He was a little late, so he sat under the tall windows and started drawing. The rains had calmed down, and it fell lightly on the large windows of the tower.
After some time had passed, James burst through the door at the other end of the room. "I am so sorry," he said, out of breath. "I had to wait for Sirius to go to sleep because I knew he would ask where I was going."
Reggie shrugged. "It was nice to be up here by myself."
James walked over and sat on next to him. "What are you drawing?"
"The tower."
"Draw me!"
Reggie laughed. "No."
"It will be fun!"
"Fine." He flipped to a clean page on his notebook. "Sit still, okay?"
"Got it. Make sure to draw my beautiful face correctly, okay?"
"I'll try." He paused. "So what do you like doing?" Reggie thought he sounded pretty awkward, but he felt the need to keep the conversation going.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I like drawing. Do you like reading or singing or something?"
"I don't know," he said quickly. "Singing is okay, I guess."
"Sing something."
"Absolutely not," James said as he laughed.
"Why not?"
"I don't know."
Reggie looked back down at his drawing. He had drawn the outline of James's face, and started on his nose. He drew some freckles on James's nose, and they spilled onto his cheeks.
"What does it look like?"
"It's not done."
He worked a little longer, until James asked again.
"It looks fine."
"Can I see?"
"When I'm done." He looked up and studied James. "Push your hair back a little."
James did, and Reggie nodded. "Got it."
"What are you doing?"
"Drawing your hair."
He continued the drawing, and finished it. "Here you go."
James studied the drawing. "That's really good," he said, surprised. "That's really, really good!"
"Thank you."
"Why didn't you tell me you could draw?"
He shrugged. "I didn't think it was important, I guess."
James shook his head and laughed, and Reggie did too. He always had a good time with James, no matter what they were doing. He didn't want anything to change that.
He didn't have very many friends, so he was glad to have James.