Oh Boy! (BL)

3 - The Choices We Make (3/3)

!! Trigger Warning: sexual harassment, homophobia !!

I think you already got that - back then - I was everything but good at making friends in real life. What did you talk about with somebody you'd just met? When we'd formed our guild in WizQ, we had at least been able to talk about gaming stuff...

But there was one thing I really didn't get...

"Why the heck do I have to wear a tie?"

Taken aback, Holland stopped tapping critically at her lower lip. "Why? Well, nobody wants to make friends with a nerdy guy in ragged clothes. Plus," She lifted her index finger. "it's on me, so shut your cakehole."

Yeah...Whatever.

Holding on to my shoulders, she turned me from side to side until I was facing myself in the oversized mirror at Sak's Fifth Avenue. I crinkled my nose. The white dress shirt made my already pale skin look even paler, and the dark grey tie around my neck didn't just feel like a dog leash; with the tiny white dots printed on the fabric, it looked like one, too. The black jeans and the just as black sneakers were the only things that suited me...that is if they hadn't been brand new and far too expensive.

"What do you think?"

I shrugged.

"Wow, don't be too excited. But" She got in front of me. "something's missing."

Something...missing?

I was looking down my body, my bangs falling low into my face when Holland suddenly exclaimed "Of course!" and reached for my hair. "This has to go."

I grabbed her hand before she could touch me. "No."

"But..."

"I said no."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. But the rest is not negotiable."

"Fine."

It were just a bunch of clothes.

Or that's what I thought before my well-dressed me was getting more attention from my fellow students than I could've imagined when I entered school grounds the next Tuesday after our bank holiday. Students who'd made a habit of ignoring me were actually saying hello when I sat down next to them in class.

As if clothes made the man.

Now I just had to find out if the clothes had the same effect on the soccer team...

Or...maybe not.

After class, right before practice was about to start, I was supposed to wait for Clay at the sports ground. At least, that was the plan...

But instead of waiting for the team...instead of waiting for Clay, I was crouching behind the old oak tree that served as my reading spot in summer, trying to calm my pounding heart. "Ican'tdothis. I can't do this. I. Can't. Do. This," I panicked.

What had I been thinking?!

A loner like me would never be able to make friends with Clay Prescott!

Never!

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

Dusk was already falling, and I was still sitting below the oak tree dealing with my self-doubts when Holland approached me. She stamped her foot on the ground, her eyes were shooting daggers at me. "This will never work if you keep on hiding out here! Let's go!"

Before I knew what she was up to, Holland had already grabbed my arm and was dragging me towards the building that contained the locker rooms. Practice was over — yep, that's how long I'd been struggling with my doubts — and through the open door of the locker room I could hear a lot of manly laughter. One last time, Holland straightened my shirt and tried taking my backpack from me, but I was clinging to it frantically.