WØRDS [Peterick]

twø

"They are kinda assholes", Pete suddenly said, pointing to a group of 'popular looking' guys, "homophobic, racist assholes." Great, homophobes. Yes, I am gay – well I think I am. I never had a boyfriend, but girls were never interesting to me. Boys were. Especially guys like Pete. He just had something about him that made him special and outstanding right from the moment you look at him for the first time. Maybe it's the eyeliner or his smile or just the kind look on his face when he introduces himself. I don't know.

After the period Pete asked me about my schedule, so I showed him mine. It turned out that we had almost the exact same one, except for our foreign language. He had Spanish and I had Latin. I mean no one really talks in Latin so it's the perfect language for me, isn't it?

When it was lunch time Pete and I made our way into the cafeteria. "Patrick, this is Andy, this is Joe. Andy, Joe, this is Patrick. He doesn't talk, but he's good with words anyway", Pete introduced us and I had to blush because just in the lesson before, which was English obviously, the teacher complimented me on my short story – we had to write one about anything we wanted – which she also read aloud to the class. It was a bit embarrassing, but the other students also liked it.

I have to admit, I am actually really good with words. I just don't say them. My vocabulary is still better than other's and I often write. I write to express myself. I do this not only through stories, but more through lyrics. I also play the guitar and therefore sing my own lyrics – when no one's around of course.

During lunch the three guys asked me questions such as where I came from and why I moved, but I actually didn't want to answer so many questions. It always makes me feel uncomfortable when people pretended to be interested in my life and then leave again. Sure, I didn't know if they would leave eventually, but it has always been this way before. I wrote my answers very slowly to waste time and finally, after about four questions, the bell rang, telling us to go to our next lesson.

I had Latin now. The only period without Pete. But with Joe. We sat next to each other but didn't communicate. The lesson wasn't that boring because we translated jokes from Latin to English. I wish every Latin lesson would be like this – but still, I liked topic such as the Gallic War, too.

Latin was my last lesson so I headed home after waving Joe good-bye. He was really nice and we worked together. My house wasn't that far away from school so I decided to walk there. But soon after I walked a few steps someone called my name.

"Patrick! Hey! Wait for me!" It was Pete, so I turned around as he came running up to me. "Hey, I forgot to ask if we could go home together since we are almost neighbours." He smiled brightly and I just nodded because I didn't want to take out my whiteboard again.

We walked in silence and as we approached Pete's house, he stopped walking and turned to me so he was facing me. "Er, I ... I wanted to ask you if I could get your number?", he asked shyly and his cheeks turned a light shade of red. I grinned and took his phone to save my number. Then I waved him good-bye and walked the last few metres to my house. I lived three houses from Pete, so we could actually always go to school and back home together. I also learned that Andy and Joe lived further away from school and had to take the bus.

I had forgotten my keys, so my mum opened the door after I rang and immediately started to ask questions about my first day at the new school. She was just curious, but I still had no motivation to talk or write everything down.

"So, Patrick, how was the first day? Do you like it there? Did you make friends?", she asked and I just wrote down "It was okay. I met Pete, Andy and Joe." I really wasn't in the mood to talk right there. Then I walked upstairs into my room to listen to music. I didn't care if my mother wanted to know more about the guys, and of course I hadn't figured out how I felt about Pete yet. I mean, I didn't even know if he was gay, too.