Don't Play Cupid if You Can't Handle Being Shot in the Butt

Two

When the group had reached the cafeteria the Reds and Blues had already snagged a table with room to spare, so the latecomers hurriedly got their food and rushed to join their friends. The only one not at the table was Wash. The others settled in, and it wasn't long before conversation turned to the party. Donut beamed throughout the talk, no one able to deny the fact that it was going to be a good time. Donut happily watched his friends- Grif and Simmons now both mimicking projectile vomiting, Maine was signing to CT about being their designated driver, Church and Tex were flicking food at each other, South was already bitching about having nothing to wear while North rolled his eyes, and Tucker- oh. Donut's brow furrowed. Tucker was looking down, picking at his food and hardly talking to anyone. But why would-

"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late." Tucker's head snapped up at the sound of Wash's voice. Wash slid into the seat next to York and immediately began eating, not talking to anyone. Carolina and CT shared a worried glance, and after a meaningful look from North, York engaged him in conversation about the party, Donut handing over one of the invites. He noticed how Church had immediately checked to see Tucker's reaction to Wash's arrival, but he had bowed his head low, seemingly focused on eating but with a distracted look in his eye and a crease in his brow. After the invite had been handed over there was a moment of awkward silence.

Donut tried to keep track of the looks, nods and shrugs, but it appeared that everyone at the table was having their own private conversations. He thought that Wash looked tired. Well, Wash was like Church in that the bags under his eyes were permanent accessories, but he looked more tired than usual. Donut understood why his friends were worried.

The tension was broken when Tex casually flicked mash potato into Church's hair, making the Blue shriek and swear and the rest of them hoot with laughter. Tucker immediately brightened up, sticking peas into the mushy mess on the back of his friend's head and down his shirt. Church wheeled around with a yell and pushed Tucker off his seat. The tussle was a welcome distraction, Carolina muttered something about "hanging around with these children" but she had an amused smirk on her face. Next to her, York was almost crying with laughter, banging his fists on the table for extra effect.

Doc, predictably, tried to help Maine and Wash pull the two squabbling teenagers apart, but they were both laughing so hard it wasn't a difficult job. Maine had picked Church up clean off of the floor and set him standing upright again before wandering back to his seat without so much as changing his expression. Doc patted Church on the back (who was still bent double with laughing), and returned to where he had been sitting.

That left Wash, who despite his previously miserable exterior, was giggling, still with his arms around Tucker's waist where he'd dragged him off the floor. Tucker was cackling, supporting himself against Wash, one hand on his arm. Then Tucker turned, obviously to face whoever had their arms wrapped around him, and was suddenly inches from Washington's face. They paused there, startled, grins fading slowly from their lips. Tucker's hand slid down Wash's arm like he was going to back away, but he paused as it brushed against the other boy's wrist. Donut stared at the pair slack-jawed, this was something straight out of one of his romance novels, and was that his imagination or did Tucker just glance down at Wash's lips? This should be the point where someone yelled "Gay!" and started throwing shit, but it wasn't happening. Instead, the group was staring at them, all wide-eyed.

The bell rang to signal the end of lunch, Tucker and Wash sprang apart, red-faced, and immediately took off, everyone else scrambling to follow. The table cleared rapidly, leaving Doc tugging on Donut's shirtsleeve trying to get him up. Donut sat, shell-shocked, staring at where Tucker and Wash had been standing.

"Holy shit."

Donut's bedroom desk was a hive of wonder that no one but Donut could possibly understand. The Party Drawer was top left and currently empty, its contents strewn across the desktop. Bottom left contained a notebook in which Donut contained details of his large friendship group. Some might call it creepy, but Donut was determined to keep his Gossip Queen status, and also to help his friends out where he could, of course. After all, he rather considered himself the glue that held them all together, although they all had their own ties.

The account began, of course, with the Reds and Blue. The notebook had basically begun way back in Elementary School, when the Reds and Blues had first met. They had been given colour-coded classes- Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. Grif, Simmons and Donut had been in the Red class- ultimate rivals of the Blues. They fought against each other in sports days, school concerts, art competitions, everything. And somehow (or possibly something to do with Church's dad being very rich), the Reds and Blues had always been together in the same class groups since. Even to this day they continued the nicknames and the rivalries, although they had long since, grudgingly, admitted they were really friends. Doc had joined the group in Middle School. He ended up in the Blues's class, but had never really been in either group. He had his own section in the notebook just labeled "BFF". It had extra glitter.

And then there were the Freelancers. Donut still had that name for them in the notebook, even though they'd long since stopped using it. They had met them the first year of High School when they had formed a "Freelancer" group who tutored other students and charged for it. Eventually it was found out that they had been charging tons of money to write essays for people, and the whole thing was shut down. These days they were still infamous for the scandal, but had stayed friends at least with each other, the Reds and the Blues.

The notebook gave brief personality descriptions and, most importantly, the various interrelationships present in the group, both historically and present. Grif and Simmons had a lot of angry faces doodled next to their section, and references to the pages in Donut's diary where he outlined his schemes for them (Donut was only really organized in two areas of his life- cleaning and gossiping). Church and Tex's relationship status was a mess of scribbled out descriptions. Eventually Donut had given up and summed it up by writing "break up every 2 weeks or so, but they always get back together so I think they're safe :)" with a doodled thumbs up which resembled the Facebook "Like" symbol and a few love heart stickers.

He flicked to the Tucker-Washington page, which to this point had documented their initial animosity and frequent arguments to their current friendship and frequent arguments. Donut wrote a huge "HOLY SHIT!!!!" under his last entry for them. He added "friends worried? suspicious convos+looks??? SEXUAL TENSION U COULDN'T EVEN CUT W/ A KNIFE BC IT'S TOO DARN THICK!!!!!!" then scribbled a page reference to his diary, which he ripped out of its drawer (top right) and began to frenziedly scribble into it. He ended the entry with the words "NEW PROJECT" underlined three times.

Turning back to his party planning, he began to think of how to incorporate his new plans into the details. Guilt surged through him momentarily when he caught sight of the picture of him and Doc, remembering how he had practically promised not to match make at the party. With a dramatic sigh, Donut reached for the picture and turned it so it was facing away from him. He must do what needs to be done.