Learn How to Love (Boy x Boy)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟗

The next four days went by quickly. I tried spending as much time with Sadie as possible. Class, lunch, breaks, and outside of school. Every minute of free time I had I would spend with Sadie. We'd spend hours on the swings at the park, talking about our past and future. I wished I could tell her about Luke, but I knew how bad they would end up. Speaking of Luke, he seemed mad about something. The first day back at school he wouldn't even look at me, and when we got home he ate the food I made him, pushed the plate away, and curled up behind the beanbag chair. The next day he tried to talk to me, but I was so tired from hanging out with Sadie until ten o'clock that I passed out before he finished speaking. I think he was mad about that, but I didn't feel like I owed him an apology. After all, I was hanging out with my best friend. Luke just shoved himself deeper into my life and demanded I help him with his problem. I could still kick him out. 

I drummed my fingers on the table. I couldn't get Luke to talk to me this morning, and I hated the part of me that felt guilty for it. I peeked at my backpack, which was sitting off to the side of the table. The book with the long devil face poked out of the smallest pocket. I had brought it to school to try and do some research about the curse and what we might be able to do to fix it. I had google open, and if you clicked on the search bar a bunch of suggestions about hexes and spells popped up because of my search history. My fingers clacked against the keys as I typed in: "Ancient Seven Sins Spellbook" and waited to see what popped up.

I was sitting in an empty math classroom, scribbling down the notes on the board that I had missed on my day off. They were essential for our upcoming test, so I was hurrying to write them down so that I could finish and then go to a cafe with Sadie for iced coffee and waffles. I was trying to multi-task with research and my writing, but it wasn't going very well. I still had almost thirty minutes until the period ended and school was out for the day. Mr. Wellsbury had stepped out for a few moments to run to the teacher's lounge, and had left me in the classroom by myself. He'd probably be disappointed when he returned to see that I only had a couple pages of notes finished.

Ugh... I couldn't help it, Luke occupied my mind like a song you couldn't get out of your head. For one thing, finding out that magic was actually real and that someone had been cursed and needed your help was pretty overwhelming, but it was also concerning that we seemed to have gone from enemies to friends in just five days. It was probably just the circumstances that had been presented, and I figured if I did fix Luke's problem we'd go back to normal once it was all over. 

The door creaked open. I quickly slid the book deeper into my bookbag so that Mr. Wellsbury didn't see it, but instead of his receding hairline poking out of the door, it was a mop of curly white hair. "Luke?" I whisper-shouted. 

Luke popped his head around the corner. He looked around the room briefly until he caught sight of me. He scurried over. "Hey," he whispered. 

"You can't be in here, Mr. Wellsbury told me that I had to be the only one in here when I was working. He'll give me detention if he catches you in here," I said angrily. "What do you want? And make it quick."

Luke clasped his hands behind his back. "I wanted to talk to you..."

"Can't we talk at the treehouse?"

"What, you mean after midnight? When you're so exhausted you can't even stay awake to hear what I have to say?"

I scoffed. "You're still mad about that?"

"It wasn't that long ago!" snapped Luke. "What are you doing after school?"

I scratched the back of my neck. "Sadie and I are going to a cafe a couple towns over for waffles and coffee, why?"

Luke grit his teeth. "Well-"

"Kylar?"

Shit- I grabbed Luke's hand and yanked him downwards. Luke yelped as I ungracefully shoved him underneath the table before Mr. Wellsbury could see him. Luke held his forehead, looking up at me with an annoyed expression on his face. I held a finger to my lips and shook my head. Luke rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he sat beneath the desk.

"What was that?" Mr. Wellsbury asked, slipping into the room. 

I glanced downwards, and saw with a jolt that Luke's ears were out. His beanie had fallen off when I pulled him, and it was sitting just a couple inches away outside of the desk. I couldn't grab it without Mr. Wellsbury seeing it. Shit, if we got caught now then there was no way I'd be able to explain this. Goddamnit, my reputation would be over. This week had been going so smoothly... I had been spending time with my best friend, the Douche Squad had been much more bearable than usual, and I felt like I was making progress on my schoolwork. Why did Luke have to screw everything up? I never should've agreed to help his sorry ass. 

Mr. Wellsbury sat down at his chair and pulled headphones on. I waited until he was completely absorbed in whatever he was watching on his computer, and then kicked Luke in the thigh with my foot.

"Ow!" he squeaked. "What's your problem?"

"You are!" I spat. 

Mr. Wellsbury glanced upwards. "Hmm?"

"Nothing, sorry," I apologized. I felt something brush against my leg. Luke crossed his arms over my knees and rested his head in my lap, staring at me poutily. I shook my head sharply, but Luke didn't move.

"You can't talk," he whispered. "Or Mr. Whats-His-Face will hear you. So can I tell you why I was looking for you without you threatening to bite my head off for once?"

I sighed, and nodded.

Luke tilted his head slightly, still relaxing on my legs. "Remember the little ears and tail problem I've got going on?" he growled. "Yeah, well that's still an issue. It's almost been a week, and you still aren't anywhere near figuring out what to do with it. Maybe it seems small to you, but that's only because you aren't the one that sprouted animal features over night." Luke looked helpless for a moment. "You're the only person that I can talk to about this, but you're avoiding me. I know you don't like me, I get that, and I don't care that you'd rather hang out with Sadie than with me but I need you."

I flushed slightly, and stared intently at my notes so Luke couldn't properly see my face. These were the kinds of stories that fed my delusions, late at night while scrolling on Wattpad. That's what I wanted to hear from a partner, not this douchebag that wormed his way into my conscience like a parasite. But... a cute parasite, at least.  

"I don't care how you interpret that, but I'm serious. I can't fix this without your help. The sooner you help me get rid of these stupid ears and this godawful tail, I can get out of your treehouse and everything can back to how it was. That's what you want, right?" Luke questioned, staring at me intently with those bright blue eyes.

"I guess," I replied. "I'm trying to do stuff right now but-"

"Mr. Staz?" Mr. Wellsbury called.

I looked up. "Just talking to myself, it helps me focus," I lied. He nodded stiffly and looked back down to his work.

Luke grinned up at me mischeviously. "You almost got in trouble~," he teased. I rolled my eyes and shoved his head away from me. "Ow! Gosh, you're so grumpy. Shit, hand me my beanie before someone sees." I used my foot to shift the hat across the carpet and back towards him. Luke grabbed it and shoved it onto his head. "Thanks." He looked up at me sheepishly. "Look I don't want to intrude on your personal life, okay? You can hang out with Sadie and shit, that isn't a problem. I just... I need you to at least kind of pay attention to the whole 'turning into a cat' shit?"

"Has anything else changed?" 

Luke blinked. "I mean, I've been wanting to play with your shoelaces like this entire time, so maybe. Also, vegetables and fruit are fucking disgusting. I don't know if that's a cat thing or like, preference. Either way, I like meat, and I really like milk and cheese. So... can you make alfredo again? Please?"