Fragile Threads [boyxboy]

Chapter 24 (epilogue)

Dedicated to 0Dauntlesstribute0 who needs to stop dying from her GCSEs!

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Ari and Ethan defiantly sat somewhat close with each other before their English class started. Ethan tried playing mostly oblivious to it while he knew Ari was carefully scoping out their classmates as they talked. They had been doing it since their teacher had tried talking to them about it.

She had yet to say anything again, but Ethan could sometimes tell by the little jumps that she gave that she was waiting for a huge blow up to happen at any minute because of it. Otherwise, whoever was so bothered by it had yet to say anything to them or to her again.

Ethan really didn't care at this point-he was mostly stunned by that. They were coming up on graduation and with each passing day it was more and more like high school didn't matter anymore.

College would be huge and new and probably scary as fuck, but it would be far enough away for them to do whatever and for no one to care. Jace had already put in his warning about some of the religious fanatics that went around campus and that it was best to just keep walking. Ethan wasn't sure how he would deal with that yet.

He and Ari had submitted their housing applications though, both listing each other as roommates. It wasn't like the housing people would know that they were dating-they would just think they were best friends or something. Oh, how wrong they would be.

Ethan always chuckled to himself at the thought and wondered what would happen if he playfully suggested how they only needed one bed or something to make it really obvious.

The rest of the day between classes had been settled into routine, which Ethan was slightly bored and content with. He liked the comfort of knowing he would see everyone at lunch and so on, but at this point, he wanted a little more of a challenge-that wasn't involving him getting into a fight.

Trevor had left him alone for the most part now, aside from the not so subtle glares and things under his breath. He was never as obvious or direct as he had been since Ethan got into a fight with him.

The school GSA had approached him though, trying to get him and Ari to join. Ethan agreed to unofficially be a member but never actually showed up. He didn't need to be in a club to state that he was gay or anything-and aside from a few little speed bumps, he didn't need the support. He would leave that open for the people that really needed it.

Ari was mostly on the same page; he let word get out that he was a part of it so that maybe more people would be okay with going, and he went every once and a while to have some record of attendance.

Lunch was always fun though, as in the final days of the semesters for seniors, giant butcher paper numbers were hung up around the commons. The underclassmen all fled at the end of the lunch period as the seniors would swarm the area and throw a rowdy mob for a few short minutes as another number got pulled down. The seniors got out a week earlier than the underclassmen, so it was all the better to brag about.

On the last day the principal tried to give a speech about how they shouldn't litter the school commons and so on, saying that they would all be a part of clean up if they did it. Of course no one listened, and as the one fell to the floor-covered in the signatures of all the seniors-everyone threw papers and let the silly string go.

The principal hobbled his way through and picked up pieces of trash during the midst of it, grumbling all the way along.

Ari pulled Ethan in close for a kiss then, earning even louder cheering out of Landon and Bret from around them. They all made a break from the school before the principal could make true on his promise of making them all stay and clean up.