Partners In Crime (lietpol/Poliet)

Chapter 10

When Toris walked into school on Monday, he felt his blood run cold. As we walked through the hallways, people seemed to stop and take cautious glances in his direction. The normal chatter in the hallways quieted as he walked past.

Surely Francis hadn't spilled the picture yet? His video was way more popular than Toris's, but there was no way it had already hit 1,000,000 views.

Then Toris realized it. People weren't talking about him and Feliks, they were talking about him and Natalia.

It made perfect sense. Toris's girlfriend had posted nearly a dozen pictures over the weekend of the two of them, each one captioned with a similar message.

"Walking with the bae"
"Eating with the bae"
"Smiling with the bae"
"Breathing with the bae"
etc.

People were probably wondering how a loser like Toris wound up with a pretty girl like Natalia. Whatever. He should probably enjoy the publicity while it lasted, Toris decided. It was only a matter of time until the "Bad Touch Trio's" video became popular enough.

As Toris walked into homeroom, he stopped dead in his tracks. Sitting in the desk next to his own was Feliks. That would've been normal enough if it weren't for the clothes he was wearing.

There were already whispers of gossip behind the Pole's back about the pink clothes he had been wearing the first day of school, but now those unkind words must've tripled by what he was wearing now. Feliks was nonchalantly sitting in his desk... in drag.

He wore a tight yellow cardigan and a short skirt. (Toris couldn't help but admit to himself that Feliks pulled it off well. Better than most of the girls could, actually.) His nails were painted a sparkly pink. Between his choice of wardrobe and semi-long hair, Feliks looked remarkably feminine.

"Hey, Liet!" Feliks beckoned Toris over to his desk. The Lithuanian bowed his head, a tad embarrassed, and made his way over to Feliks.

"So I was like, thinking last night, and I figured we totally needed to film another video. We need a cat. I was asking around and I heard this boy Heracles has like 30 of them. I was thinking we can rent one or something and then like, train it."

Toris felt his cheeks grow hot. Somehow the fact that Feliks hadn't given up yet was rather... charming to Toris. Not in an attractive way--of course--since Toris was into Natalia, but it warmed his heart to see Feliks so passionate about something that benefited the Lithuanian. Toris himself was ready to throw in the towel and accept the fate of falling even lower on the social status and losing the girl of his dreams.

"Hey, Feliks," Toris said, a delicate tone in his voice. "I was just wondering, but uh, do you care if the photo is released? Will you be upset if everyone knows about your..." Toris lowered his voice. "Preferences?"

Feliks looked uncertain. "Uhm. Well, I don't like, want everyone to know. I'm totally cool with people as close as you knowing, but I wouldn't want, like, the entire school to know." Feliks bit his lip. "I just feel like if people know about it before they've actually met me they'll just assume they totally know who I am already."

Toris nodded, although he didn't think he could possibly understand entirely. He was straight after all; he didn't know what it was like to be afraid of people judging you for who you loved.

Feliks smiled, seeming to forgot their serious conversation from a few seconds before. "So anyway," he chirped, a big smile returning to his face. "I thought we could like, ask Heracles for one of his cats." Toris frowned, trying to forget about the earlier conversation. "Do you really think someone will just give you their cat? Plus, I'm allergic to cats."