Calling Affection (Boyxboy)

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Oliver's POV

"I don't have the time or the crayons to explain this to you, Axel," I said, letting the impatience seep into my tone. 

He frowned. "What?"

I sighed. Axel wasn't this stupid before. He'd been able to work on things with me properly. 

But today, it was like his braincells were on vacation or something, because he just sat there and stared blankly at me, repeatedly asking me to explain things I just covered with him. 

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you," I sighed.  

He blinked at me. I felt his gaze on the side of my face, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see it shift to my neck. What was he looking at? Was there a bug on me? The staring was getting on my nerves.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Two weeks. Two weeks of our current arrangement, 4 afternoons and evenings spent at his house. 4 days of putting up with this bullshit. 

Every time, Axel was tired and useless. He just watched me silently, which, frankly, was worse than anything else he could do. I'd rather he just tell me to do it on my own than have me come over to his place and have him watch me work for three hours. He didn't even look away when I called him out on it, just stared at me with this sort of constipated scrutiny until I looked away.

"Just... read my notes," I said, tired. "I'm going to the washroom." I stood up and walked out of his room, ignoring the washroom in his room. 

I had gotten used to the Reaper residence, and people had gotten used to me. I still got a lot of looks and whispers followed me whenever I was in front of others, but they no longer approached me, asking trivial questions with weird knowing grins, always asking about a certain individual who I wanted to think about least. 

It was starting to become clear to me that I was being set up with Axel.

Even weirder was how Axel seemed to be going along with it.

It was weird. The entire circumstance—just what in the world made people think I was a good fit for that asshole?—but it was definitely bizarre that Axel wasn't resisting, if anything, he was complacent in the scheming. 

I didn't mind Mila, James, the LUST-y two, and all—but the constant pushing me towards Axel was getting on my nerves. 

"Don't you think a football player boyfriend would be really nice, Oliver?" Ella loudly asked me in the hallway when Axel and his team walked by. Luca, a soccer player, twitched behind her, clearly wanting to disagree, but a glance at me shut him up, though he continued to sulk. 

"I wish I had a rich boyfriend who'd spoil me," Minerva lamented in the cafeteria. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?" She was probably telling the truth about how she felt. But it was just a bit too timely for Axel to walk by in slow-motion with some flashy bling all over.

"Do..." Jayy's voice was gruff, strained, and the look on his face suggested he didn't want to be there. "Join us?" He, being very clearly forced to, gestured to the table nearby, where Axel was pretending not to listen, biting into his sandwich wrapper rather than the actual food. 

Amusing as it was, I couldn't help but feel incredibly irritated. Were they not thinking straight? Even if they were thinking gay, I wasn't happy. Axel and I together? That was a pipe dream.