I Am Human (bxb)

Ally

The next day at school I dragged my ass to History, barely making it there on time. I caught a proud smile on Mr.S's face as he saw me walk in before the bell. 

"Good morning Jasper." He said as I walked past him to get to my desk.

"Morning Mr.S, How are you doing?" I asked in a friendly tone that was reserved for people I actually respected.

"I'm doing well thank you." He said with a wink, hinting that he wanted to tell me something cool that he wouldn't tell the rest of the class. I liked the friendship that we shared, It was definitely student-teacher, but it was also an understanding. I think that Mr.S was like me when he was a kid, friendless, lost, just trying to manage day to day. And I liked the fact that we could get along so well.

His class went by quickly, too quickly, and my little safe haven was destroyed by the ringing of the bell for next block. In the halls I caught a few looks here and there, even a "Gayyyyy...." from one of the obnoxious jocks that I would be seeing in science later on.

By the time lunch rolled around I was already done with the day. The last block we had a test and someone told the teacher that I was cheating off of their work and I got reprimanded, ultimately getting a zero for something that I worked hard for. I was a smart, good student, what need did I have that led me to cheat off of some dumb jock's paper? I didn't even try to fight back, I just took it knowing that if I said anything I'd get worse in the halls later that day.

I walked over to Mr.S's class but when I walked in I saw Him talking someone. It was the boy from yesterday, the one with the wavy brown hair and soft, matching eyes. They were sitting at Mr.S's desk and I saw a wide smile on the brown-eyed boy's smooth face. He was handsome, in a sort of simple way, with no outstanding features, yet the combination of his soft eyes, feathery hair and perfectly thick eyebrows on a strong jaw and acne-free face made him look like a model. I bet he had all the girls, and some of the guys, looking out for him.

"Um, hey." I said awkwardly as I approached the duo.

"Jasper!" Mr.S exclaimed as he looked up from the computer screen and towards my short, slender frame. "Just in time, Kai here was just showing me this awesome video of this soccer player who scored six goals consecutively while blindfolded!" His voice excited at the new discovery, "Come grab a chair, join us." I looked over at the boy, Kai was his name, and he quickly avoided my gaze... as to be expected.

I dragged a chair and placed it beside Mr.S, across the table from Kai the soccer player. We watched the sports video, which I admit was pretty good... for a sports video. After that Mr.S turned to face Kai and me and started talking about his travel experience in Brazil. Kai seemed genuinely interested and even contributed to the conversation, which was hard to do when Mr.S started a story, the only thing was that throughout the entirety of lunch, he avoided looking at me, or speaking directly to me. The only time he came close to acknowledging me was when he asked, "Do you guys eat here every day?"

"Yup, Jasper and I have been lunch buddies since his first year here, grade eight." I just nodded and let Mr.S and Kai make more small talk. It was odd having someone else in our room at lunch, It felt weird to see someone who obviously wouldn't want anything to do with me, deliberately eating in the same room. In a way, I was thrilled. There was a cute guy who obviously didn't hate me that much because he was eating in the same room as me. 

When the bell rang Mr.S kicked us out and told us to go to class, but not before Kai asked us, "Can I come back tomorrow?" I looked at him sort of puzzled and answered,

"Of course." At that Kai turned his handsome head and looked at me for the first time all lunch.

"Thanks."

It took me aback, why was he thanking me of all people? I took the liberty of walking away first to avoid the awkward eye contact and silence that was sure to follow, but as soon as I started walking, I noticed that Kai was following beside me, casually. well, casually for him, but I was incredibly awkward about it.

"What are you doing?" I asked him suddenly as we were getting into heavier traffic in the halls.

"What?" He replied confused, his eyebrows contorted together.

"Here, I'll let you walk a head so no one sees you." I said slowing down.

"You don't have to do that you know."

"What?" Now it was my time to be puzzled, what was this guy getting at?

"I don't care about that stuff." Kai murmured.

"what stuff?" I still wasn't catching on.

"That you're gay." He said bluntly, and I stopped in my tracks. My eyes blinked several times before either one of us spoke again.

"You don't?" I whispered under my breath.

"Nope." He said popping the "P" at the end of his word.

"Oh... Okay then, thanks." I said awkwardly looking down at the ground and shuffling my feet. "So... why are you..." I started,

"Talking with you?" Kai cut in.

"Yeah."

"Because I believe that you've dealt with enough shit."

"Oh, well thanks."

"Yeah, no problem." We uncomfortably walked together in silence until we parted ways to go to our next classes, Kai nodding at me in goodbye and I awkwardly half waved, half hit myself in the face.