Beastiful || Completed||

Thirty Two

"About the dare... it's on." Jeremy said to Tony as he took the seat beside him during lunch.

All day, they hadn't spoken but Jeremy wasn't going to let Tony make him sit at a different table. Let there be tension, he didn't care.

Tony turned, surprised. "You actually finally did it. Remember PDA is necessary."

Jeremy rolled his eyes and nodded. He knew the rest of the people on the table were listening in but they had been there for the initial placing of the dare so he couldn't really care less. All he knew was that he was dating Sasha as planned and he was... happy.

He still denied the thought of actually having feelings for her even if he was attracted to her. It didn't make sense at all but he wasn't going to let himself fall for her or any other girl for that matter. Right now, he was going to explore the attraction and see how deep it went. They were just friends.

He hoped it wasn't deep.

He took a look at Tony's hair. The hair was losing it's dark brown luster. Hair bleach tends to do that. He chuckled to himself as he contemplated which color to dye Tony's hair... permanently.

Red. Red was a fitting color. Bright neon red for a devil incarnate. Very fitting.

The table's discussion turned to prom and he promptly inserted himself.

Yes, he was running for Prom King. No, he didn't have a fliers out yet but of course everyone knows him already.

Tony expressed interest as well, holding Cara's hand as he spoke.

The acne was clearing, Jeremy noted with annoyance. That was the thing with Tony's Italian genes. Acne was rare for him and so it tended to clear up fast.

He put it at the back of his mind to get a campaign manager for this stuff. He couldn't really be bothered with the fine details.

As he chatted with the rest, the wheels turned in his head as he considered who would do it well for free. He needed someone organized. Someone that could organize people to get stuff done. Then he needed an artist of course to do the poster design and shit. He canceled Sasha from his head. Even if she needed the extra money, she was already going to be working hard on the ceiling painting.

As his mind went to her, a thought made him stop in shock. The two weeks... would extend into prom time and almost graduation.

Meaning he would have to take her to prom as his date.

He felt like pulling out his hair. This was prom for Pete's sake! He wanted to walk into that gym with a beautiful girl at his side that would make the mouths of every boy in there water. He wanted his girl to be envied after.

As the thoughts flowed, a part of him recoiled at his shallowness.
He hated it whenever people treated her like shit because of her looks but here he was doing the same thing.

He pushed the stupid voice away and tried not to let his annoyance show.

How the hell did he get himself into shit like this?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When his phone rang and he saw his father's number, Jeremy was at a loss for words. For nearly three months he hadn't heard much from his parents save for the occasional phone call from his mom to tell him how much fun they were having. Now a phone call from his dad?
His nerves were on edge and picked the phone.

"Jeremy! Long time, no chat! How's everything?" His father's voice was friendly and warm. He sounded like he genuinely missed Jeremy. Jeremy wasn't fooled. If he had really missed him, he would have called more often.

"It's fine."

"Good, good. So I hear your Senior Prom's next Saturday, right?"

"Yeah. I'm... surprised you knew."

"Don't worry, son, I know more than I let on."

Jeremy could imagine him tapping his nose, conspiratorially. The thought made him smile softly. That was the thing. No matter how much his parents left him behind, when they came back, they showed so much warmth and affection that it almost made up for their absence. Almost.

"So your mother and I will be flying in from Singapore on Friday. Then we'll stay till your graduation. Is that okay?"

"Yeah dad, it's great. Can't wait to see you guys."

"Haha we can't wait to see you too. I'm so proud of the man you're becoming. You know that, right?" His father's words sounded almost choked up. Almost.

"I do now. Thanks. How's Mom?"

"Beautiful as ever. So I'll see ya soon! Hope you haven't thrown any wild parties in our absence."

Jeremy chuckled. Despite his house being perfect for parties, he never threw any in it. He usually rented out a place for parties so the destruction that usually followed wouldn't be too stressful to fix. So yes, he had kept that rule.

"Not that I know of."

"Okay. Ttyl then."

Jeremy groaned at his dad's attempt to use the popular abbreviation.

"Daaad, I told you it's not cool when old people do it!"

"But amongst old people it's cool. Trust me on that. Bye!"

"Adios!"

Jeremy felt sadness flood into him as he hung up. He missed his parents and now the call had brought back memories of how it used to be.

Today was Wednesday. In less than 2 days, he would come face to face with his parents for the first time in months.

His heart constricted in his chest. He would just have to manage.
He went to the indoor gym and began to lift weights aggressively. He would just have to manage.