Oh Boy ★ Ryden

Chapter 6: The Gang's All Here

The day has been going by slow since I'm trying very hard to avoid Brendon while simultaneously being friendly to him because he'll be sitting with us at lunch. I didn't have to try too hard in English because of my seat change but I made sure to casually smile at him whenever I saw him during passing periods. It is now fourth period, which is Biology-- which I also share with Brendon. The only thing that's saving me is that we had a small lab today with assigned partners. I'm relieved to be partnered with one of my other friends, Vicky.

Vicky is currently going off about her weird crush on the Latin teacher, Mr. Saporta, whom she has been inappropriately drooling over since freshman year. While she's raving about how good his hair looked today, I glance over my shoulder, feeling eyes on me, and I'm right because I shortly catch Brendon's gaze before he shifts his eyes from me to give off the impression that he was just scanning the classroom, looking at nothing in particular. His partner is this kid named Ian. I've talked to him before; nice guy.

"Ryan," I start in my lab stool and face Vicky who has taken offense to my disinterest in Saporta's lack of split ends, "What were you looking at?"

"Nothing," I grab a hold of whatever is in front of me to hopefully evade any further questions. In my hand, I hold a covered plate with an angry cricket in it, "So, um, anything else we have to do with this little guy?"

I look back up at her to see if she's letting it slide, but by the way her gaze hits me, her face playfully scrunched up and calculating, she's unconvinced. Vicky looks behind her, searching for what I could've been distracted by. She swings back around and rests her elbow down on a space of the counter that's in my space, plopping her chin in her palm. "Why were you looking at the new kid?" She asks confused, making her voice small.

I hesitate for a second while she bats her eyelashes at me, "Oh, yeah, that's Brendon," I return to observing the imprisoned insect, "He's gonna be sitting with us during lunch."

"That's very nice of us," she giggles, "When was that arrangement made?"

My palms start getting sweaty. Fucking hell, Ross, calm down. "Well, he's someone that Spence and I met and hung out with while we were in California and he just happened to move here and Spencer didn't want him to be alone so he invited him to hang out with us."

She hums in response and glances back over to Brendon, looking him over once more. "So what's he like?"

I clear my throat a little; it's starting to get a bit tight, "He's nice, yeah, he's really nice," I nod to myself, "He's a pretty cool guy."

"He's really cute," Vicky muses. "He doesn't a have a girlfriend back in California that I should be worried about does he?" I snort before I can stop myself; no longer feeling so nervous. "What?" she questions, both concerned and defensive; the poor girl is completely oblivious to the irony that only I could possibly see.

I settle myself down and quickly try to respond with something that won't make my slight outburst seem suspicious, especially to Vicky; never known someone else to be so nosy. "What about the tall tanned dreamboat in the language department?"

"Oh, shut up," she smacks the side on my arm, "Gabe is a--"

"Please don't call him by his first name."

"Mr. Saporta is a married man, so while he is beautiful and charming and incredibly talented at a dead language--," Vicky pauses when she sees me snickering, hitting me one more time, "-- he is not a persuadable partner."

"There is also that fact that he is your teacher and that is very not okay on many many levels," I add.

"This, however," she says over my remark, " does not mean that I cannot find him to be insanely attractive while I search for someone who I can peruse." I raise my eyebrows to indicate how pathetic I find her statement. Vicky scoffs at me. "You wouldn't understand; there aren't any hot female teachers here for you boys to drool over."