Setting Them Straight [boyxboy]

Chapter Nine: How Cookies Crumble

Chapter Nine (Dominic)

A/N: Uh oh. Beware, my lovelies. Offensive material in this chapter! You have been warned.

I was terrified.

Xavier had seen us. My body felt so icy cold and my heart felt like it had completely stopped for the longest time when River told me after we'd gotten out of the lake. I felt paranoid now and so did River as we both agreed not to do anything suspicious for a while. We just talked to each other every so often, but not for too long.

We were also waiting.

Waiting and waiting for Xavier to do something. He knew about River and I, yet, he hadn't called us in yet. It'd been three days and he hadn't said a word. Why? I wanted to know, but I was way too afraid to just waltz up and ask him. What if that was what he was waiting for?

I didn't even say anything to Yolo and Ryan, who were working on their part of the pact. I wanted to, though. No, I had to. They had to know that the counsolers were probably going to be on red alert if Xavier said anything to them. And that was just it. Not knowing if he did or not. It made my stomach churn so badly I couldn't eat lunch as I sat there, staring at my tray and untouched food.

"You should eat." River murmured under his breath, not looking at me as he took a bite of his pizza, glancing somewhere else. I peeked at him out the corner of my eye, then back at my tray before looking up past Yolo, who was ranting about the weather.

Xavier was leaning against a wall, glancing at a counsoler, who stood beside him, muttering something with a disgusted look. Xavier just looked at him for a while before scanning the mess hall and his eyes landed one me. My eyes widened as he stared at me, his face expressionless before I quickly looked away and almost knocked my tray off the table, wincing as Ryan yelped.

"Watch it, Dom!" He protested. I blushed.

"Sorry about that." I mumbled. Ryan looked at me curiously as I struggled to put the things back on my tray, glancing out the corner of my eye toward Xavier, but he was gone. I blinked, feeling confused and I'm sure it showed because Ryan tilted his head against mine to try and see what I saw, but obviously didn't and look at me curiously.

"What's wrong?" He asked. I nibbled my lower lip and felt River's knee bump into mine in warning. I smiled a little nervously.

"Nothing... I have to pee." I lied. Ryan rolled his eyes and Yolo laughed.

"Come with me after lunch then." He urged and I nodded quickly in agreement, peeking at River, who acted as if our conversation was of no importance. I felt his knee touch mine again, only this time, gently. I touched my knee against his in return, reaching under the table to pretend to scratch my leg when I just touched his thigh. He crept his hand under the table, pausing to cough into his hand before he continued eating.

His fingers touched mine before our hands were clasped for a moment. Just that little contact set me on fire and I wanted to touch him more. I wanted to kiss him, like we used to. I wanted to feel his hands on me, his breath against my lips, his words in my ear.

Lunch finally ended and I was surprised at how relieved I was. I mean, not that I had to use the bathroom, but the fact that sitting next to River and not being able to love him made my heart ache.

I let Yolo lead me away from the mess hall as River broke off with his friends, leaving Ryan to tag along with Yolo and I. As soon as we walked into the bathrooms, though, Yolo shoved me into a wall, making me yelp as Ryan stood behind him, watching with a raised brow.

"Okay, spill," Yolo ordered, making me blink owlishly, "And don't give me that adorable puppy look that says you have no idea what I'm talkin' about. I'm referring to the fact that you and River are totally ignoring each other, pendejo!" I sputtered for a second, useless words that probably couldn't even be considered words, but Yolo didn't care. He just stared at me hard, his piercings glittering just like his elbow-length shirt adorned with a glitter pattern resembling the sun with a face.