Teach Me Something New (Boyxboy)

Chapter Two

A/N This is more about Nate and Lawson's friendship. Before I edited it, it was a train wreck (its still not super great) but I think I like it a lot more now. Enjoy

Lawson was laying in a lime green bean bag, his head hanging uncomfortably backwards as he listened hto Reese and Kye bicker about where to order lunch from. He had gone to their room after stopping at his own after class, since he was bored, and would be for multiple hours since his American Short Stories professor had emailed him saying class was canceled for the day. He could be studying for Calc some more, but he decided he needed a break to process the information Sean had taught him, and so he ended up here, as he did many days of the week.

About three days into school, Lawson had bumped into Kye at one of the freshman welcome events. It had been years since they had saw one another- Kye had gone to his elementary school but moved away right before fifth grade- but they easily fell into their old friendship. Through Kye, he had met Reese, who was his friends roommate, and even though they spent the majority of their time bickering, Kye often refused to go places without the shorter boy.

Their current argument shifted from food, to how often Reese practiced the viola in the room, and Lawson sighed heavily. Usually, the two of them could be entertaining, but he had heard this argument neary a thousand times by then, so he took out his phone to check for messages. He knew he had many, since the ringer had sounded multiple times over the last hour, but he had suspected who they were from and chose not to answer them right away.

"It's my major, Kye. I can't just not practice," Reese was saying. He was sitting in the bean bag next to Lawson, and leaned over when Lawson took out his cellphone to be nosey. With an annoyed look at the other boy, Lawson shifted so Reese couldn't see his phone screen, to which the other boy pouted.

Lawson finally brought his attention to his phone as Kye snapped, "there is a music conservatory across campus that you're supposed to practice at you know". If Reese responded to that- which of course he did, because Reese was the kind of person that always needed to have the last word- Lawson didn't hear what it was.

Sure enough, there were a dozen messages on his phone, eleven of which were from Nathan, and the other one from his step-father. He responded to that one first, since it was a simple how is your day going kid, and that was far easier to deal with that Nathan's sadness.

He told his step-father he was fine, and returned the pleasantry, along with a quick I miss you, mom, and the girls, because he did, and he figured it would be a nice thing to hear. Before he could even press send, his phone buzzed with another message, another one from Nathan, and Lawson sighed in mock distress, quickly sending the text to his father before clicking on the new one.

I don't understand, Lawson. I know he's busy, but so am I, and I'm not treating him like this.

Despite Nathan being a total prick to him his first few years in highschool, they had somehow grown close during the time that Nathan and Glenn had been dating. Since Jean left for college- he went to Tennessee, so he was pretty useless to them- this gave Lawson the title of the person Nathan confided in with his relationship problems.

The message was pretty much what Lawson was expecting, and he scrolled up to read the other eleven messages, which were all quite similar to the last one. There was really nothing he could say that he hadn't already said to Nathan before. You should talk to Glenn about this. Even if he doesn't respond, you should send him a message that tells him how you feel, and he'll read it. He has to be reading them. But he didn't say any of this, and instead texted a simple, I'm sorry man. Before turning his screen off and laying it on his chest as he thought about his friend, probably all alone in his apartment, laying on his couch eating food he never allowed himself to eat before. It was sad to see Nathan like this, but there was only one person who could get him out of this slump, and it was the person causing it.