Forward (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Nine

"Are you excited to be almost done with your first week of school?" Tyler asked as he picked at his roll with disinterest. He looked far better than he had yesterday, a lot less pale and far more aware, but it was clear he was still tired with how often his mouth stretched into a yawn. "You've almost been living here for two weeks. Are you used to it yet?"

With a sigh, James looked at his own plate, where his food was half eaten. Everyday, he had a habit of taking everything in the cafeteria that he thought looked good, and it always ended up being way too much food. "I'm not really excited. I mean... I still have to come back next week, so it doesn't feel like a big accomplishment," he answered, and Tyler hummed in understanding, not raising his eyes from his bread. "And I guess I'm starting to get used to it, but being here is still a little weird".

Another hum, and then Tyler shot him a look and said, "have you talked to Taylor at all?" James tried to look as pointed as possible. "What? I'm just curious. I mean, you two used to have sex. It wouldn't be too weird if you spoke to one another every once and awhile".

"Yes it would," James protested immediately. "We used to have sex. We are not currently having sex. He's also in a relationship with someone who hates my guts, so it would be weird if we still kept in touch".

Tyler looked intrigued. "Are you jealous?"

"Of course not.''

"Hmm," Tyler sounded, putting his roll on his plate and clasping his hands beneath his chin. "Were you ever in love with him?"

This made James's eyes roll. "Like I'm gonna fall in love and not tell you about. If-" he was going to say more on this subject, but the look on Tyler's face had him cut off.

His green eyes were flitting around nervously, clearly avoiding James's gaze, and his lip was pulled between his teeth, which was something he often did when he lied, or was hiding something. Given the context, it wasn't hard for James to assume what.

"Wait..." James trailed off. "You've been in love before?"

"Huh? What? No," Tyler said, still avoiding his eyes. "Of course not.''

"You're lying".

"No". Green eyes met his for half a second before looking away. "I'm not... ugh. Can we please not talk about this right now?"

"You don't want to talk about this?" James asked, leaning forward eagerly as his mouth dropped in disbelief. "You can't just suggest that and then not want to talk about it. What else would we even talk about?"

"We could talk about how dinner went last night," Tyler suggested hopefully, still sounding a little timid.

"No! I want to talk about this," James demanded, stabbing an unnaturally red strawberry from his plate and bringing it to his mouth. "How could you not tell me you were in love? Are you still in love? Who were you in love with?"

Tyler grimaced. "Uh, it's all a little complicated".

"Can't you just tell me who it was?" James asked, ignoring how his voice was on the verge of begging. Tyler shot him a look, and from it he gathered that was a question he wouldn't receive an answer to. With a sigh, he changed his question. "What is it like? To be in love?"

"It's terrifying," Tyler said without pause, his eyes staring over James's shoulder with a distant look in them. "It's refreshing and wonderful and horrible and exhausting and devastating". Something seemed to be happening to his friend, his green eyes were misting over. James frantically thought of what he could to distract Tyler, assuming his friend didn't want to cry in the middle of the lunch room. Luckily, Tyler was able to stop it from happening on his own, and his gaze finally refocused on James. "So you have that to look forward to".