Love and Other Diseases (bxb)

Chapter Eighteen

I was feeling good about going to prom with Blake. Actually, I couldn't stop smiling.

It creeped people out, because I wasn't known for being visibly cheery. In fact, there was a rumor floating around that my facial muscles were paralyzed.

In English, we were lucky enough to get time to work with our partners. Blake and I sat next to each other and worked diligently on our project.

"Jake, stop texting," Blake said for what seemed like the millionth time. "We need to finish the project, dude."

He cared so much about school. It was so annoying.

I put my phone away. "My mom's going to freak out now that I stopped texting. The deaths that her panic causes are on your hands."

Blake rolled his eyes and propped his feet up on my lap. "She'll be fine. So we have our textual analysis. We have potential thematic topics. Now we need to pick one, then make a thesis out of it."

A random girl tapped my shoulder and leaned in. "You guys are such a cute couple! What color are you going to wear to prom?"

I wrinkled my nose. "Aren't tuxedos black?"

The girl bounced in her chair a little. "Can you wear the colors of your pride flags? I think it would be so cute!"

Would that make me rainbow?

"No," I chose wisely. "I won't be doing that."

"I'm considering buying bisexual themed graphic t-shirts, if that makes you feel better," Blake offered.

She grinned. "That works too!"

"Anyway," Blake grumbled. "Which thematic topic do you want to do?"

"That one," I said, pointing at cyclical nature of life without honestly knowing what the hell that meant.

"Awesome!" Blake honestly just seemed happy that I was contributing. "Let's come up with—"

"So guys," Christi leaned in. "Are you both wearing tuxedos? Because I honestly think Jake would look hot in a dress."

I grimaced. "I'm gay, Christi. There's no room for dresses in this relationship."

"Hey Jake!" Kevin the trombonist called. He sent me a toothy smile. "It was really cool of you, what you did at lunch. I think I might ask someone later today." He sent Gabe a lustful look.

They would be perfect for each other.

"Good for you, Kevin," I said. "I'm sure whoever it is would love to go with you."

Dr. Clark cleared her throat. "Why the chatter today? Are you all focused on your schoolwork?"

Random girl's hand shot up. "It's a big day, Dr. Clark. Jake is a gay icon!"

Dr. Clark blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"He asked Blake to prom!"

Dr. Clark suddenly looked more human than robot. "Oh, wow! Congratulations, boys. That's very nice."

Blake sunk low into his seat. "Thank you, ma'am."

I shrugged. "To be fair, it was Gabe's idea."

I pointed at Gabe and the kid looked away like I was going to beat him up.

Dr. Clark brightened. "Good on you, Gabe, for encouraging your friend to do such a thing!"

Gabe flinched. "Thanks, ma'am."

We didn't bother correcting her.

After everyone resumed their work, random girl attacked again.

"So when did you two start dating?" she asked. "I honestly thought you guys hated each other. I mean, Jake talked about how much he hated Blake every single day."

I cleared my throat. "I had a change of heart. He's not the worst."

She leaned in. "So...not to be too nosy, but are you guys...doing stuff?"

"Michaela!" Blake sputtered.

Oh. That was her name.

"What?! I'm just curious! You don't have to tell me, but I had to ask," she gushed. "Since Ben went around saying everything about catamites, I figured sex would be on the table for you two."

I rotated in my chair until my gaze settled on Ben. I glared.

He grinned. "You guys should bang!"

Blake dropped his head to the desk. "This is sexual harassment."

I flipped Ben off.

Dr. Clark cleared her throat. "Boys, I know it's an exciting day for you, but the chatter has to stop over there."

"Sorry!" I piped up, glad to have a distraction from the conversation.

Blake leaned in as everyone resumed their work. "Um, do you want to have sex?"

What the hell?

I stared at him. "Where did that come from?"

He flushed. "I mean if you were telling Ben that you want to have sex with me..." He trailed off and shrugged. "I've never done that with a boy, but..."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I'm going to kill Ben. I wasn't going around saying that."

"It kind of seems like it, since everyone knows, so—"

"I wasn't," I growled.

Blake blinked a little and hurt flashed across his features. "So you don't want to? I get it. That's not...offensive or anything."

Now he was upset? And just a few minutes ago we'd been gay icons.

"Blake," I stressed. "I'm not calling you ugly or unattractive. I'm just saying...something like that is for someone important, you know? I've never had sex with a man either. I'm not just going to throw that out the window with anybody."

Blake looked at me like I'd slapped him. "Seriously?"

"What?" I sputtered. "That's how I feel. I'm being honest. Why is honesty a crime?"

He bit his bottom lip and dropped his gaze to his paper. "Let's just finish the project."

"Blake—"

"Can we just finish already?" he snapped. He glared at me and I remembered how intense those green eyes of his were when he was angry. "I'm getting sick and tired of your lack of academic motivation."

Well, that was the nerdiest sentence ever.

Because he was clearly upset, I decided to shut up and do my work.

I figured Blake would be over it by the time we walked home together, but after waiting outside school for five minutes too long, someone had informed me that he'd started walking without me.

So much for our date tonight.

It was kind of lonely to walk without Blake. For the first time, I began to realize just how much I liked having him around.