Like Gods

[9] a week and a day

He hadn't read the guy wrong. Not completely at least, because when he entered the school on Monday morning, he didn't get as much as a second glance from the raven-haired football player who had crashed at his place the previous Saturday. This, of course, was completely fine with Dylan, even though he found himself searching for Chris's eyes throughout the day.

Felicia had decided that she was going to take a sick day or two. She'd told him that she needed to collect herself, and Dylan had understood fully. 

That being said, he decided to take a trip to the school gym after classes when he didn't have anyone to drive home. The football team had practice, so there was a low chance of running into any of them. When he'd changed and gotten out of the locker room, he was met with a completely empty gym.

This was a rare occurrence, as there was almost always someone lifting weights or running on the treadmill. But then again, it was Monday, most students were tired after the weekend's shenanigans. Dylan moved towards the free weights in the corner of the room. He had soccer practice the day after, which meant mostly legs, and therefore today would be an arm day. 

He put in his earphones and started the workout playlist that Felicia had constructed for him.

"Umm..." A voice from the right of him made him start, almost making him drop the weight. He'd always had a habit of zoning out when he was focused and definitely didn't expect someone to come into the gym. He pulled out one of the earphones and turned toward the sound.

"Yeah?" He asked, raising his eyes which landed on a familiar raven-haired boy. "Eh, hi." 

"How's your friend?" He asked, raising his head in a way that screamed self-confidence as if the conversation were a formal matter.

"She's," he cleared his throat, "she's okay, she's taking a sick day. Thank you for picking her up." Chris raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, sure," he stared into Dylan's eyes before turning abruptly and going back towards the locker room.

"Don't diss me on Thursday!" Dylan called after him. He heard a faint huff in response and reasoned that that was the only response that he was going to get. Looking at his phone, he realized that he'd been working out for about forty minutes, and sweat had made its way onto his forehead.

He put the weights away and made his way homeward.

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Wednesday was slower than most of the days that had been. Felicia was back in school, but she'd spent most of her day talking to Blaire, and both Landon and Shawn were sick. On top of that, he hadn't seen Chris all day. Wait, why did he care again? 

For once, the cafeteria actually served good food. That was something that happened maybe once every six months, so Dylan ate with astounding vigor. He sat at his usual table, but today Felicia had brought Blaire to sit with them.

"I heard there was some fight between him and his old teammates," Blaire kept her gaze locked on Felicia, but her words caught Dylan's attention, "I think he stole someone's chick back when the summer had just started, that was one of the reasons that he moved." 

She had to be talking about Chris, and Dylan found himself unable to not listen. He instinctively leaned closer to the girls but made it look like he was just resting his head on his hand.

"Really?" Felicia gasped quietly. "He doesn't strike me as the guy who would do that."

"That's the point," Blaire hissed, "he has this whole soft-but-also-bad-boy-thing going for him." 

Dylan stopped listening after that, being occupied with a lively conversation that Cole started about the party, even though it was four days ago.

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