HIDING FROM THE TRUTH ✔️

CHAPTER 7: ANXIOUS

7.
Luke waited impatiently in his first-period class, not listening to the teacher at all. His eyes kept traveling back to the door. It wasn't unusual for Gavin to be late to class, but a whole ten minutes had passed and he still wasn't there.

His excitement to see his crush slowly turned into anxiety that he was hurt or something bad happened. Another five minutes went by and there was still no sign of him showing up.

With a sigh of defeat, he begrudgingly focused on the teacher's lesson again. But he didn't enjoy it as much as he normally did.

He spent his next three periods after that a nervous wreck, barely doing any of his work. They weren't allowed to use their phones during class unless the teacher okayed it but he, for the first time, was extremely tempted to break a rule.

He didn't. But he wanted to.

"What's wrong with you?" Avery questioned as their group sat at their table, eating.

Luke was just staring at the table instead. He was way too anxious to be able to even imagine stomaching anything down.

"It's nothing," he muttered. He knew they'd all bully him if he admitted the truth.

"Is it because your boyfriend isn't here?" Josiah snickered as he took a humongous bite of his sandwich.

"They're not boyfriends," Maeve reminded him, scooting towards Luke as she subtly brushed their knees together. "Are you okay? You know I won't tell them anything," she used her hand to cover her mouth, whispering directly into his ear so the rest of the group didn't know what she was saying.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled at her weakly. Out of all his friends, she had to be his favorite. She was a lot gentler and more considerate of his feelings than the others.

"Avery told me that when females claim that they are fine, it's a secret language you have to decode that translates to them not in fact being fine," Micah spoke as he observed Luke. "It appears to me that you're being a female," he said innocently, confused when Avery and Josiah erupted with laughter.

"That's not what I meant when I explained that to you, but I like your definition even better," Avery snorted.

Luke turned red, crossing his arms defensively. "I'm not lying, I'm fine. Really."

"Whatever you say," Avery rolled her eyes. "Where is he anyway? Did he make new friends and ditch us?"

Luke's gut twisted at the thought of being replaced despite Gavin being able to sit with whomever he pleased. Then he remembered that he wasn't in class so he must've just been absent altogether. "I don't know. I haven't seen him today."

"Why don't you just text him? Then you can stop worrying," Josiah suggested and Luke thought he was being helpful until he opened his big mouth again. "Worrying about your boyfriend."

"I don't want to be annoying," Luke mumbled honestly.

Avery scoffed. "Annoying? Boy, hand over your phone." Luke wanted to comment on how her saying that was ironic, but she used his moment of weakness to snatch his phone away.

"You don't even know the password. You can't do anything," Luke pointed out.

Avery glanced down at his phone and gasped. "Look at this!"

She turned the screen toward him and he eagerly looked at it, paling when he realized it was a trick. The facial recognition worked in a split second and she quickly unlocked his phone as Josiah cackled.

"Please don't text him!" Luke begged, reaching for his phone but Avery stood up and held it out of his reach since she was taller.

"I won't," she said seriously and Luke sighed in relief. "I'll just call him instead!"