Love and Other Diseases (bxb)

Chapter Twenty-Six

I found the group of men in one of the classrooms. I didn't know what to expect. Part of me was expecting them to have pinned Blake down and beat the shit out of him. Another part of me was picturing Alana gleefully giggling as Blake bled out on the floor.

I had thought the whole situation over so many times in my head that I was already seething with rage by the time I reach the classroom.

Instead, the scene before me was completely bizarre.

"What...is going on?" I asked, sharing at the room of people.

Two guys had Blake by each arm, keeping him firmly in place. Rather than struggle, Blake was glaring at everybody, looking kind of bored. Alana was embracing another one of the guys in a passionate kiss.

My jaw dropped. "Uh...Alana?"

Blake shook his head and looked at me in defeat. "I thought they were gonna beat me up, dude," he admitted. "But they actually just wanted to keep me in place while making out with Alana."

"Odd fetish," I mused.

Alana turned on me and shoved her finger at the door. "Leave, asshole!"

"Okay." I turned around.

"Jake, what the fuck?" Blake called after me.

I turned back and sighed."Fine, I'll stay." I looked at the weirdness in front of me. Usually I would try to come up with some sort of sarcastic remark, but I was too shocked to even bother. "What are you doing?"

Alana shrugged and gestured at the people from Richmond. "I'm making Blake jealous."

My head hurt. I gave Blake a defeated look. "Well... have fun then." I turned to leave.

"You are joking!" Blake yelled. "That is not funny, dumbass!"

I turned on my heel and rolled my eyes. "Do you now see that your ex-girlfriend is crazy? She is literally making out with a ton of guys in front of you so you'll turn straight again."

Alana scoffed. "He is straight. You're just confusing him."

"Oh!" I gasped. "There we go! It doesn't matter if I had some originally sexist thoughts about you, because you're clearly homophobic."

One of the guys stepped away from Alana and wrinkled his nose. "You're homophobic? That's fucked, man."

The hypocrisy. I glared. "You should know that your friend Ross is also homophobic. He called me a fag."

The guy's frown deepened.

Alana rolled her eyes. "I am not homophobic. This asshole spent time at my boyfriend's house, convinced him he was gay, and my boyfriend broke up with me to date him."

Dude bro shrugged. "Well that's pretty fucked too, man."

Blake groaned. "Okay, I probably shouldn't have broke up with you by saying I was into a guy. And now that I think about it, it was probably kind of misleading of me to say that I just needed a break to try out something new." I facepalmed. "And I shouldn't have said I would get back together with you if it didn't work out. And that one time I said it felt like it was possibly a phase is starting to seem like a poor choice—"

"You brought this onto yourself," I grumbled. "Good luck."

"Jake!" Blake whined. "Don't leave!"

I rolled my eyes. "Now I don't even blame her. Are you stupid?"

"I was just letting her down easy," Blake insisted. "And, to be fair, I didn't know if this whole thing with you was gonna work out! But it did, Alana."

Something shifted in Alana's expression. "So you're telling me you're actually never getting back together with me?"

I sighed. "Finally, she gets it. Like a week later than most people would, but some are slower than others."

"Exactly, Alana," Blake stressed. "Jake and I are happy."

Her eyes narrowed. "Okay then, fine. Guys, now you can beat him up."

Dude bro hesitated. "I mean, I'm kind of thinking that's an overreaction—"

"Chad!" One of the guys holding Blake yelled. "She's paying us each a hundred dollars. Beat the kid up."

Chad gave me weird side-eye, like he was uncertain for a moment, and then he glanced down at my shirt. With a moment of resolution, he turned and swung his fist at Blake's face.

I was halfway across the room before I'd consciously decided to move, and my vision tunneled in on Chad hitting Blake in the face. Blake's head snapped to the side and blood gushed from his mouth. Rage gripped me more harshly than it ever had in my entire life.

I bodied Chad out of the way and grabbed one of the guys holding Blake back. He had just enough time to say, "Oh, shi—" before I'd slammed my fist into his gut.

I turned around fast enough to watch Blake weasel his way out of the other guy's grip. He ran to me and I took him up into my arms. "We've gotta get out of here—" Blake gasped.

"I love you," I blurted.

Blake's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. His expression combined with blood gushing down his face wasn't the most attractive thing in the world, and yet I still wanted to kiss him until he was breathless. Yup, I loved him.

"Really?" Blake asked.

Alana growled. "You two are fucking disgusting. Chad! Jaron! What the hell?"

Chad was sprawled on the ground, groaning about his tailbone. His friend was hunched over, trying to catch his breath. The other guy looked at the ceiling, obviously trying to pretend like he was invisible.

"That's three hundred dollars going right back into my bank account," Alana snapped. Like it was some sort of magic word, the guys were back on their feet.

"C'mon!" Blake yelped, tugging me out of the room. We made a break for it, rushing down the hallway with three giant guys hustling after us. "I can run a five minute mile," Blake gasped. "So I hope you can keep up with that."

"I run sprints for the track team." I gave him a smirk. "I'm holding back right now."

"Then let's move!"

We hauled ass towards the main entrance, where Ben was still screaming in Ross' face. Ross was sprawled on the ground, protectively covering his crotch. "Bye, guys!" I yelled as we burst through the front door.

"Holy shi—" Ben exclaimed at what was probably our pursuers.

"Prom better not have this much drama," I growled under my breath. Blake looked over and nodded, eyes wide and mouth gasping for air.

We managed to haul ass all the way to our homes, not bothering to look back. Blake grabbed my arm and directed me to his backyard, which had a swings leftover from his childhood days. We landed on our knees underneath the slide, gasping and laughing.

"We did it—" I gasped for air and ruffled Blake's hair. It was plastered to his forehead with sweat. "Shit— your face."

Blake's hand went to his nose. It came away red and his eyes widened. "Holy shit. You don't think they made it here, right?"

We poked our heads out from under the slide and inspected the backyard. It was hard to see through the darkness of the night, but it seemed empty.

Blake and I exchanged a victorious grin, and then we were kissing.