When we were Wallflowers

Chapter 11: Coming Up Finley

If there was a place that was better than heaven, higher than cloud 9, and better than bliss; then that's where Finley was right now.

He strolled into school on Monday with a skip in his step and an invigorated swagger. Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees played in his earphones and set the rhythm for his walk. He couldn't stop his feet from doing a little dance, from sliding along the glossy floors of the school's hallway. He also couldn't stop himself from smiling. His smile stretched from ear to ear and his cheeks had began to ache from how long he had been smiling, but he couldn't help it. All he wanted to do was smile.

People greeted him in the hall and tried to ask what had gotten Finley in such a good mood. Obviously he couldn't tell them it was because he had finally made out with his crush and had even managed to go as far as fucking his thighs.

"I've just got a good feeling about today." Was all he would tell them.

He sauntered his way to English until he saw Colby waiting by the classroom door.

Colby looked exhausted, his eyes were slightly puffy and a dark shadow was forming from the inner corner of his eye and stretched out from there. It wasn't obvious to the untrained eye, but Finley considered himself a Colby connoisseur and knew the small details that showed Colby wasn't doing too well. He gathered his courage and devoted himself to trying to cheer up his best friend, it was unfair if only one of them was having a great day.

"Hey, man." Said Finley. His fingers played with his bag straps nervously and he tried to give a confident smile. Come on Fin, where did all that energy go, he scowled himself. "How are you feeling?"

Thankfully Colby returned the smile. "Pretty shit to be honest, can I talk to you about some stuff later?"

"Yep! You know I'm always here to listen." Perhaps this was wrong to admit, but Finley was dying to know what the hell was going on between Ezra and Colby. He had noticed them being all buddy-buddy recently and when they had one of their worst fights yet... there was something going on between them. He paused before giving Colby one last timid look, "So we're good?"

"Yeah, we are." Colby pulled Finley into a bear hug and squeezed the shit out of him, he was pretty sure a couple of his ribs broke. "Plus what else was I going to do? Find someone else who puts up with my bullshit like you do? Impossible."

Finley laughed and gave Colby a solid pat on the shoulder. With that out of the way, he could now fully indulge himself in the dramary goodness. His love for gossip and drama was an unfortunate habit but a hereditary one passed down from his mother. He wasn't going to do anything with the information -apart from tell his mom, who would be very interested- he definitely wouldn't spread it to anyone else. One, that was way too much effort for someone like Finley. Two, secrets between bros were sacred, if Colby wanted this to stay secret that not even the big man upstairs could get the information out of him. "Now you don't have to answer this but... what happened, man? You and Ezra were getting on great and then all of a sudden BOOM! You're arguing worse than I've ever seen you argue before. Like you were crying, I've seen Ezra piss you off but I've never seen him make you cry before."

"He found out about Operation Revenge and he confronted me about it. I think Sophie told him, I saw them talking by the bleachers on Sunday. But she wouldn't do that, would she?"

"I don't know, man. She's rocking some pretty major feels for Ezra, she'd probably tell him anything if it got her a date with him. Not that she'd do it in a mean way, it was probably just a slip of the tongue. I thought you'd given up Operation Revenge anyway." Sophie. Everything led back to Sophie these days. Finley had no idea what had gotten into her to turn her into a walking disaster and, honestly, he didn't care to know. Everybody has bad times in their lives and people cope in different ways, but if you coped with hard times by lashing out at other to make yourself feel better, then you were no friend of Finley's. Colby didn't see it this way, always the optimist, he would keep trying with Sophie no doubt.