Pathos [Gay/BL]

Chapter VIII

CHAPTER VIII: School trip (part one)

I felt a hand shaking my shoulder, making my face scratch the rough carpet. I drowsily opened my eyes and saw Stella with her sleep mask in her forehead and a tired look in her eyes. I frowned and started to get up, still kind of sleepy. Amy was snoring like hell in the bed next to me with one arm spread out of the bed and her face sunken in the pillow. I figured that she must've thrown me out of the bed in the middle of the night. I looked over the window: not even the sun had come out yet.

"Is it time already?" I asked in a husky voice while I rubbed my eyes. Stella yawned and nodded.

"Amy," she called her, shaking her shoulder.

I went to the bathroom and washed, then looked at the clock in my phone: it was 7:13 a.m. I groaned and returned to Stella's room, where Amy was sitting in the bed with her eyes closed and Stella was already changing. I mimicked her. Amy stood there for a little longer and then went to the bathroom looking like a zombie. As time passed by, Stella and I started to talk normally, the sleepiness dissipating. Amy joined us short after and we started to talk excitedly about what was about to happen.

"Good morning, children," Mrs. Bonham hailed us when we joined her downstairs to have breakfast.

"Good morning," the three of us answered.

It had been a good week: after Stella forgave us, everything went back to normal, which was amazing. We started to hang out like always and decided to spend some more time together. She explained the situation she was going through: Mr. Bonham had talked to her wife about him feeling trapped. He felt as if he was wasting his life and wanted to feel free. Mrs. Bonham kicked him out right after that: "there's your freedom, honey," she said to him. Nevertheless, Mrs. Bonham, Stella told us, was really hurt.

Stella's mom then took us to school in her car, all of our bags in the trunk. She smiled and laughed as if nothing happened, but I felt kind of bad knowing what she really was going through. She dropped us, kissed her daughter good-bye and then left us with all the baggage. A big amount of teenagers were already agglomerated in front of two buses and three teachers also stood there, supervising. The three of us approached the group of people but then separated to talk to our respective teacher. Mr. Morneau, all bowed and tired-looking, had a tiny notebook and a pen and was taking notes of something.

"Good morning, Mr. Morneau," I said.

"Name?" he only answered, his eyes still fixed on the notebook.

"Erm... Noah Keller."

"Okay, you're going in the second bus with your partner," he said and sent me a small smile. I just nodded and looked around to find my best friends.

Since we were staying at a hotel and the school policy (I guess) was really old-fashioned, we had to pair up with our same gender so we wouldn't sleep with the opposite. Amy and Stella paired up together and I decided to pair up with Tyson, since Eric had already paired up with Aiden. This was going to be fun. 

"We're on the second bus," Amy said with a smile when we got back together.

"Awesome, me too!" I exclaimed happily.

"Yo, Noah!" a well-known voice yelled my way. I turned with a tender smile on my face.

"Hey, Tyson!" I greeted him when he joined us. He was wearing a huge backpack that made him look so tiny.

"Hello, ladies," he seductively said. I slapped the back of his head with a scowl. "Ouch!"

"Don't you even try," I warned him with a look.