Snakebitten Sweethearts (A NatePat AU)

He's not what they say he is.

Nathan entered the classroom as most of the class went to the school's cafeteria.

As he took a seat on his chair, Nathan laid his head down against his crossed arms resting on the desk in front of him and started weeping quietly. Meanwhile, Matthew was about to plug his earphones into his phone, when he heard the weeps coming from Nathan. He thought to himself, "Poor guy. I feel really bad about what happened to him."

But all of a sudden, Matthew remembered Nathan talking about him.

He quietly said to himself, "Nathan talked about me behind my back, though. He probably doesn't need me around him, even in a time like this." Matthew then thought, "Nathan's all alone right now. Well, not necessarily. But all of his friends are eating at the school cafeteria. It pains me to see him broken like this. Whatever the hell should I do?"

A few minutes later, Matthew decided to approach Nathan.

Nathan suddenly felt someone's hand rubbing on his back. He got up and noticed Matthew trying to calm him down. Matthew asked, "You OK, big guy?" Nathan wiped the tears that he shed, looked down on the floor, sighed, and shook his head.

All of a sudden, Matthew gave him a tight hug.

He told Nathan, "Let it all out, Nathan." Nathan hugged Matthew back and started crying on his shirt. Matthew pat Nathan's back, shushed him, and said, "Everything's gonna be OK, Nathan. It might not be today, but that day will come... eventually."

Matthew proceeded to lay his head down on Nathan's right shoulder.

While crying, Nathan thought to himself, "Now I feel really bad about talking shit about this dude when what I said wasn't even true in the first damn place." Nathan cried for a few more minutes, until he pulled away from the hug that Matthew gave.

Matthew gave Nathan a small smile before wiping his tears.

Nathan told Matthew, "Thanks... for comforting me. It really means a lot... at least, to me." Matthew replied, "Hey, don't mention it, man. You're hurting right now, and the last thing I wanna do in this situation is add to that hurt that you're feeling."

Nathan smiled at Matthew.

Then, Matthew asked, "Do you mind receiving some form of affection from someone of your same sex?" Nathan got excited and thought to himself, "Is Matthew trying to say that he wants to kiss me or something? Oh, God. I'm freaking out right now."

Matthew caught Nathan staring at him longer than usual.

So, he waved his right hand in front of Nathan's face and said, "Earth to Nathan Smith. Hello? Earth to Nathan Smith." Nathan quickly shook his head, cleared his throat, and said, "Uh, no, dude... I don't mind at all." So, Matthew held Nathan's hand.

This got Nathan more excited.

All of a sudden, Matthew said to him, "Nathan, please don't pop off or do something violent after what I'm about to tell you." Nathan felt confused, so he asked, "What's going on, Matthew? Did you see someone here touch my shit while I was out?"

Matthew gave Nathan a confused facial expression and shook his head.

Nathan then asked, "What is it, then?" Matthew asked back, "Well, you know how you talked to Mr. Castin about something all of a sudden earlier?" Nathan nodded. Matthew continued, saying, "Mr. Castin proceeded to ask the rest of the class if we wanted to know what happened." Nathan asked, "Did anyone of you try to answer him?"

Matthew nodded.

He then said, "Well, the thing is... I was the first person to tell him that the whole class thinks it would be better if we all heard about what happened personally from you. Everyone else agreed with my suggestion, but he didn't listen to us. Mr. Castin told us about your situation, anyway. And I was literally disappointed at him for doing that."

Nathan was surprised.

He thought to himself, "Matthew was sensitive enough to care about my feelings? What a nice guy he is." Matthew let go a few seconds later and said to him, "Please don't go off on Mr. Castin about it. I don't want to see you getting in any trouble."

All of a sudden, Nathan hugged Matthew again.

He then said, "Thanks for caring, man. You have no idea how much I appreciate you telling me about this. And don't worry. I'm not angry about what Mr. Castin did." Matthew hugged back and replied, "You're welcome, Nathan. I'm glad to hear that."

Nathan pulled away from the hug a few seconds later.

Matthew then offered, "Well, Nathan, if your parents let you, you could stay a few nights over at my place. My parents are extremely busy with their work, anyway. They usually come home weekends." Nathan chuckled softly and said, "I'll try telling my parents as I get home later. But just in case my parents do let me, would you mind giving me your phone number?"

Matthew and Nathan proceeded to exchange each other's phone numbers afterwards.

To be continued in Part 7...