Obsession ( boyxboy )

Chapter Fourteen

By Monday, nearly every student in Lowell High had seen the video. Although her face was partly concealed by her hair, most knew that it was Rosemary in the shot. As she walked into the school with Anthony by her side, students sneered at her and murmured among each other.

A thin, pale sophomore boy wearing black eye liner made obscene moaning sounds when she passed by.

Anthony pressed her hand, drawing her arm around his back and kissing her cheek. "Let them laugh. Who cares?"

She said nothing. He clearly didn't understand how humiliating it was for her. As his friends had patted him on the back, hers had only been embarrassed for her. To be seen in the most intimate moment with the boy she loved was degrading, not only emotionally, but also psychologically.

By lunch time, Rosemary was seriously considering being home school for the remainder of her senior year.

The lunchroom was packed. She turned her eyes to Anthony's table where Derrick was rubbing his nipple through his shirt and moving his hips around to a chorus of laughs from their mutual friends.

Scowling, she looked at Anthony who's face bore a lopsided grin.

Turning around and sitting at an empty table, she slammed her energy drink and sandwich down.

"Can I sit?"

She turned around and saw Chris standing behind her holding a lunch tray.

"Yeah, sure, sit," she said, wiping at her tears, with the sleeve of her sweater.

"I wonder why he doesn't reenact the knock out punch I gave him on Saturday," Chris said, sitting across from her.

At once, Rosemary smiled, opening the clear wrapping around her tuna sandwich.

"I heard about that,"she said. "I wish I was there to see it."

"Yeah, I think someone recorded that, too," he said, smiling timidly.

Rosemary frowned, shaking her head. "This school is full of vultures. You can't do anything without nosey people blogging about it, or uploading it."

"Yeah," Chris said, pausing to look at Anthony's table with anxious eyes." Did you and Anthony make up? I know the last time we talked you were kind of upset about him."

No matter how subtle the nervous expression on Chris's face was, Rosemary could see that he was desperate to know.

"He told me all about you asking him to apologize to me," she said. "I really appreciated that, but as you can see, if you look behind you, he doesn't seem to care about me, or anyone but himself."

Chris slowly sipped milk from a straw as if captivated by a thought. Raising his head and moving his hair off his face, he gazed at her.

"You deserve more than him," he said, suddenly frowning. "Someone than treats you with respect and values you. I think you're amazing, you're not only hot, you're intelligent, competitive, and if he cant see that in you..." Again, golden strands of hair fell in his eyes and he tossed his head back, making Rosemary smile. " He's not worthy of you."

If she had been unable to find a quality in Chris that justified her attraction to him before , now she found herself falling hard over his last words."Do you really think that?" She screwed up her eyes, taking a bite of her sandwich." Why did you reach out to him, then?"

Forcing a smile, Chris glanced at her, resting his eyes on her lips. "The way you were talking about him the night before. Even if he's unworthy of you, I think that you deserve to be happy. The least I could do was use the little amount of influence I had over him and tell him so myself. To be honest, I don't think he has any idea what love is. You said you were in love with him, but when I asked him how he felt about you he couldn't give me a straight answer."

"He doesn't like to talk about his feelings, but I can see your point," she said, inspecting his face. "Why did you take the trouble to ask him?"

Chris shrugged, with an indifferent look in his eyes. For an instant, Rosemary had the impression he didn't mean anything he had just said. He was only telling her what she wanted to hear.

Anthony looked around at their table. Catching her gaze, he waved her over.

She pointed at Derrick, shaking her head and frowning.

"Here he comes," she said. " look at him, he think its all a joke."

Chris looked into her eyes. "Should I go?"

She didn't want to part with him, his words were comforting to her.

"No, stay."

Anthony arrived at the table with a smirk on his face, sitting next to Chris.

"I see you two are bonding. You're actually making me really jealous," he said, taking a green bean from Chris plate and popping it into his mouth.

Chris laughed, but Rosemary only glared at him.

He glanced at her. "Watch out, she's about to raise hell," he whispered into Chris ear.

Blushing, Chris looked at Rosemary who's face was livid.

"Nothing you do or say is supposed to affect anyone, right?" She said, her voice shaking with emotion. Half standing, she leaned across the table. "You let your stupid friends make hideous jokes about me while you laugh your ass off, not for a second thinking how that would make me feel."

She paused, pulling back and fully standing. "Maybe I am too smart for you, maybe I'm not a ditzy bimbo that kisses the ground you walk on. I have a freaking brain," she said, pointing at her forehead. " I care about my future and who's going to be in it because I don't want to waste my time in a pointless relationship with a self possessed jerk that has no idea what he's going to do with his life."

Anthony narrowed his eyes, turning to Chris. "What did you do to her?" The sarcasm in his tone had a hint of disdain. He reached for another green bean and bit the tip.

Half of the lunch room was silent, all eyes on their small table.

His lack of concern over her feelings filled her with a boiling pot of emotions.

"Chris, thanks for the talk and Anthony, it's so over," she said without looking at either of them.

Leaving her food on the table, she marched out of the lunch room with her head tilted up.

When she entered the hallway, tears spilled out of her eyes. A bit frightened by what she had done, she also felt relieved that it had ended on her terms.

The only assurance she had that she was going to be fine was the thought of Chris as a friend. No other person had spoken to her in frank terms about her relationship with Anthony. None of her friends was willing to speak ill of him. She came to understand what chris meant when he said teenagers were impostors, and it seemed as though that expression could be applied to people of all ages. In him, she had detected a brute sincerity she had been unknowingly craving all of her life. Far from having falling out of love with Anthony, however so, she was eager to explore her feelings for Chris. Somehow, she suspected that her fascination for him would evolve now that Anthony was no longer taking up all of her time. She was free to let her thoughts roam to curious corners and if it felt right, she would put them into action. Smiling to herself,Rosemary turned the corner into history class.