The new, geeky kid in school gets partnered with a popular jock in biology. He believes that geeks and jocks can't be friends until this particular jock proves him wrong. And there may be something even better in the air...
*****
After his family mo...
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-Luke-
I let out a deep sigh as I was watching out of the window.
"Luke?" Mom spoke my name quietly.
I just shook my head. She took my hand and squeezed it lightly, but she didn't ask what was bothering me. There was no need for her to ask to know what was going on in my head.
Of course, my life had felt too good to be true. Troy had finally gone out with me on a date, and the next day we had ended up making out on his couch, and I had felt happier than ever, but after that, things had gone downhill really fast.
I heard another sigh coming from next to Mom.
"Honey?" Mom whispered and took Gwen's hand in hers.
I saw Gwen shrugging her shoulders, looking weird without her long hair or makeup. I knew she hated looking like a man, but she had felt like it was necessary to pretend to be a man this time.
I turned to look out of the window again. I missed Troy. I wondered if he missed me. Probably not. We never had the time to talk about where we were standing, if we were a couple now, or just occasionally seeing each other. Well, since I hadn't seen Troy in three weeks, we weren't even dating.
The day after Troy and I had kissed, my grandmother had a stroke.
We had to fly back to Australia, where my family was from, to be there for her. The reason my dad looked like, well, a man was because our family didn't approve of him. Their suffocating prejudice and transphobia was the reason my family had moved all the way to the United States when I was eleven. I didn't know the rest of my family that well, since they weren't any more appreciative of gays.
Grandma was the only person who had stayed in contact with us, and even visited us a couple of times, but Granddad and the rest... The three weeks we had been stuck in Australia hadn't been that much fun for us. Especially after my grandma lost the battle of her life. Her funeral was held two days ago.
But now we were on a plane, flying back home, and away from those hateful people. I could only hope that Troy was willing to pick up where we left off. I hadn't talked with him more than two times while I was away, and it was killing me. I feared he had forgotten me and moved on. I feared he had already found someone else while I wasn't there.
I sighed again, and my mom squeezed my hand.
"We're landing in half an hour," she said. "Then we're back home."
I nodded and watched the clouds passing us by, seeing a hint of the sea behind them so, so far away below us.
*****
Two hours later, we stepped into our quiet home. It was dark inside and it smelled funny. We had left a big mess behind after leaving so abruptly for the airport. I saw my phone on top of the kitchen counter where I had forgotten it three weeks ago. I dropped my bags and went to get it, but the battery had died a long time ago.
