Hurts

Chapter 10

I was putting my books in my locker after the first lesson, as I saw Marlon coming towards me, wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, his hair in its natural curly form without any gel holding it in place.

"Hey, Ads.", he kissed my cheek.

"Hey, did I miss something?"

"No.", he smiled and grabbed my hand.

We walked through the hallway, holding hands. Then his idiotic friends came in our direction, looking for him, I immediately let go of his hand.

"Oh, congrats Mars, you won the bet, give you the 20 dollars later.", one of them started.

"Curls?"

"No idea."

"You know, we bet that he gets 20 dollars if he manages to make friends with you and pretends to like you.", this guy laughed.

"Tell me this isn't true."

"It's not. What the f*ck are you talking about?!"

"Ask the others, after school when we read your messages, Mars said he will manage to get you to love him, faggot."

"Marlon?"

"I have no idea, I never said that!"

"Oh, well played you even told him your real name, you're truly the biggest checker in this school, even the guys want to f*ck you. Congrats.", another one smiled.

"We even got it on video.", they played a voice message of him saying he could be friends with anyone if he wanted to.

"Any explanation?", I asked.

"That's totally out of context."

"But you said it?"

"Y.....yes..", he lowered his head.

"You know what? I thought you were different than these bastards, but apparently you're also just the pathetic asshole I thought you were. So, everything was just a lie, you pretended to like me to win a stupid bet, 'I'm sorry they outed you' of course, 'I would be mad if they did it to me', was that a lie too? Did you just say you're gay to get me? To win this f*cking bet?! Was the weekend also a lie? I f*cking slept with you! Was losing your virginity worth winning 20 dollars?! Or was that also a lie?!", I yelled at him with teary eyes.

"No, none of it was a lie.", he said with a shaky voice and big wet eyes.

"Wait you're a faggot, too?", his friend asked in disbelieve.

"And a virgin?"

"Not anymore.", another one corrected.

Then it hit me, I realized what I just did, I was the asshole, not better than his friends, I said everything out loud, everyone could hear it, I outed him. My eyes got more and more teary, I just ran away, running through the entire school, hiding in the rehearsal room of the school band, behind the drum kit.

I hugged my legs and buried my head in them, hoping no one would find me, I just wanted to be alone. I just wanted to go home, call my mother and send him to the principal.

"Adrian? Adrian? Ads?", I heard him in the hallway, I curled up more making myself even smaller, hoping he wouldn't find me.

It was silent now, he walked away, I cried in my sleeves, then I heard footsteps and felt someone sitting down next to me.

"Ads?", he placed his hand on my back, but I didn't look up.

"Leave me alone."

"Do you know why I was such an asshole to you?"

"Why?", I still didn't look at him.

"Because I had a crush on you, but I was scared, I was already with those guys, I wanted to be cool, and normal. You know, when I came here, I wanted a new start, in my old school I was the weird shy nerd who loved art and poetry, and here I had the chance to change that, I knew no one, I changed my style and look and played cool, then I stumbled across these four idiots, soon I became some sort of leader for them. And as leader I couldn't be nerdy or have a crush on a nerdy cute guy. But this project gave me the opportunity to spend time with you alone and..I couldn't help it, my crush on you got even worse.", I saw him play with his fingers from the corner of my eye.

"I'm sorry. I overreacted, I didn't want to out you."

"It's okay, we're equal now. Maybe it's better this way. Who knows if I ever would've come out."

"What about this bet?"

"There was a bet, but about something else, I bet that they can't survive a weekend without getting a total blackout."

"The voice message?"

Said that when we met for the second or third time to play cool. These were two different situations."

"I'm so dumb."

"No, you're not. They are.", he pulled me in his arms.

"Why did they do this?"

"They probably combined everything, that I was nicer to you, spend more time without them, and kissed you earlier."

"You really think they're smart enough for that?"

"No. But that's my only explanation.", he laughed.

"I think it's time for an apology.", I stood up and went back to my locker.