More Than Friends (boyxboy)

Chapter 13: The gaze

"It's just a bit weird don't you think?
☆

He felt strange. Archie didn't know why exactly. This was all part of his weekday routine. Get up, get ready for school, and wait for Bay's bus to show. It wasn't like he didn't want to see him, but Archie hadn't really thought this through, as this wasn't only Bay's bus, It was also Lena's.

Would it be too much to ask for them to both want to spend their before school time with him? He didn't want to upset anyone.  Bay was his best and sometimes only friend, whereas Lena was new, exciting, and he was dying to kiss her again.

He exhales a heavy sigh as he sees the bus pull up. He locates the faces of the two people in question, looking at him through the bus window, and in that moment, he wishes he is somewhere else entirely.

Bay is the first to get off. He heads Archie's way, accepting the usual head ruffle. "Hey, wanna go for breakfast?" Archie asks, as if they had somehow gone back in time to the week before, but when Bay looks up, he sees Archie's gaze gravitate towards the girl.

Lena was standing shy of the bus, casually chatting to her friend, before waving her off, when their eyes meet. The connection was obvious. So much so, that Bay couldn't do it to him. As much as he had these hidden feelings,  accompanied by the irrational envy, Archie was still his friend first and foremost. "I think I'll give it a miss today." Bay forces a grin. "I need to take some books back to the library."

"Oh." Archie retracts his hand, a little surprised at the response, though it did put an end to his dilemma.

"Don't sound so disappointed Archie, you won't be alone." Bay looks in Lena's direction. "I will be fine all by myself." He lightly taps Archie on his arm.

"Well, if you're sure…?"

"I'll see you in class." Bay says as he heads towards the imposing school building. It wasn't a total lie that he had to go to the library. It just wasn't to return books. The unknown number he had received had turned out to be from Mark. He never saved it in his phone because he thought he would never need to use it. But there it was.

Come to the library first thing. Emergency situation.

Bay assumed it to be maths related. What else would it be?

Archie watches him walk away, feeling an unexpected sadness as to how Bay could leave so easily. Like the breaking of their lifelong tradition of meeting up before class had no significance to them. "You're alone at last."

The sound of Lena's voice pulls him from his deep thoughts as he turns to look her way, seeing her pull that nose ring from her face and place it in her purse. "Yeah. Wanna go for breakfast?" He questions,

"As long as you don't ruffle my hair." She says laughing.

Archie frowns at the remark, feeling slightly offended. "What's wrong with ruffling hair?"

"It's just a bit weird, don't you think? Especially when you do it to him. It's a bit…" Lena stops herself from talking as she pulls her lips into her mouth.

"A bit what?" Archie says, folding his arms. "He's like my brother."

"But he's not though, is he?" Lena says, again finding amusement in the situation.

This does cause Archie to laugh. "What are you talking about? You're my girlfriend, and secondly, I don't care what people think. What's it to them anyway?" He drapes his arm around Lena's shoulder and leans in to whisper in her ear. "We could always skip breakfast, and I can show you how much I like you instead."

Lena slaps her hand on Archie's chest. "Just buy me some juice." She grins as they head towards the canteen.

***

The library is near deserted when Bay enters the place, but he knows the rules. The secrecy as to why he was there, so he plays the part. He heads to the room Mark had suggested in their secret arrangement in tutoring maths. He silently pushes open the door and steps inside. The space is empty, having arrived earlier than expected. Bay heads to one of the desks and sits down. The room feels eerily silent, but not for long as once again, the door opens, with Mark heading inside as quietly as Bay had done. "Thanks for coming at short notice." He grace's Bay with a grin as he sits in the seat next to him.

"What is the urgency that it can't wait until lunch?" Bay says, leaning an arm on the desk as he turns to look at Mark.

"They've dropped a test this morning. I'm not ready for it." Mark begins to pull what books he needs from his backpack and places them on the table. "Page 37."

Bay pulls the textbook towards him, locating the page. He furrows his brow, rather amused at the questions. "Mark these are basic fractions. Even Archie can do these."

Mark snatches the book from Bay's grasp as he flicks to a different page. "These. I mean these." He pushes the book back over to Bay, who is now faced with a page of quadratic equations. Bay looks at Mark with suspicion before looking back at the page of sums.

"These look complex…. Ok. Where should we begin?" Bay pulls a pen from his pencil case, along with a notebook from his bag.

"How are you?"

"What?"

"I said," How are you? " Since seeing the film on the weekend." Mark pays no mind to the textbook of sums as he looks at Bay's profile and then his face as the boy looks at him, suddenly feeling a little guarded.

"Ok?" He replies, making Mark nod, satisfied with the response.

"Good." He says, as only now does he turn away to look at the numbers on the page, leaving Bay feeling a little confused by the interest Mark had in his well-being. He now ends up looking at Mark's profile. The older boy seemed to have avoided acne, unlike the majority of the upper school. His pale conplexion seemed flawless.

Then Mark looks up, possibly aware that he was being gazed upon by the other, and for a moment, just a few seconds, they catch each other's stare. He smiles, the action causing his face to crease in all the right places as Bay seems to mirror the expression. That is until Bay looks away, accompanied by a feeling of newfound curiosity as he looks back at what he should be concentrating on. "Ok. Let's focus." He says as he clears his throat.

Mark says nothing as his eyes slowly fall upon the task to hand. He needed to focus on the right thing. Not the clever boy.