I'm Scott Malkinson

17- Distractions

Clyde grabbed Scott by the face, planting a big kiss on his lips, making Scott's legs feel weak. "Do you want to be my boyfriend?" he asked once they separated. Just kidding.

Scott didn't quite know why he imagined that, or why he felt so disappointed when instead of kissing him, Clyde just pressed a small pouch into his hands. Scott opened it, inspecting what was inside.

"They're earplugs," Clyde explained. "You said the cafeteria was too loud for you, so I thought these might help. Craig wears ones like these all the time and they've really seemed to make it easier for him to deal with noisy environments. If you ever feel overwhelmed again, you can try them out."

That was probably the most thoughtful gift anyone had ever given Scott, granted the bar was not set high at all. Last year for Christmas all he'd gotten from his parents were socks and a calendar for the next year. He tugged Clyde into a tight hug, resting his forehead on Clyde's shoulder. "Thank you," he whispered, as he held on to him. His heart was just about beating out of his chest at this point, and there was no way he could deny it any further: he liked Clyde, and that made him feel a bit gross.

Scott pulled away. "Well, I should probably head off to class now, I wouldn't want to be late. See you in history!" He called out as he rushed away.

Scott began to feel the panic set in. He liked Clyde, like he like-liked Clyde. Was this okay? The Bible said it was a sin. Then again the Bible only said not to lay with another man, as in sex. So was it okay to just hug? Or even to kiss? Maybe it was okay to have feelings as long as he didn't act on them. Maybe this was just temptation, the devil trying to get him to sin. Or maybe thinking about Clyde at all in this way was a sin and God was already disappointed in him. And what about Sophie? He'd been so convinced he liked her. Was that not true? Did he like both of them? Maybe if he spent more time with Sophie it would help him to stop thinking of Clyde. He sent her a quick text.

Scott: Hey Soph, I was thinking we should hang out more. Did you maybe want to come with me to the tech crew meeting today, then we could hang out on our own after?

Sophie: Sounds cool Scott, I'd love that. See you later. <3

Scott smiled down at his phone, relieved that she'd agreed. Surely if he just focused all his attention on her he'd forget all about his stupid little crush on Clyde. Right?

He hoped so.

Scott and Clyde walked to theater rehearsal together. Since they had their last class together it only made sense that they walked to their shared after school activity together. They were coming and going to the same place. It was unavoidable. As they walked Scott found that Clyde was getting a little too close as their hands brushed together. He shoved his inside his hoodie pocket to keep it from happening again. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Clyde frown, but surely that was his imagination. There was no way Clyde actually liked him back.

When they got to the theater hall, Sophie was already waiting there for Scott. "Hey," she greeted him, giving him a hug. He hugged her back happily. "Glad you could make it," Scott told her.

"Hey Sophie," Clyde greeted her, a bit awkwardly.

As the three of them headed further down the hall, they found the goths already there. Pete and Stan were in their usual spot leaned up against the wall, but this time they were accompanied by some new girl. She had a strawberry blonde bob haircut with black streaks dyed through it, as well as a septum piercing and a black ring at the side of each nostril. She wore the same sour expression as Stan and Pete, fitting in just perfectly.

"Dang did everyone bring their girlfriends?" asked Clyde, his voice sounding a bit exasperated. If Scott didn't know better he'd think Clyde was jealous of Sophie. Luckily he knew better.

"You could text Millie and ask her to come," he suggested.

"Yeah I guess," shrugged Clyde, pulling out his phone. Within ten minutes Millie had joined them. Scott thought that would make Clyde happier, but surprisingly he actually looked pretty miserable. That was until Butters asked Scott if he was going to the church's Halloween lock-in on Friday.

"Wait, they're doing that again this year?" Clyde asked excitedly. "Is it true Father Maxi always passes out at like ten leaving everyone totally unsupervised for the rest of the night?"

"Pretty much," answered Butters.

"Sweet," Kenny said. "Stan, we should go to that."

Stan shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. At least it'll get my mom off my ass to go out and have some fun. You in Pete?"

"The church has a graveyard?"

"Uh yeah," replied Stan.

Pete nodded. "Yeah, I guess that doesn't sound too terrible then. If it gets bad I can just sneak off."

"You had me at Halloween," Makowski put in.

"Nobody asked if you were going Count Fagula," scoffed Pete.

As always, Scott felt uncomfortable with this choice of language, only this time he knew why. Clyde must've caught on to his discomfort, because he decided to speak up on it. "Hey Pete, can we not use that word please?"

"Whatever," he huffed, rolling his eyes. He got up and walked to the back door. "I'm going for a smoke."

Scott offered Clyde a small smile to say thank you, which Clyde returned. He allowed his gaze to rest upon Clyde for only a moment before turning to Sophie. "You should come too."

"Yeah, sounds fun."