Tainted (Shaylor AU) (boyxboy)

2 [Science]

🌺

Luke and I walk hand and hand to our next class, stopping when I reach the door. My cheeks instantly turn a bright red as Luke places his pierced lips to my cheek. I've always admired the pastel blue ring he wears everyday, this being the first time it's made contact with my skin.

"I'll see you at lunch." He states.

"Bye Lukey."

"See ya."

I watch his long legs disappear down the hallway, then turn to face the hell of a classroom. Since I'm in advanced science, it's the only class I have with seniors. Cameron smiles and motions me over, so I take slow strides towards him, Harry, and Ashton.

"So you and Luke, huh?" Cam nudges my shoulder.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw him kiss you."

A large thump noise is made by the book Ashton was reading as it fell from his hands. His jaw is visibly clenched along with his large hands that have been balled into fists.

"It was on the cheek, Cam. And it meant nothing. Luke doesn't have feelings for me."

"Whatever you say." Cam teases.

I steal a glance at Ash and notice his angry demeanor seems to be gone. I wonder what happened. He probably had a bad time in first period...

When the teacher begins to teach, I take thoughtful notes on the importance of ecology in our everyday lives. See, in an ecosystem, each organism serves a purpose. Some organisms are just there to provide food for more important animals. And they are called producers. My friends and I, we're the producers in our ecosystem called high school.

We're here to be social outcasts. To be made fun of by the jocks, and then so they can pick on us. The more they insult us and beat us up, the bigger their reputation gets. The bigger the rep, the more girls they get, and then those girls get reputations too. So in the end, the whole social pyramid of high school wouldn't exist without those on the bottom tier.

I'm honestly happy with being on bottom.

It may be a coincidence that everyone in our little squad is gay, except for Matthew, who is bisexual. Most of us have some musical talents, and those who don't are insanely funny. We've all bonded from being outcasts, and we've become a group strong enough that even people at the top of the social pyramid don't really mess with us.

And by the top of the pyramid, I mean Taylor and his squad.

They're the ones that wear all black and have tattoos and piercings and could have anyone of any gender or sexuality practically fall at their feet. I've even heard some of them use cuss words...in front of teachers! They're hot and rebels, and there couldn't be a better combo. Hey, if I can't be bad myself, might as well admire those who can.

I know some of them have taken a special interest in our group, sorta like Taylor. But I know one of them has a thing for Jack Johnson, yet I don't know his name. Anyways, anytime any of us has been in trouble that we can't handle within our own group, they're there to back us up.

And that's because they're the only other openly gay kids at school. So we have to stick up for each other, well them mostly for us, but still. They don't get hurt for it, but we do, and I still have no idea why.

"Mr. Mendes, what's your answer?"

"Um I'm sorry, what?"

"Next time pay attention. I asked if the apex predator were to die in a food chain, what would be the end result?"

"Well the secondary consumers would over populate, causing the need for producers and primary consumers to grow. The end result would be the niche of each organism failing because of the imbalance of purpose throughout the food chain."

"Very good, Shawn."

"Thank you Ms. Russett."

I hear chuckles from the back of the room, and a small, folded note lands square in the center of my desk. Cautiously, I open the paper, and feel the heat rise to my upper body when I read what it says.

I love it when you talk science to me.
xx Tay

<^><^><^><^><^>

I slide into the seat next to Jack Johnson, or JJ as some people call him. Everyone seems to be engaged in their own conversations as I slowly unwrap my sandwich and begin nibbling at it.

"Hey Shawn. Are you okay, bud?" Harry asks from across the table.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Really? Because you've been kinda out of it all morning." Hayes states.

"I'm surprised you noticed, being that you've been sucking Aaron's face the whole day." I mutter.

"What?"

"Nothing. Look guys, I'm fine, I promise."

I look over at Luke and notice there's a glint of concern in his eyes. Doing my best at being reassuring, I shoot him a soft smile. My job is complete as he returns the smile, then goes back to talking animatedly with Ashton. My attention snaps to my left as Aaron taps my thigh under the table.

"This isn't about the whole English class lecture, right? Because you shouldn't focus on something like th-" I cut off his rambling.

"No Aaron. I'm seriously okay. Don't worry about me, alright?"

He nods at me, still skeptical of my reserved behavior. I rub the hem of my crop top in between my thumb and forefinger, contemplating Taylor's note and brave actions from this morning.

Honestly, it's typical Taylor to leave me confused and slightly frustrated at the end of the day, then having me dream about him that night, and waking up with inexplicably wet sheets in the morning.

I look across the crowded cafeteria to take a look at Taylor's table. My teeth instinctively clamp down on my lip as I see him looking at a girl named Mahogany intently, occasionally laughing at her dialogue. A pang of jealousy hits my stomach, signaling to how much I crave to be in that spot.

I wish I was the one to make Taylor laugh. I wish I could be his everything.

My eyes snap back down to my sandwich as Taylor meets my gaze for a second. I silently curse myself for being rude and staring so long. I know I've messed up when I feel Taylor's gaze on me for too long. Oh my gosh. I wonder what he's staring at.