Love Bites

II. Skin and Bone

***

The lanky creature, Ryan, had been sluggish all morning as if he were tired. Though people like him didn't necessarily need the sleep; he felt as if it were a want.
Ryan lightly tapped his finger on his desk to hide his nerves, people were staring at him left and right and he didn't understand why. When Ryan walked to class he saw plenty of pale twig-shaped people though they were nerdy and geeky kids, wearing band tees or Walmart joke tees that weren't funny. But those kids didn't look as groomed as Ryan had, Ryan wore his hair parted to the side, combing it over for it to rest like a fold by his eye. He picked out a black dress shirt to try and be presentable but he didn't own dress pants, so he settled for dark blue skinnies.
Ryan looked around the class, trying to avoid staring eyes, his cheeks flushed a light pink out of embarrassment. The tall boy looked around a bit before his eyes landed on a slightly tanned boy with dark hair. The boy beside him wore an exaggerated outfit with thin red frame glasses. Ryan had felt the tension build up in his body slowly washing away each second he looked at the boy. Up until the moment he made eye contact with him. Ryan quickly looked away, his pale cheeks filling with shades of pink when he looked down into his lap. He heard a mumbling from his left.
"Hm..?"
Ryan looked up and turned his head in several directions before landing eyes on the boy again. "Brendon.." The person beside him spoke, Ryan looked to the board and back at him, "Your name is, Brendon?" Ryan questioned quietly, his voice laced with strong uncertainty.
Brendon nodded and looked up a bit to make eye contact with Ryan. Ryan felt ill to his stomach but pleasantly, it was an entirely new feeling to him, he thought for a second before he realized that he could feel his face burning hot. "..Ryan- Well you knew that." The lanky boy had mentally face-palmed himself and looked away embarrassingly. He heard a slight simper in the opposite direction, assuming it was the boy, Brendon, making the noise. Ryan felt himself stammer as he spoke, "I'm sorry, I'm not the best at social interactions.." He felt himself burn up as if he were in hell as he fidgeted with his fingers looking into his lap.
"It's quite alright, I'm the same" Brendon's face twisted into a small smile, his plump lips taking up a fair portion of his face.

"Brendon, You can't just befriend someone like that! I mean- I saw him walking in the halls this morning! And-" Jon Walker, he babbled on and on to Brendon in a scolding manner in the second period, Biology. The bell hadn't rung yet which gave Jon plenty of time to shriek about his crazy theory to Brendon. "Bren- This dude is like sickly pale it's super creepy!" Jon had spoken interesting tongue which snapped Brendon from his thoughts of nothing.
"Jon, seriously? There's nothing wrong with being pale, just look at you!" Brendon leaned over his desk to grasp his friend's scraggly beard and shook his head around a bit. "You're such a bummer, Jon." The boy pulled himself back to his desk, Jon rubbed his chin with his hand and glared at Brendon. "And you're a dickhead." Jon remarked and looked away as the bell sounded off throughout the room and school quite loudly.
The sound of the teacher's penny loafers echoed throughout the once bustling classroom that was now washed with silence and tense feelings. Brendon felt his stomach churn when he made eye contact with his teacher, Brendon quickly averted his eyes to the back of Jon's muddled hair. Faint whispers could be heard before the teacher spoke up, "Attention everyone, I'd like you to get in partners, we're going to be experimenting."
Brendon sighed as he looked at his fingers for a second then looked up to see Jon staring dead at him, a small smile playing on his lips. The boy felt a smile forming as well as he scooted his chair over.
The classroom started filling with chatter and metal clashing with wood. The noise slowly died down as the teacher walked in from a closet with several silver trays, a distinct somewhat rotten smell filled the air as the teacher cleared his throat once again to gain the acknowledgment of his students.
"Class! We will be dissecting fetal pigs."
Gasps could be heard faintly throughout the room and the cart was wheeled and stopped at each table, hauling off one metal tray per table, Brendon felt himself turn ill as he thought about the experiment.

Ryan sat in the front of the room, though it was not his first choice, sadly it was his only choice. He felt his skin crawl as he slid into the seat; feeling several pairs of eyes stare him down. He felt himself squirm a bit as chatter echoed throughout the room and chalk loudly tapped the green board. Ryan felt his face slightly burn as the room slowly started to quiet down, the teacher staring quite fiercely at the students, a method that seemed to work for generations. The boy gave a glance to the person who sat next to him, the person whom Ryan assumed was a lady, had blonde hair that was worn just past her shoulders.
He had turned his eyes away quickly as he noticed the girl staring back at him, Ryan mentally scolded himself as he looked to the teacher awaiting instructions. The clearing of a booming voice filled the room before the large teacher spoke, "Everyone must pair up, two at a desk. You all will be working on the annual essay contest." The tubby teacher waddled to his desk and swiped an off-white sheet from the surface. The man began reading off names, taking small pauses between every two names, hesitating near the end of the list he looked up from the sheet,
"George Ryan Ro-"
The man was cut off by Ryan as he raised his hand and spoke, his face felt as if it were glowing as bright as a Christmas light, "Just Ryan sir, Ryan Ross." The boy stumbled a bit over his words and he looked into the teacher's eyes. The man nodded lightly as if he seemed to be weirded out or disgusted by the boy.
"..Ryan Ross and Spencer Smith."
Ryan had looked around the room to a chubby boy with a well-rounded face. The boy had slowly gotten up from his place in the front of the room to the back where Spencer had sat. He slightly cleared his throat and stuck his left hand out as he took a seat with his right, "Ryan." The chubby boy gave a small smile and stuck out his right hand to lightly shake it, "Spencer."

***

Relief washed over Brendon as he shot up from his seat to the sweet melody of the lunch bell. He had mentally thanked the school for once in his life, saved by the bell having a now relatable meaning. The boy had hastily skittered away outside of the classroom, waiting for his friend Jon. A flick lifted the hair by Brendon's ear, his other friend, Spencer, had stood by him with a grin. "So, where's Jon?" The boy spoke looking around the now somewhat empty hallway, "He's still in the room." Brendon had lightly shrugged his shoulders, suddenly jumping at a loud bang. Jon had an aggravated look on his face and he walked out of the room with clenched teeth.
"Let's go." The scruffy boy mumbled as he stomped towards the cafeteria like a young child. Spencer and Brendon both scoffed simultaneously as they followed behind, a pair of extra shoes was heard silently behind Spencer. "Oh yeah, Ryan Ross, the kid behind me, in my history class," Spencer whispered and looked behind him at the scrawny nervous boy. Brendon nodded and looked behind Spencer as well. The dark brown-haired boy slowed down a bit to catch himself to Ryan's pace, "So you've met Mr. Green?" Brendon spoke nervously and looked at the hunched-over boy, he had nodded and started to quicken his strides. "Are you okay? I mean, you look ill."
The gaunt boy nodded once again, his face plastered with a face of sickness as if he had smelled something foul.
"Just fine" The boy muttered peeking from the hair that lightly covered his face to the less weedy boy.
The four boys were split into duos, Jon and Spencer were far in front, Spencer's hand lightly rubbing the grungy boy's back as a source of comfort. Brendon and Ryan were in their little world of exchanging glances from time to time before reaching the loud and crowded marble floor room.

Brendon's face lit up as he scurried his way into the lunch line with Spencer, Jon walking to the a la carte pulling his wallet from his back pocket. Ryan had awkwardly stood by the lunch line exit, waiting for Spencer to withdraw from the line and go to the table. The scruffy boy had waddled his way over with several items in hand and a still annoyed look painted on his face. The lean boy felt awkward and almost sweaty standing near Jon as if he were about to explode any second. Just then the stuffy voice of the dark-haired boy could be heard louder as seconds passed followed by a small laughter.
"He's almost skin and bone!" Brendon had chuckled before making contact with Ryan, his face felt as if it were just centimeters from lava. "Let's go to our table." He stuttered a bit before looking at Spencer and scurrying off. The skinny boy walked quickly behind the trio to a somewhat dark corner where a small table was placed. The table had barely been able to hold four people, they had been somewhat squished together, laughing and cracking jokes. Ryan had felt nervous the entire lunch period, "Hey, Ryan, aren't you hungry?" Spencer looked at the pale boy, an eyebrow slightly raised. "No, no. I'm fine, not too hungry."
The boy sighed a bit between the pauses, a small smile creeping its way onto his face and holding a weak thumb.
"Alright then, if you need something tell us, Ry." Ryan nodded his head slightly and looked down into his lap.