Failure (Troyler Au)

Chapter 1

Tyler's pov

As the final bell rang I grabbed my stuff and ran out of the classroom. The week was finally over and I wasn't going to stay seated in that classroom for another second if you payed me! Junior year has been hell so far! Being a success you would think I like school, but I don't. I get good grades and I'm popular, but I don't enjoy it.

I walked to my best friend Zoe's locker and waited for her to get out of English. Being a A+ student and a total teacher's pet she always stays after class to help Mr. Green erase the board and clean up the room.

As I stared off into space thinking about how disappointed my mom would be with the b I recieved on my english essay, a tap on my shoulder jolted me from my thoughts. Marcus stood in front of me waving his hand it my face. "Hello! Earth to Tyler! Anybody home?"

"Oh sorry Marcus. Hey!" I said forgetting about my mediocre essay and giving a toothy smile to one of my best friends.

"You were thinking about cute boys again, right?" Marcus said in a teasing manner.

I gave him an exaggerated wink. "All day everyday Marky Buttbutt!" He laughed loudly and rolled his eyes.

Yes, I'm gay. I'm out to the whole school and everyone accepts it. There are several other openly gay people at my school also. The small town where I live in Michigan is very accepting and has very few homophobes. I came out to my friends in middle school and nothing changed. They all accepted me and we are still best friends to this day.

Alfie, Marcus's best friend, walked over and asked if we wanted to go to our favorite restaurant, Hart's. We both agreed. After finding our friend Joe and convincing Zoe to stop being a complete kiss up for the afternoon, we clambered into my crowded car and drove to the restaurant that we had become familiar and accustomed to eating at.

Arriving at Hart's we found a booth in the back. Joe slid into the furthest spot in the booth and I followed him. Zoe sat on the other side of me and I could see the disappointment in Alfie's face when he saw he couldn't sit next to her. Looking slightly morose Alfie sat across from her with Marcus by his side. For a few minutes while we waited we talked about school and meaningless gossip.

When our waiter arrived I looked up. Standing in front of us was a beautiful boy with curly brown hair. Studying him closer I saw a birthmark on his face and stunning piercing blue eyes. He looked like he was probably a freshman or sophomore. 'Damn, this failure is hot!' I thought.

"Hello, my name is Troye. What can I get you guys today?"

Everyone studied their menus for a moment. Zoe and I both got Hart's famous tacos like we always did. Joe decided on chicken. Our waiter scribbled our orders down and waited for Marcus and Alfie to order. Marcus was the first to speak. "I want something healthy. Is the caesar salad any good?"

Our waiter looked shocked that Marcus was asking the opinion of a failure. He shakingly replied "I haven't um had it myself, but uh it is ah one of the um most popular meals here." All of a sudden you could see a realisation appear on Marcus's face. "Oh of course you haven't had it. Like YOU have the money to eat here."

The boy looked at Marcus and I could see him fighting with himself not to reply with something rude. Instead he said with a hint of exasperation and anger in his voice "So would you like the caesar salad?" Marcus replied with a simple yes. The waiter turned his attention to Alfie. Alfie also asked for the caesar salad and the waiter asked if that would be all and then left to tell the cook our orders.

I turned to Marcus. "Did you really have to say that?!" I knew that he had spoken the truth, but he didn't have to point it out. Marcus was honestly a kind person, but he had a lack of respect for failures. He viewed them as people that were put on this Earth just to serve him. Technically I suppose that view would be correct. Failures weren't educated in school as well as successes were. They had to sit in the back of the classroom and could only ask a question after every success that had a question had gotten an answer. They received little help in school by the teachers and could only get the lowest paying jobs. Teachers would even give failures bullshit assignments because they didn't think they were capable of doing what we do. Maybe if they gave them the same chances we got they would be able to do harder assignments. Even though they were in a different social class than us I still believed they were humans with feelings and needed to be treated with respect. I usually didn't express this viewpoint because most people didn't agree. Both Sugg siblings agreed with me, but our friends Marcus and Alfie disagreed. We didn't often talk about it, but I called out their behavior when I saw it.