A Title-less Story

Chapter 1 - Him

I got up at 5:45 in the morning, like usual. It was the middle of October, still slightly the beginning of the school year. It was a Friday, the night of homecoming. I didn't have a date, mainly because there's not many bisexual or gay guys in my school. I just went with a bunch of friends, which is more fun anyway. I got up and groggily washed my face, brushed my teeth, and brushed my medium length, dyed black hair. I popped in my contacts and put on my normal attire- a band shirt, a flannel, some black jeans, and doc martens. Occasionally I'd put on a baseball cap, but I decided not to today.

It was my senior year, and I had my license for almost two years. So, instead of having to rush to catch the bus, I could waste some of my time at home. I went downstairs, watched the news for a little bit and groaned at the forecast; mid 70's all day, then high 60's once it hits 6 pm. Great, it was going to be cold as hell for homecoming. Not like it effected my attire, I wear a flannel almost all of the time. The news covered basic stuff, somebody's house had been broken into downtown, a baby animal had been born at the zoo, Halloween is coming up, blah blah blah. Stuff I couldn't care less about.

My grandmother came downstairs, gave me a hug, made her coffee and her lunch, and logged on to her Facebook, scrolling through like she normally does. I got up and grabbed a few bucks for Dunkin Donuts and my bag, kissed her on the cheek, and left. I drove to Dunkin Donuts, ordered 3 medium iced mocha lattes with sugar and one with whip cream- mine of course, and was on my way to school. I go to Bridgewood high, an arts school. Half of it was kids who are zoned to go there, and the other half were magnet kids, such as I. Luckily, this school has an instrumental magnet for things other than band and orchestra. I went for drums and piano, and a bit of guitar.

I pulled into the student parking lot, which was in the back of the school, grabbed the tray of coffees and made my way to one of the many smoke alleys. I gave the other two coffees to my friends Jason and Anthony. They both had similar appearances to me, long hair, kind of a 90's grunge band look. It was obvious we were all in the same friend group. Anthony passed a fug to me and I shook my head. "Nah, I got my own." I pulled out a pack of Newport 100's and lit a fug, and took a long drag. When we were finished our cigarettes, we made our way inside. Most of my friend group is made up of art students, so we usually hang out in the art hall in the mornings.

We walked into the art hall, and sat on the ledge by our friends. Our friend group consisted of Amethyst, Scotty, Paige, Munch, and us three. It was a pretty big friend group, but there were smaller groups inside of the large group, but we all come together in the bigger picture. We chatted about class projects, different teachers, lunch shifts, the normal morning conversations. Scotty brought up homecoming. "So uh, are we all just going to go as a group, or do we have specific dates, or what?" I shrugged. "I just planned on going with you guys, as a group." I said. "Yeah that's what I had planned." Anthony chimed in. Everybody else agreed.

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We all made it through our day like usual. Nothing out of the ordinary, except the principal doing the whip for some kind of awareness for homecoming tonight at lunch. The freshman thought it was funny, but only because they don't know how much of a strict old guy he normally is. Anthony and Jason came home with me, since they both live in walking distance of my house. I dropped my keys on the table and threw my bookbag into a chair and walked into the kitchen, trying to find something to eat. Anthony and Jason slumped into my old 80's styled couch and turned on the tv. Anthony turned on the 90's alternative music channel on, and some song by Alice in Chains was on.

Later in the night, all three of us got "dressed up" (which was really just putting on different flannels and slightly fixing our hair), before going downstairs. My grandmother smiled and looked at all three of us. "Should I take pictures, Brian? You look so cute, but it's not quite prom." I laughed and shook my head, running my hand through my thick hair. "Nah, we're good." She hugged me tightly. "Drive safe." I nodded and slightly threw my hand up as I made my way out the door. "Got it."

We pulled up to school and parked. There wasn't much of a line, since we didn't get there too late. Good, it won't take us long to get inside. Our school usually held dances in the gym, cafeteria, and the courtyard. Cafeteria was used for foods and drinks, pictures, and sometimes a movie. The courtyard was the main hang out place for people who don't really enjoy dancing. The gym was used for of course- dancing. We got through the ticket line, and made our way to the courtyard. We all sat on the stone ledge and looked around at everybody dressed up in formal wear, pretending to like each other.

After about 20 minutes, the rest of our group walked in and joined us. Everybody was wearing casual attire, except for Amethyst. She was wearing a black, mid length dress, which was ripped up on the flow part of it. She had on black converses though, which was her thing. No matter how formal she dressed up, she always had her chucks on. Everybody sat around on the square shaped ledge and just chatted, and had a good time.

I looked up once to look around at everybody and noticed somebody who I had only seen once or twice before. He was tall, like over 6 foot tall. He had medium length blonde hair, but not quite as long as mine. He was wearing a Nine Inch Nails shirt, black baggy jeans, and combat boots. My appearance was somewhat the same. A Rammstein shirt, a red flannel, black jeans, and converse. I examined his appearance before turning back to my friends. "Hey.. Who's the guy in the Nine Inch Nails shirt?" I asked the group. Everybody shrugged except for Paige. "Oh, that's Dylan. He's in my figure class. He doesn't talk much, kind of keeps to himself. He's super nice when you do talk to him though." She explained. I smiled slightly and nodded, before looking back at him again. "Thanks."

The rest of the night was full of side glances and awkward stares from both parties, this "Dylan" guy and I. I couldn't take it, I had to talk to him. "Hey guys I'll be right back." I said as I continued to glance at him. "Oooh, somebody's gonna flirt." Scotty teased. I chuckled and threw a napkin at him before getting up and going over to Dylan. I turned on my "charm" that Sam had said I have multiple times, and smiled at him as I approached him.

"Hi, I just wanted to tell you I absolutely love your shirt." I said nervously, even though it was hard to detect in my voice. I have a tendency to hide my real emotions and just play it smooth. He looked up and smirked, before glancing at my shirt for a second. "I like yours too. Rammstein is one of my friend's favorites." We smiled at each other for a moment. "Hey, why don't you sit with us for a bit?" I said, pointing to my friends. He nodded and smiled, standing up and towering over me. I was taken aback by his height for a moment, I totally underestimated just how tall he was.

I brought him back to our group, and the rest of the night we all talked about our normal group stuff, music, art, our own music, concerts, all that stuff. The whole night Dylan and I kept exchanging glances towards each other, occasionally smiling. Scotty and Paige would tease us both about flirting and crushes, but we dismissed it every time. We were more focused on just becoming friends and sharing music interests rather than flirting. By the end of the night, we exchanged numbers, and continued to talk from home until about 2 in the morning.