Cold and Charisma (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Twenty-Three

The following day at school was miserable – I had bruises along my face, an image that sharply contrasted with my usually picture-perfect appearance, and I had dark circles under my eyes from the night I spent just thinking about everything that happened.. Including the kiss.

Everywhere I went, I heard whispers, and gasps, and by now, the whole school knew about Parker and I's fight at Julian's party. Some couldn't believe it until they saw proof of it on my face.

Everyone knew I was the epitome of what a perfect student looked like – prim, polite, proper – and now, they knew me as the guy who beat the shit out of my own teammate.

Carter, being the good friend he is, defended me throughout all of this, "I think what you did was pretty fuckin' cool. I've never seen you like that!" 

After the shock subsided, he began praising me, and it's all he talked about this morning, "You were like, 'Bam! Don't fuck with Riley! You don't wanna mess with me!' Even I got the shivers, man! That was awesome!" He reenacted what happened, his fist colliding with his palm to demonstrate the fight.

"You gotta' teach me how to fight like that, seriously! That was a whole 'nother side of you." Carter exclaimed, following behind me as we made our way to our first period.

"Please don't, Carter. Don't talk about it like it's something to admire. I regret everything, and as soon as I see Parker, I'm apologizing to him." I said firmly. My grip on my backpack strap tightened.

I tried to block out his loud voice ringing in my ears, praising me for fighting Parker, as we made our way through the corridors. The people around us staring at me didn't help. The last thing I'd want is for people to see me in a different light.

Shoot – that just reminded me.. I had my first period with Riley. "Are you okay, man? You're just standing there. C'mon!" He waved for me to come into the classroom. 

I stood there awkwardly, mouth agape, "Uh, yeah, sorry." I bit the inside of my cheek, dreading going in. There was nothing I could do, and I accepted defeat as I trudged inside the classroom.

–

"Alright class, we have a pop quiz. I've been noticing that you guys haven't been doing the reading I assigned, so for the rest of class I'm quizzing everyone on chapters ten through fifteen." Mrs. Bradbury's words snapped me out of my daze – we had a quiz?! And I wasn't prepared?!

Suddenly, the same familiar feeling of dread crept up on me again, but now in the form of the paper staring at me right in the face with questions I didn't know the answer to. For once in my life, I wasn't prepared.

Shoot, I was so out of it last night I forgot to do the reading! Ugh, it felt like everything was going wrong for me! The kiss, the fight – it felt like I could never catch a break.

As the words on the paper stared back at me tauntingly, I couldn't help but look around at the rest of the class. Surely enough, Riley seemed to be facing the same dilemma as me. His eyebrows were knitted together, furrowing in familiarity, as he bit his lip, looking at the paper like it'd just insulted him.

Any other day, and I would have smiled, but now, I was facing my own impending doom. I sighed, looking down at the paper in front of me, pencil in hand on the verge of snapping.

I bullshitted all the answers, guessing most of them, before handing the paper in with a forced smile. The teacher smiled back at me, and I couldn't help but cringe as I thought about how that smile would be replaced by a frown as soon as she graded it. Sorry, Mrs. Bradbury, I know I'm letting you down.

However, that was the least of my worries. The bell rang a few minutes after, and I watched intensely as Riley scurried out of the classroom in a hurry. It was as if he was running away from me before I could even make up my mind on whether or not I wanted to go after him.