NovaHD ❀City Boy❀

05: he claims to be certain

"Rudeness is the weak person's imitation of strength."
-Unknown

~

"You're staring, you know." Aleksandr held in a long, tired sigh as his uncle leaned back in the single fold out chair he had brought along. Petey, not surprisingly, had neglected to suggest Aleks brought one along too, and let the boy ignorantly assume Petey would have grabbed three.

Rude asshole...

James was hardly fazed, of course. He stood happily, leaning against the plastic table that had a red cloth draped over it as he happily chatted with two teenage girls. Aleksandr, however, was less than pleased, his legs aching and he felt exhausted, plus he hadn't eaten since four that morning.

"No, I'm not." Aleks breathed, his eyes flicking away from the three teenagers long enough to send the older man a glare, before returning to space out, his eyes automatically trailing back to where he had been previously staring. Where he had previously staring right at James' back.

He watched the way the girls would subtly trail their fingers up the male's arm, speaking with a tooth rotting sweetness that made Aleks want to puke, but left James flustered and blushing. Aleksandr couldn't help but irritably wonder why James didn't try to be so sweet around him. But then again, why would he want to be?

Aleks scowled, and turned away subtly.

"Oh please, Aleksandr. You're a Marchant, we're horrible liars and we all stare at what we like."

"You're delusional." The teen scoffed and shook his head. He silently decided that his uncle would shut up sooner if he just refused to acknowledge the old man's claims.

It wasn't so much that Aleks didn't like James; it was more that he was so difficult to get along with. That one night the two had spent in his little hiding spot seemed like a distant memory, a dream, a hallucination. It had never happened, their brief connection was just that, brief.

James had next to zero intentions of making any attempts at being nice to Aleksandr since then, (although he had to admit that he wasn't exactly putting in any effort either) and the only time they talked was to ridicule and be complete assholes really.

So, maybe it really was that he didn't like the other, but he still couldn't help but feel unreasonably annoyed by the lack of acknowledgement James gave him.

"Delusional, possibly, sometimes anyway, but I'm still right."

"Whatever you wanna believe." It was on the verge of a venomous sneer, on the verge of him sounding like his mother whenever Aleks mentioned anything to do with the family. He silently cringed as he heard himself and rubbed his eyes.

"James likes you too, you know."

"Now I'm positive you're seeing things," A soft laugh left the teen and he yawned. "Does he look gay to you, dude?" Aleks spared another glance towards the other teenager, watching him show his tattoo to the ladies and smiling widely as they giggled in approval and ran their fingers over it.

Ugh.

Aleks glanced down at his own work-in-progress tattoo. It was just waiting to be coloured, to contrast perfectly against his paler skin. This would happen over his mother's dead body, of course. She had never approved of body ink and when she had seen the permanent lines on Aleksandr's skin it was an understatement to say that she was beside herself.

"Aleksandr, there's no such thing as somebody 'looking gay'. Also, I don't think I heard you deny liking him." Petey wagged a finger and Aleks scowled.

"Whatever." Aleks turned directly away from his uncle, successfully cutting their conversation short and giving himself room to finally breathe.

Aleks forced himself to avoid human contact for the rest of the day, any customers being left to his uncle and James, his uncle and James being left with silence.

Aleksandr however, never found that silence. His mind was active, buzzing, whirring, trying to find meaning to the things Petey had said. They really meant nothing to Aleks. Not really, anyway. Still though, something about it all made him tick.

When they arrived home, just as the sun was slowly slipping away behind the rolling mountains, Aleksandr jumped from the truck and ran off, if only to escape from the suffocating awkwardness of the vehicle. The awkwardness only James hadn't noticed as he merrily chatted with Petey about the girls he had met.

Yeah, he concluded, he was definitely hiding this time.

His special place was quieter than usual. For some reason that summer breeze wasn't there to make the tree's rustle, and the river didn't seem to be flowing as strongly as usual. Even the animals didn't seem to be running around.

The boy was left feeling lonely and pent up with too many emotions of odd confusion and frustration. The joys of teen angst... Aleks took his regular seat, noticing how the grass had already been shaped from his weight, leaving a comfortable dip for him to lie in.

Aleks closed his eyes, as if to block out the thoughts and in turn, block out the world. He felt better, not great, but better. The almost unsettling silence had instead become a tranquil, comforting one. Suddenly he could hear the things that had seemingly been blocked from him. It might have been the way his heart had thundered against his chest that made everything feel otherwise silent.

Aleks relaxed, and forgot about Petey's stupid words. What would he know anyway? The man had always been an utter sleaze around and towards women. What would he know about any kinds of relationships?

Absolutely nothing.

A gentle sigh left the teen's lips, and he allowed himself to simply let it go, willed himself to just forget it. His words didn't even matter.

He does not care about what James does.

He does not care about James.

"Figures I'd fine you here," Aleks opened one eye, feeling his expression change to something he was unsure of, and an odd feeling pressing against his ribs. "Can I sit...?" James asked quietly from where he stood only a few meters away from Aleksandr, his own expression invisible to Aleks in the near darkness.

"...Yeah, course."

~

Holy shit it's been nearly a month I'm so sorry plus this is a piece of trash.
Also these chapters are getting smaller and smaller help omf.