Step One: You Don't Want Me As Your Enemy (BOYxBOY)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“You slept with Mr. Langley?” Ian asked slowly, shocked and a little hurt. I hadn’t meant to tell him, but he seemed to always have a way of getting the answer out of me. I knew it would upset him and it had.

“Keep your voice down,” I shushed him, looking around to see if there was anyone in the school close enough to hear us. It looked like we were safe but I wanted to make sure.

“Sorry, but seriously?” Ian whispered. He was straddling the bench we were sitting on, his hands in front of him, while I sat on it normally, holding my ham and mustard sandwich low so my elbows could rest on my legs.

“Yeah, okay, now drop it,” I mumbled with my mouth full of bread. Ian was silent then, his head was low and he was looking at his hands. If we weren’t at school I would have reached out then and hugged him to me to comfort him, but we were and I didn’t want any trouble. Of course, I wasn’t so lucky. Duncan and his gang walked into the quad then and spotted us. They were eager for a fight. Target laughed at the sight of my bruised face, patting the guy who had hit me on the shoulder in phrase.

“Ian, go to the bathroom,” I muttered to him from the corner of my mouth. He looked up at me and then I saw his eyes move sideways without his head to see the gang advancing.

“I’m not lea-“ he started but I shut him down.

“Just go!” Without another word Ian stood and started off in the opposite direction. He was a good actor, and did it without anyone guessing he’d seen the raging group of hormonal misfits heading towards us. The group didn’t seem to make a comment about it. It was me they wanted. Duncan stepped forward. His broad shoulders pulled back and he was glaring down at me. I stood so I didn’t feel so vulnerable even though Duncan was about a head taller than me. He had green eyes that reminded me of forest moss and I loathed them. These were the eyes that had haunted me the past few years.

“What do you want?” I growled in a deep voice.

“Boredom can be very tiresome,” Duncan grimaced. His sheep chuckled behind him.

“You think you can get away with this at school?” I sneered.

“No, but there is always after,” Duncan winked at me and I glared. What would it take to get them off my case huh? I doubted anything would.

“That’s big talk for a guy who needs a gang to confront someone. Why don’t you fight your own battled for once? Or are you too much of a whimp?” out of the corner of my eyes I saw Duncan clench his hands into fists.

“Watch your mouth,” Target called from over Duncan’s shoulder.

“I could take you on my own any day,” Duncan hissed. I raised my eyebrows.

“But I bet you’d need your desperate fans cheering you on, you couldn’t face me alone I bet,” I chuckled darkly. Duncan’s ears went red. I knew I’d hit a soft spot, and then sent me on a crazy adrenaline rush. Duncan leaned in closer so only I could hear him then.

“Alright, one on one, you got it. Meet me behind the gym Friday afternoon and we’ll see who is tougher,” Duncan hissed.

“Deal,” I hissed back.

“Come on boys, we don’t want to waist our time on dirt,” Duncan said loudly now. The others laughed and then they sauntered off out of the quad to terrorise some other kid. I said back down and sighed. What was I going to do Friday? If I didn’t show, they find me and all beat me up, maybe even Ian too. If I did go, Duncan would probably pulverise me. I made my decision the moment I saw Ian’s sad face loom about into the quad. I would go face Duncan alone. When he beat me, at least no one would see the embarrassment. And this way Ian wouldn’t get hurt.

“All good?” he asked once he got to me, I could see his eyes flicker over me, searching for anymore bruises and I smiled; but it was fake.

“All good.”