Closeted Obsession (BoyxBoy Romance Mystery/Thriller)

Chapter Seven - More Than an Enemy

          The day was truly dull without Naomi’s presence and I couldn’t wait for school to end.  I sat by myself at a table in the back of the cafeteria during lunch, engrossed in a conversation over texts with my sick best friend.  Insanely enough, she would rather be at school than hanging out at home.  The worst part to her being so ill is that I wasn’t going to be able to see her until she got better, which made the entire week look dreary.

          Even though she was sick as a dog, she still had the energy to keep me cracking up through lunch.  One of my fits of laughter was interrupted by a figure standing motionless at the opposite end of the table.  I looked up to see the man from my dream this morning.  Dean stood casually on the opposite side of the table, observing me intently, and a wave of déjà vu hit me.  This looked way too familiar and my mind was literally paused in shock.  He studied me carefully—gauging my reaction.  I stared back at him unable to speak because of my currently inoperable brain. 

          “Can I sit here?” he said, with an unreadable expression as he glanced down at the seat in front of him—breaking the silence and my stupor.      

          “Uh… I guess so…” I replied baffled.

          He turned his seat around and sat down with his arms resting on the back of the chair.  We stared at each other, neither one of us speaking.  This was extremely awkward and I had no idea what he was doing here or what he wanted.

          Dean cleared his throat.  “So… how has your day been?” he asked timidly.  He looked completely out of his element. 

          “What?  Are you serious?  What are you doing here?” I demanded, with a little more bite than intended. 

          He looked a little embarrassed and unsure of how to respond.  He glanced down at the floor for a moment then brought his eyes back up to me.  His gaze pierced my mind like the last time and once again, I was spellbound. 

          “I wanted to say that I’m really sorry that I attacked you.  I have some anger issues but I’m working on that—”

          “Obviously not hard enough,” I interjected icily. 

          “I’m sorry.”  His apology seemed sincere, but he appeared to be troubled by something he wasn’t sharing.

          My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I searched his face for any signs of deception.  My stomach erupted in butterflies as I realized that his expression was actually genuine.  How could this be the same guy who has been terrorizing my life?

          Suddenly, a timid smile emerged on his face, “I know you don’t really trust me, but will you please come take a ride with me?”

          “What?!  Come take a ride with you?  Like in your car?”

          “Yeah,” he replied simply.

          “Like right now?”  I wondered if my wide-eyed bewilderment was making the randomness of this offer quite apparent.

          “Yeah,” he beamed at me cheerfully.  I was amazed at how handsome he looked when he smiled like that.

          “But I have like two more classes,” I stated reflexively.

          “Skip ‘em.  Don’t act like you’ve never done it before,” he said with a mischievous smirk, “I really want to talk to you and now seems like the best time since you don’t have that watch dog with you.”

          “You better not be talking about Naomi.  She is how she is because she loves me and doesn’t want douchebags attacking me because of my sexuality,” I retorted, getting slightly hot-tempered.

          “I deserve that, and like I said, I am really sorry.  That’s why I wanna talk to you, so I can get to know who you are instead of what you are,” he said, with those piercing eyes.  “So…will you come with me?”

          Wow… just… wow… This guy had me completely sold, and all other thoughts were replaced by one.  I wanted to talk to him and get to know him too.  I was so transfixed by his emerald gaze that I could only utter a single word, “Sure.”