Crazier Than You (Shoey)

Chapter 5: English Projects

Joey arrived in front of a nice yellow house in a decent neighborhood. He hoped the address was right, because it looked like any old California cookie cutter house. He noticed that his worrying had made him shake, and he took his daily anti-anxiety pill. "Okay, Joey, just knock on the door and ask for Shane. No problem."

Joey took a deep breath as he approached the door and rang the doorbell. A middle-aged woman answered with a bright smile. "Hi! I'm Joey. Is this Shane's house?" Oh no, he'd already blown it. The woman's eyes had widened, her eyebrows raised.

He was about to leave when the woman spoke. "Oh my, Shane didn't tell me that you were so beautiful!" For some reason the compliment made him uncomfortable. "Shane's upstairs. I'm Theresa; just call me if you need me." She let him in before calling up a staircase, "Shane! Your friend is here."

Nearly five seconds later, Shane was dragging Joey up the stairs. "I'm so sorry," he kept mumbling, "Did she freak you out or anything? She says such embarrassing stuff."

Joey was almost instantly at ease. Shane was a familiar face, and he seemed just as nervous as Joey. Did he have anxiety too? "No, it's fine. She just called me beautiful." The pretty boy chuckled.

Shane looked down at his feet, a blush most definitely forming on his face. S-Deezy laughed from a lying down position on the bed. "Haha! You little faggot! Why're you blushing. He wasn't even talking about you." Aunt Hilda was shaking her head from the chair at the desk.

Joey made himself at home and sat at the corner of the bed, right on top of S-Deezy. When he did so, the strangest thing happened. Did S-Deezy just disappear?

Joey raised an eyebrow. "What?" he pondered quizzically. Oh shit, Shane had been staring.

"Um, nothing. What was your big idea for the project?" Shane saved himself quickly. He jumped on the bed beside the boy, all the voices in his head vacant.

Joey smiled and clutched his Hunger Games book. "Okay, so this might sound super nerdy, but I'm thinking of maybe a diagram documenting all the opportunities Katniss has to go on an adventure. Throughout different stages in the story. Like, from the beginning, to the reaping, the prepping for the games, and then the games themselves. I thought that maybe we could both switch to different parts of the book. Does that sound cool?"

Shane absorbed all the information. "You sound really into this project. Why in the world are you in basic English?" Shane was almost embarrassed at how little he knew about the book.

Joey again turned rigid. Oh no, he had blown it terribly. Shane thought he was a dork and wouldn't want to be his friend. "Joey?" A voice called to him. It seemed so far away. "Are you okay?" Something grabbed his hand, and he flinched back to reality. Now he had flipped out in front of Shane. Great. His chances of friendship were ruined. "You almost went away. Are you... nervous in front of me?" Joey gulped, despite the fact that he would have lied to make Shane feel better. Shane looked down grimly. "Is it because you think I'm crazy for going to therapy?"

Joey looked up in shock, eyes locking with a very solemn Shane. "Shane-" he began.

"It's okay," Shane interrupted, "I'm sure you've already made tons of new friends. They've already told you about how weird I am. I... I don't blame you if you don't want to be my friend anymore."

Joey looked startled. "What do you mean? No one's said anything about you being weird..." he paused and shuffled his feet, "but... I am nervous around you. Not for what you think though. I'm not nervous because I think you're weird. It's the total opposite. You're, like, my first friend here, and I don't want to make a bad first impression." Shane tried to cut him off, but Joey shook his head. "I, I don't want to tell you the whole story, but I will tell you some of why I was at Dr. Bronston's on Thursday."

Shane looked up at Joey. Was he really going to say that he was crazy? Joey met his eyes then looked down nervously. He was almost blushing. "At my old school, I was picked on a lot, and I developed severe anxiety. I always feel like I'm doing the wrong thing, and when you ask me questions I get really nervous. I... well, I like you Shane. You said we were friends. No one's ever been so nice to me so quickly, so... well, I want you to like me. I don't want you to think I'm weird, so I am nervous around you."

Shane was staring at him in awe. "Joey, when I first saw you, I thought you were flawless," at this Joey gasped in shock, "and that absolutely just showed that you truly are perfect. I would be freaked the fuck out if I ever felt like I needed to tell someone why I was at therapy. That was so, brave, or whatever."

Joey's face was as red as a cherry tomato. "Do you mind if I ask why you were there?"

---

Dun dun dunnnnnn! Haha me with the evil cliffie! You guys are going to hate me next week though. It will probably be a super short chapter where nothing really happens, but don't worry. There's Shoey coming soon! Yay! I've also heard a lot of people saying Shoey is dead. Why do you say that? I'm honestly just curious. I know they don't make videos five billion times a week, but dudes. They're honestly just friends irl. I don't hang out with my best friend every day. And Shane just threatened in a recent vlog to kill Meghan for Joey's love xD Don't take it so seriously, but treasure what we can get. Yay Shoey!

Follow my tumblr: i-o-u-a-bad-wolf

Byeeee!