Dancing On Ice

Life Saver

Austin's POV

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I hated this. I hated having to face people, knowing that someone knew. Someone that I didn't even know that well. Kellin didn't know. Alan didn't know. Dammit, my dad didn't even know. And Jesse Lawson knew. Maybe I was blowing it completely out of proportion and he'd only glanced and seen a flash of the skin.

It wasn't as bad as it had been before. So maybe he just meant it as, dude, why the fuck are your legs so thin? I mean, my legs are pretty thin. So thin, that you might question how they can even support me. It's a joke between my friends and my family. And I laugh at it. But Jesse had seen my bare legs. Not my jean-clad ones.

And it's not that I don't like Jesse, because I do, it's just that...I don't know him like that. We talk and joke around with each other, but, he doesn't know my favorite color and I don't know his. I could barely tell you who his best friend is. It could be Jack, or Justin. I really didn't know.

I wanted Kellin to know. But I was so worried about Jesse's knowing, that I was tense and anxious, and it was pretty damn evident.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Tino asked me during lunch. I almost never ate lunch. And if I did eat lunch, it would consist of junk food. My right leg was bouncing anxiously under the table, shaking the bench that I, Tino and Justin were sitting on. Gabe, Jack and Phil were across the table from us. I looked at Tino, and then noticed that everyone else was also looking at me.

"Nothing...why're you all looking at me like that?" I asked them a bit weirded out by their stares.

"Because you're fucking shaking the bench with your twitching." Justin said to me. I tried to calm my shaking leg, and failed miserably.

"Not to mention that your face is pale." Phil added. I sighed and looked at the table in front of me. Pull it together, Aus. Only a few more hours, you can survive for a few more hours, right? I had to mentally cheer myself on. Sometimes, it worked, and other times, it didn't. This was one of those times when it didn't work.

"I'm fine. It's nothing but stress." I lied. None of them bought my thin lie.

"Stress about what?" Gabe inquired. Fuck. I hadn't thought that far into it.

"Homework. Personal stuff." I shrugged it off. "You don't have to worry about it." I told them all. They seemed to back off about it, but I knew that that wasn't the end of it. But for right then, it was the end, and that was good enough.

I didn't really see the purpose in going to English. Because, I knew all we'd be doing is working in our groups, and my group was gone. So I didn't go to English. Instead, I went to the courtyard and went to go climb the tree that Kells and I had climbed days ago. But before I could get far enough into the branches, Phil and Tino were at the bottom of the tree, staring up at me.

"How the hell did you find me?" I asked them, a bit irritated that I couldn't be alone for a little while.

"Aus, get your ass down. We need to talk." Tino said to me flatly. I frowned at him.

"No!" I yelled down to him. I probably sounded like a little kid, but I didn't care. Phil rolled his eyes at me.

"Stop fooling around, get down, now." Phil demanded firmly.

"No! I want to be alone!" I yelled down to them. They looked at each other and they started talking to each other for a minute or two. I watched them, hoping that they'd just go and leave me be, but they didn't. In fact, they started climbing the tree to get to me. I was faced with the choice of; 1) Jump and possibly break a limb, or 2) Stay there and just tell them, since they were bound to find out anyway. I sighed and stayed put.