Ticket Outta Loserville (Trames au)

Chapter 10- Tristan's POV

When I arrive at school, there's a buzz in the air. There's definitely something going on, but I don't know what. Not much happens here apart from the occasional fight,  but those tend to be at the end of the day rather than first thing in the morning. As I get closer, I manage to gather that James is involved somehow. Eventually, I give in and ask some random girl "What's going on?"

"Argument." she replies. "That James kid is really going at it with one of his friends, but I don't know who. It sounds pretty nasty though." 

I nod in agreement, and manage to shove my way through the crowd. I hear James' voice, and despite how loud he's yelling, he sounds genuinely upset. The other voice is of one of his friends, a guy I know to be called Billy, and he just sounds angry. By this point, I'm pretty sure the entire school can hear what's going on, and I fit what I know together- by the sounds of it, James told Billy some kind of secret, and Billy either doesn't like it or is going to spread it, or possibly both. 

Brad sidles over next to me. "Jesus, this is the kind of fight that girls have."

"I know." I agree. "It must be really bad. Look how angry James looks."

"That's the face he pulls when he sits near you." Connor puts in helpfully, and I playfully elbow him. "But at like level 10." It suddenly strikes me that there's no adults around- surely a teacher should be trying to sort this out? 

Having said that, a member of staff suddenly appears. "What on earth is going on here?" she shouts. Billy opens his mouth like he's about to explain, but he clearly thinks better of it when James shocks us all by letting out a whimper and then running off. For a second, everyone is too shocked to do anything, and I turn to run after him. I have no idea why- I don't like running, and James doesn't like me. He wasn't impressed the last time I found him crying, but no one else appears to be going after him.

 I can faintly hear the teacher calling "Mr Evans, come back here now!", but I pretend I can't. Most of the crowd appear to be heading off to form, including Brad and Connor who have bewildered looks on their faces regarding why I ran after someone they think I hate.

Soon enough, I track James down by hearing loud sobs coming from an empty classroom. I open the door quietly to see him curled in a ball in the middle of the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks. I walk over to him then sit down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. I don't know if he knows it's me, as he just turns around and buries himself into my chest, somehow crying even harder.

He hates me, there's no way he'd want to be held by me, but I'm not going to leave him like this. Instead, I just sit with him, whispering comfortingly to him to calm him down. He's so upset that I know there's no point trying to get out of him what's wrong, so I just hold him, stroke his hair and encourage him to breathe. Eventfully, he stops crying, although he doesn't look up. "Alex?" he asks. 

"No." I reply. "Tristan."

James looks up, looking horrified. "Wait, what?"

"I followed you after you ran off because no one else did." I explain. "You hate me, I know that, but I felt bad leaving you like that." 

James wipes his eyes roughly. "I'm sorry for that. I wouldn't have cried on you so much if I'd known you weren't Alex."

"It's ok." I say, and I genuinely mean it. Somehow, it doesn't feel awkward, despite the fact that a guy who hates me but who I have a secret crush on just left a damp patch of tears on my shirt, right in the middle of school.

James sniffles. "I ruined your shirt. I'm sorry."

I laugh. "It's fine. What were you arguing about?"

James sighs. "I trusted Billy with this secret, and he threatened to tell everyone I didn't do it myself."

"How horrible." I say sympathetically. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." James sniffs, another flood of tears filling his eyes. "Like, it's my thing to tell, but I'm not ready yet. I don't know what to do." I hand him a tissue and he gratefully blows his nose. Then he surprises me by saying "If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone else?"

"Of course." I say, feeling slightly shocked that James wants to tell me. I've still got an arm around him, and I give him a gentle squeeze. "Go on, I promise I won't laugh or anything."

James takes a deep breath, and I feel him exhale again before he completely shocks me by saying "I'm gay."

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Sooo, I'm back from holiday with a cliffhanger *evil laugh* I liked this chapter, let me know if you did too!

New York was amazing but I'm so tired because our night flight home was full of screaming toddlers 😭 The picture at the top is a picture of the boys that I found on the wall of celebrities that have visited the Empire State Building.

I feel like only 4 (extremely valued) people read this, I don't suppose anyone could advertise it or something? 😂