A Hint of Color (boyxboy)

Chapter 9

Did you think about it?

The text comes in the middle of Physics. I glance over at Jake but he's looking up at the board, acting like a good student who's paying attention.

I don't know why he's so persistent lately. I guess he hasn't had any action this past year. I smirk to myself. He must be really desperate.

Or maybe he does miss me.

I look away from him and put my phone back in my pocket. Seeing him every day, knowing that he's thinking about me and not completely ignoring me anymore, makes my chest hurt.

I hate this. I hate feeling so conflicted.

At the end of class, I try to slip out the door as quickly as possible but somehow we still make eye contact and it makes my heart pound. I don't know how to feel about it.

The worst part is that I can't even talk about this with my friends because they don't like him.

Rumor has it that Jake's throwing a party on Friday night. As much as they dislike him, the girls actually want to go to it. Taylor will probably tag along if they are. At a party that big, it doesn't matter if you like the host or not. Everyone will be there, including a lot of my friends from Art class.

Despite Jake annoying me with his texts and everything, I kind of want to go too.

-----

The next week, I get a phone call from Jude before lunch. People don't usually call each other during school, so I wonder what it could possibly be about.

"Hello?" After a few seconds of silence, I wonder if he called by mistake.

Then I hear his timid voice. "H-Hey... I'm..."

I frown as a bunch of noise comes through the phone. "Jude? What was that?"

When I realize he's not going to answer, I head to the junior wing. Whatever he wanted to talk about obviously couldn't wait until lunch.

The hallways are mostly cleared out by now, except for a few figures further down. Seeing that it's Jude sitting on the floor with Rhiannon and a teacher crouching over him, I hurry towards them as fast as I can.

Jude picks up his phone from the ground as he stands. I guess he dropped it. "Jude!" He looks up as I approach them.

"Do you want to go to the nurse? I think you should," says Rhiannon.

Jude lowers his gaze.

"He got dizzy, I guess," Rhiannon tells me.

Putting my arm around Jude's shoulders, I start to lead him away from them. I can tell he's embarrassed. "I'll take him to the nurse." Once we're away from everyone, I ask, "Are you okay?"

Jude doesn't look at me. I stop when I see his eyes filling with tears. One slips down his cheek and I brush it away with my fingers. "Don't worry, you're gonna be fine." I do my best to reassure him, even though I'm not entirely sure what happened.

He looks around. I can tell that he's shaken up and anxious.

It hurts to see him like this.

I wrap my arms around him and hug him tightly, unsure of what else I could do. "Calm down, just breathe. Let's go to the nurse, okay?" He shakes his head. "Are you sure?"

Jude nods and wipes his eyes.

"Do you want to go to lunch then? You should eat something. Are you sure you're okay?" I release him and frown as he nods again.