The Break Up Plan (BoyxBoy)

It's a Date

At Emmett High School, homeroom is just an extension of whatever your second period class was. For me, that meant an extra twenty minutes listening to my passionate English teacher, Ms Gupta, discussing the clever innuendos worked into Shakespeare's 12th Night. Those 20 minutes are technically free time but she was so much more fun. Instead of using the period to catch up with grading or whatever else teachers have to do, she would just share random English facts with us.

In the sea of giggles and jokes and general childish amusement, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I looked very studious, scribbling away at my desk. Except there was no school work in sight. I was really just working on the break up plan.

At every turn, Rin and Stephanie were making this difficult. But Elliot Samuels never shied away from a challenge.

Sometimes he might complain about the challenge being too difficult. And I- uh, I mean he might also ask his mom for help because odds are she'd do some of the work for him. But I- he- fuck! We still get it done!

I think mentally messing up talking in the third person made me angry because my pen had ripped through the paper by the time James showed up.

Now, let me be clear, James had never shown up to my homeroom before that moment. In fact, I didn't even realize I'd told him what classroom it was in.

But the giggles had died down and when I looked up, there James was in all his British glory. Short blond hair, non-existent lips, a handsome adorkable thing going on that I didn't understand but totally respected. If he was American, he would have been a 7 or a 9. But as a British, he was totally a 15/10.

James gave a polite greeting to Ms Gupta (who read him a quick innuendo to get a manly giggle out of him) then beelined for my desk.

"Hey."

"What are you doing in my English class?"

"It's homeroom now so this isn't an English class anymore," my British friend sassed. "Meaning, I'm allowed to chat with my friend. Unless Ms Gupta has an issue with that."

"Nope, no issues at all!"

I wasn't sure why she was so eager to let James stay in the classroom with me. Maybe if I understood why she was sending me two overeager thumbs up from around James's body, I would understand. But alas, those thumbs did nothing for me so I had to ignore her mysterious but supportive efforts.

"Fine, you can talk to me," I sighed, trying to tamper down a smile. "What's going on?"

For someone who was bold enough to barge into my cozy homeroom, he was getting oddly cagey. As if my inquiry of what, in general, was happening in the world stressed him the fuck out. James then slipped into the empty desk behind me so I had to turn around to continue to watch him fidget.

Maybe he could tell I was getting violently irritated because he rushed out a quick, "Sorry."

"I think Ms Gupta's making me nervous," he tagged on. It was a decent attempt at a joke since I did release a decent snort after hearing it. It was also definitely a lie because she was like the warmest thing in this school and when James glanced at her to make sure she didn't hear him, his shoulder visibly relaxed.

"I've been craving gyros since I moved here and I found this cool-looking restaurant downtown," he enthused, using his phone to shove a 4.7 star rated address in my face. "Do you want to go with me tomorrow? For dinner?"

Gyros sounded really good after frying my brain for the past 10 minutes. And I could use that time with James to figure out why he, as a basic British boy, was so familiar with my 5th favorite food. I was completely ready to tell him just that when my phone vibrated from a text.