The Break Up Plan (BoyxBoy)

The Future

"So the answer's the square root of 2 over 2, right?" Rin scribbled confidently across his page, circling the final number in pen. "Because this becomes cosine of 7pi over 4."

"You're telling me we did all that work to get root 2 over 2?"

To reduce the last 10 minutes of furious mental work and class note dissection to something I could find on my 9th grade unit circle was a crime.

"At least we didn't get 1 again."

My best friend's joke fell on deaf ears. If he was trying to convince me to give up on my high school career so I could finally avoid advanced mathematics, then it was working.

Instead of silently taking down notes before agonizing over practice examples under a cloud of stressed murmuring, Mrs Smithson designed a scavenger hunt for us. We could pair up or go around the room solo, solving math problems we found on the wall to let us know which problem to solve next.

Compared to the usual classes where the most Rin and I communicated was through making faces from across the room, I was having a great time. Sure, doing copious amounts of work just to get answers like 1, 3, and ½ grinded my gears, but Rin made it worth it. He made it kind of fun.

"Besides, I'm solving all the problems for you," he said, pulling on my shirt to say the words right into my ear. "It's not like you've actually been doing any work."

"Excuse me," I jerked back with a glare, hand pressed squarely on the center of his chest. "Being confused is very emotionally taxing."

Rin looked down at my hand, his eyes then sliding back up to my face before he smirked. The cheeky bastard. Even though I was clearly joking, he should be taking me seriously!

"Watch," I stomped across the room, finding the next piece in our puzzle. "I'm going to do this problem all by myself. You'll have to beg me for help."

"Alright," he chuckled, tucking his pen into his pocket. "I can beg."

Twenty minutes later, class ended and Rin never begged. But I did prove that I could do the math without his help. Sure I wasn't juggling school heartthrob status, a girlfriend, and a 4.0 GPA but I did pretty well for myself.

"You coming?" Rin asked, leaning on the wall just inside the classroom, his bag packed and slung over his shoulder. I might have zoned out in the middle of putting my stuff away so my hand was just frozen over my calculator, but I don't think that question was necessary.

"Of course!"

Rin propped the door open with his arm, his eyes following me as I walked through the gap. I was barely out of the classroom when I latched his arm over my shoulder, tucking me into his side. He was wearing my favorite cologne: the expensive bottle Tyler convinced him to buy last boxing day.

The thick scent of cedar and musk would probably rub off his clothes onto mine. Maybe then he'd realize why I liked the scent so much. It was addictive, really. So hot and exciting. It was fine in small doses. But soon, you wouldn't be satisfied with a single dose. You'd want to drown yourself in the smell, permanently stain your skin in it.

But you can't. That's impossible. A smarter person wouldn't distance themselves from the cologne. They wouldn't force themselves to be around something they want but can't have. But Rin was the smart one, wasn't he?

"Nice cologne," I smiled, heaving in a dramatic whiff. The Elly that wasn't in love with his best friend made those sorts of comments. Convincing Rin to put that cologne on daily used to be one of my favorite games back when I didn't see the consequences.