What My Best Friend Doesn't Know (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Three: James

Ryan was already acting strange, and first period hadn't even started yet. Luckily we have homeroom together, so I can ask him about it. We have every period together, except for our last period. I have choir, and he has study hall. 

The bell rings and we all find our new lockers. Ryan's is two away from mine. He's still acting weird. Maybe it's because of what his dad said? Does he feel bad for not doing what his dad wants? 

I catch up with him as he's already walking down the hallway towards our homeroom. 

"Hey!" I say catching his arm. 

He turns around, and slows down to my pace when he sees it's me. We walk into homeroom and I lead him to two seats in the back of the room. We set our books down on the desks, and I turn around in my seat to face him. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" I ask, "You seem a little out of it today." 

He nods, "I'm fine. I just zoned out for a bit during the story. I'm okay." 

I put my hand on his arm and look him dead in the eyes. He seems uncomfortable, "Do you promise?" I say a little quieter. 

He looks down at my hand, and nods. 

I smile and ruffle his hair. 

"Dude, fuck off!" He says sounding annoyed, and fixing his dark brown hair. 

The teacher starts role call and we both wait to hear our names. 

"Ryan Andrews." The teacher calls. 

"Bonjour," Ryan replies. 

The teacher rolls her eyes, and calls more names, and she finally reaches mine. 

"James Robinson." 

"Here." I say. 

The teacher sits back down, and we all start talking again. Ryan was looking down at his schedule to see what class he has first period.  His hair fell over his chocolate brown eyes as they scanned the piece of paper. I cleared my throat. 

"Your first period is English if that's what you're triple checking," I say. 

He puts the paper back in his folder and sighs, "I hate the first day of school." He puts his head down on his desk and stares up at me. 

"You'll be fine. We have every class together remember? So stick with me like you always do, and you won't walk into any wrong classes." 

He smiles, "Thanks, James." 

I pat his head, "No problem."

The bell rings for first period and we both stand up. I lead him through the hallways and down the stairs to our English class with Mr. Burke. He's apparently a really cool teacher. He's also the football coach though, so I already know him. 

"Robinson!" He says as I walk in with Ryan, "Great to see you! How was your summer?" 

"Pretty good," I say as Ryan and I find two seats at the edge of the room, "What about you?" 

"Perfect! I have dozens of new plays for us to try in football this year that will guarantee us wins!"

"Sweet! I'm looking forward to it," I say and look back at Ryan. He has his head on the desk again. There's got to be something wrong with him. 

"Ryan?" I say placing both my arms on either side of his head to whisper in his ear, "Dude seriously what's wrong?" 

"I didn't sleep well last night," He replies sitting back up, "That's all."

I sigh, "Do you want to stay at my house tonight?" 

He stays silent for a few seconds to ponder my suggestion, then he nods. 

I smile, and put a hand on his shoulder for a few seconds, then take it away to turn back around. Mr. Burke starts introducing himself, and explaining what he's expecting from everyone in this class. I stop paying attention and start thinking about Ryan. This isn't how he acts when he's tired. When he's tired, he gets grumpy. But the way he's acting is as if something spooked him. I'm kind of worried about him. I know he said he's just tired, but I can't accept that because I know him. 

Mr. Burke starts handing out the syllabus for the year, and when I look down at the paper I groan. He really is expecting a lot from us this year. The entire period was spent going over the syllabus, and me wishing the class would just be over the entire time. Finally, the bell rings, and I bolt from my seat ready to leave. 

I look over at Ryan, and he is slowly putting the syllabus in his folder, and standing up sluggishly. I give him a sad look. 

"Our next period is Calculus," I tell him. 

He groans and follows me to our next class. 

All of our classes up until lunch were all the same as English. We just went over a stupid syllabus the whole time. The first day is so boring. We have lunch during fifth period, and on our way to the cafeteria, I yank Ryan into the bathroom. He makes a sound of protest, but he doesn't try to pull away. I pin his back against the wall. 

"Dude what the fuck?" He says.

"I know how you act when you're tired. This isn't it. You seem spooked. You seem upset. What's wrong?" I ask.

He sighs, "Dude, I told you. I'm just tired. I didn't sleep. I had a weird dream last night, and I'm kind of creeped out by it okay?"  

"That's all?" I ask. 

"Yes," He says. 

I let go of his shoulders so he wouldn't be forced against the wall, but he didn't move his back from off the wall. "Do you want to talk about it?" 

He shakes his head, and closes his eyes for a few seconds. For some reason I felt weird staring at him look like that. He looked good. I mean, he always looks good, but pressed against the wall with his eyes closed he looked really good. What am I saying?

I clear my throat, "Let's go to lunch. I'm starving." 

He pushed himself off of the wall, and I wrap my arm around his shoulders as we leave. That was weird. I shouldn't be thinking like that. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N
The picture above is sort of how I picture Ryan.