Easter Egg (Gawsten)

Orange

"Dude."

"What?"

"Can I copy your homework?"

"No, Jayden, we've talked about this. You have to do your own work, or I'll get in trouble."

"Fine."

Awsten smiled and slammed his locker behind him as he took off for second period, Jayden following moderately close behind. The hallways were always jammed with fuckboys and girls hugging, but if anyone could part the crowds, it was Jayden Seeley. Girls love Jayden Seeley.

They reached second period just before the bell rang and Mr. Yough pulled out his whip.

"All right class, get your essays out and pass them in, and when you get the pile, put yours on top. Make sure your name is on your paper. God, I can't believe I have to say that. You're in eleventh grade. We're correcting the mechanics quiz today."

Jayden tugged on Awsten's sleeve.

"See that boy over there?" he said, and pointed to a bleach-blond kid in black faux-leather pants. Awsten nodded.

"That's Rockets."

"Yeah, Luke Rockets," said Jayden. "Rumor is he's gay."

"Dude, he looks so gay, of course there would be rumors," said Awsten. "Don't get your hopes up."

"Aws, I mean he is actually gay."

Awsten choked on a laugh. "What?"

"Luke Rockets is gay."

"No way!" said Awsten. "He's the only guy in the school who's hooked up with more girls than you!"

"Knight!"

Mr. Yough stood behind Awsten, arms crossed, looking like he was about to slap a bitch.

"Lunch detention."

"I-"

"No excuses! If this happened when I was in school you would've gotten a good old-fashioned paddling!"

"It's not 1910 anymore," muttered Jayden.

"Seeley!" shouted Mr. Yough. "I'll be seeing you at lunch too."

"I already have detention at lunch, sir. For Br-I mean, Mr. Anderson."

"You can't get out that easy, Seeley. See me after class," barked Mr. Yough. "As for the rest of you, open your textbooks and turn to page 537." A collective groan spread among the students as he stalked back up to the chalkboard and rapped on the wall. "Now, chemical reactions are very complex processes..."

Awsten and Jayden tuned him out for the rest of the period.

The bell couldn't have rung fast enough. Everyone made a beeline sprint for the exit, even Jayden, who knew by now not to argue with Mr. Yough.

He did not escape.

"Not so fast, Seeley! Get back here before I give you a referral. And to the rest of you," Yough shouted, "the last person to leave, please close the door behind you."

Awsten hung back to ensure he was the last to leave. Jayden was no stranger to Mr. Yough's medieval rapid-fire lectures, but the rest of the class had no clue, and he wanted to keep it that way.

He slammed the classroom door as the shouting started and practically ran to third period, where he almost died of boredom, and fourth period, where he almost died of apprehension. It was lucky he didn't, he thought, or the school would be condemned for having a biohazard on campus. And Ms. Costello would be pissed at him for not walking Geoff to class.

That's when he remembered he had lunch right before fifth period.

No problem, he thought, I can just sprint to 70-whatever and find the guy.

So he did and almost collapsed in front of 703.

He was lucky the bell hadn't quite rung yet, or he'd be getting trampled by tired art students. Panting, he braced himself against the wall and waited for fourth period to start.

About four seconds after it started, Awsten felt a light tap on his shoulder and almost shit himself. He turned and saw Geoff standing a few feet to his right, staring at the ground, fidgeting with his hands, looking exceedingly uncomfortable.

"Um, hey," said Awsten. Geoff didn't move. "Let's go, I guess."

Geoff looked up and moved toward Awsten, who set off for fifth period, almost leaving him behind. He broke into a run for the three steps it took to get to Awsten.

"Fuck, sorry," said Awsten upon seeing him try to keep up. "I'll slow down."

"Thanks," muttered Geoff, almost too soft to hear.

Long awkward pause. Then, "So, why are you always late to class?"

Geoff tapped on his thighs. "Um. I can't, um, I'm bad with directions, and, like, remembering things, and, well..." He trailed off and shrugged, as if to complete the sentence.

"Oh," said Awsten.

"Yeah," said Geoff.

Another pause. "What do you do?"

"Huh?"

"What's your thing? What do you like?"

"Uh, what?"

"What's your favorite thing?" asked Awsten, accenting every word.

"Favorite what?"

Awsten sighed. "What do you like, more than anything else? 'Cause-"

"Sum 41."

"Okay."

"I love Sum 41."

"Me too."

Geoff broke into a grin. "I love you."

"Uh," stuttered Awsten. He felt his face getting hot and tried to think of something to say to save his ass. Blushing? Really? Because of Geoff? This has nothing to do with what Geoff is, he thought. I'm just a hopeless romantic and I'll blush for anyone. He's not cute. I don't find him cute.

"Sorry," said Geoff, noticing Awsten's face and stuff.

"What? Oh-it's fine."

"Okay," said Geoff, turning away, leaving Awsten to ruminate on his life choices as they walked to class.

Why did Geoff make him feel like that? All he'd said was "I love you," presumably as a joke, and Awsten had blushed and sputtered and lost the ability to think. Something was wrong.

It never crossed Awsten's mind that it might be a crush, but Geoff had been forced into enough social situations to know a flustered boy when he saw one. Some boys were cuter flustered than others. Geoff thought he was one of the cute ones.

They got to room 302 a minute and a half early.