Monochrome beat (boyxboy)✔

Beat 16

Orlando's POV

I was intrigued. I was so intrigued I wasn't even going to lie to myself. Jax fascinated me, in an odd way. It wasn't a romantic way, even though the boy was astonishingly beautiful. He had beauty unmatched by any boy, not only because his was a cross between femininity and masculinity. He could even outrank females on the beauty scale. His blue eyes were dazzling, and his rosy cheeks mesmerizing.

He was definitely physically attractive, and having a taste for the same sex, I wasn't immune.

But no, it wasn't that.

Our first interactions had gone terrible. Up until he'd returned my iPod to me I'd thought he was some snobbish jerk who thought highly of himself. Even after I'd stood up for him he hadn't showed an ounce of gratefulness.

Things had changed.

He'd taken a great risk stealing my iPod from Sam and his friends. He'd elected to do that rather than just thank me for standing up for him. That would have certainly not come with a threat of grievous bodily harm.

That deed made me see him in a different light. When we were in the bathroom together, I thought I saw a different side to him. No, not a different side, rather a hidden side. I saw someone desperately trying to keep themselves together. I saw someone whose vulnerabilities scared the hell out of him.

He was scared of something. I just didn't know what.

I was of course curious to know, but I didn't intend on painfully extracting it out of him. I intended on making him comfortable with me. Whatever followed, followed.

Maybe I needed a friend too.

*

I sat with Amy in the cafeteria during lunch. I lost track of Jax when we left class. I kept looking around the cafeteria, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. Maybe I'd invite him to our table, but first I had to actually see him. He was nowhere in sight.

Amy asked for my apple by pointing at it. I was about to pick it up and hand it to her when I saw Sam and his goons walk into the cafeteria. They seemed very satisfied with themselves. I caught a little bit of their conversation.

"...will know not to mess with us," Jerome was saying.

"I think we hurt him too much though," Wendell said.

"You are kidding, right? That is not even half of what we are still going to do to him. Anyway Wen, do you have the stuff?" Sam said.

My heart skipped a beat. It sounded like Sam and his friends had roughed someone up. There was only one person I thought it could be. I stood up.

"Orlando!" Amy whispered, still pointing to the apple. She couldn't reach it.

"Get up and take it," I said and grabbed my crutches.

I looked around the halls for a while. There was no sign of Jax. I entered a bathroom one after the other. He wasn't there.

Where could he be?

I hoped he wasn't lying in a broom closet covered in blood. I felt my stomach tense at the thought of that.

I hopped over to the class where we had history. The door was closed. I opened and peeked in. I was getting tired so I leaned on my crutch.

Jax was sitting at one of the desks at the back. A book was open in front of him and his hand made several motions here and there, suggesting that he was writing or drawing something.

I walked in and closed the door. That got his attention.

"Hey. Are you okay?" I asked with much concern in my voice as I walked towards him.