Strike Astonishent into Angels

Chapter 2

    "Are you coming with me?" Alex asked, not kindly.

"What?" Thomas grunted as he swing his backpack onto his shoulders.

"I'm driving. Are you coming with me?"

"Don't think I can manage a walk down the block?" Thomas teased. "Thank you for your concern, but I do workout."

Alex heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Out first class is on the complete other side of campus, and I figured you would be driving anyways, so I thought, why not save the environment a bit and carpool? If you want to be a planet-killer, go ahead."

"Whatever," Thomas muttered.

"So is that a yes or a no?" Alex forced out through gritted teeth.

"Sure."

***

John was running late.

He was furious that on the first day of school, he wasn't going to be there on time. It had started when he woke up and realized that his alarm hadn't gone off. He had stumbled around his room, gathering this and that and throwing some clothes on (plain what t-shirt with fraying jeans). He heaved his backpack onto his shoulders and dashed out the room, frantically tying his curly hair out of his freckled face and up into a ponytail.

John rushed out the dorm, across the campus, into the building, up the stairs, and burst into the classroom, attracting all pairs of eyes on him.

John was late. Not fashionably late. Just plain late.

"Mr. Laurens, is it?" The professor inquired after a beat of silence. "Thank you for finally honoring us with your presence."

A few people snickered, not too unkindly. A tall teen with a curly Afro smirked slightly, chewing on the eraser of his pencil.

"Sorry sir," John muttered.

"It will be excused today, but being tardy won't be tolerated in the future. Please take a seat."

John took a seat. He let his gaze wander across the room and it rested on the smirking boy. Dark skin. Brown eyes. Nervous about something, but hiding it well. Anxious, or up to something? Close-cut facial hair. Pretending to be bored, but actually paying attention. Casual taking notes could be passed as doodling or passing notes. He checks out of the corner of his eye to make sure nobody is watching him too closely, but checking that some people are paying him attention. That sigh is practiced. That guy is either trouble, or popular, or both.

John's gaze flitted to the boy sitting next to him. Handsome. Black (closer to dark brown) hair. Deep brown eyes. Facial hair is thin. Sweating, but not as much as the others. Is he used to this weather? Actually bored, not pretending. Doodling on the corner of his page. Very handsome.

***

Alex doodled lazily on the corner of his paper. At the front of the classroom stood his professor, droning on about something or other that Alex probably should've paid attention to. Alex kept drawing. A few seats to his right sat Thomas, wearing his glasses that all the girls crushed and gushed over. Alex barely kept in a snort and rolled his eyes.

Heat draped over the students like an oppressive blanket as they sweltered and melted in their seats. It was the first day of school, and they were miserable. Apparently the air conditioner had broken down, and it hadn't been fixed in time for school. So the boys were all drowning in sweat, and the girls were sniffling about their deodorant. The new boy next to him was fidgeting slightly as he glanced around the room. He was sort of cute, what with the curly hair and the freckles. He was the kind of cute that girls would giggle and sigh over and stalk him on Instagram, all without the guy being aware of it. Alex rolled his eyes for the millionth time that day and went back to doodling.