Two Sides of The Same Coin

Chapter One, Meeting Him

I've never really been one for religion, or belief in a higher power, but that all changed on one fateful day. I was walking into school and I saw him, his hair was brown and messy, he was short and skinny and had a backpack that was 10 sizes too big for him, he was looking around lost staring at a piece of paper. I knew that I had to help him, I walked over to where he was and tapped his shoulder. He spun around quickly and said, 

"Hello!" His voice cracked and he looked alarmed that someone was talking to him. 

"Are you lost?" I asked him. 

"Yeah, I am, do you know where the library is?" He asked me. 

"Yeah follow me, it's just down this hallway to the left," I said. 

"I T-think I have a class in there," He said holding onto his arm timidly looking around the school. 

"So what's your name?" I asked him. 

"Ryan, my name is Ryan," He said looking at me and blushing. Ryan and I were about the same height I noticed, which meant that I had just called myself short in my own mind, of course, I'd find a way to insult myself while at school.

"um what's yours?" he asked me walking a little bit faster to catch up. 

"Oh, I'm Cesar," I said looking at him. 

"Wait what?" he said looking at me. 

"Nah I'm kidding it's Cecil," I said giggling. 

"Oh," he said laughing nervously. 

"So, what class do you have first?" I asked him. 

"Oh, I have anthropology first, and then I have calculus and after that, I have concert band," Ryan said looking down at his paper. 

"Really? what instrument do you play?" I asked Ryan. 

"Trombone," he said. 

"No way, so do I!" I said excitedly.

"Really? I thought Band class was gonna be super awkward, cuz I'd have to introduce myself to the other trombone players before we started playing, but this is great," Ryan said smiling. he grabbed onto my hand and did a little skip step and then blushed a deep red color. 

"Sorry, this was a thing I used to do at my last school," he said averting his gaze. 

"Don't apologize, it was cute," I said, then I realized I had just said cute and darted my eyes to the ground. I could feel my face get hot. 

"Hey, I'm gonna need help with the new music, especially since the concert is coming up next week, can you help me learn some of the music," Ryan said quietly in my ear, I realized he was still holding my hand. I Looked down at his hand, and then looked up at him, his eyes were a sharp emerald green, they were curious, but there was a sadness about them, like he was sharing his soul with a complete stranger. I cupped his hand in mine and said. 

"Of course you can, come by my place, I'll text you the address," I said to him. I got out my phone and got his number, and then texted him my address. 

"come by around 3, i'll be busy before then," I said smiling. 

"Cool," Ryan said smiling. I walked him to the library and smiled at him. 

"here we are," I said. the library was a massive octagon shaped room that had books overflowing the shelves, the shelves went all the way to the ceiling, and the room was about 50 feet high, there was a second floor installed to the library just to get access to the top shelves, there were ladders that covered the shelves and had people on them precariously reaching for far away books. 

"Hey, Cecil?" Ryan said looking back at me. 

"can you show me to the bathroom?" he asked. 

"Sure thing," I said to Ryan. I walked him over to the corner of the library where there was a tiny one person bathroom. 

"Thanks," Ryan said blushing. 

"I'll see you in band," I said smiling back at him. I walked to my Calculus class and felt my heart racing.