It's Complicated

Chapter 1

-2 weeks later-

"Mr. Grassi, you're late yet again," Mr. Hoying said to me, abruptly pausing his lesson to scold me in front of the classroom. I rolled my eyes and walked to my seat, sitting down. I slouched in my chair, and looked up. Mr. Hoying raised one eyebrow, or appeared to at least, and gebstured towards the white board. On the board, written in blue marker, was Please get out your chemistry notebooks and prapare to take notes for an upcoming test.

I sneered, and reached down. I picked up my backpack and unzipped it. I turned it upside down and shook it. A pair of black ear buds fell out, nothing more. "Looks like I can't get my notebook out," I said mockingly. I had no intention of getting any work done- what was the fucking point?

"Mr. Grassi, when you come to my classroom I expect you to be prepared and on time. Please keep that in mind for the future, and see me after class," Mr. Hoying said, and with that he turned his attention away from me and began teaching the class. I had very nearly expected him to force me to do something by giving me one of the shitty ones that just sat there on the back counter, but he didn't, and It made no difference to me anyway. I wasn't planning on doing work, and especially not with a torn up old textbook. Ew.

That was my cue to stop paying attention, so I reached under my shirt collar and grabbed my ear buds, sticking them in my ears. The music was already playing, I always turned on the music before class. I saw Mr. Hoying's eyes flicker towards me, and he pursed his lips but said nothing. I honestly didn't care what he said. Doing drugs- it had changed me. Not for the better either, but it made me feel.. amazing. It was my escape, my stress reliever. My mom was the same as ever, worse if you wanted to be specific, but now I couldn't blame her. I understood her, if it makes sense. 

I watched as Mr. Hoying walked around in front of the classroom, talking about whatever the hell it was he was teaching the class. He turned off the light in the front of the room and turned on the projecter. A slide show came up, and I saw him say something to the class. People began taking out sheets of paper, and I guessed he had told them to take paper out to take notes. 

I turned my head and looked out the window. It honestly got boring doing nothing, but it beat doing school work. I stared out the window and began day dreaming.

I was jerked back to reality not seconds later by my ear buds being torn out of my ear -literally- and a piece of paper placed down in front of me. I scowled and brought my hand up to my ear- that had hurt. I looked up and saw Mr.Hoying. He had a white button up shirt on, and the sleeves were rolled up. He had black dress pants and shiny black dress shoes on, which made him look- well, like a teacher. "What the hell?" I asked as he set down a black ball point pen.

"Mr. Grassi-"

"My name is Mitch, for your information, and I don't want to be called 'Mr. Grassi,'" I said, trying to imitate his low voice at the end. I earned a few chuckles from my classmates.

"My mistake. You see, Mitch, you come to class every day, and your mission should be to learn. You might as well not come at all. So why don't you make yourself useful and take some notes, will you?" He said. He gave me a fake smile as he sauntered back to the front of the room to continue teaching. There was an audible 'ooh' that erupted from my classmates and I rolled my eyes. One of the popular girls turned around from her place in the middle row and bit her lip, winking. I blikned, unsure of what to do. 

She was still looking at me so I sat up and winked back, blowing her a kiss using only my lips. She giggled and turned to her friend, no doubt to tell her about our little exchange. I never payed attention to anyone besides my little group of 'friends' so I wasn't particularly sure what her name was. Cindy? Mindy? She would no doubt try to talk to me after class. I rolled my eyes as I wrote down absorption spectrum on my piece of paper. 

It wasn't that Cindy/Mindy wasn't attractive, a lot of the guys went after her. I for one was flattered but confused- she had never given me the light of day and now she was coming after me? Strange if I had to say so myself.

It was weird, because, yes, I have dated girls. I've just never maintained a relationship with one. I had interest and then I lost it. I would break it off, and they never even suspected it. I had come to the conclusion that I was just waiting for the right person, and these girls just weren't cutting it for me. I snapped out of my train of confusing thoughts as the bell rang, indicating that class was over. Cindy/Mindy immediately made her way over to me, and before I could react she sat down on my lap. My eyes widened- we haven't even said more than two words to each other in my entire three years here at Martin High.

"So... Mitch," She said, biting her lip. I saw her do all the notions of flirting, I saw loads of girls do it whether it was around me or other guys. I just knew when they were fliritng by now.

She twirled her hair and batted her eyelashes, and I wondered how she was still maintaining her sight with those fake eyelashes and clumps of mascara on her eyeslashes.

"So, beautiful lady, what bring you here?" I asked charmingly. I needed to learn her name, and fast.

"Well, I'm Cindy, but you knew that of course! I just can't believe I never noticed you before.. you're so tough and sexy," She said, sliding her hand down my chest. I cringed inwardly- why was she touching me like this? We were talking for the first time. I politely grabbed her hand and took it off my chest but entwined our hands as to not hurt her feelings.

"Well, I'm glad I finally caught your attention. You're very attractive yourself, and I wouldn't mind getting to know you. What do you say? Tomorrow night?" I said, fighting to keep the reluctance out of my voice. She giggled.

"See you then!" She said and skipped away. I didn't bother pointing out we'd see each other in class tomorrow, but that's her problem. I walked towards the exit and I saw Mr. Hoying hunched over to reach something on the floor, bit his shoulders were shaking and his neck was red. He was either crying or laughing.

"Mr. Hoying?" I asked cautiously. I didn't want to be the one people would turn to if he passed out- people would just assume I drugged him.

He looked up and wiped his eyes, chortling. "You should go into theater. You even had me fooled for a few seconds!" He said. My face twisted in confusion. He stood up and led me out of the classroom and stood in front of his door.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't lie to yourself," He said gently, but still red from laughing. He then shut the door, leaving me standing dumbstruck outside his classroom.

What the hell was he going on about?