vanish from my mind | shaymien

02 | trashed lockers and gold paint

the next day comes fast. the sky is fulled of hues of blues, the grass is cut, and the leaves on trees are swaying to the wind in damien's yard. he can feel happiness flowing through his veins as he thinks about practice.

it's their first saturday practice, and honestly, damien finds them the best. whenever he's not on stage, he and his friends wander around the school and laugh at stupid jokes. sometimes they find something that someone lost.

he's dressed and ready. his shirt is green and his jeans hug his legs. he thought about wearing a flannel, but he knows he's going to sweat, so it's not important to wear one.

"i'm going to practice!" he yells down the hallway so his mom can hear.

his mom answers quickly. "be back as soon as you can, hon!"

damien nods to himself and opens the door. the air is cool and makes goosebumps appear on his arms from the sudden chill. his heart is pumping from excitement that he's going to do something that he loves dearly.

he got into acting at a young age. the first play he was in was small, hosted by his kindergarten class. it was some kind of animal play and he played a tiger. just thinking about it made him feel something in his chest- like appreciation and warmth.

the walk to the school was short. it looked empty, but at the door sat boze, scrolling through her phone. her hair fell in her face and her eyes were trained fiercely on the screen in front of her. upon hearing footsteps however, her head shot up to meet damien.

"hey!" she cheered, jumping up and shutting her phone off. damien smiles sweetly and waves at his best friend, and together they walk up the steps and open the school's door.

the hallways are silent like they should be, but damien can hear some yelling coming from a room close by. he recognizes wes' voice as well as another person he's become friends with, noah.

boze finally speaks up again as they near the auditorium. "i voted to sit outside and wait for you. you're at least ten minutes late, dames."

"got held back at home," he lies, shrugging. in reality, he woke up late and was just too scared to own up to his mistakes. normal. "anyways, what's happenin'?"

"okay," she starts as they enter the room, "so courtney is working on her role with miss whittle, so you've got a while. that guy you were talking to yesterday... oh, what's his name... shayne! yeah, shayne was asking me about you earlier."

at that, damien's face slightly heats up. shayne was asking about him? the kid who wore flannels and damien just really noticed? wow, he was already excited and his heart was beating inside his chest.

as he looks up, he notices the boy that boze just spoke of.

shayne was once again wearing a flannel, but he had it tied around his waist. it was a checkered black and red one- and his shirt was white. a paintbrush was between his fingers and he was painting the set part they were working on.

his blue eyes were trained easily on the canvas, determined to work hard on the set. it made damien so happy that shayne was so invested in something he loves to do.

"don't stare," boze laughs, hitting her friend on the arm. damien laughs with her. "do you want to go over lines or what's the plan?"

damien shrugs as if it's not a huge deal, and it's really not. part of him wants to talk to the blond boy, but he knows he shouldn't interfere with his work. he's so focused and it would be a shame to distract him.

"i guess we could. or, you know, we could find mari and we could trash josh's locker," damien suggests, an evil glint in his eye. boze's eyes widen and she nods excitedly.

together, the two run off to find mari. it takes them five minutes until boze finds her in the bathroom, crying.

when asked about it, mari just screams that she just wants peter parker to be okay.

after they help her calm down, she finallt asks, "okay, what are we doing?"

damien starts laughing again when they reach his locker. "we gotta trash josh's locker. any ideas?"

"just throw all of his things in one of our lockers' instead. so none of his shit gets lost." mari is frowning now. "i just don't feel like dealing with a pissed joshua tomorrow."

"mood," boze whispered, and they set off to josh's locker. it was right next to wes's locker (since wes joined the school in the middle of the first two weeks), and it also had a small batman sticker on the front. he truly was a sucker for comics.

mari knew the combination for his locker, and they got it open quickly. damien took josh's backpack (because does he ever take it home?), boze grabbed all the papers on the top shelf, and mari opted for his notebooks and folders.

damien put the backpack in his locker, boze put the papers in hers, and mari put the notebooks and folders in hers. when it was all said and done, the three highfived and cheered. it was such a dumb prank, but josh was still going to murder them tomorrow.

their cheering was stopped short when a voice interrupted. "damien? miss whittle says she needs you for a scene."

the heads whipped over to see the face. there, in all his glory, stood shayne. his flannel was fully on now, not tied around his waist anymore, and there was a streak of blue paint on his cheek that made his eyes pop out a little more. damien blinked once.

"oh," he finally said, smiling. "yeah! okay, see y'all later."

he walked towards the boy he met yesterday and gave him another smile.

shayne's head was pounding. he kept thinking about the offer damien set in place yesterday- about him walking home with damien and his friends. damien was a well known guy throughout the school. he always got the leads in plays, he usually helped out with clubs, and he was nice to everyone.

and suddenly he was talking to shayne. a painter, a nobody, and poor person. in his mind, shayne was already finding ways to bring himself down. he didn't deserve to hang out with damien- a sweet, charismatic teenager with such a bright smile and melodic laugh.

it warmed shayne's heart just thinking about it.

they entered the auditorium and damien gave shayne one more bright grin before running off to do his scene. in shayne's heart, he knew he's liked this boy for forever, it feels.

— 🌻 —

"i don't know," shayne lets out as he smears another layer of paint down. his head is spinning and he's thinking about damien's smile.

from beside him, ian only nods. "i get it. it's just a crush dude; and i bet they like you too. you just got to take it slow and easy."

now it's shayne's turn to nod. his paintbrush burns in his fingers. "he's a good guy, ian. he smiles and he offered to let me walk home with him and his friends yesterday."

"did you?" ian smiles proudly. shayne and him have been best friends for the longest time- so ian knows everything about shayne. he knows about the struggles and difficulties, about the struggling family. but that doesn't change how he feels about shayne.

the blond scoffs. "no. why would i do that? they'd all make fun of me or something." the last part of the statement is told under his breath as he dips his brush in a gold color. "plus, he doesn't really want to be friends with me. i'm nobody."

"doesn't mean you can't have friends, shayne. you're a good guy, and you deserve to have people in your life," the boy reponds. "plus, i imagine he's totally accepting."

they fall into a silence. maybe damien would be accepting.

so shayne simply finishes a sunflower on the canvas and lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "okay. i'll walk home with them after practice."