By Your Side; Ksimon

Chapter Eighteen

JJ's POV

"You aren't going to be home for Christmas?" Deji questions, pushing up from the table, with fire in his eyes, "Whose fucking parents aren't home for Christmas!"

I gave him wide eyes, yanking his arm, pulling him back down into the seat, Deji really needed to keep his mouth shut.

My parents went on and on scolding Deji for his language recently, I just ate silently, tuning them out. This was great news.

After what seemed like forever I stood up, grabbing Deji's arm, "We need to head to school. Have fun on your trip or whatever it is..." I grumbled, dragging him out of the house.

As soon as we get out he turns to me in confusion, "What the hell?" He questions.

I give him a smirk, "Two words. Christmas. Party."

Simon's POV

I laid in bed thinking, counting down the minutes until my alarm clock went off, three, I had three minutes left.

JJ's words rang through my head, "Whatever you want us to be...it's your decision. So whatever you choose, is what I will do...but Simon, I know what I want..and what I want is you."

I shuttered, thinking about how his whisper crawled down the back of my neck, giving me goosebumps. I've been thinking about what he said all weekend, what did I want? I didn't think I was ready to come out, because I didn't even know what I was for sure...the way he kissed me, I felt safe, I felt important, I felt loved...it was the best feeling I had ever experienced...a feeling I thought I could never feel.

I jumped up in bed, hearing my alarm clock blare, quickly I leaned over and shut it off, holding up my middle finger to the little clock.

Rolling out of bed, I slipped on my brace, my foot was feeling a lot better, it just bugged me when I ran really. The bruise on my face was completely gone, but the bruises on my ribs remained, just not as strong. I still couldn't take the best breaths, some days it was worse then others, but I could survive school looking completely normal, then crash when I got home.

I headed down the stairs, seeing my mum and dad already eating breakfast, I sat down beside them quietly, they still weren't happy with what happened Friday, but they never found out where JJ and I really were.

I sat there eating silently, them refusing to look at me, and I refused to look at them. As punishment they told me for the next week I have to head straight home, that I can't hang out with my mates after school, it was stupid.

I ate quickly so I could head to school early, I rushed out, and hopped into my car, heading to school.

I arrived seeing that everyone was inside, the air was crisp, cold and snow covered the ground. Pulling out my phone I checked the date, December 22nd, 3 days till Christmas.

I walked inside as everyone turned and looked in my direction, the conversation stopping, I took a deep breath, lowering my head to the floor as I heard whispers around me. I kept my head as low as possible as I held on to the strap of my rucksack as I kept walking.

I felt a hand on my back, looking up I saw it was JJ, he gave me a soft smile, and then turned his head away from me, glaring at the other kids in the lobby, they all quickly talked normally, with a nervous tension in the air. He leads me out of the lobby and down a hallway towards my locker.

"G-Guess everyone isn't over the fight..." I mumbled, holding my strap harder, feeling extremely vulnerable. JJ being by my side, made me feel a lot more safe.

"G-Guess I'm not either..." JJ whispers softly, his eyes lower to the floor, making me extremely confused. I was about to question it when Freya ran up.

"JJ! Simon! I need help!" She says with a nervous smile on her face. JJ and I quickly snap out of our funk.

"What's up Frey?" He questions as she pulled us against the lockers.

She starts nervously twirling her hair, biting her lip as a smile broke through, "I want to ask out Josh...but I don't know if he's into me...and I...well...we all experienced that together, along with Vikk, who I'm talking to after, but do you think it's a good idea?" She talked fast as her eyes nervously traveled back and forth between JJ and I, he shrugged.

"It's obvious he wants that pussayyyyyyy!" JJ yells way to loud. A couple of kids turned their heads towards us, but kept walking.

I punched him gently in the arm, "What our mate is trying to say is go for it Freya." I said as I glared at him.

Freya squeals, "Okay! I will as long as Vikk agrees! I'm going to do it after school! I'm so nervous!" She takes a deep breath, not really talking to us, more to herself, "I got this...he likes me...I totally got this..." She mumbles to herself as she walks off.

JJ laughs loudly, "She must know he's into her." JJ says as we start walking down the hall.

I shrugged at him, "Sometimes it's hard to tell..." I mumbled, biting my lip.

We stayed quiet for a moment before JJ said, "Hey, I know parties aren't your thing, but-"

Before I let him say anything else, I stopped walking, "No more parties JJ..." I mumbled, "I can't do another party..." I lingered onto his face, and his expression was slightly hurt as he stopped walking to stand next to me.

"This one is different Simon. Yes people will be drinking, but it's MY party. I've planned on having a separate room for us and a couple of our mates, so the main part of the party is for everyone else, we'll be separated." His eyes searched me expectantly, how was I supposed to say no.

"When is it...?" I questioned softly.

"Starts December 24th, goes into Christmas." I lowered my head, thinking about my options.

Spending part of Christmas with JJ and the other mates would be a lot of friends, just going to these parties really freaked me out, most of us were underaged. JJ was underaged, I technically wasn't, but still, I was only in secondary school.

"Okay, fine JJ." I grumbled, not exactly happy. He grinned happily as he turned the corner into his class, leaving me to walk by myself.

A gut feeling twisted at my stomach, I knew this was a terrible idea, but I could never find it in me to tell him no.