Murder and Musicals

Chapter Two: Invite

At school, Trent had started feeling awkward since his breakup. Even more awkward than he usually did since, you know, he's a teenager. He had a few classes with his ex-girlfriend, and he even sat next to her in one of them. He could tell people were staring at him, wondering how they were handling the breakup. The truth is, Trent was mainly indifferent. Sometimes he missed having a girlfriend, and other times he didn't really care. Sydney herself preferred themselves as friends, where she thought it was simpler.

Drake wasn't any less awkward. After only a couple days after realizing he liked Trent, he was feeling weird around him.  He wanted to be around him, yet he also didn't want to embarrass himself in front of him. He blushed around him, he laughed at minor jokes he made... The worst part is people started to notice. The close friend group of theirs: Ryan, Charles, and Michael were noticing something off about Drake. Ryan even asked him,

"Hey, are you okay, dude?"
"Nah, I'm fine." He replied.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Okay." Ryan shrugged it off. After all, it wasn't his place to tell his friend he's being weird.

Drake and Trent waited at the cafeteria table before school started, mostly watching a nonsense debate between Ryan and Charles.

"I swear to God, Michael, you cannot compare Batman to JESUS!" Ryan practically yelled.
"But Batman's way more powerful!" Charles yelled back.
"Jesus can move water! He's divine!"
"Well, Batman has more books!"
"Jesus only needs one book!"
"Jesus' powers are only there because God gave them to him!"
"Well, Batman's powers are given to him from the utility belt."
Trent barked out a single laugh. "He's got a point there. His powers come from being rich."
Charles playfully glared at him. "Alright. Drake, what do you think?"
"I think you're both nerds."

Trent laughed and Drake did the same. Michael rushed over to the table with an energy bar in hand and sat down.

"Okay, so I was thinking about that video project I thought of earlier."

The group collectively groaned.
Michael waved his hands, "No, no, no, no, no it'll be great! I've already filmed my morning routine and stuff. It is now a video series."
Charles waved his hands theatrically, "Woo! I can't wait for more!- said none of his subscribers."
"Hey, it already has a few likes, thank you very much."

Trent rolled his eyes at that and slightly laughed. Only Drake seemed to notice.

"You do realize that not many people are going to watch that, right?" Drake asked as Charles recovered from himself face-palming.

Michael got almost mockingly serious, "I know that's what y'all are thinking, but I swear someone's gonna wanna watch it. Look-" He took out his phone and pulled up Youtube. "See? 18 views and I posted it only this morning."

Ryan raised his eyebrows and let out a high Hmph. Charles slightly laughed,

"I guess he's technically still doing better than Trent's Youtube channel."
Trent rolled his eyes, "I'm not as serious about it as Michael is."
Drake chimed in, "Actually Trent's channel is much better to me." He said it a bit under his breath but also in the conversation.
Trent grinned, "See, I'm not doing too bad."
Michael laughed, "Then again that's coming from the guy who dogs over you all the time."

Trent slightly laughed and shrugged that comment off, "Oh please, he does not." Meanwhile, Drake felt awkward and remained silent.
Michael laughed again, "Are you kidding? He's like a sidekick. Or your husband."

Drake cleared his throat to stop the conversation on that last note, hopefully controlling his body not to madly blush at this point in time.
"Guys, I'm literally right here."