all those broken promises | shyland

Chapter Twelve

"Is Andrew gay?"

Shane nearly turned around to snap at the girls behind him, because who cared if Andrew was gay, but the same question was rolling around on his tongue, waiting to be answered by the all-too-pale redhead on the other side of the table. With the exception of Garrett hoping off the table, the rest of the cafeteria was trained on Andrew, as though they had just seen the cliffhanger ending of their favorite television show and couldn't wait for the next season to be released – bad boy meets good boy, what a cliché.

Across the cafeteria, Ryland had his eyes trained on Shane, the blue-eyed boy willing to do anything to get the auburn-headed bad boy's attention, but Shane wasn't ready to forgive him yet; his ego had been far too damaged by somebody who shouldn't – and didn't – matter to him. He wondered if Andrew knew of Garrett's love confession before it happened. Surely, Garrett would have—should have—told him about his fondness of the boy they spent nearly every waking second with. Though, Shane didn't seem to know who was in his corner, and who pretended to be, like he had gone from having everything to having nothing in a quick blink of the eye.

"I—I—"

Shane's eyes snapped back to Andrew, watching as the redhead struggled with his words. He wondered if Garrett would be mad – or rather, heartbroken – if he didn't feel the same way. Surely, Andrew was unaware of Garrett's feelings in the same way Ryland was unaware of Shane's feelings.

Wait, what—

"Garrett," Andrew whispered as the shaggy-haired boy took a step closer, the grin on his face growing wider as he reached the table. "We should have talked about this before you did that."

Garrett's smile faltered for a brief moment. "Andrew, you're the one who said you felt like I was embarrassed to be dating you, and I wanted to prove that I'm 100% in this. I don't care about my father, or what everybody else thinks about us – I care about you."

"I know, but I still think—"

"Andrew," Garrett threw his head back and groaned. "I confessed my love for you in front of the cafeteria a minute ago; why are you not kissing me?"

Shane watched as the redhead smiled, wrapping his arms around Garrett's neck and planting a kiss on his lips. And, it wasn't one of those kisses Shane was used to – where he would press somebody up against a locker and make out with them because he wanted to, because he needed the feeling of somebody's mouth pressed against his own. Garrett and Andrew's kiss was full of love, as though a second was enough, as if they would rather study the lines of each other's face than make out in a high school cafeteria in front of all of their peers – as if they didn't have something to prove to somebody.

"What—the fuck—"

They both turned to face Shane, and he wondered why Lisa didn't have a similar reaction to his. But, as he turned to face her, he noticed the small smile on her face, like she approved of the fact that two of her close friends had been lying to her for God-knows-how-long. And, Garrett had the audacity to belittle him for lying to them, like he wasn't keeping the fact that he and Andrew were making out in between classes.

"Care to explain?"

Garrett's eyes darkened. "Not to you."

"Don't pull that," Shane demanded, causing Andrew and Lisa to look between them confusedly, the redhead running his hand along Garrett's shoulder in an attempt to soothe him. "You don't get to be mad at me when you and Andrew have been keeping the world's biggest secret from me for—fuck, who knows how long you two have been hiding this?"

"Six months."

Shane's glare turned to Andrew. "Six fucking months, Garrett, and you want to be mad at me for doing what you've been doing this entire time—"