Pride of the 90's

Chapter 3

She found out.

The rest of the day went on as normal, other than Haley trying to understand why I was so uptight about Brandon. Again.

"I just don't get why you're being so uptight about this," Haley said, pulling stuff from her locker.
"Look, all I'm saying is whenever he's around, things get kind of weird," I added, checking the wheels of my board. It's a habit. "I mean, don't you always feel sick or like everything slows down? I swear, it's like he's a mutant or something."
"Time slowing down? Feeling sick? Like, what, being poisoned?"
"No, like the something stuck in your chest kind of sick."
"It sounds like a crush."

If there was one thing that came out of 12 years of friendship, it was that Haley always knew just the right nerves to step on. Projects blowing up on me, believing N-SYNC is better than Backstreet Boys, saying Generation X was 'pretty good', even though it most definitely was not. They didn't even use any of the X-Men villains, even though Emma Frost was right there! Telling me how I feel was a big one, though.

The villain used mind control, they could have just used Mastermind!

"Who has a crush on who?" Maddy asked, waking up to us.
"Danny, on Brandon", Haley said, closing her locker and walking off. I tried following after her, trying not to have this conversation, but Maddy grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

Mother.

Maybe not the best thing to call out when your girlfriend has you pinned down.

"What is she talking about?" Maddy asked, practically pinning me against my locker.
"Aw, c'mon, you know how Haley is," I retorted, defiantly.
"Normally I would accept that."
"But?"
"But what is this I'm hearing about you and him hanging out?"
"What? You mean the project?"

Rumors have already started. It hasn't even been a day and already, everyone is spreading it around about me and him working together. How am I supposed to get away from this?

"Maddy, it's just a project," I said, lowering her hand off my shoulder and putting mine on her hip. "He and Haley are failing, so Jones paired us up for a project."
"Why you?" She said, almost questioning if I was even smart enough for that.
"It was just gonna be the two of them, but he made me the court appointed chaperone for Haley, and Brandon just happens to be a part of it."

Maddy isn't the bullying type, but she gets caught up in rumors. She even spreads them herself. Once she heard Brandon was gay, she was telling everyone how she could feel him checking me out and told me to stay away from him, as if that wouldn't get a rumor started about me. She didn't want him turning me gay, even though I'm pretty sure that's not how that works.

Mutant, not mutate.

I should cut back on the comic books.

Never mind, it's everyone else that's the problem.

She tried storming off to talk to Jones, but I pulled her back.

"I promise nothing will happen, okay?" I said, reassuring her. "Haley will be there, too, so he won't even have a chance to make a move on me." She thought for a moment before speaking.
"I want to be there, too."
"We talked about this, Maddy. You have to trust me and we have to respect boundaries."

Maddy gets a little clingy. When we first started dating, she spent a lot of time at my house. Like, a lot of time. I make money by fixing stuff around the neighborhood, but with her around so much, I couldn't get anything done. She also goes through my stuff a lot and I already have issues with people in my room. I didn't want to, but I had to set a limit on how much she could be over for.

"This is different, Danny!" She argued, practically yelling. "What if he...you know."
"What, turns me gay? Just by being near me? I bumped into him at lunch, does that make me gay?"
"No, but-"