Three Simple Words

Chapter 4

"That's a horrible idea!" Ash sputtered, "you can't use her as an experiment, you idiot" Thomas groaned in response, hoping that his friend would talk him into the idea and not out of it. "It's one date, it'll be fine. If I don't feel anything, we can both move past it." The blond replied, only have telling the truth.

As the pair was heading to class, Thomas had explained his plan with Ariel to his best friend, ignoring the skeptical look on his other boy's face.

Thomas and Ash had known since as long as they can remember, their parents had been friends together in high school and they had practically been brothers ever since. Ash has known about the way Thomas felt since he was old enough to know what those feelings meant, he's the only person who knows.

"This is not a good idea. It will end with one or both of you getting hurt and I don't want to be a part of that" Ash chided, once again taking up the abandoned role of the father.

"And what would you like me to do about that? Tell my father that his precious son is a ..." Thomas snapped, the smile vanishing from his friend's face. "Please, don't use that word" His friend implored, knowing how much damage that word has caused.

"Sorry, but you can't honestly expect me to wait around until my father has his suspicions, I need to make it stop, I need to stop feeling those things." The golden-haired boy argued.

The pair continued like this for most of the trip to school, bickering back and forth like an old, married couple.

In Thomas's eyes, even though his plan to date Ariel was no doubt problematic, he had to try.

For Ash however, no person deserved to be used the way Thomas would be using Ariel even if he didn't know it. Ash knew that his friend could never love Ariel the way he wanted to, but he also knew that Thomas would never accept himself if he didn't at least try to change the thing that has been plaguing him for so long. What could he do other than support the person he called his best friend?

"Fine but be careful, please don't force this. I don't think this is a good idea but I'll be there for you regardless" Ash relented. The pair hugged and made their way to class. Once Thomas sat down, he couldn't wait to get out of there, couldn't wait for it to be summer, for his problems to be gone.

Only three more days and he could finally be done with this year. As hard as he tried to keep from thinking about Ariel and their date on Saturday, that was all he could think about. He knew he wasn't going for the right reasons but for the life of him, he couldn't cancel it.

"Hey Nancy boy, how's your face?" Wren jeered, snapping Thomas from his thoughts.

Wren is another member of the football team and couldn't keep from teasing him about his suspicions. Ever since freshman year when Wren had kissed him, the boy couldn't help but haze Thomas. Even though he would claim he didn't remember or didn't know who had beaten him up, he knew it was Wren and his friends.

Physically, Thomas could take the other boy without an issue but he knew he would never do that.

In a way, he knew what the other boy was feeling and the struggle he was going through. He couldn't bring himself to fight back when he knew why Wren did it.

"Piss off, Wren" Thomas fumed, the insult hitting him harder than he had expected.

"What are you going to do about, you pansy?" The other boy questioned back, with a fake tone of curiosity.

As Thomas was about to reply, the teacher walked in, ending the seemingly harmless banter between the two boys.

The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. Every way you turned kids rushed into the halls, flooding the corridors and sweeping Thomas away in a flood of bodies. He didn't mind it though, every second that he was pushed along, he was that much closer to the door, to freedom.