Through the Grapevine [ABANDONED]

Seven Minutes of Maybe

Alfie would have tackled his brother if his leg wasn't caught underneath the stupid cafeteria table. He couldn't believe that his brother was actually going to march up to the popular table and do...well, whatever it was Balthazar had planned. Because it was surely going to go wrong somehow. Of course, by the time Alfie managed to get his annoyingly long legs out of the table (he had hit his growth spurt over summer and now had no idea how to operate his limbs) Balthazar was already at the table. 

"Hi, my name's Balthazar, and I just had a couple of questions," Balthazar said as he tossed the shirt on the table. Alfie stopped right behind his brother. 

"Please ignore him," Alfie said. 

"Or not," Balthazar argued. "I'm going to tell your new friend Adam here some things he should know before he decides you guys are good friends, how does that sound?" 

"What are you going to tell him?" Zachariah said with a scoff. 

"Let's start with how you got those bruises, shall we?" Balthazar said. "I mean, we could ask Castiel how fun it was to beat you up for calling his brother, which one you were referencing is unclear, a fag. Which...is not cool." 

"You what?" Adam asked. 

"Oh, wait, there's more," Balthazar said. "Alistair and Azazel have spraypainted your brother's locker who knows how many times, and I can think of at least six different times this month that they've hit, kicked, or physically assaulted him in some way." Alfie watched as Adam stood from the table and shouldered his backpack. 

"Dude, seriously?" Zachariah asked. 

"Yeah, seriously. That's my brother, you asshole," Adam huffed. 

"You're probably a fag too," Alistair growled. Adam rolled his eyes. 

"Come on," Adam said as he started walking away from the table. Alfie glared at his brother, even if he was glad that Adam wasn't sitting with those jerks anymore. It didn't change the fact that Alfie had absolutely no idea how to deal with feelings. If he was being honest, he had been hardcore crushing on Adam for...well, forever. But seeing as they were so far away from one another, it wasn't something he really had to worry about dealing with. 

"So you still want to come over after school?" Alfie blurted out. Adam bit his lip and smiled. 

"Yeah, that would be cool," Adam agreed cooly. Alfie nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets to hide the fact that they were shaking. Why was he such a disaster? 

"Neat," Alfie said. Neat? Had he just said neat? Could it get any worse than that? 

"So....there's been something I've been meaning to ask you since I got here, and..." Adam started. 

"Look, it's Alfie!" a voice said right before Alfie was tackled from behind. He growled, half in irritation with his friend's bad timing and half in irritation at being tackled in the first place. 

"Hey, Elliot," Alfie huffed, shoving one of his best friends off of his back. Elliot grinned and then looked at Adam in confusion. 

"Who's this dude?" Elliot asked. 

"Oh, uh...Adam, this is Elliot," Alfie said gesturing between them. 

"Oh, so you're..." Elliot started. 

"Where's Jack?" Alfie interrupted, well aware that his best friend would accidentally spill his secrets if he let him continue talking. 

"I don't know, I'm not his keeper. I think he's in the library or something," Elliot said with a small frown. Alfie sighed. So apparently his awkward inability to talk about his feelings was a common thread in his friendships. He was going to have to find a way to talk to Jack and Elliot about...well, whatever it was they were fighting about.