The Boy on the Hill

Chapter 1

The night we met felt like it could go on forever, but at the same time, time went by quickly. I couldn't have imagined anything like this happening before, much less with him. The way he lied down with me and looked up at the stars on the little hill I called home when I didn't want to be in the house I lived in felt unreal.

I'd seen him around school, he was more on the popular side. We'd never had an interaction before this, though. I stared at him as he put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs. "I can feel you staring," He said, breaking the silence.

My face became pink as I looked back up at the stars. "Oh, um, sorry..."

We both stared up for a few more seconds before he broke the silence again. "What are you doing up here?" He asked. "I've noticed you come here often."
"Yeah," I replied. "My boyf- Best friend didn't want to be friends with me anymore."

"Best friend?" He looked over at me. "You were about to say boyfriend, weren't you."

I sighed. "Yeah, you caught me." I kept my gaze up at the sky. "You probably think I'm scum of the earth, now, since you know I like guys."

"I'm PB," He said. "Maybe we can get to know each other. I'm gay, so there's no way I could hate you for liking guys."

My face turned a bright red. 'He's popular,' I thought. 'How did I not know?'

"You must not pay attention to a whole bunch of things," He said, out of nowhere.

I jumped up into a sitting position, slamming my hands on the grass, crunching a leaf that fell from the tree that was at the top of the hill. It's branches reached over far and they were thickest near the trunk. The boy slowly sat up and started laughing.

"That face tells me everything!" Now that I could see his face properly and he was laughing hard from my reaction to what he said and my now red face, I could assume he was a sophomore student, like me. When he finally calmed down, he took a deep breath. "Anyways, I'm friends with your ex, Brandon. He tells me a lot of things that he doesn't tell anyone else." He looked down at my arm. I knew he noticed my tattoo, everyone noticed it when I showed it. I wore gloves to school, though, so barely anyone at school knew.

PB reached over for my sleeve and I pulled away slightly. "Can I see the rest of your tattoo?" He asked. I sighed and pulled up the sleeve of the school uniform I was still wearing. "It's really cool! Cooler than any of Brandon's." He looked back up at my face and smiled. I put on a slight smile. "Look, man," He let out a short breath and looked back up at the stars, running his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry for Brandon being a bit mean about the break up. He didn't mean anything by it."

I grabbed my arm with the tattoo with my free arm and looked at the ground that was beside me. "Let me guess," I wondered. "He sent you here to apologize?"

"No, actually." PB stated. "I came here on my own, I know how hard Brandon can be with some things. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "I'm just a little heartbroken..."

"Oh, I'm sorry." We sat there, silent for a few seconds, just like we had been earlier. "What's your name, since I told you mine."

"Brandon never told you?" I asked.

"He never mentioned it once. I started calling you 'The Boy on the Hill' because I saw you come here often and he pointed you out to me once while he was over at my house." He pointed towards his house. I assumed his room was one of the ones near the back of the house on the top floor. That would be the only way he had a view of me up on the hill.

"Oh, it's Adrian." I layed back down on the ground and looked back up at the stars. "How much has he told you about me?"
"Not much, really. All I knew from him talking about you is that you're nice, shy, liked guys, and sorta what you looked like."

The 'sorta' part didn't surprise me, much. I guess it was hard to really see me from the distance he saw me from. We stared at the night sky and talked on and on. I'd hardly realized what time it was until we saw the sun begin to rise.

"Dammit!" I said. "I've been here since school ended yesterday, I haven't been home yet. My mom's gonna kill me!"

"Let me drive you home, Adrian." PB said. "I can convince your mom not to do anything."

"It's fine, really. I'll ride home on my bike."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll see you at school on Monday, I guess."

"Okay, yeah, see ya."

I picked up my bike, took it down the hill that I struggled to get it up, and rode home, smiling bright after being able to talk to PB.