On Friday, at lunch, Grayson sat beside me again.
"Have you ever played D&D?" Craig asked directly.
Grayson nearly choked on his sandwich in surprise. "Uh, no. I played some Runescape, though. A long time ago."
"Oh my gosh," Tanner said. "Runescape. That takes me back."
"Did you also play?" Regan asked.
"Yeah? No way, you did too?"
"Yeah!" he said enthusiastically. "I remember putting so many hours into finding a buddy for the Shield of Arrav quest."
"No way, I totally had the same problem."
Regan laughed. "Imagine if we had known each other back then."
Tanner turned to his boyfriend with a serious look on his face. "We should complete it now. Get revenge on the quest together."
"Really?" Regan seemed to melt on the spot, a soft smile on his face. "You want to befriend me on Runescape?"
"Anyway," Aria said. "While the two nerds over there fall even more in love with each other, let's talk about you, Grayson."
Grayson visibly paled. "Uh..."
"Yeah, I'm curious, too. What do you do in your free time?" Craig asked. "Like, what's your favourite movie? Which school subject do you hate?"
"Uh..." Grayson's eyes dropped to his hands. He's wringing them nervously on his lap. "It's not that interesting, really."
I could tell the attention was getting too much.
"What kind of question is that?" I asked jokingly. "Which subject do you hate, Craig?"
"Oof." Craig scrunched up his face. "That's hard, considering there are so many."
Aria laughed. "Right?"
"It's a tie between math and physics, I think. I don't like the abstract stuff."
"Ugh, for me it's definitely gym," Aria said.
"At least you don't have to run as many laps as the guys," Craig said. "Man, if there's one thing I miss from before coming out, it's definitely how little I had to do in gym class."
"Oh, I thought for sure it would be the not-smelly locker room," I said, smiling.
He groaned. "Don't remind me."
"I love gym," Grayson said quietly. "But I'm no good at languages. I can't, uh, French."
"Same," Aria sighed. "I want so badly to be fluent in it, but it's like, I don't know, it just sounds shitty when I try to pronounce all those consonants."
A small smile spread on Grayson's lips. Not his usual, relaxed, lopsided smile, but one that felt hesitantly positive.
It's progress, and it made me happy.
Grayson chose that moment to look at me. His eyes widened in surprise, and I realized I'd been watching him with a smile.
"Uh, what about you?" Grayson asked quickly, eyes dropping down again.
"I don't hate any subject," I said, and then, because I could see he was trying, "I really like school."
It's the taboo thing to say, usually. It's definitely not considered cool. But it's the truth.
Grayson didn't seem to mind, apparently, because he looked up and cracked the lopsided smile that's quickly becoming my new favourite thing. "I figured you did."
YOU ARE READING
Monty & Grayson
Romance[COMPLETED] For seven years, Monty has lived across the street from Grayson Rogers. In all those years, they've only talked a handful of times. There's a lot of things Monty knows about Grayson Rogers, and even more he doesn't know. Until one party...
