He's Just a Skater Boy (boyxboyxboy)

Chapter 40: A Thai Greeting

Jacob didn't reply, he clenched his fists a moment and then suddenly took a couple long strides towards me. I sort of accidentally reacted and took two steps backwards which he immediately matched and I almost fell over the couch I backed into.

"What-"

"Go on, what's your relationship with Atlas?"

My mind took an extra minute to get its cogs turning when I finally started to understand what all of this was about, him being extra annoying, taking me here, this question, all of it.

My face was burning as I attempted to unglue my tongue from the bottom of my mouth to reply to him.

"You... Wh- What did you see?" I was pretty sure I was burning the first five layers off of my skin, I must have been bright red as I stood there staring at him wondering how I couldn't have known already.

Of course, no embarrassing moment is complete without another set of eyes. He had to be there to see me humiliate myself.

The look in his eyes told me that, yes, he had. Oh how wonderful it would have been if this fantastic common room had come equipped with a sand pit too, a sad pit filled with quicksand that I could bury myself in head first.

"Answer me first." He demanded.

It was all so obvious to me now.

Jacob had seen us kissing and now he thought that I was gay and he hated that and was trying to piss me off intentionally so that he wouldn't have to be around me anymore. It sounded kind of weird in my head but a better explanation didn't exist so I didn't doubt it for a second.

"It's not what you think..." I started, because all the best, most believable explanations start that way.

He crossed his arms and I wondered why he suddenly looked so much bigger than me. Maybe it's because it felt like I was being scolded by my parents and my teachers combined.

"I'm not gay..." I continued. Because once again, all the best, most believable explanations begin with 'I'm not gay'.

"Explain..." He repeated, slowly this time like he was trying to pry it out of me with a can opener that just wouldn't work.

I frowned, I just really didn't know where to start or how to explain. It felt like somewhere along the way I'd lost my excuses card and now I was just fumbling around in my wallet coming up with nothing but Tesco key fobs.

Okay, so a lie was the better option. 

I thought about it for a second before I gave in and spat out the first lie I could think of.

"I kissed him on his cheek." I said quickly. He raised a brow. "That's what you saw right?" I swallowed, trying not to stutter as best I could. "That's what this is all about? Because you saw me kiss him in the stairwell and now you're all grossed out by me?"

He stood there for a moment, looking a little perplexed, before he finally settled on a short. "Yes."

I nodded quickly. "Okay, okay." I breathed out, the relief settling over me quickly. Even if he had seen more I was really just hoping that my blatant denial of it would be enough gaslighting that he would convince himself he might have remembered it wrong. Or he really only saw us from a convenient angle, in which case this was a good lie.

He narrowed his eyes slowly. "Go on then, why did you kiss him on the cheek?"

Him repeating it back to me reassured me even more and I felt my shoulders relax a little. "Right, okay. I mean, I just do that." So the next difficult part was figuring out why the fuck I was kissing the man on his face in any case.