Straight Boys - Chapter 35: Chapter 35

"Today's special for lunch today is Hot Wings with macaroni and cheese! The cafeteria staff have cooked this meal vigorously so you brats -"
"- Ms. Hughes! -"
"- ahem-hem. . . Uh so enjoy. And uh we hope you all spent your Halloween safely this past weekend. That's all."
I shook my head at the voices above on the intercom, finding these adults humorous, before I turned to start towards my locker. When my locker came into view, a sudden image came flying in front of my eyes at the sight before me, reminding me of the beginning of the school year.
Zachary Rogers and Taylor Haynes stood blocking my locker, except, instead of showing their public display of affection, Mandy Hartfielf stood in between them, laughing at something Zachary was saying. The little scene made me slow my steps and reluctantly slide up to them.
Well, actually, Zachary's presence alone made me reluctant to go to my own locker.
You see, the days before Monday came around were probably the first time in my entire life I had ever been rejected by, well, anybody. Then again, Zachary was particularly good at rejecting me for some unknown reason. So I guess you could say I was awkwardly battling with myself, not knowing how I was going to respond to this boy. I mean, obviously, I was just the tiniest bit scared of his reaction when he would see me; scared that he would leave me like he had in the past because I was just so used to him now. And I was scared because this experience I was going through was something all new to me.
I was probably a wreck by the time I made it to the small group.
"Andrew!"
"Hey, Drew."
"Andy. . ."
The nickname only Annie and Lola called me by slipped past Zachary's lips, and I somehow instantly perked up. Deep down I knew now that he was not going to run away, but I still was very skeptical of him.
"Hey-y guys," my voice subtly cracked, causing me to clear my throat before going on, "This brings a little deja vu, don't you think?" I spoke this just as I came to a stop in front of them. It sounded awkward and nothing like me, but hey, I was experimenting and experiencing new things, so it was whatever. As the adults like say, high school is the time to explore who you really are, find out what you're going to be like when you become an adult.
"Hmmm- I guess it does Drew-bean." Taylor's voice sounded sweeter than usual, almost an overbearing kind of sweet that made you cringe and stick your tongue out. I narrowed my eyes at her, shoving my hands into my pockets deep enough to catch a bit of lint between my fingers. As I did so, Taylor smiled her signature cheerleading smile and circled Mandy to clinge to Zachary like the leech she always has been.
Something about her look wasn't quite right.
"Andrew! Good morning!" I shook my hatred off my face to give a little smile down at Mandy. "Good morning, Mandy." I think I was purposely avoiding Zachary's eyes, probably still scared of what he was going to say or do or even something more. Who knew even though Taylor was there. Who knew? Zachary was pretty good at pissing people off, but would he piss his girlfriend off by mentioning the little, itty-bitty, slight fact that he and I almost did a little more than just kissing?
I was going in circles, wasn't I?
"What? Do I not exist?" Zachary's voice suddenly sounding made me jump out of my bones. I snapped my eyes up to meet his, and even though his red-headed leech was clinging to his waist, I found my eyes widening and neck getting sticky. He was staring back at me, his nonchalant smirk ever present on his lips and eyes back to being mud holes I wasn't able to get a clear view into.
Was he blocking out his emotions again?
I had realized a long time ago, and maybe I mentioned this before, but Zachary was hard to read. Then again, I was never good at reading people in the first place; especially those who didn't want to be read.
I sucked up my utter disappointment and replied back to his smirk with my own equally daunting, tight-lipped smirk back. "Only in my dreams. Then maybe you wouldn't block my locker all the time." Mandy and Taylor both laughed at my sarcastic comment. Zach pretended to be shot in the heart by my oh so hurtful words.
This is better than him avoiding me all together.
I had to chant that to myself as I kept my emotions at bay.
At least he's acting like we're still friends.
I could pretend if it meant I could keep his friendship.
But as I kept glancing out the corner of my eye at the couple, trying not to ignore Mandy's lively conversation starter on the other side of me, but trying my hardest to ignore this pang in my heart that worsened with every glance, I wondered for how long I would actually be able to keep this act up.
Was Zachary even worth all this? I mean, I liked him and wanted to be with him, maybe even as more than just a friend, but I was used to being alone. Has Zachary Rogers been such an influencer that I'm risking my own feelings and time on him?
". . . so I would say I threw the best party of this whole school on Friday. It's a good thing my aunt has security cameras! I have footage of practically everything in case I want to look back on -"
"- Huh?! -"
"- Wait, really? -"
Zachary and I both exploded at the same time. Except, I think he sounded a bit more curious rather than panicked like me. He was leaning on one leg, head tilted towards Mandy, while I literally was grabbing at her shoulders in a little too much panic. It made Mandy pause, her eyes jumping between him and me, then delighted resting on me. ". . .yeah. I mean her house is so freaking huge, who wouldn't want cameras? I asked my aunt yesterday for tapes. Her and -" she hesitated, suddenly looking a little uneasy, "- her and her son - Corbett - had the tapes made for me."
I let go of her, falling against the lockers next to my open one, both equal parts bewildered and confused. A dark circle suddenly enclosed around me, and I think the whole school could feel it as I could sense stares and faintly hear little whispers.
"What's up with Drew?"
"Hey? Do you think Mandy just confessed her undying love for Andrew?"
"Bro, Corbett, is that your cousin Mandy talking to Andrew, the guy you literally hate more than yourself?"
"Shut up, Donalds." The annoying voice of Corbett Connors was heard by our small group. It was probably heard from Russia, he was so fucking loud. The sound of it made all four of us practically break our necks - me somehow dropping one of my binders by accident from my locker - to get a look at the bastard.
Corbett Connors was sauntering down the hall, a few of the guys with him and then some. He had on a worn leather jacket, a plain, grey T-shirt underneath, and a pair of baggy, over-washed blue jeans resting on his hips. He was sauntering the hall, towards us. Beside me, Taylor and Zachary both stood a little straighter, I think Zachary ready to defend, and Taylor ready to protect her boyfriend.
Calling him her boyfriend made me feel sick.
"Mandy," Connors said with a slightly angry tone, but it sounded slightly overplayed.
"What?" She asked with an innocent tone to her voice.
"Where are my headphones, you little shit?" He asked, not even taking notice of the rest of us.
Mandy giggled - giggled - and suddenly conjured up a pair of headphones out of actual thin air. "Right here, god. So annoying." Corbett snatched his earbuds from her hands, and, as if only just now realizing we were standing there, looked over us. "Oh," he murmured to himself.
I gave him my best glare - a pretty fucking mean one if I do say so myself - but it only made him chuckle to himself because I had been bending down to pick up my now open binder off the ground. "Look at you, Parsley. I like the new idiot-look you're going for. It suits you and your new attachment." Corbett gave a sideways look at Zachary.
Mandy, sensing the sudden tension, grabbed ahold of Corbett's jacket collar as if her tiny self could stop his probably two hundred pound body. "Corbett," she warned.
He slightly stepped back, effectively dropping her hands from his jacket. "It's whatever, Mandy. Get off me." And then she gave him a killer look - one that not even I knew she could muster - and Corbett rolled his eyes, and after a long sigh, slowly, ever so slowly he curved his lips into a barely visible smile. I didn't know if it was genuine, but it was effective in tipping our balance.
"What in the hell are you smiling about?" Zachary spat his words out like they were phlegm. I looked over at him, watching him as he crossed his arms and gazed over at Connors with his dirty glare.
Corbett shrugged, before swiveling his eyes straight into mine. There was this twinkle in his hooded eyes when he looked at me, like he had realized something about me just in that moment, and it made him look real smug, too.
He kept staring at me when he very irritatingly started to say, "I had fun at Mandy's party last week." He stopped to let this look of pondering settle on his face, one that didn't smear his smirk, before elaborating, "I saw quite a few things - a lot of eye openers really," and then he looked between both Zach and me, "you too seemed to have fun, too, from what I saw on the video."
Something in me snapped. I think Corbett could tell because he started walking away as soon as he finished, as the bell rang, halfheartedly waving goodbye to Mandy before speedily striding towards his class. Luckily, my class was on the way, and so I left Zachary in the dust as he tried to follow us - his class also on the way. I was finally allowing myself to know everything and Zachary to not know what the hell was going on. I let the tables turn.
I had all the facts in my hands, while Zachary's drunken stupor had allowed me this slight victory. He was now the one who wouldn't know what the hell was going on, and it felt kind of refreshing.
Almost tripping over my own two feet going so fast, I reached out and tangled my fingers through the creases of Corbett Connors' jacket. I used my quarterback speed to catch up to him, but my lack of strength never helped me pull him to an empty corner in the hallway. That was all him.
Corbett allowed me to corner him, he let me get him some place where we could talk away from the prying ears of nosy nobodies; away from the eyes of Zachary Rogers, away so he couldn't find us.
When we were as still as we both could possibly be, I finally allowed myself to look him in the eyes. I glared into his eyes, more like.
Corbett Connors was not very book smart, but he was street smart. He was a manipulator after all; because he knew exactly what I was mad about, and he knew exactly why it was just me in that corner with him and not Zachary Rogers. I had willingly played into his hands, though. I wasn't about to lose everything with Zachary. I may be questioning things, and he may not be worth a lot of things, but I just wanted answers.
"What do you know?" I whisper yelled at Corbett. He, still leaning against the brick wall, held his hands up in a sign of defeat. Whether it was true submission or not, I tightened my hands around the leather of his jacket, pushing him further against the wall with as much violent force as I could allow to take over me.
His defeat turned out to be mocking from the way he smirked with this aura of self-satisfaction. He slowly licked his lips, lowering his hands, and steadily voiced his thoughts while leaning in closer to my face, "Everything." I crinkled my eyebrows and used more of this violence I had found within me, violence I only seem to grant myself when I'm around Corbett, and shoved him so far in the brick wall I was hoping his body was crushing the bricks. This move caused me to get even closer to Corbett, but I couldn't have cared less. I was angry, hell, I was scared.
I had no idea what was going to happen now, and I hated not knowing things.
I hated how I didn't know if my mother was going to make it.
I hated how Lola was spending her childhood in a hospital because nobody knew if she would have another episode like she did when she was in a coma.
I hated how I didn't know how Zachary truly felt about me, about us.
And I hated how I didn't know what Corbett Connors was planning on doing with the information he had gotten from that stupid party.
Corbett's eyes crinkled with his widening smirk, his blue irises dancing in the whites as they looked over every inch of my face. I narrowed my eyes back at his, finding that I had too much to say, but I wasn't saying a single word.
We were so close that, when Corbett shifted even closer to my face, his nose touched mine. I flinched, but didn't back down. "I know that," Corbett started again, his breath fanning across my face, "Zachary was there with my cousin, getting close to him. I know that you went into that room with those wastes of space to play some stupid game. I know that when Zachary finally left my fucking house, you followed closely behind. And I know that you kissed him back with a lot of feelings from the way you pushed him up against the side of the house. You. Kissed. Zachary fucking Rogers."
And then Corbett's eyes were twinkling again, shining with the fact that he knew a secret that I barely knew myself. "You," he kept speaking, kept getting closer with each word, "like," his hands came up and almost timidly took ahold of my ribs, "dick... don't you?" And when I could feel his somehow soft lips barely trying to reach mine, barely kissing my lips, I finally back down. My heart was pounding in my ears, my blood rushing in all different directions, and my breathing in shambles.
I backed away suddenly, effectively dropping his hands from around me, but pointed a sturdy finger in his face. "What the fuck are you playing at, Connors? What do you want?"
My question changed his expression to that of anger. "I want you to leave Zachary Rogers alone. Go back to how things used to be when Zachary wasn't such a little snitch and you minded your own damn business!" I furrowed my eyebrows, throwing my arms up in confusion.
"You are making literally no fucking sense right now, you piece of dog shit!"
Corbett shook his, crossing his arms. He clenched his jaw, but that didn't last long before he was lowly gritting out, "That bastard got me suspended for a week. He put all the blame on me for fighting with you when he knows I can't help myself. He betrayed me!"
I shook my head in utter disbelief. "You're such a big baby! Get over it, Connors. That was so long ago. You deserved be suspended just like I deserved to be beaten. It doesnt matter, now, though." I didn't mean to say those things about myself, but they just slipped out. I tried not to look surprised at my own self-loathing making an appearance, but the blonde boy saw everything. And what he did surprised to shit out me.
He stepped forward to meet back up with me, grabbed my shoulders and shook me with this instability, sudden despair peaking through his screwed up face. "Nobody fucking deserves... Nobody deserves to be beaten for shit, even if they think they do." His sudden change in character honestly only confused me more.
"What the hell are you talking about you fucking maniac?"
Corbett Connors retracted from shaking me with his linebacker strength, took a step back, and inhaled deeply. For a solid second, as he inhaled, I could see this break in his usual face, this crack in character where sadness and anger and his own self-loathing had shown through this wall that he built for everyone else to see. I had thought the real person he was under his kiss-up, sweet nothing persona was a manipulator who tried to get everything he wanted from those easily fallen by his charms, but in that second, I saw Corbett Connors' real face before his anger issues covered it up.
"Just watch out, Parsley. I have evidence of what you are, and I can use it." And then the blonde bastard angrily stomped passed me, bumping his shoulder against mine, and leaving me in this corner alone, confused, and still so scared.
◇
Oh gosh, you guys GUESSED IT. I'm such an open book sometimes. And you guys are so smart tbh.
Let me explain: someone had guessed that I was going to use video evidence of their kiss from the party, and that the evidence would be in the hands of Corbett. *shrugging*
Anyway. . . Now Corbett has the upper hand. You'll be seeing more of him from now on. And I hope, I mean, the stuff I had written from a few chapters back right before Lola woke up, I hope I can finally make a circle back to that so it's explained fully now.
At least we know what Corbett meant when he was talking Zach about "last time." Getting suspended because of Zach. Gee.
Dont worry. Everything will be explained in time. I swear. I'll try my absolute best! I'm just slow...
For now, questions:
How did you like this chapter?
What will happen with Zachary and Andrew now?
What will Corbett do now that he knows there is definitely more to their relationship than just a helping hand?
Speaking of Corbett, what the fuck? Why was he so close to Andrew like that?
What does Mandy have to do with any of this?
And why did Zachary act like he did in this chapter, like they didn't kiss at all?
So... *sigh* I'm getting there. Slowly but surely, but im still getting there.
Anyway, LIKE and COMMENT Please. I did try to uh uh revise this chapter before uploading so, please show your appreciation! It may not be perfect grammar still, but definitely better than it would have been if I hadn't.
Bye for now lovely little people~