Chapter Five

It was a rough week back from vacation, as expected, and even the week after didn't go too well. Every morning Jonathan woke up to the sound of Chris screaming at him, seconds away from tossing a pillow at his head.

“Come on, Jay, if you don't get up we're gonna be late,” Chris would say from the doorway, even though it wasn't entirely true. Jonathan would lift his head with laboring fatigue and look over at Chris, then fall back on his pillow and groan loudly.

“Is it summer yet?”

“I wish.”

Then, just for good measure, Chris would throw the pillow at Jonathan's head.

Jonathan got his payback, though, once they ate breakfast. Every morning it was something different, so that Chris expected something to go wrong, but he had no clue what Jonathan had planned. One morning his tea was ice cold; another morning he discovered that Jonathan had messed with the dial on the toaster, and his toast was burnt to a crisp. Chris was keen on continuing the cycle, and so Jonathan was forced to change his shirt one morning after having cold tea dumped on him, then another morning he kept finding bits of burnt toast hidden throughout his hair.

They were no less mischievous around each other during school. Bits of clothing would go temporarily missing in the locker room, food would be stolen whilst attention was directed elsewhere; Jonathan especially liked to steal Chris's backpack and hide it in one of the other stalls, then wait and snicker as he watched Chris search the locker room almost entirely before finding it again.

But one day Chris took too long to change into his regular clothes, and so Jonathan, growing bored, left without him. Along with Jonathan, most of the others boys exited the locker room before Chris did, the lack of chatter in the air hinting at him to hurry. But, as he stuffed his shorts into his bag, he thought he heard footsteps drawing nearer.

“Uh... Chris?” Chris looked up to see a rather anxious blond-haired boy standing in front of him, mouth twitching and eyes a little bit frightened. “Hi. Um, I don't know if you really know who I am- I'm Nolan.”

“Hi, Nolan,” Chris replied in a friendly tone. He recognized the boy as one of those who stood by the door and relentlessly poked fun at him, but he decided to give this boy a chance. He looked innocent enough, and even a little cute. Not that Chris was big on judging people by their looks.

Nolan smiled nervously and fidgeted, staring down at his hands. He didn't really find anything helpful there, though he honestly didn't expect to. “I was just wondering... if you're not busy after school or anything... maybe we could hang out?”

Chris noticed a faint flush appear on the blond boy's cheeks, which he found rather endearing. “Yeah, OK.”

“Really?” Nolan replied in a small voice.

“Uh huh,” Chris nodded, “sounds great.”

“Cool. But, uh... is it OK if we meet somewhere... not on campus? Because... I mean, no one knows...”

Chris wasn't sure what it was exactly, but he felt a wave of emotion wash over him instantly. It was almost like some sort of weird disappointment. “Oh. Right, sure.” He looked down at his bag and tried to think. “How about the shop in town? It's only, like, a five-minute walk from here, I think.”

“That works.” Nolan stood around for another few moments and exhaled a shaky breath. “So... I'll see you then.”

He turned around and whisked away before Chris really had a chance to say anything else. He waited until Nolan had left the room to grab his things and leave himself. Slowly, he walked down the hallway, stopping at his locker to retrieve his books.

But as he closed the locker door he had a thought: Don't go to lunch. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Jonathan, because he did want to see Jonathan. Even though they lived together, and even though some other prank was most likely to be pulled if he did go, he still liked spending as much time with Jonathan as he could. What he really wanted to do, though, was go to the library. It felt like ages since he'd had the chance to be alone with his thoughts.

So he walked right past the cafeteria and towards the library. There were a few people in there, as he had expected, all studying or reading various books. One dark-haired boy stared at him viciously as he walked in, but Chris ignored the kid. He sat down at one of the empty tables and pulled out a dark purple folder from his backpack. Inside were pages upon pages of things sloppily written in his barely legible handwriting.

He flipped to the last page, words only resting on half of its front. He reread what he had previously put down, then began to write more. The ink flowed easily from his pen, the lines they wrote seeping from his mind with the same quickness. It was as though he knew what he wanted to say, and had known for so long, but since he hadn't had the chance to get it out, it built up, only now to be released onto paper.

The bell rang a while later, and Chris became aware of the beginning of hunger pains building in his abdomen. He'd sacrificed food for his alone time, but in the end he thought it was worth it. Even though he wouldn't be able to go home straight after school and make some sort of snack, he figured that since he would be there, he could buy something from the store later.

Then he remembered that he had plans that afternoon, and a tiny skip slid its way into his step. He only wished he had someone he could tell; Jonathan- apart from being the only person Chris thought would even be interested- was the only person Chris thought he could trust, even with classified information such as this, but he had no other classes with Jonathan for the rest of the day. Nevertheless, Chris remained unalterably happy throughout the duration of his proceeding classes.

As he stood outside of the shop in town, waiting to see Nolan's blond hair walking down the sidewalk or coming through the door of the building– he wasn't sure if Nolan had made it there before him or not- his smile stayed strong, and he even began to hum to himself a little.

“Sorry about the wait,” Nolan said as he walked up along the sidewalk. He brushed a hand through his hair, almost looking as if he was trying to hide from someone across the street. “I had to get rid of my friends before I could come here. You know, I don't want them to get suspicious.”

“Come on,” Chris excitedly said, basically ignoring everything Nolan had just told him. “Let's go for a walk.”

Chris linked his arm with Nolan's and pulled him down the street and around the corner. As they walked, he briefly recalled a time when he and Jonathan had walked nearly the same path. It felt like ages ago.

“So, Nolan,” Chris casually began, “tell me... your hopes and dreams.”

“My hopes and dreams?” Nolan uneasily replied, and Chris laughed.

“OK, it doesn't have to be your hopes and dreams. But tell me something, I hardly know anything about you except your name.”

“Well...” Nolan paused for a really long time, staring at his feet as they moved down the street. “I don't know, what do you want to know?”

“Hmm... one dream you have, then. Like,” Chris waved his free hand through the air, “what do you want to do with your life, that sort of thing.”

“I kinda want to be some sort of engineer. My dad's a mechanic, so I've learned a lot from him about that sort of thing. I think I could do it pretty well.” Nolan shrugged. “What about you?”

“Oh, you know,” Chris droned with a sudden boredom, “a... doctor or lawyer or something like that.”

Nolan laughed a little, “So, you're just in it for the money?”

“Yep,” Chris grinned. Then, with the strong desire to shift the focus off him, he continued, “Tell me something else.”

Nolan thought for a few moments. “When I was younger I wanted to be a model. My mum kindly told me I wasn't attractive enough.”

Chris laughed a bit, but replied, “I think you are.”

Nolan ducked his head and tried not to grin. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. But you do have to have a six-pack. 'Cause if you're not ripped, then it's just not gonna work.”

“Right. I think I'll stick to being an engineer.”

“You would certainly make an attractive engineer,” Chris honestly said. “Of course, I don't know any engineers, so I'm not sure how big of an accomplishment that would be.”

Nolan laughed, finally beginning to feel a little more at ease. “Where are we walking to, exactly?” he asked, scrunching his eyebrows.

“I hadn't actually thought of that. I do know a place...” Chris thought about the abandoned building not far from where they were at the moment, though he felt a little strange thinking about it. “It's hidden, so you won't have to worry,” he added with a tiny bit of bitterness.

“Sorry,” Nolan quietly said.

Chris brightened up almost instantly and tugged at Nolan's arm. “Come on.” His hand slid down to Nolan's and he started to run in what he was pretty sure was the correct direction. Nolan could just barely keep up with Chris, and when they finally stopped by the building he was panting like there was no tomorrow.

“Holy... geez, you run fast,” he breathed, clutching at his side. “And that means something, coming from me.”

“Yeah, aren't you one of those jocks? I thought you were, like, really sporty,” Chris said without faltering at all.

“I thought so, too.”

They walked around the building a little, and found a ramp leading up to the side of the building. They sat there for a few hours, talking about everything and nothing all at once. Nolan told stories about his- in Chris's opinion- awfully judgmental friends, and Chris told stories about Jonathan and Penny. It was a pleasant afternoon overall.

“And so I told him that if he was going to keep taking my food, then I was going to have to retaliate,” Chris said.

“Did you?”

“Oh yeah,” Chris deviously grinned. “I'm fairly certain he still doesn't know it yet, but I slipped a rather gigantic picture of a sheep into his math book. So, whenever he finally gets to the chapter on... sine graphs or whatever, he'll be pleasantly surprised. Or he'll have a heart attack. He hates sheep.”

Nolan laughed as he shook his head a little. “You're hilarious.”

“I don't believe you, but thanks.”

“You should believe me, I wouldn't lie to you.” Nolan turned his head to stare off into the open air, and he winced a bit before he spoke again. “I have to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Do you like... that Jonathan kid? I mean, I know you're friends with him, but sometimes in gym class I see you guys talking, and it just seems like maybe...” Nolan lowered his head and lowered his voice, “Or I could just be jealous.”

The corners of Chris's lips turned up a bit. He was rather touched by Nolan's interest, and so he decided to lay his hand along Nolan's jaw and place a soft kiss on his lips. “I think I should be getting home soon.”

“Me too... but you didn't answer my question.”

Chris made a strained expression and sighed. “It doesn't really matter either way, does it? He has a girlfriend.”

Nolan narrowed his eyes. “Who, Angelica? I thought she broke up with him last week.”

“She did? Well, he never told me...” Chris trailed off into his own thoughts, staring down at the ground with a look of confusion. After a minute or so of wondering why Jonathan wouldn't have told him if it was true, he looked back up at Nolan. “I would say that we should do this again some time...”

“... but we'd have to sneak around?” Nolan asked, a tiny bit of him hoping that wasn't the correct ending to the sentence. Sadly, he was let down as Chris nodded.

“Yeah, and I've done that before and it's not really something I want to do again.”

“I understand.” Nolan gave a smile, sad, but empathetic. “I'll see you in school, then.”

They hugged goodbye and parted ways, though it wasn't for very long; Chris had walked not five feet before he spun around again.

“Nolan?” Nolan slowed down and turned to face him, waiting expectantly. “You're a very nice boy. No one should hate you for being you.”

Nolan stared back at Chris and soaked in the words, and while he was doing so, Chris took the opportunity to leave again. This time he continued until he reached home, where he was almost immediately interrogated by Jonathan.

“Where were you?” he asked, arms folded and back leaning against the kitchen doorway. “I was waiting for you outside the school for ages, then I thought maybe you were already on the bus, but you weren't. And then I thought maybe you stayed after, but you didn't come home.”

“I was hanging out with someone,” Chris said. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't get the chance to-”

“That's another thing- I didn't see you in lunch, either. I was starting to worry...”

“I went to the library,” Chris explained. “Sorry.”

Jonathan noticed the frown on Chris's face and decided that maybe he was being too hard on Chris. He softened a bit, unfolding his arms and breezily walking away from the kitchen.

“It's OK,” he said, “I was just afraid that maybe something had happened to you.”

“Is Penny home yet?” Chris asked.

“Not yet.”

Chris stared at Jonathan sadly, and in a low voice he asked, “Jay, how come you didn't tell me about Angelica?”

Jonathan froze for a bit, taken aback and searching in his mind for an answer. “I... Well, it was a few weeks ago. I was going to tell you, but that was when you went out with James and you came home and you were crying and I didn't think that I should bother you with it.”

“Bother-? No, Jay, you could have told me,” Chris said. “Forget about whatever stupid things are going on in my life, if you have a problem you can talk to me about it. You're much more important than I am.”

Jonathan stared down at the ground, watching as he wiggled his toes a bit. “She broke up with me over the phone.”

“Aw, Jay.” Within seconds Chris's feet were by his own, Chris's arms wrapped around his shoulders.

“Well, I mean, I'm not completely devastated or anything. It sucks, but I'll get over it.”

“There are plenty of fish in the sea, right?” Chris said, looking into Jonathan's eyes and dropping his arms to his side. “For both of us.”

“I'm taking it didn't go so well with... whoever?” Jonathan asked.

“No, it went great.” Chris smiled, then shrugged. “But he doesn't want people to know, and I don't want that.”

“Right...” Jonathan folded his arms again, but not in a threatening way- he merely had nothing better to do with them. “So, what did you go to the library for?”

“Oh, uh, I had some homework I needed to finish,” Chris convincingly lied. “I should really start doing more of it at home.”

“I would say so, if you need to take an entire lunch period to do it.” Chris panicked for a moment, thinking that Jonathan sounded a little skeptical, but it soon passed. His quizzical expression changed to one most resembling concern. “Man, aren't you starving? When's the last time you ate?”

Chris's eyes widened and his mouth fell open a bit as he realized the answer to Jonathan's question. “This morning. Whoa.”

He quickly rushed past Jonathan and into the kitchen to find something to eat. He nearly passed right by the table, but something caught his eyes- a bright pink sticky note with his name written in very dark, very bold letters. Chris picked it up, and his eyes laid upon the plate of food beside it. He spun around to see Jonathan waiting in the doorway, smiling at him.

Chris turned around again slowly, collapsed in the chair, and started to pick at some of the food. It felt wonderful to eat again, and he suddenly felt incredibly lucky that he only had to go for hours without eating, rather than days like people in other, less fortunate parts of the world.

“You're such a good friend,” Chris crooned with his mouth partially full, though careful not to spit chunks across the table.

Jonathan gave a small laugh and swiftly walked towards the table. “As are you.”

Chris bit his lip and smiled as he held the note between his fingers, the hope rising in his chest as his newly single best friend sat down beside him.