Chapter 9

Nick

"Class, I'm going to give out your notes on Acids and Bases." Ms Laura says. I like her class, she's fun and her lessons actually make me want to study for chemistry, unlike Mr Young. She passes out the set of notes to the first row of students and, being in the last row, I wait for either Lucy or Jodee to pass it to Ryder and me. I glance at Ryder and I find him looking at his direction again.

"You like him, don’t you?" I tell him, my voice low.

Ryder jumps a little in his seat and looks at me, his cheeks slightly red. "Who- " he starts.

I whisper in his ear, "Nathan."

He's blushing a lot now. Lucy turns around to pass the notes. She sees me close to Ryder and his tomato red face and wrinkles her nose in disgust before turning back in her seat.

"How do you know?" Ryder whispers to me, giving me my notes.

"You should have seen the hearts in your eyes whenever he's around. You’re worse than Sin," I say.

Ryder covers his face with his hands, his ears are starting to turn red too. "I am not! Sin’s literally an open book."

I laugh. “True, true.”

“Who else knows?”

"I guess only me and Sin. The rest didn't notice how in love you are or whatever," I shrug.

We are the only ones who know Ryder's gay. We kept teasing him about not having a girlfriend (I mean, he’s actually really good looking, and girls are crazy about him), but he got tired of our teasing and came out, and then he threatened to freaking pack our foreskins with fire ants if we told the rest. He really said that. Sin and I laughed so hard that day while Ryder scowled at us.

I’m not really that into relationships myself. It’s not that I’m aromantic or anything but it’s because my first two relationships were such a big fail that I don’t want to do it anymore (I was 11 and 13 at that time - of course it would suck - but I don't want to be in a relationship until I'm much older). Anyway, I felt bad for rejecting the nice girls (and two boys at some point) who tried to ask me out in the last few years or so (they were really sweet and cute, so yeah, I felt bad).

But for someone who doesn’t want to be in a (proper) relationship yet, I give pretty good advice about them (Sin’s words, not mine).

“By the way, you’re not the only one who can read and write runes, you know?” I tell Ryder. I learnt how to write in the runic alphabet back in grade 8 (throwback to my Hobbit-crazed ass), but I roughly remembered what N, A, and TH looked like.

“Huh?”

I tilt my chin towards his notebook. Ryder looks at the runes he wrote in his notebook - the same ones, written all over again and again. Then, he looks at me, embarrassed and I snicker. I’ve never seen Ryder this ‘lovesick’ before, and it’s sort of funny.

“Don’t laugh at me, dick." He swats my arm irritatedly.

I smile and shrug. “Whatever, bro.”

“Sorry," Ryder says after a while, "if I, uh, ditched you guys."

I wave him away. “It’s fine, just don’t forget about us or whatever.”

I'm okay with Ryder being with Nathan anyway. I mean, he seems much happier nowadays, and I don't want to deprive him of his source of happiness. But it sure does suck when your best friend forgets you over a guy.

“Of course, man.”

Ah, young love.

Ryder

"So, Ryder," Ethan, who is sitting to my left, asks me before History starts, "you're hanging out with Nathan now?" There isn't any accusing tone in his voice, but from his face, I can tell he’s kinda bummed.

"Yeah, sorry," I say. I feel bad for ditching them to be with Nathan. Then he turns around in his seat and speaks.

"You’re with the low-life now, huh?" Derek smirks.

I don't know why, but this stirs up a wave of anger in me. Maybe because it's Derek Mitchell, of all people, or maybe because he just called Nathan a low-life. In a flash, I stand up and grab him by his ugly yellow-and-red letterman jacket.

I growl into his face. "Don't. Call. Him. That. "

"Hey! Why are you getting all defensive, huh?" Derek smiles.

I stop. That's because I like Nathan a lot and he's a really nice guy and you should probably fuck off, Derek, I want to say but I keep my mouth shut. I might as well get on one knee and come out right here and now. Nick's hand is on my arm now.

"Ryder." His grip on my arm is soft, but his voice is firm.

I push Derek away and sit back down. Derek brushes down his jacket with a self-satisfied smirk on his face as Mrs Shapiro walks into the class. She has this weird way of walking, this Mrs Shapiro, with her arms in front of her like a T-Rex.

“Why is it so quiet all of a sudden?” Mrs Shapiro says and then laughs to herself as she sets up her laptop. Then, she looks up and makes eye contact with me. “Ryder.” She points to her neck, then at me. “No necklaces in my class,” she tells me, which is weird since I’ve been in her class for almost four weeks now and she just noticed? What about the girls? They actually have the bling-bling thingies on them.

At first, I thought: What necklace? Then: You dumb shit, she’s talking about the dog tag. I touch it softly, flipping the cool piece of metal slowly in my fingers. This dog tag was given to me by my late grandpa when I was 10. He served in the Vietnam War, I think, though he didn’t really talk much about it. He gave me the dog tag as a sort of memorabilia before he died and I vowed never to take it off (unless I was taking a shower, of course), and I sure as hell won’t take it off now. So, I slowly and deliberately tuck it under my shirt.

Derek spins around in his seat and looks at me. I break my eye contact with Mrs Shapiro and stare at Derek instead. What the fuck does he want now?  His eyes trail to my chest - my dog tag - until I finish tucking it in, then his eyes flick back up to mine. Derek gives me a ghost of a smile, and turns back to the whiteboard.

What the hell was that?  I stare at the back of his head - at his blond hair - and I feel like shaving it all off. Yeah, I could do that. Just bring a fucking shaver to school and do it.

Then, Mrs Shapiro brings me back to reality by starting the lesson on the Cold War.

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Hello pals!! This chapter is kind of a filler but it's more on Ryder's dog tag backstory I guess,,

Anyway I hope yall paid attention to Derek because he'll be part of something 'big' in the next few chapters so stay tuned :))

Stay safe, wearing a mask is totes yeet and hydrate before you die-rate~❤️