American Suitehearts

Brendon’s POV

I ignore all the smiling girls signing their names in a slow fashion by staring at my shoes; I only look up to the second last boy—Jon, his been doing Social Justice ever since he started here. I smile and mouth an inaudible see you later as he leaves; his the sort of guy I wish I could be more like: genuinely caring, honest....so many things that I’m not.

I turned to the last person and I felt a slight shade of pink spill onto my cheeks. He was one of those people that didn’t look quite real. You had to stare at them for a while for reality to kick in: chocolate hair and eyes...I was staring at the most beautiful boy. I cringed mentally: guys were only meant to use that word when he saw his date at the formal, not for seeing some random at school....and that’s not even mentioning it’s for another guy.

“Hello” he said in a whisper

English, I recognised absently....how exotic.

The boy was innocently signing his name which I saw to be Ryan Ross when he looked up; I let out a slight bedraggled breath: it’s most defiantly not normal to think other guys are pretty. The boy leaned forward over the desk; as if he wanted to say something, with his lips slightly parted....I pretended not to notice the last bit.

Suddenly he stood up, and I didn’t want him to go, I said the first thing that came to my head...which can be dangerous

“Ross. You don’t mind if I call you that? Do you?”

“No” he looked nervous

“Are you from England?”

“Yes” He answered shortly before quickly leaving the room

I found myself leaning forward as he left the room, as if I wished to spend a millisecond more in his presence. It’s only when his gone a real feeling sets in...Guilt. Slowly I pack all my stuff for the day, Spencers waiting for me outside the class room; I paste a slightly sickly smile on my face

“Hello” I say, making my voice unbearably cheerful

Spencer takes one look at me and asks

“What’s the matter...it looks like the Joker has just beaten your face into a smile, because only a madman could seriously mistake that for a smile”

I let the smile fall from my face

“It happened again Spence” I muttered with my face in my hands

“It’s all right” Spencer says softly “It’s perfectly normal for guys around this age to feel like this....and you know that it’s alright if you are....a-you-know-what”

I rolled my eyes

“You’re forgetting my parents in this....”

“Who’s it this time anyway? Nothing’s happened since the cute guy in the pet store....the one that looked after the kittens”

I roll my eyes once again, sometimes I regret telling Spencer every detail of my life but other times it was just nice to have something off my chest

“New boy, year below me...names Ryan Ross”

Spencer let out a laugh “The English one that wears the eyeliner?”

Brendon nods “Why?”

“Need I say it? Gay as a picnic basket...he drove here in a cherry red car....he looks slightly anorexic....and anaemic”

“How do you know so much about him when his only just arrived?” Spencer gave a slight shrug “I have my ways around this school, nothing can get past me....do you have music next?

“Yeah”

Spencer gave me one of his suspicious smiles; “Good luck” was all he said before walking off to his first class.

I figured out all too soon why Spencer had been smiling, right smack bang in the middle of the classroom was a slightly bored looking Ryan Ross. I almost hoped he wouldn’t recognise me as I darted into the room; it was a lost hope for as soon as he saw me a smile spilled across his face

“Hi, will you be doing music with me?”

He seems so innocent and happy and...seems to be making a bad habit of making me feel miserable

“Sometimes” I answer shortly

Before moving to seat at the back of the room, the only way I can deal with this is to pretend he doesn’t exist. Ryan however doesn’t seem to get the message
“Can I sit next to you?”

“No”

The hurt on his face is like a knife to my heart.....god I sound like such a girl. But it has effect, he moves to where he was sitting alone, the entire class is only nine people, some are seniors the other from the year below. Our teacher, Mr Wentz was pretty cool, even if he occasionally acted like a paedophile: he started the lesson by us a handout sheet and apologised for it being boring.

Normally I’m good with work sheets. Normally I zoom through them without any effort. But that kid, Ryan, kept on tapping his pencil against the desk. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. It was driving me nuts. Nobody else seemed to notice it; I couldn’t concentrate on anything....concentrate on anything on the piece of paper at least. All my mind seemed to be able to concentrate on was the back of Ryan’s head. I’d like to say I was glaring at him for being so noisy, but in truth it was noticing the way his back curved as he lent down in front of his desk.

I forced my eyes back down to the blank piece of paper. I remained like that until the bell went.

“You okay Brendon” Lisa, from my year asked

“I’m fine” I couldn’t manage to keep the harsh tone from my answer

I brushed past the boy. He was poison to me; a very tempting nasty poison...

I felt his gaze on the back of my head, questioning everything that had just happened, I feel sorry for him, it’s not his fault I’m such a freak.

Spencer smiles when he sees me at lunch

“So how was Music” I roll my eyes

“...all I could do was be rude and ignore him, which is probably a good thing...just makes me feel like hell”

The rest of the day past with nothing out of the ordinary; I didn’t see Ryan again until I was in the school parking lot picking up my car. As Spencer said his car was a cherry red, he dropped all his books into the backseat in a lazy sort of way, he felt my gaze and glanced up....he frowned slightly. Quickly I turned around and got into my shabby dull car (compared to his) and drove away. I didn’t see Ryan’s eyes trail me into the distance.