Separated

After the music I started playing I ran into the hall. I wasn't crying, however, many people thought I was. Once I got out in the hall I put my back against the cool wall and slid down to sit on the equally cool floor. I let out a deep breath and started counting the seconds until Hale came to make sure I was okay.

"Raine?" One and a half seconds, damn he was fast.

"Yes?" I held out the 'e' to show I was perfectly fine.

"Are you okay, I mean, what they did in there was horrible. And I'm really-" God he apologizes for everything.

"You say sorry, I'll kick you in the balls." I joked. "But seriously I'm fine. Besides now we don't have to figure out who the girl of the couple is. And how many other guys get to say they were prom queen?"

"None." He smiled at me and brought me into a tight hug. "Damn, I love you. How did you get to be such a positive person sometimes?"

"I love you too!" I answered first. "And I dunno why I'm so positive right now... It's just, like, why would you vote for me at all if you didn't like me?"

"The did it to imply you are a girl." He said in a 'duh' tone.

"But technically I am. I like boys and that's their definition of a girl, so I'm okay with that." I shrugged. It's just been a good half an hour so, I'm in a good mood. Hale just laughed. "Now come on! I don't want it to look like I was crying! It was just getting really hot in there!" Hale just laughed. Then he grabbed my hand and we walked back into the dance. Hillary didn't realize it yet, but she did us a favor. Well, several actually, 1. Everyone knows so we can show PDA whenever we want to, and 2 she separated the people for us; the ones who hated us before and actually show it now and the ones who either don't care or really like us.

There were some gagging noises but I ignored them. Its like they forgot I was gay before, I'm use to all this. It just bounces of me...most of the time. Anyway, after the gagging stopped everyone fell silent and looked at us.

"What do you want this time?" I sighed.

"Prom King and Queen usually kiss on stage." One spoke up.

"You really want to see that?" Hale sighed. They all nodded and he rolled his eyes. He wrapped his arms around my torso and I found myself angled backwards. Hale leaned in towards my face and stopped when out lips were almost touching. He turned side ways to look at the people and they had all leaned on their toes and I couldn't help but giggled.

"You're sure." He raised an eyebrow at them. They nodded vigorously. I giggled again. They put up a homophobic front and yet still want to see us kiss. Hale turned to face me again and pressed a kiss to my lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him closer, I was still dangerously aware of all the people encircling us. I heard clapping and we pulled away. I looked at them in awe and my mouth hung open.

"Since when do you guys approve of this?" I gestured to us.

"Zeke changed our minds about things." I searched for him in the crowd. He came out and stood by my side.

"Sure it might be a little awkward but he is right. It's not our lives to live. We don't have to like it but we don't have to tease you; everybody is unique." I looked at the kid skeptically.

"Bull." Hale said quietly.

"That's right it's bull!" The jocks all screamed at once and headed our way. "You are disgusting homos! No body will ever love you! Fags!" I saw Hale's strong expression waver, but it was gone so fast nobody but me could see it. Soon a two jocks had each of us pressed up against a wall. They didn't look at all nervous. So they obviously didn't remember what happened last time they made fun of me. I don't know how to control my temper; it's an issue.

"You're stuck now, aren't you?" He chuckled to himself. I just rolled me eyes. I put my feet on the wall and pushed off so I had enough momentum to kick him in the face. He instantly fell to the ground and let me go. I dusted my hands off and looked at the other one he didn't move.

"Really?" He just looked at me. "Okay, you asked for it." I drew my fist back and he bolted for the door. Hale fell from the jocks grip and landed beside me.

"Look at the queen saving the king." I joked. He chuckled as well. Everyone burst into a fit of applause and cheering. Then I realized there was no music playing. How odd.

"Music?" I asked.

"The music isn't working! For some reason the connections from the music data base to the speakers isn't working." Some kid shouted from the back. "We don't know how long it will take to get it running."

"But." Nelly said. "We have equipment if someone wants to sing and play for a little while..." Hale smiled at me and started tugging me towards the stairs. I locked up; there's no way I can sing in front of all these people! He pulled me up anyways. He once we got on stage he put the guitar around my neck and shoulder and pushed me toward the mic. I stood there like I was frozen, while Hale was completely calm.

"We'll sing for you then." He said into the mic and smiled. "Or maybe it will just be me..." He was referring to the fact I still hadn't so much as blinked. Hale started strumming the guitar strings.



That night we sang our hearts out, we took requests and didn't even bother with the sound system the rest of the night. It had actually turned out pretty amazingly.



The rest of the year turned out swimmingly. Hale and I had a ton of new friends because of Prom and nobody messed with us because of my mad fighting skills! So my last year of high school was awesome! Well except one thing...Zeke had been acting really weird. I'd always catch him staring at me or Hale and when I didn't he blush and look down. But I ignored it because he was such an awesome friend!

So, during the rest of this year I had earned several scholarships, Hale did too, I had the most volunteer hours of anyone in the entire school, and I had managed to keep my 4.0. And today we were opening our acceptance letters. Hopefully we got into one of the same colleges!

We sat at the table; staring at the letters, unsure which to open. There was a lot; like ten million. I grabbed one randomly.

"Harvard." I said. Hale started digging through his pile and found it. We opened them at the same time.

"Yes!" I said, he answered with a yes of his own. This continued until we got to the end of the piles. I only had one rejection and Hale had two. But we were deciding between Harvard and Yale. But it didn't need to be done this second.

"I'm so excited!" I told him and gave him a big head. "We get to go to college together!"

"Unless you pick the one in Florida." He said solemnly.

"I would never willingly pick something to separate myself from you!" I smiled and pecked him on the lips. He smiled back.

"Except like two months ago when you tried to put yourself back in foster care." Hale rolled his eyes. And kissed me again.

"Mm-never again." I smiled. He took my hand and hugged me close. Then abruptly stood up sending me falling out of his lap.

"Let's go get our cap and gowns!" He said and we rushed to the door. I ran and stood by my car and he his. They were exactly the same. We did this to throw people off. It's always funny when they try to guess who's who.

"Race you!" I said crawling into the front seat of my car.

"You're on." He said mimicking my actions. I tore out of the driveway and raced to school. I knew exactly were all the cops were so I knew exactly where to slow down. I was so excited when I didn't see Hale behind me when I was halfway there. Until my dreams of winning were crushed when I pulled into the parking lot finding him leaning against his car.

"How?" I said after I had parked and what not.

"Never mind that!" He said and started pulling me into the school. "Let's go!"

We found Zeke inside and found him in line and we waited....and waited, and waited. After an hour of waiting it was finally our turn.

"Raine and Hale Jenkins and Zeke Verily." Hale said.

"Oh, right, you guys." Said the man running the stand. "I'm going to need to talk to you over here." We agreed with slight hesitation and he walked us over to the doors of the auditorium and we stepped inside.

"You aren't going to graduate this year." He said bluntly.

"What?!" All three of us asked at the same time.

"You need to complete all four years of high school. The school has agreed to bump you up a year, so you only have to do 3, and allow you to start your college classes."

"But we're going out of state!" Hale and I exclaimed.

"Yes, well, the school said you could go to college for one semester then you would have to return here and take your exams."

"How would that work?"

"Well, you take your college classes and your high school teachers send you your homework online. Then when you get back you take all your exams." He smiled. "Good luck boys!" Then he left.

The three of us stood there. Unable to move, unable to speak, or do anything for that matter. We didn't get to graduate, we had to basically home school ourselves and take super hard college classes on top of that. This will be just great. If you didn't catch it, there was a lot of sarcasm in that sentence. A boatload.

At least I still get to go to college! I'm ready for this! A semi-new chapter in my life!