No Subject (Come With Me)

one of one

“I told him you have a crush on him.”

Alex Grieco should have known that this would happen. He should have known that coming to this stupid fundraiser thing would turn out horrible for him. He does, after all, have John O’Callaghan as a best friend. And John O’Callaghan does not understand that ‘no’ really does in fact mean ‘no’.

“And…what’d he say?” Grieco questions, chewing on his bottom lip. He learned a long time ago that it’s pointless to yell at John. He won’t react to it anyway. “He was probably weirded out, right? He probably has no idea-”

John rolls his eyes, reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a pink raffle ticket. “He gave me this. To give to you.”

Grieco stares at it. “What do I do with it?” he asks, glancing around the room. He’s in the gym at the local high school, attending one of the many fundraisers that his mother helps support. His eyes land on the table in the corner, a long line forming in front of it, and he ducks his head and blushes when he sees the sign that reads ‘kissing booth’.

“What do you think you do with it?” John asks, clearly irritated at his friend’s slow pickup. “You need one of these,” he holds the pink ticket in front of Grieco’s face, waving it around, “to kiss Matt. So clearly, he wants you to go over there and kiss him. What’s so hard to understand?”

“I- really?” Grieco squeaks, taking the ticket out of John’s hands. “You think so?”

“Look – I know you think he has no idea who you are and you’ve somehow got this whole ‘I’m not good enough’ thing going on but seriously. He knows who you are – his eyes lit up the second I said your name. And two, you are good enough so stop second guessing and get on that damn line before the fundraiser’s over.”

Despite how often Grieco finds himself wondering why John is his best friend, he’s often reminded of it when John does things like this. “Thanks,” he says with a smile, letting John give him a gentle push in the right direction. “You better be right…”

He feels like he’s on the line forever. He should have expected it, of course. Matt Flyzik is running the kissing booth. Who in their right mind would pass that up? The line is filled with mostly girls – a large majority of them being in Grieco’s grade. Matt’s a senior. He’s the one all the girls want. And guys, too. There are probably ten guys on the whole line including Grieco, so he kind of stands out. Which he is definitely not a fan of. He just hopes his mom doesn’t see him and come over and talk to him. That would be even more embarrassing.

The time inches closer and closer to six-thirty, meaning the fundraiser’s going to start to close down. Grieco watches nervously as most of the tables start packing their things up, gathering all of the raffle tickets so that they can pick a winner by seven. John is across the room, filling his name out for some raffle for a basket that has a bunch of new DVDs in it. He has what looks like two feet of tickets, and Grieco rolls his eyes. He’s not going to win. He’s wasting his money.

The line barely moves, it feels like. Only an inch every few minutes. He’s being dramatic, but he’s just nervous. What if John was wrong? What if Matt doesn’t want anything to do with him, let alone kiss him? That’ll just be embarrassing. He would never be able to look at the senior again and that would be a bit difficult – he sits right across from him in study hall.

“Attention! The drawing for the fifty-fifty raffle is taking place over at the table near the doors!”

And suddenly, more than half the line is gone, leaving to go listen for the raffle winners and for their chances to win hundreds of dollars. Grieco is pushed and shoved a few times by the people leaving the line and he wonders to himself why am I in the same grade as them? Seriously. It’s like a stampede. But then, once he manages to regain his footing on the gym floor and look back at the line, he finds that it’s nonexistent, and Matt Flyzik is staring at him with a smile so bright it could rival the sun. Did you really just think that? Christ, you’re so gay it’s painful.

“Hey,” Matt says when he gets closer, crossing his arms over his chest. He’s sitting on the table, legs swinging back and forth. He looks so good and Grieco is having trouble speaking. “Alex, right?”

“Y-yeah, most people call me Grieco, though,” Grieco says, and he instantly regrets it. Matt doesn’t care what most people call him.

“That’s cute. So do you have a ticket or am I going to have to kick John O’Callaghan in the balls?

Grieco holds his ticket up and gives the older boy a tiny smile. “He gave it to me.”

“Ok. So now that that’s taken care of,” Matt says and takes the ticket out of his hand. He tosses it into a bucket filled with hundreds of other tickets from all the people before him. When he looks back at Grieco, he smirks again. “You look a bit nervous. I’ve only been waiting to kiss you all night. Don’t leave me hanging Alex.”

“O-okay.” Grieco breathes in deep as Flyzik’s hands come to grip onto his hips. He’s tugged forward and suddenly he finds himself leaning down just slightly, his lips making contact with Flyzik’s.

There are no fireworks, and that kind of disappoints him a little bit. He thought for sure there would be. But then Flyzik is squeezing his hips and deepening the kiss, pressing his tongue against his lips and suddenly there’s this tingling feeling in his fingers and it spreads throughout his whole body and yeah. That’s not disappointing at all. The warmth he’s feeling right now totally makes up for the lack of fireworks.

“Was that your first kiss?” Flyzik teases as he pulls away, still keeping a tight hold of him.

Grieco blushes, looks down at the floor as he says, “Was it that obvious?”

“Not really,” Flyzik shrugs. “I was just hoping I was your first kiss. It feels nice knowing that.” He looks up at the clock hanging on the wall only a few feet away. “So since this thing is pretty much over…You wanna go get ice cream or something?”

Grieco frowns, “I didn’t bring any money with me-”

“Do you seriously think I’d let you pay on our first date?” Flyzik asks, his expression clearly mocking Grieco.

Grieco finds himself blushing harder than he has all night, but he doesn’t hesitate to slip his hand into Flyzik’s and follow him towards the door.
♠ ♠ ♠
:)