Taking Chances

God, he had grown up. Mighty fine, might I add. He had gotten taller, as always he was still at least 10cm shorter than me. He had lost all his baby fat, but his features were still more delicate than your average male's, but he had evidently done some manning up during the past four years. His hair was longer, not the short crop I remembered, but he had a side fringe that hung over his eyes. I could vaguely tell that under his loose-fitting white T-shirt he had developed nicely shaped muscles, and his bi-ceps looked strong and smooth, but due to his naturally smaller frame he still looked smaller and somewhat innocent. His legs were encased perfectly in his tight red skinny jeans, and I couldn't help but let my eyes wander to his nicely shaped ass, that just begged to be loved. He was gorgeous- more gorgeous than me, and it took a lot to get me to admit that someone else was better looking than me. But Micah was... perfect.

Micah's opened with an audible 'pop', as he gazed into my eyes. Multiple emotions flittered across his eyes, those beautiful grey eyes that looked like liquid silver, as he started trembling, turning his head away from me as he squeezed his eyes shut, as if to calm himself down. He let out a shaky breath, before taking the papers held tightly in my clenched hands, looking over them quickly, before storming out of the room, much to the surprise of the old hag, who glared at me, her eyes saying "What did you do?"

I gave the hag a subtle finger, and raced out after Micah, my arm reaching out for him as he scuttled away, studying the papers in his hands intently.

"Micah!" I yelled, and he seemed to flinch, as I caught up to him, falling into a hurried step beside him. "Micah," I said again, softer this time. I reached out to touch his shoulder, but he slapped my hand away, looking up. My heart cracked a little when I saw his eyes, eyes that once looked at me in awe and admiration. They were still as beautiful, but now were unforgettably cold, full of hate and pain. He glared at me, unshed tears dangerously balancing on the edge of his eyes, threatening to spill over onto that soft, pale skin.

"Don't talk to me," he hissed, his tone betraying his kind, melodic and dulcet voice. His voice may have cracked a little, as he gritted his teeth to suppress the tears that were now sky diving from his eyes, and he covered his eyes with his arm, turning away from me. "This is your locker. You have almost every period class with me except for music and French. We're in the same homeroom, and I'll walk you to your classes, but... just don't talk to me."

"Micah..." I whispered, as he handed the papers back to me, looking at the ground as his trembling stopped. "I'm-"

"Just, stop. I don't want anything to do with you, not after that," he told me, his voice shaking as another bout of tears was starting to form, his lip quivering. I just wanted to hold him, to apologise to him, to finally tell him I love him. I wanted to make him stop crying- seeing him so crushed like this broke my heart. And what really rode it home was that I was the one making him feel like this. I was the one making him break down like this.

"We have to get to class," he then murmured, as I closed my locker, grabbing my books for my first period. This school worked on a 5-period and day schedule, but if you were in advanced classes you had 6, and school started at 8:20 and finished at 3:20, so it was almost an hour a class, with one hour for lunch and little breaks for assemblies and homeroom to make up the rest of the time. All of the subjects were spread across a 2-week rotation, so we didn't have lots of English in one week and none in the other. I liked this system- it wasn't as hectic, in a way.

I followed Micah to our classroom, the air around us tense and thick, as we stayed silent, the only sounds being out feet tapping on the grey linoleum and Micah's occasional sniffles. Those sniffles kept making me have to restrain myself from wrapping my arms around his frail body to hold him close. Fuck, how I wanted to do that so badly, it was eating away at me.

"This is our homeroom. The teacher is Mrs Eisenberg. She's not bad," he said, his voice strained as he opened the door, the two of us walking in.

"Yo, Micah! About time you got here! We were missing you!" some guy yelled, and my head immediately whipped to the voice, spotting a blonde guy that did the greeting nod to Micah, who replied with a small smile. Though he smiled- and trust me, he looked so fucking cute when he did- his eyes were still overcast, looking everywhere and anywhere but me.

"Oh, Micah," the teacher, called Mrs Eisenberg as I was told, greeted. "I see you brought our new classmate! Mr... Jaden Carr, is it?"

"Yeah," I said, looking around the room, my eyes always somehow returning to Micah, who was moving to his seat, the one all the way in the back pushed into the corner. I couldn't help but smile a little. He had changed, looks wise, and his personality had become a little more outgoing, but he was still the same little Micah, who hated attention and loved his own company. He was an independent person, but was kind and sincere to everyone.

Everyone except me now, but that was understandable, even if it hurt to admit.

"Well, introduce yourself, Jaden," Mrs Eisenberg said, my gaze tearing away from Micah and resting on her. She was a very average woman, middle aged, and had a motherly air about her by the way she smiled softly, her stance open and caring, accepting anything. I turned to the class, and looked at Micah again, who was staring down at his desk, his thin fingers scratching at the indents in the wooden desk, his body rigid and tense.

"I'm Jaden Carr. I'm 17 going on 18, I just moved here from France, but I was born here and raised here until I was... fourteen," I said, and I noticed Micah biting his lip, flinching as his mind wandered exactly where mine did. Back to that snowy morning everything fucking screwed up between us. Everything I screwed up. "I love soccer, and before you say anything, I'm bi-sexual. I'm not picky," I added, my inner asshole coming into play, as I winked. Micah's head snapped up at the word 'bi-sexual', and his mouth opened a little as his eyes widened. He then shook his head, looking down again as he sunk into his seat, trying to make his amazing existence disappear.

"Well, that might have been... a little too much information, but welcome to the class," Mrs Eisenberg said, a little surprised, as she pointed to an empty seat in the room. This may be very 'cliche teen novel', but I smirked when I saw that the seat she was pointing to- the only empty seat in the room- was the one next to my sweet, precious, gorgeous Micah, whose mouth moved in a silent "Fuck."

I enthusiastically moved to my seat, planting myself down in the hard and uncomfortable seat, but I was damn comfortable sitting next to Micah. Was this a sign? It couldn't have been mere coincidence that Micah happened to go to this particular high school, to be the one to guide me around the school, to have practically every class with, and to sit next to in core classes? I think the almighty God up there was sending us a message. That only I was getting, but fuck that. Micah was going to be mine. I've longed for him ever since I lost him. I guess it was true what they said- you only really realise how much you needed something until it was taken away from you.

Micah and I didn't talk at all during our classes, but that was surprisingly okay. I was content- for now- that he was there, by my side. I was going to take this slow, and I was definitely not going to fuck this up again. Not after the last time. It was hard enough the first time.

Today I only had my first 3 classes with Micah, so now it was 4th period and I had economics whilst Micah had advanced math, not that I was stalking him or eavesdropping on him or anything. But I had 5th period with him, so I was just going to have to push through this one hour without seeing him. It was going to be hard, but after four long years of not seeing his bright, adorable face I think I could last an hour.

Micah led me to my classroom, being the model student who helped out others despite personal discomfort, and murmured a quick "Lunch is after this, so I won't be there to direct you to the cafeteria, but it should be pretty easy to find. Just follow the crowd."

"Thanks, Micah," I said gently, and he paled, backing away a little.

"I-I'll see you, later," he muttered under his breath, practically sprinting off to his advanced math class. He was a smart little thing, so fucking perfect in every fucking way possible. He was intelligent, adorable, popular, fit, fucking sexy, kind (to everyone but me, obviously), caring towards everyone (again, excluding me), and just made me want to hold him tight to protect him from whatever the world threw his way.

I sighed, pushing open the door to my economic class, that was in total disarray. Everyone was clumped in groups, the 'indoor-talking-voices' shit pre-school teachers always pulled clearly not having any effect on the rowdy teens that sat atop other peoples' desks. When I walked in, some stopped their conversations to stare, others started whispering and murmuring about me. A little smirk crept across my face when a pretty hot brunette sauntered up to me, smacking her gum, as she rested her manicured fingers on my bi-cep, smiling flirtatiously. Sure, she was pretty fuckable, with her well endowed body and obviously willing demeanour, but she wasn't what I wanted. If Micah, on the other hand, was smiling flirtatiously shaking that tight ass of his in front of me, I don't think I could restrain myself for taking him right there and then.

"Hey, baby," she purred, licking her glossed lips seductively. My smirk grew, but my thoughts remained on Micah's luscious body bending over as I- Ah, shit. I was so fucking sexually frustrated. That boy made me go mad, and I swear he was going to me the one to send me to a asylum. He just made my mind go idiotically insane with thoughts of him. "You're that new guy, aren't you? Want me to shows you around? I could... teach you some things." She winked suggestively, pressing herself to my side, my arm between her melon-sized knockers.

"Sorry, hun, but someone here has already caught my fancy," I said, grinning, as the teacher walked in. He looked like a hard-ass, but I didn't give a flying fuck. I was out of this shit-hole in less than a year anyway, and if I fail school then I can just work at dad's anyway, since he has practically been whipping me into becoming the next CEO. School was just something to pass the time with- but now it seemed definitely worthwhile, since my one and only Micah was here.

"Who?" the brunette asked, eyes narrowing as she glanced at her so-called friends, who were probably lying bitches behind her back. I didn't understand that. They acted like best friends, going shopping together and having slumber parties or whatever, but behind their backs everyone's bitching about everyone. They fucking hate each other's guts but were glued to each other anyway. It was a pretty admirable mind fuck, and I could never wrap my head around it. The brunette, and practically the whole classroom for that matter, watched me as they waited for my answer.

"Micah. Micah Williams," I said casually, and their mouths dropped, as if I suddenly had a blaring neon sign with flashing lights reading "I'm Gay".

"Are you gay then? That kind of turns me on," she said, pressing herself to me even further, which I though wasn't possible considering the fact she was already moulded to me, not in a nice way either. "Apparently gay guys are really good and aggressive in bed."

"Um, yeah, I've never heard of that, so..." I said, as the teacher was glaring at everyone, looking ready to blow it. "Please let go of me. And I'm bi-sexual, not gay."

"Even better," she growled in my ear, running her hands across my chest. Fuck, what was she trying to do? Fuck me in the middle of the classroom with Mr Hard-Ass whose vein that is throbbing his head is about to blow up.

"Um, yeah, like I said. Micah," I said, prying her off me, "is the one I want right now. Not you."

She frowned, and I heard one of her friends snicker "Ooh, Chastity got rejected! But damn, I totally agree with him- Micah looks fucking good. Seriously, he got really hot over the break, right? Too bad he's gay," the girl said, looking at her other so-called 'friends' for conformation, which they replied with lots of 'yeahs'.

I glared at some of they guys who were also nodding in agreement, and they cowered in their seats. Shit. Micah is making even the closeted gays want to come out. He was that fucking sexy, and that was when the teacher snapped, the whole room shutting up as he pulled out a long metre ruler and threatened to hit us.

He looked pretty darn serious too.