Comic Boys

"No, no, no, no, no!" I cried, tears pricking to my eyes as I squeezed them shut, my mouth open in a scream as a pair of hands attacked me, gripping my sides with a sharp jab. I burst out laughing as Easton tickled my waist mercilessly whilst trying to grab the box of matches clutched tightly in my hands above my head. "E-Easton! Stop! Ah!" I laughed again, out of breath, and gave up, the box of matches dropping from my hands onto the science lab table next to the unlit bunsen burner that rested on a fire-proof mat. Easton grinned, lighting the bunsen burner that was pouring out gas, and brought a rack full of medium-sized test tubes in front of us, rubbing his hands together as his eyes calculated the experiment instructions next to me.

"Do you get this?" he asked me, and I glanced at it, my brow furrowing as the complex instructions just whizzed in my eyes and out of my brain.

"A little... let's just add shit and hope that it doesn't blow up?" I offered, and his lips quirked up, hopping off his chair.

"Wait here. I'll ask the teacher and I'll be right back," Easton said, before ducking off to the teacher at the front of the classroom, who was playing internet Tetris on his laptop. I watched Easton walk over, white lab coat encasing his lean body perfectly. It wasn't until this moment that I thought someone could look gorgeous in a disgusting lab coat, but Easton pulled it off perfectly. I bit my lip as my eyes landed on his butt, and my cheeks heated up twice the temperature of the fire in front of me as I tore my eyes away from Easton, only to be suddenly staring at a face covered with cosmetics, the stench of sickly sweet perfume slithering up my nostrils.

"You're name's Luke, right?" a girl asked, popping the gum she had in her mouth as she blink expectantly at me.

"N-No, it's Lo-"

"Oh, Logan. Right. Logan, Luke, Liam, whatever. Me and my friends were just wondering who the new guy is," she said, her beady eyes flicking to the side where Easton was pointing to something on the work sheet, the teacher sighing as they got off their computer to help him. The girl licked her lips, a sly smile on her face as she eye-raped Easton, before turning back to me. "So who is he?"

"U-Um, he's..." I started, as she leaned in. I gulped, cringing away from her as she stared at me without shame, the sound of squishing gum in her pincers making me feel a little nauseous, that coupled with the vile stench of her perfume almost making me lose consciousness, my vision blurry.

"Oh, spit it out already, nerd," she snapped, and I choked a little, my eyes leaving hers in a flurry as I shuffled back in my seat, the legs tilting a little as I craned my neck and back to avoid her smell and her relentless gaze.

"D-Daniel," I said, as Easton turned, walking back to me with a small smile on his face. "His name's Dani-AAAAH!"

I had leaned too far back, my long-legged chair slipping from the two legs it had been leaning on, and I felt my head hit the edge of the table. The girl screamed as my flying leg collided with her shin as Easton's voice invaded my senses, sounding frantic and worried. I felt his presence by my side, one of his strong, warm hands grabbing the back of my head that was throbbing, the other holding my hand as he gently nudged me up. My body felt heavy and I flopped against him, almost sitting in his lap as he stroked my pained head.

"You okay, London?" he asked, touching the tender and ready-to-bruise section on my skull, making me wince. "You need an ice pack or something."

"I-It's fine. I was just startled," I said, smiling up at Easton, who sighed, ruffling my hair softly as he helped me up for the second time today.

"You're a little bit of a klutz, aren't you?" he asked, making me blush. "I think it's cute."

"Ahem."

Easton and I turned, not to see the teacher (who had missed the whole spectacle as he was too deeply engrossed with his game of Tetris) but the girl from before, who had her arms crossed over her abundance of chest. She glared at me briefly, before turning to Easton, her face softening and her plump lips curling into a supposedly seductive smirk.

"Hey, I'm Abby," she said, the gum in her mouth clicking as she spoke. "You're Daniel, right?"

Easton looked at me once and I hastily turned back to our experiment, pretending to fiddle with the bunsen burner, trying not to go smack the girl that was hanging off him. Wait, why was I dying to hit her? She hadn't really done anything wrong, maybe invaded my personal space and sent me flying off a chair, but she hadn't done anything to make me really hate her. She had only started pissing me off when she started stroking Easton's chest with her manicured fingers.

"Yeah, that's me. It's nice to meet you, but London and I have to get on with our experiment," Easton said, his voice bored and cold, and I almost laughed to myself. I covered my grin with the back of my hand as the girl stopped smacking her gum, a frown now on her face as Easton smiled at her once, before turning back to me. "So, London. We're supposed to heat up each of the materials of liquids and record their colours, and then we have to work out what the missing chemicals are."

"O-Oh, cool," I said, the hairs on the back of my neck pricking as I felt the heated gaze of basically the whole classroom on me and Easton. I shakily grabbed a test-tube, this one filled with a green-ish liquid with little crystals of jagged shapes and varied sizes inside. "So I just put this over the flame?"

"Yeah. But be careful, I don't want you to burn yourself," Easton said, his hand enclosing over mine, holding my trembling limb steady. His hand burned right through my skin down to my bones, the heat from his skin a million times hotter than that of the fire flickering next to my fingers. Easton shuffled closer to get a better range on the bunsen burner, his body basically pressed up against mine, and I suddenly found it a little hard to breath.

"Easton... the girls are staring at us," I whispered, and he shrugged, putting the test tube back into a rack as he jotted down some results in a little table on his sheet, his casually messy scrawl flowing easily from his hands.

"Ignore them," he said, and I shook my head, glancing at Abby, who looked like she wanted to set me on fire and stomp on my left over ashes. At the rate this teacher was going, he wouldn't even realise one of his students were on fire since he was so engrossed with his damn Tetris game.

"I... I'm not used to being... stared at," I said honestly, and Easton chuckled, looking me in the eye. "I... I'm not really liked here at school, Easton. I'm not 'cool' or 'attractive', so I guess I'm not good with attention."

"Okay, firstly, anyone who has a different superhero T-shirt for every day of the week is cool in my book," Easton started as I smiled. "And never, not even once, think you're not attractive, because you are. More than you think. You're beautiful, London. Trust me."

"I...I... Th-Thank you?" I replied, my cheeks burning up as Easton cooed quietly.

"No problem. And you had better get used to the attention, because I think everyone's going to be jealous of me, getting to hang around with someone as cute as you," Easton continued, as I shoved him lightly, covering my cheeks with my hair.

"You're embarrassing me," I murmured, and he laughed, his arms moving around my shoulders in a half-hug, his lips at my ear.

"I'm only telling the truth, London. And don't worry. I'll protect you now; anyone who messes with you messes with me," he said, his voice husky as his breath flitted across my cheek. His hands squeezed my wrists once before he pulled away to continue the experiment, as if nothing had happened.

"So you'll be my superhero?" I asked him, staring down at my clasped hands and in the corner of my eyes I saw him nod. I looked at him then, and smiled, before glancing around the room, meeting the gaze of everyone in the room, but for once I didn't give a fuck about their stares and their judgement. And then, surprising everyone, I leaned closer to Easton, kissing his cheek swiftly but surely.

I knew people would start talking, but Easton and I were just really good friends, but maybe... maybe one day, we'll be something more. But despite this, at the back of my mind there was a little part of me that kept whispering Jekyll's name, but the other side kept murmuring Easton's.

What was going to happen to us? Only time would tell.