Dirty Little Secret

[Jack]

Thump.

I felt something hit the back of my head and flinched, frowning. I ignored it because whoever was throwing stuff at me would get bored eventually. I was sitting in my sixth period math class, trying to stay awake during this boring lesson on angles. Or maybe it was fractions. Either way, I wasn’t listening.

Thump. Thump.

I gritted my teeth, gripping my pencil tightly. If they did that one more time–

Thump.

I turned around and saw Zack Merrick smirking at me, holding some sort of straw that he must have been shooting spitballs through. Gross!

“Knock it off, Merrick,” I hissed.

Zack Merrick is the captain of the football team here at Dulaney High School. He’s a senior and so are my friends Alex, Evan, Rian, Grieco, and I. He’s known for being one of the biggest assholes in school, and it definitely shows. The football team in general is a bunch of assholes. They constantly pick on us because we’re all gay except for Rian. They’ve been doing it since we all came about being gay, around freshman year. Zack usually doesn’t make any verbal comments about us being gay though – he just provides the annoyance throughout the day. Like right now, for example.

“Knock it off, Merrick,” Zack mimicked in a hushed tone, twirling the straw in his hands.

I scowled at him before turning around, crossing my arms and facing the front again. I felt him spit another spitball at me, followed by another one a few minutes later.

I spun around, getting annoyed, “Seriously?!”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“Quit spitting shit at me!”

“Boys, is there a problem back there?” the teacher asked, and I realized that the class had turned around to look at us.

“No, sir. I was showing Jack how to do a math problem,” Zack said, smiling at the teacher in that way that makes any adult believe him. I glared at him once more before turning around.

“You can talk to Mr. Merrick after class, Mr. Barakat. Don’t waste my time by talking in class,” the teacher said, turning back to face the board. I blushed and sunk down in my seat as the class laughed. Only twenty minutes left of the period. Hopefully I could make it through without blowing up at Zack.

--------------------

“I can’t stand Zack Merrick!” I exclaimed, slamming my locker shut in frustration. Sixth period had ended about five minutes ago, meaning school was over. Alex and Rian were standing next to me at my locker.

“What did he do now?” Alex asked, leaning against the locker near mine.

“You do realize that you didn’t grab your backpack out of your locker, right?” Rian asked, looking amused.

I scowled at Rian, doing my locker combination again as I answered Alex, “He was spitting spitballs at me all through sixth period. Then when I turned around to tell him to stop, the teacher told me to stop talking to him and everyone laughed. He said he was helping me with a math problem, which was obviously a lie.”

“Merrick? Math?” Alex laughed. “That’s a good one.”

I chuckled, nodding in agreement as I pulled my backpack out of my locker and shut it again. I waved it in front of Rian, “There – happy?”

“I’m satisfied,” he nodded, shrugging.

“Good,” I rolled my eyes and put the backpack over my shoulder, beginning to walk down the hallway.

“At least you guys haven’t been harassed by the football team in a few days. That’s a good thing,” Rian pointed out as we walked.

We walked out the school doors into the student parking lot, and I saw a bunch of the football players standing around in the parking lot near our cars. Alex groaned and I glared at Rian, “I blame you.”

“How is that possibly my fault?” Rian demanded.

“Hey, look who it is!” Shane Newman jeered, noticing us right away.

“We haven’t seen you much in the last few days – have you been hiding from us?” Logan Watts asked with a smirk. Shane and Logan are the two biggest guys on the football team, and the most intimidating, to be honest. They were responsible for all of the teasing directed toward my friends and I. Behind Shane and Logan were Zack, Danny Kurily, and Matt Flyzik. Danny and Matt are the only two guys on the football team that are tolerable. They don’t join in on the teasing, but they don’t stop it either. They just apologize occasionally when their teammates get too cruel.

“Trying to, at least,” Alex said, frowning at them and tugging me by the arm as we tried to walk over to his car.

“Aw, why? Are you scared?” Shane teased, reaching out to stop both of us.

I frowned and shoved his hand off my chest, “Don’t touch me.”

“Aw, I thought you’d like that – you’re gay, shouldn’t you like it when boys touch you?” Logan asked with a laugh, and the other four laughed too.

“Ignore them,” Rian murmured, putting a hand on our shoulders from behind and pushing us toward his and Alex’s cars, parked next to each other.

“See? He doesn’t mind it when Dawson touches him!” Logan called out, the others still laughing.

Alex spoke up loudly as we got over to his car, “Hey Jack, maybe you should drive. I mean, you suck, but we can always wipe the football player guts off the back window.”

Within seconds the five boys had run out of the middle of the parking lot, getting into their separate cars. I laughed and high-fived Alex, “Nice.”

He grinned, “When it doubt, mention your shitty driving.”

“I’m not that bad!” I said, pouting as I slid into the passenger seat. Rian waved at us as he got into his own car.

“You’ve hit your mailbox twice and mine three times. You suck at driving, Jack.”

“It doesn’t mean I’m gonna kill somebody!” I argued.

“It’s always a possibility,” Alex said, shrugging. He turned up his radio as he drove out of the parking lot, turning to me after a few minutes. “Can I hang out at your house for a while?”

“Why?” I asked curiously, and he grinned sheepishly.

“I kind of made a huge mess in the kitchen this morning, trying to make breakfast. My mom texted me saying she was going to kill me and I’d like to delay my death.”

I laughed, “What did you do?”

“I blew up a few poptarts because I put them in the microwave instead of the toaster, and I spilled milk everywhere and forgot to clean it up,” he chuckled.

“You’re such a dumbass.”