Pocrescophobia

It's really moments like this where I wish that he was mine. Where I wish that I'd be able to hold his small frame in my arms, to kiss those pouty pink lips, to bite his pale skin, to call him mine. But for now, I still have to convince him to trust me as a friend. But hell, I'll be as patient as I need to be. I'll wait forever as long as I'll be able to call him mine.

But like most good things, this lunch comes to an end, and we head inside together. Of course, half of the school stares us down curiously and angrily, the other half just avoids all eye contact with me or Arden. Well, hopefully they'll keep cowering in the corner. Most of the ones avoiding us like cowards are the ones I worry about anyway. Yet some idiots are brave enough to stare at us in disgust. I can tell you all for a fact that most of them have secretly had at least homosexual tendencies. How do I know? Well, I've been around them drunk before, and well, they tend to blab about themselves when drunk. Ah, denial, such a sweet, blissful thing.

=

The rest of the day passes by relatively quickly, but I'm lost in my thoughts half of the time anyway. That's probably why my grades are slipping so much. Oh well. They haven't gotten too bad. Yet. I just need to raise them a little before school ends in a few months. That's plenty of time. Especially now that Arden's back and I'm less stressed out. Hopefully, it'll stay that way.

=

When the last bell, I saunter out of the classroom, making my way to my locker. Halfway through getting my stuff together, I notice a familiar figure and reach out. Within seconds, a startled Arden is standing next to me. Eventually, his face smooths out and he gives me a near microscopic smile. Oh my, he almost really smiled at me without me doing it first.

"Uh, hi," he mutters. I smirk, nodding at the meek boy. "Hey. So how was your first day back?" I ask, finally closing my locker. He shrugs at me, looking around. "It was okay. No one was really too bad. It was just boring, but it's familiar, ya know?" I give him a smile. "Yeah. I'm just glad people finally backed off of you. My knuckles have been getting a little sore," I joke, rubbing my knuckles for emphasis as we walk outside. He just shakes his head, smiling a little.

Oh well. In time, I'll have him actually laughing and smiling. I notice his friends off in the distance, getting in their cars.

"Hey, do want me to give you a ride?" I ask as his friends start to drive off. Arden turns to me, thinking it over for a second before nodding. "Okay." And then he follows me to my car. As soon as we get in, I remember that I didn't turn my music off or down before I turned the car off, so it'll still be playing. Just as I thought, a random song plays right when I turn my car on. I turn it down quickly, smiling sheepishly at Arden. But he's staring out the window anyway, lost in thought.

With a sigh, I reach over, shaking him a little. "I might need for you to give me directions," I tell him as his eyes lose the glazed look, and he nods.

"So, you just..." And we begin our short journey to the house of the enigmatic boy sitting in my passenger seat.