Falling Asleep on a Stranger

I woke up to Vic banging on my bedroom door. "Mike, you're gonna be late for school! Let's go!" He shouted through the door. I groaned loudly and got up. Mondays were not my favorite days, especially when school started up. I sat on my bed thinking about what classes I would end up with, what teacher's i'd have, if I would have any luck at all this year. I thought to myself, I should probably get up, wouldn't want to be late on my first day. I found my favorite Chiodos tee and my bleached skinny jeans, grabbed a towel and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. Once I was done getting ready for school, I got my stuff together and met Vic in the living room. We started out the door and walked to school in silence. Vic was the first to say something, which was unusual because I'm usually the one to start the conversation.

"You think this year will be different? Maybe Mikey will finally find the guy of his dreams?" He said as he winked at me.

"What exactly do you mean by that, Vic?" I retorted. Today was not the day for questions, especially about relationships. I was still pissed off about my breakup with Alan earlier in the week. After almost two years together, a breakup like that wasn't exactly the best thing to deal with. I was definitely not ready to discuss it with anyone, especially my brother, who had always had good steady relationships.

"You know i'm teasing you, I just thought you'd want to talk about what happened earlier in the week, bro. If you need to talk just knock on my door. I'm always here."

"I know, but I'm just.. I'm not ready to talk about it. Not yet." I was finished with this conversation, and Vic noticed my disinterest. Since we lived close to school, there wasn't much of the awkward silence that followed that conversation. We grabbed our schedules for the day and checked to see if we had any classes together. Even though Vic was a senior, we still had the same tech class and the same lunch. We said our goodbyes, made plans to meet in the music room for lunch, and parted ways. As I walked upstairs and into the math classroom, I noticed the only two free desks were in the front row on the other side of the room, and they were next to Jenna McDougall and her little posse clique thing. I had never liked any of them, but there was no use in struggling to find another seat. I sat down next to her and put my head on my desk. I looked around the room and noticed I didn't know anyone in the class at all. This day was not starting out great.

As the bell rang, Mr. Simmons walked in with two kids I had never seen before. One of them had a sleeve of tattoos on one arm and spiky black hair, and the other had two tattoo sleeves and long black hair with a small braid in it. The first thing I noticed were his eyes. He had these big, chocolate brown eyes that seemed to light up as he looked around the class. Mr. Simmons interrupted my thoughts as he said, "Hello class, it's nice to see you all after the summer break. We've got a couple of new students here and I'm sure they could use your welcome. This is Jaime Preciado," he pointed to the spiky-haired one," and Tony Perry," he pointed to the one with the braid. "I want you to give them your warmest welcome here at Clairemont. You can each take a seat next to Mike. Mike, raise your hand." I raised my hand awkwardly and they both wandered over to where I was sitting, near the windows.

"Sir, there's only one desk. Who's gonna sit where?" Piped up Jenna. I scoffed and looked out the window nearest me.

"That's a good question. Mike, could you share your desk with Tony for today, until we get another desk in this room?" I shrugged and said "sure, why not." I scooted over away from Jenna and towards the empty desk to make room for Tony. He sat down, put his bag on the floor put his hands in his lap. Jaime almost sprinted to his chair and sat down, looking as nervous as a person could possibly get. He folded his hands, unfolded them, and folded them again the entire class. Tony looked like he was about to fall asleep. When Mr. Simmons cracked a math joke, he smiled slightly. I noticed he had a slight dimple in his cheek. I had always liked dimples, even though most guys I knew never had them. I nudged him and asked if I could look at his schedule.

"Uh, yeah sure. Here you go." He whispered so quietly I almost couldn't hear him. "Could you help me find some of my classes? This school's really big."

I nodded and said, "sure, not a problem. We have every class together except for 3rd period, and our classes are actually right next to each other. I'd love to help you and Jaime out." I smiled slightly at him and gave him his schedule back. He said a silent thank you and the bell rang shortly after. We came out of the room with Jaime and I discovered that we had every class together. We almost had to sprint to our next class, because it was on the third floor, so when we got to the classroom, all three of us were out of breath. I spotted Vic and strode over to where he was sitting, all the way at the back of the classroom. I waved to Tony and Jaime, who were back at the door, and they walked through the sea of chairs and tables. As soon as they sat down next to us, the bell rang. Mr. Reynolds walked in the room, took attendance, and gave us a trial run for using photoshop. I had to stop myself from falling asleep on the computer about a dozen times, and Vic hit Jaime's arm on accident after he dozed off. I caught him before he hit the floor and he realized what happened and woke himself up. Jaime looked at me nervously and Tony tried not to burst out laughing. He slipped out a cute little giggle and I smiled slightly to myself. Vic glanced over at me and rolled his eyes. I glared at him and finished our assignment. These computers were so much faster than the computers in all the other classrooms, and I felt relieved that we had the best of the best this year. The bell finally rang and we sauntered out of the room. Jaime and Vic had gone downstairs on their own, so Tony and I were left to ourselves. I made a mental note to thank Vic for this later, and I started to make conversation with Tony.

"So, what's the braid thing you've got going on?" I asked him nonchalantly. I had noticed it in math, but I didn't want to be rude or anything.

"Oh, this thing?" he tapped it and lifted it up for me to see. "I really like Star Wars, so I kinda started this up about a year ago. It's called a Padawan braid, all the jedi's have it," he shrugged. "I also got Star Wars tattooed on my hands. See?" He showed me his fists and sure enough, his left hand said STAR and his right hand said WARS. I said that was pretty cool, and I showed him my knuckle tattoos, EVIL DEAD. "I've had these for quite a bit now, actually. I really like them."

"That's pretty cool." He smiled shyly and I smiled back at him. We stopped in the hallway and I pointed to the side he was nearest. "Well, your class is right there, across from mine. You wanna have lunch with me and my brother later today?"

"Oh, uh, yeah okay. Thanks." I thought I saw him blush a little, but he turned around and walked into his class too fast for my liking. I thought back to when we were talking about Star Wars, how his eyes seemed to light up when he talked about it. He was probably really passionate about that. I liked that in people, when they were really passionate about something, when they were really into just one thing. That reminded me of Harry Potter and myself. But Tony's eyes were distracting me. His chocolate brown eyes were just so beautiful when he talked about something he liked. I walked into the classroom thinking about his eyes and sat in the back of the classroom, still thinking about Tony's smile.

I had been spaced out for so long that I didn't realize we were taking a note in English, so I quietly got out my papers and grabbed a pencil. The note was something about grammar, but I wasn't paying any attention. I was a little preoccupied with the thought of Tony. I glanced at the clock and out the door as often as I could get away with, and it seemed like time was frozen. I was so bored and I couldn't stop being nervous about lunch today. But damn, did I want to see Tony. It was almost like I needed to see him. And I was worried he didn't like it here. I didn't know why, but I always felt nervous when someone new came. Ugh. I couldn't stop thinking about him and what he thought. After about an eternity and a half, the bell finally rang, but I couldn't get out the door because some girls were in the way. I waited impatiently at my desk and tapped my fingers, sitting and waiting for them to move. I sighed and looked around at the poster covered room and held back. And held back. Once I could get a clear path out, I basically jogged out the door to see Tony waiting for me.

"Hey, sorry, I couldn't get out right away, the door was blocked by some girls.." I said to Tony. He looked almost as nervous as I felt. That couldn't be good; why was he nervous? Better yet, why was I nervous? I had nothing to be nervous about. Tony, my FRIEND, was joining me and my brother and his FRIEND for lunch. What was there to be nervous about?

"That's alright," he mumbled, "it's not a big deal. Where's the cafeteria?"

I sort-of chuckled and said, "Uh, well, normally Vic and I eat in one of the classrooms. We don't really like the cafeteria because the classrooms give us some privacy and we don't get bothered by idiots in there." I pointed to the hallway where a bunch of girls were laughing about some hot guy or whatever. Tony and I walked to the other side of the school to the music room to meet Vic and Jaime, but when we got there, they were nowhere in sight. Tony and I stood there awkwardly and I sat down on the counter and got out my lunch. He followed me shortly after and sat on the counter near me. We ate in silence until Jaime and Vic walked through the door. Vic had blush on his cheeks and Jaime ran over and sat next to Tony on the counter as soon as he walked in the room. He mumbled a hello, and I could've sworn I heard him say turtle instead of Tony. But I wasn't concerned about that. I was preoccupied with a more pressing issue, involving Vic and his new acquaintance.

"Vic, can I talk to you outside for a second?" I needed to talk to him, and now. He just shrugged and motioned towards the door. I got up and closed the door, and he pounded me with nervous questions.

"Why do you need to talk to me? Why are you always with Tony? How come I can't be alone with someone without your questioning? Why can't I ask YOU about stuff like this? Huh?" He was shaking and trying not to shout at me. I reached out to give him a hug and he hugged me almost too tight. I had no idea what was wrong.

"Vic, I just want to know what's up. Are you and Jaime, like, dating now or something? You've only known him for like, two hours. I just want to know what's going on."

"Well..." he said, "after second period, we walked downstairs together, and uh... before you guys got there, he kinda... kissed me for no reason. That's all. And so we were talking before now and he said he liked me and I just got really confused and I don't know what to do now because I think I might like him but I still have Cara and I just-"

I stopped him before he could go on. "Vic, stop, stop, it's okay. I thought you and Cara were done? Did something happen?"

He was almost sobbing now. "Yeah, but she's like... like, we're not exactly done, and it's just really confusing and I don't know what to do and..." He sighed and sat down on the ground. I followed suit and gave him a hug. "It's alright Vic. It's gonna be fine. I promise."

"Alright... I hope so. But I really don't know what to do and I don't want to talk about it right now. What's going on with you and Tony? Are you guys like... in a similar situation or something?"

I didn't know what to tell him. I liked Tony. I knew that. But I didn't think I was over Alan at all. And it didn't seem like Tony was into me either. Why would he be though? So, I told Vic just that. He seemed to understand and we sat in silence for a moment, before realizing that lunch was almost over. We went back into the music room, got our food, Tony, and Jaime, and walked to our lockers. The entire time we walked, I thought about what was going on between me and Tony. I knew I liked him all of a sudden. I knew I wasn't over Alan and I didn't know how long that would take me. I knew this wasn't a good situation. But what I didn't know was what to do about it. Should I tell Tony? Or would that kind of ruin our sort-of friendship of about... two hours, now? I didn't know what to do and I figured I should just keep quiet for now. Besides, Tony might not even be gay. How was I supposed to know?

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I didn't remember more than five minutes of any moment until dinner. Mom made tacos and Papa came home with some churros from the stand down the street. Around eight I went upstairs to start my math homework, but I couldn't focus, so I just laid in bed and looked back on the day. I pulled the covers over me and closed my eyes. I fell asleep thinking about Tony and his chocolate brown eyes and his beautiful shy smile.

I woke up around two in the morning and someone was pounding on my door. "Mike, dude, I need some help." Vic whispered almost inaudibly through my door. "What is it, bro?" I piped up. I got up, put a shirt on and rubbed my eyes. I opened the door to Vic in his boxers with six or seven shirts and about 4 pairs of skinnies in his small arms. "Vic, what's going on?" I asked. I didn't know what was up, and I really didn't want to know, but I felt bad for him because he looked so unsure about everything.

"Mike I- Jaime invited me out tonight and-"

"He invited you out at two in the morning?" I raised my eyebrow and glared at him.

"Yeah, I know it's weird but I just I need to know what to wear."

"Ugh, okay fine. Where are you guys going?"

"I don't know. He said it was a surprise."

I didn't know what to do. It seemed really weird that he'd be going out at 2 in the morning with some guy he had just met today, but I was too exhausted to look into it. I pointed to a white tank top and told him to wear a plaid button down over it. He nodded and thanked me and made his way out of my bedroom. I walked over to my bed, flopped down on top of the blankets and fell into a dreamless sleep.