by Semirhage
Rating: R for SLASH!! ^.^ (Like that's a bad thing! ::winks::) And, err, cussing.
Chapter Two
"Adrian! Wake up! How many times do I have to yell at you before you get out of bed?"
"At least once more, Mom," I said as I grabbed the second pillow on my bed and stuffed it over my head.
"Come on, sleepy, get up. You don't want to miss the bus, do you?" Mom asked before shutting the door. "If you get up, I'll stick a couple pieces of bread in the toaster for you."
"All right, all right." Yawning, I rubbed my sleepy eyes, then sat and looked around my room. Nothing had changed from the previous night: the walls were still splashed with many different colours, the vibrantly violet mural was still sprawled across the wall opposite my bed, the window drapes were still rich amber, the soft sky blue rug was still rumpled on the scarlett floor from where careless feet had trampled upon it, and the opaque emerald curtains still hung from my canopy. Mom had named it the "Rainbow Room", and I supposed that name was a fitting one.
After slipping out of bed, I followed my usual morning ritual. Then I skipped towards the kitchen in search for toast and orange juice. I found both waiting for me at the table.
"You know me too well," I muttered dryly to my mother as I passed her on my way to my seat.
A soft laugh answered my comment. "You better eat fast. If the bus is on time, it'll get here in approximately five minutes."
"Oh, no," I moaned before I wolfed down my breakfast. As soon as I had finished, I stood and rubbed my stomach. "I'll be regretting that on the bus ride," I announced.
"Have a good day, 'Drian," Mom said, grinning. "Don't let Noah get you into too much trouble."
Snorting, I rounded the table and hugged her, then pressed a short kiss to her cheek. "Are you so sure it won't be the other way 'round?"
"My darling Adrian? Pull anyone into trouble? What have you been smoking?" She ruffled his hair, then handed him his backpack and lunch sack. "Now, go have fun and learn something interesting so you can tell me all about it!"
After stuffing my lunch bag into my backpack, I shrugged my pack on and I snorted. "All right, Mom. I'm sure you'll be real interested in Algebra II and Chemistry."
"Knowledge never hurts," Mom pointed out.
The sound of a bus approaching the house stopped me from retorting. Sighing, I shouted, "See ya, Mom!" before racing out the door to catch the bus.
I pulled my jacket tighter around me as the cool morning air seeped through the fabric. The dew on the grass made the bottom of my pants wet, and the early morning light caused me to squint to see anything.
As usual, the big yellow bus did not stop on time, and I had to slough through high weeds to get to the door. I always insisted that the driver did it on purpose to spite me, but my mom maintained the event was accidental.
When I stepped onto the first step, the bus doors shut. Yelping, I quickly hopped up the steps, but as soon as I placed my foot on the last one, the vehicle started moving, causing me to fall face first into the aisle.
Twitching, I pulled myself from the ground and sent my nastiest glare in the bus driver's direction. The little kids at the front of the bus giggled - there were just a few, though, because I was one of the first on the route.
I made my way to the back of the bus - the highschooler's seats, and had taken my normal seat (second from the back), before I noticed a new kid sitting in front of me.
His hair was brilliantly shaded auburn and ... spiked. I could not really see him, though, but I could tell he was wearing a set of headphones. Maybe he had not even noticed my arrival on the bus. Usually, I was the first highschooler (and third person total) on the bus in the mornings.
Suddenly, the boy turned around and lowered the earphones around his neck with a casual flick of his wrist. "Hey," he said, a toothy grin flashing across his face.
My first thought was, How are his teeth that white? Then I noticed the two silver hoop earrings decorating his left ear. My gaze flitted upwards, where I noticed he had another earring - although I could not remember what they called the ones that went through the cartilage. After that, I noticed his eyes. Forest green. They seemed to sparkle, or maybe that was just the way the sunlight reflected in them. His skin was lightly tanned; my eyes followed it until they reached the spiky collar fastened around his neck.
"Sorry," I muttered as I realised what I was doing. "It's just that there aren't many people around here with your sense of fashion."
The boy ran a hand through his shock of hair and laughed ruefully. "What a tragedy," he said. "At least I know I'll be unique. I wasn't too uncommon where I came from - the big city provides a home to many people such as myself."
For some reason, I found my fingers reaching towards one of the spikes on his collar - no, necklace, whatever he called it. "It's not sharp," I said as one of my fingers hit the stud. In a way I was relieved; I could not imagine anyone wearing sharp spikes around their neck.
His eyes sparkled again. "No - I was going to buy the sharp one, but then my sister told me that someone would come along and put it on me backwards. I'm not too keen on having spikes impaling my neck."
I nodded, then forced my fingers to return to my lap. "So what do you call it? Is it a necklace...a collar?" I felt my face heating as my mouth formed around the word. There was something strangely...erotic about the thought.
"You can call it whatever you want. But speaking of names, do you have one, or must I forever think of you as the boy with pretty blue eyes?"
Shaking my head and snorting at the same time, I attempted to push away the feeling that something about this situation and the way he was talking were abnormal. "I don't have pretty eyes," I retorted. "They're plain, just like every other part of me. And my name's Adrian. Adrian Wilson."
"Well, plain Adrian Wilson, I'm Gavin. But you can call me Gav. All my close friends, lovers, etcetera, have called me that. Unless you are freaked by my strangeness? You wouldn't be the first, trust me."
"Me? Freaked by you? Hah hah. There is nothing about you that could freak me out, Gavin." Somehow, calling him by the nickname he offered seemed strange, so I stuck with his full name.
"Gav," the red-head insisted.
I rolled my eyes. "Fine, Gav." When I finally said it, the name was not as awkward on my tongue as I had imagined it would be. In fact, it seemed...right, somehow.
"So...how old are you, Adrian?"
"Seventeen," I answered automatically. "I'm in twelfth grade."
"Aah... Me too." For a few moments, Gavin stared at me as if he were contemplating something, then he asked, "Do you always ride the bus?"
"Yes," I answered again, tapping the tips of my index fingers together. "I don't have a car because I don't have enough money to buy one and my mother has to use her car to drive to work and she doesn't have enough money to buy another one and-"
"Wow," Gavin said. "For a few moments, I was thinking you were one of those socially shy or just reserved people."
"I talk," I retorted. "Sometimes I just have more to say than other times."
"You have one of the most adorable pouts I've ever seen on a person."
My eyes widened as I touched a finger to my lips to try to feel the elleged pout. "I don't pout," I began but was stopped by Gavin placing two of his own fingers against my mouth.
"Yes, you do," he insisted. "And it's an adorable one too."
"Hmpf," I muttered as the weight of the fingers disappeared. "I suppose you drive?" I asked, curiosity driving me back to the subject of automobiles.
"Actually, I do," Gavin replied. I opened my mouth to ask a question, but he continued before I had a chance, "And just for your information, I called the school and they said I had to pay the fee and get a parking pass before I could drive to school. So today I'm riding the bus. Tomorrow I'm driving."
"Oh." I looked out the window as the countryside passed by the bus. My eyes scanned the filling seats and I started when I realised how far we had already travelled. "That was wierd," I announced in amusement as I counted how many heads had arrived since I had lost myself in conversation with the new boy.
"What was wierd?"
"Oh... Just lost time, that's all. Usually, that only happens on rare occasions: either when I'm with my mom or Noah, or when I'm painting," I explained at the puzzled look in Gavin's eyes.
A flood of questions answered my explanation. "Lose time? Ahh...I see. Who's Noah? You paint? Do you sell anything? Adrian Wilson... No, I don't think I've seen anything by you."
Holding a hand in the air, I silenced his tirade of comments. "First, Noah's my best friend. Yes, I paint. No, I don't sell anything; I'm not good enough. And what do you mean, you've not seen anything by me? Are you an artist yourself? Or a fan?"
"Neither, actually," Gavin responded, resting his chin against the top of the seat. "My ex was a really big fan, so I was constantly hearing about this painter or that one. Unfortunately, he couldn't paint to save his life. Not even stick figures, and I can draw those."
"Oh, well, most people -" I blinked, then blinked again. "You... He? I... Oh, 'scuse me. I've just never met someone who was - well, to my knowledge, anyway, err..."
"Gay?" Gavin asked, grinning mischievously. "Yeah, I thought so. Maybe I should have broken it to you easier, huh? I just didn't want to be well on the way to a good friendship with you, then have you freak out and never speak to me again. I hate that. It always feels like I've wasted time that I could have spent on someone more worthwhile."
"That's the wrong way of thinking about it," I interjected, frowning. "It wouldn't be wasted time because you might have had a good effect on the person."
"Most people never change," Gavin said, sorrow lacing his words. "So you're not weirded out by it or anything? If you want, tell me now and I'll pretend we never met."
I laughed. "Don't be silly. One of the best things about my mom is that she is the most open and caring person I have ever met. I can't imagine what she would say if she found out I'd turned my nose at the new guy just because he let slip the fact that he was homosexual. See, I'm a bit of a mommy's boy. I couldn't live with myself if I disappointed her in any way."
"Aren't we all?" Gavin asked, grinning. "All right. And I think I'll probably need all the friends I can get in a place like this."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "Everyone here has always been friendly to new people."
"But have they been gay?"
"No, but that doesn't make any difference," I noted.
"To you, yes, but to most people it's a world of difference." Gavin sighed and looked towards the window.
For the next couple of minutes, we were both silent. He seemed intent on studying the landscape and buildings we passed, and I found myself admiring the way the light played upon his vibrant hair.
Suddenly, the bus stopped and the driver yelled, "All highschoolers off now!"
Shaking my head, I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder, then stepped into the aisle. I looked into Gavin's seat and saw he was carefully packing his portable compact disc player into his bag.
"The driver won't wait," I warned, risking a glance towards the front, where the last couple of students were hopping from the bus. "Come on, Gav, or you'll be enrolling in middle school instead of twelfth grade."
"Coming," Gavin responded perkily as he stood and followed me.
When I reached the front, the door had already been shut. I gave the driver an annoyed look and he muttered angrily about stupid teenagers who act like they own time.
"What a creep," Gavin said after the bus had left. "Uck. One more bus drive with him, then I'm finished for good. I'm actually tempted to call my mom and beg for a ride home, but I think I can stand the torment for another couple of hours. Tell me...how do you stand him?"
I sighed and started walking towards the doors with Gavin by my side. "After twelve years, you learn to ignore him."
"I don't think I ever could," Gavin exclaimed. "So...this is to be my school for the next couple of months? It's not that big."
I gaped at him. "It's two stories high!"
"Two stories?" Gavin mocked. "My last school was three stories high! And it had a basement that housed our indoor swimming pool as well! We also had several acres for our parking lots, baseball and soccer fields, football stadium, outdoor swimming pool, all kinds of things! And you say, two stories high!"
Rolling my eyes, I pushed his shoulder. "Whatever," I mouthed. "I think you're a load of bull."
"Shit."
"What? Where'd that come from?" I wondered, not for the first time frowning at him for something strange he had said.
"If you're going to say it, you have to say it right. It's a load of bullshit, not just bull. Because the bull without the shit isn't half as bad as with. So it's bullshit."
Laughing, I ran a hand through my hair. "Now I think you just like to cuss."
"Oh, no, I fucking don't."
"Gav!" I attempted to reprimand, though my stifled laughter did not help. "You shouldn't curse just for the sake of it."
He tapped a finger at the corner of his mouth. "Oh? Nobody ever taught me that one. Well, someone needs to kindly inform my mother."
I shook my head and opened the door for both of us to enter. From the corner of my eyes, I watched the red-head move through the doorway. He walked with the grace of a cat - a tiger or some other dangerous feline predator. Then I noticed what he was wearing. His low-necked, dark green shirt sported cut off sleeves and did not quite meet the hem of his low-riding blue-jean pants - in fact, they stopped short of his belly-button which was, I was surprised to notice, pierced.
"Hello? Earth to Adrian?" Gavin asked, waving a hand in front of my face.
"Oh, umm...sorry. I just...don't think the principal'll like your clothing."
Gavin laughed. "Oh, is that all? My old principal didn't agree with my fashion sense either, but he learned to live with it."
I shrugged. "Well, I've never had any problems with him, but from what I've heard he's very strict about school rules."
"Aren't they all?" the red-head asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly. "Anyway, I was going to ask you to point me in the right direction of the office. I wouldn't want to make you late to your class. Of course, I'm sure walking the new guy to the office would be a good excuse for most teachers."
"I suppose," I replied, smiling. "Maybe you'll get a class with me, or perhaps we'll have the same lunch. If not, I'll see you on the bus, huh? Oh, and the office is down the hall and, well, there's a big sign above the door that says 'Main Office'. You can't miss it."
"Thanks, Adrian. I hope I'll see you sometime before the end of the day. It'd be nice to have a class with someone I already know and get along well with." With one last grin, the red haired boy strode in the direction I had pointed.
"Bye," I called, my teeth sinking into my lower lip after I the word had left my mouth.
When the bus I rode dropped its highschool students at the school, the bus area was pretty much empty, but the few students standing around stared at Gavin as he walked past them. Flowed was a better word, I decided as I watched him. Somehow, he seemed to tread above the floor - he was one of those lucky people who was naturally graceful. I was not envious of him... At that moment, I felt a growing awe and admiration for my new red haired friend.
As I strode towards my locker and later towards my first class of the day, the only thoughts on my mind were Gavin and how utterly cool he looked in his strange choice of clothing.
||Chapter One||Chapter Three||
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