Chet Watakeekul

It was too nice of a morning to be stuck in a classroom. I wished I had time to run around the track a bit more, but I didn't. I had finance class. With one last look at the blue morning sky, I entered the building. I quickly went to the classroom and sat in my usual spot.

The classroom already felt stifling. There was a certain heaviness to the air and the sound of students chatting and shuffling filled the room. A few people came up to me and congratulated me on the game, but then went back to their conversations.

I was digging my book out of my backpack when I heard a familiar, female voice say, "Hi."

"Hi," I said to Melissa as I placed my finance book on my desk. It was only then that I remembered she had said she was going to go to the soccer game. Had she gone? I hadn't noticed.

"Great game Saturday," she said.

So she had seen it.

"You were really awesome when you scored the last point. I waited, but I didn't see you afterwards."

"Oh. Sorry." My fingers played with the pages of the book. "My friend was throwing a party and in all the excitement I kind of forgot you said you were going to be there. I was even going to introduce you to some of the guys."

"It's not a big deal," she said covering her hurt well. I didn't want to hurt her, but pretending I was interested in her when I wasn't would only hurt her more in the long run.

She put her red backpack on her desk and took out her finance book. She zipped the bag back up and was about to move it to the floor when a familiar sticker caught my eye. I grabbed her wrist before she could move the backpack just so I could get a better look at the white and red sticker with the leopard on it.

"You went to North High?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said. I let go of her wrist and she put the bag on the floor next to her chair.

"I went to South," I said.

A slight pink, blush touched her cheeks. "I heard," she said.

"Then do you know Vincent and Alex?" I realized I didn't know their last names. I should at least find out Alex's as he was now officially and openly dating my best friend.

"Not personally," she said. "I know of them."

If she only knew of them, she might not know what happened with Jason in high school. I had searched all weekend on my little, old laptop for any incident at North High between a Jason and an Alex, but there was nothing. No news articles. Nothing even on social media. It still baffled me how they could keep students from gossiping about it.

She bit her bottom lip and got that conspiratory look in her eyes. She wanted to tell me, I could see it, but she was hesitant. Maybe I wouldn't even have to bring up Jason. Maybe she would just bring it up on her own.

"Alex started dating my best friend," I offered hoping that would prompt her into telling me more. "I really like him. They are cute together."

She breathed out a happy sigh of relief and smiled at me. "I'm so glad to hear that. Everyone always knew Alex was gay. Some kids made fun of him, but he never acted like he cared. And then when he started dating Jason..." The professor walked into the room, but Melissa didn't notice and kept talking, "...he seemed so happy. If only..." She immediately stopped talking. I wasn't sure if it was because she was trying to protect the secret or because she had now noticed the professor.

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The professor started class and I was left thrumming my fingers softly over the pages of my now open finance book. Class had never seemed so long. As soon as it was over, I turned completely in my chair to face Melissa beside me.

"Are you free for lunch?" I knew I shouldn't offer lunch when I didn't want her interested in me, but I really, really wanted to know about Jason. It was a tickle at the back of my brain that just wouldn't go away. I had to scratch it. I just had to.

Her smile was the biggest I had seen on her yet and the guilt twisted in my chest, but not enough to stop me.

"Yes," she said.

I quickly led the way to the cafeteria building. She asked me small questions about soccer along the way which I was happy to answer and expand upon until her eyes glazed over. I kept talking about soccer even though I knew her eyes had glazed over. She nodded and was nice to pretend she was still listening, but she wasn't. That was okay. I could talk to myself about soccer and still be happy.

We bought a couple of sandwiches and drinks and found a small, round table to sit at. I didn't bring it up right away. Instead I took a huge bite of the turkey sandwich. She took a small bite of hers. A bite that was way too small and I knew she was trying to be careful to make a good impression in front of me. She was wasting her time though. In fact, I probably would have liked her more if she had just taken a big, messy bite. But even then, I wouldn't be attracted to her.

"My friend seems really happy with Alex," I said after we both took several bites.

"I hope Alex is happy with him," she said, "and he treats Alex right. I wasn't friends with him, but he and Vincent were always noticeable. Vincent seemed mean at times, but I think that was just a bluff. He always went out of his way to take care of his friends. Especially Alex. Actually, for awhile I thought he might have a crush on Alex or that they were secretly dating, but then Alex started dating Jason and Vincent never showed any jealousy so there went that theory."

"What happened with Jason? Why aren't they still together? Don't get me wrong. I'm happy because it means my friend now has someone to date. I'm just curious." Had I said too much? Curse my talkative tongue. Not really though. I liked my tongue. I needed it.

She put her sandwich down and leaned across the table towards me. I automatically leaned in closer to her.

"I only heard rumors," she whispered, "but what I saw with my own eyes was one day Jason and Alex were lovey-dovey walking hand in hand in the halls and the very next day Alex hated Jason. Jason at first would just smirk as if he didn't care, but when Alex's friends got involved Jason transferred schools and I never saw him again. It took a long time for Alex to become his happy self again."

"So what are the rumors?" I whispered back.

Her eyes darted all around the cafeteria before she answered me - still leaning across the table. "The rumors were that Jason secretly recorded them having sex and then blackmailed him."

"That bastard!" I didn't whisper. Several heads turned in our direction. "Sorry," I said to Melissa when I saw her startled expression.

"It's okay," she said. "If it's true then he is a bastard. I don't know if it is true though. Vincent and Trevon said if anyone spread those rumors, they would sue them for defamation. People stopped talking about it after a few days and anything that was posted online got deleted. And like I said, Jason transferred schools so we couldn't exactly ask him or prove it. It was clear though that Alex was hurt and Jason was acting like a jerk."

So it might not have been true. But it rang true. It made sense that it was true by the way Vincent was so overprotective and wouldn't listen to reason. And by the way Mateo and Alex shut up after they accidently mentioned Jason in front of me. So I knew. Or I was pretty sure I knew. I wouldn't ever bring it up again. The itch had been scratched and I could keep it to myself.

I quickly took the last few bites of my sandwich. Melissa had just barely reached the middle of hers. She folded it up back in it's wrapping.

"You can finish," I told her. "I can wait."

"I'm full," she lied. Well, if I had been attracted to her, her white lies would have changed that. "Thanks for inviting me." She blushed as she looked at me. Damn my good looks. Not really though. I liked my looks too.

She put what was left of her sandwich in her bag. "Maybe we can do this again sometime," she said. Her eyes darted hopefully to me.

"Sure," I said. "I'm always happy to have more friends."

Her eyes darkened slightly as I knew they would. I had just made the relationship clear and she didn't like the answer. "Me too," she said and gave me a painful smile.

We stood up and walked outside.

"Well," she said. "I'd better get to my class."

I didn't answer as I stared at the handsome man standing by his silver car. His eyes darted to me.

"Oh, it's Vincent," Melissa said. And then there was a long pause as Vincent and I continued to stare at each other. "I better go to class," Melissa repeated. I heard her shuffle away, but couldn't reply or answer as I stared into a pair of golden eyes rimmed with a darker brown. I only had one thought.

Crap. He overheard us talking about Jason.