Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 23:26:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jake Austin <crazyturtule90@yahoo.com>
Subject: Life As I Knew It chapter 2

Disclaimers: Yeah, these aren't fun, but I guess they're necessary. If
you're under 18, or if hot gay sex offends you, or if it's illegal to be
reading this where you are, you probably shouldn't be reading this. I
guess. Or you can, you know, you don't have to listen to me, lol.

This is fiction, so yeah, people and the events that occur are all fake. I
may use the names of real places, but other than that, this story is
completely made up.

And also, I'd appreciate it of you DIDN'T take this story and post it
somewhere else without my permission. That's called stealing, and it's not
cool.

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

Note to readers: Hey guys! I decided to write an extra long-ish chapter
just for you guys. I think most of my chapters will be around the same
length as the first one though, idk. It's hard keeping up with routine D:

Please send comments, questions, or a "Hello!" to crazyturtule90@yahoo.com
(:

Thanks for all the nice words on the story so far. You guys are really too
kind. But I do love emails. I like... LIVE off of compliments, ahaha. But
any constructive criticism is appreciated as well :D

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this one!

Oh, lol, one more thing. This chapter goes out to Kevin! Thanks for being
such a cool guy to talk to about the story!

Okay, NOW you can enjoy (x

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Life As I Knew It

Chapter 2: Falling Slowly

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"If loving you is wrong, I never want to be right again."

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The bell rang, and Ms. Higgins dismissed us, but not without the "The bell
doesn't dismiss you, I do" garbage all teachers give us. Really, if the
bell didn't dismiss us, then what was the point of even having a
bell. Idiots.

We walked out the door together, and stepped into the hallway full of
bustling students. Some of them were in a hurry and all of them were being
obnoxiously loud.

"Soooo," Aaron said, and then he cleared his throat. "What class do you
have next?"

I checked my schedule. "Uh, geometry. How about you?"

"Same."

I stood there for a second, smiling bashfully at the ground. And Aaron had
the same look on his face as well, except he was looking straight at
me. "Stop staring at me," I muttered, my face turning red.

"Sorry," He chuckled, and then he suddenly looked really nervous. "Do you
wanna... uh, walk to class together, or something?"

I waved him off, "Nah. I gotta stop by my locker first."

He stared dejectedly at the floor and said a quiet "Oh, okay..."

I didn't realize that I unconsciously kind of shut him down when he was
just trying to be friendly. I was panicking because I didn't know what else
to say to cheer him up. Then I thought of something that could maybe redeem
myself.

"Oh, hey, how about you... um, save me a seat. Yeah, then we can sit
together in that class as well," I smiled at him, and his face broke out
into an enormous grin, literally just like a kid on Christmas morning,
which I thought was kind of weird. All I did was say that we could sit
together. Still, the way his whole face brightened up instantly was
adorable. He looked like a little kid in a teenager's body.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool!" Aaron grinned at me. "I'll save you a seat in the
back row." He then walked off with a bounce in his step. I laughed; both at
his upbeat personality, and at how he managed to figure out that I actually
liked sitting in the back of the classroom.

I walked to my locker and saw Isabella talking to some guy. He was laughing
really hard at whatever Isabella was saying, but she just looked bored.

"Uh, hey Bella," I greeted.

Her eyes lit up and she immediately grabbed my arm and hugged me. "Oh my
god," she wailed, "I've missed you so much!"

I was completely lost for a second, until I noticed the guy behind us. I
knew it was probably one of her little schemes again, and as always, I had
no choice but to play along.

"Hey, Isabella," I said. "It's been, uh, way too long...?"

She was faking loud sobs into my shoulder at this point. "I know... I
know... I've missed you so much. I've--" Then she looked up at the guy, who
was still standing behind us, watching with confusion written all over his
face. She sniffled, "I'm sorry, uh, Bill, right?"

"Jeff," He said.

"Right. Um, could you leave me with my friend here? It's... It's just been
so long since we've last seen each other..." She hugged me again, but this
time, I could hear her stifling her laughter by biting onto my shirt.

"Yeah, uh, sure... See ya." Bill or Jeff said, and then he left.

Isabella stood up straight and wiped her eyes. "Ugh, you're a
lifesaver. 'Yeah, uh, sure... See ya," She said, with a goofy expression on
her face. "What a dumb-ass. Oh, kudos to you for catching on so quick, by
the way. Nothing less from the great Riley Monroe, of course."

I sighed, "Why can't you just tell them, 'No'. It's really not that hard,
Isabella." Not that I was actually blaming her. She'd always felt bad about
turning down guys before, but now that she's really grown into her figure,
it's been a lot tougher on her than before. Being an outcast herself, she's
always had a soft spot for the less popular kids, despite her hardened
outward personality. Which I saw right through.

She groaned loudly. "Don't you think I've TRIED! I've told probably a dozen
losers today to 'please go away' nicely, but for some goddamned reason,
they think I'm joking and their pea-sized brains rearrange that sentence to
say, 'Oh, my sweet, sweet suitor. You are the sunshine to my Sunny D. The
vodka to my alcoholism. The ass to my hole."

In spite of myself, I laughed, hard. She was so weird. "Maybe you should
lay them down a bit more... straightforward, then. Pursue a more
justifiably indifferent tone towards their suit, while also retaining
composure adequate enough to hint at a possible relationship, fulfilling
their insatiably fervent desire, even for just a moment."

She rolled her eyes. "You know, I hate it when you talk like that. It makes
you sound more... right."

I giggled. I kind of outgrew my old habit of using huge and sometimes
unnecessary words to get my point across, but it was always fun to use at
least once in a while.

"Oh, and another thing," She said, getting fired up all over again. "This
other kid asks me if I'm into video games, right? And I say, 'Uh, yeah,
duh.' And then he goes, 'What video games do you like?' And I tell him that
I'm into zombie games. And he starts flipping shit, like I just said I'd
fucking marry him or something. And he starts talking about this one zombie
game, which I personally thought was shit, and he said, 'Dude, you should
totally try it out, man. It's absolutely THE penultimate game ever.' What a
dumb-ass!" She grunted, which I just smiled at. I was pretty used to her
disgust towards the majority of the male species. Even though she felt bad
for kids like us, it didn't stop her from making fun of them herself
sometimes.

She huffed, "I mean, why can't guys be more like you. Smart, funny,
cute. Like, okay, tell me, what's the definition of 'penultimate'?"

"It's the second to last thing in a series of things." I said.

"See!" She cried. "You're the only other person who would know that. And I
can't make out with you for it either because you're like a brother to me,
and that, my dear friend, would be incest."

I just stared at her for a minute. This was really the most I've ever seen
her get worked up about relationships. Not that she's ever had one (or
myself, for that matter), but she's always been the kind of person who
swore she didn't need a boyfriend. I guess she was wrong.

"It's just all really frustrating," She sighed, her voice taking a
different kind of tone altogether.

I gave her a sad smile and hugged her, which she gratefully returned. We
just stood there for a few seconds, wallowing in teenage depression for
just a little bit, until we both felt we'd done enough moping.

"Burrito?" I finally asked.

She laughed, then nodded in affirmative. "Burrito." She pulled away. "You
know, you're such a good friend. See, that's why I don't need anyone else
to hang out with. You're cooler than all of those dickwads put together." I
laughed, but she kept going. "I'm surprised you don't have a girlfriend
yet, either. I mean, I know girls who would KILL to be with a guy like
you."

She said it nonchalantly, but to me, it felt almost pointed. Accusing. I
decided to avoid that conversation altogether.

I laughed nervously, "Uh, yeah, sure. I'm... gonna head to geometry
now. I'll see you at lunch."

She nodded. "Coolbeans."

I gave her an awkward smile, took my textbook out of our locker, and walked
quickly to class.

"Another crisis avoided," I muttered to myself.

But for how long? I'd be an idiot for assuming that I could go through my
whole life living a lie. That I could go through my whole life without
telling my family and closest friends that I was gay. Even if I could, I
don't think I'd be able to handle that. Feigning an interest in girls,
being 'one of the guys,' and acting like an idiot. No, I'd probably have a
mental relapse before any of that happened.

I approached my classroom door. "Snap out of it, Riley," I told
myself. "School isn't the place for this." So I switched gears and pushed
those thoughts to the back of my mind, just like I'd done countless times
before. I walked in, and the first thing I saw was Aaron sitting in the
back row, looking at me with a giddy grin. He looked so happy, it was
adorable. I walked over and sat down next to him.

"Thanks for saving my seat," I smiled.

"No problem. Wow, we get to sit next to each other in this class, too!" He
said.

"What are you all excited for?" I laughed.

"W-what?" He turned red and started chuckling nervously. "I'm not
excited. Well, maybe I am. Wait. Yeah, I'm really excited, because... I,
uh, really like math." He tried to regain his composure. "I may not look
it, but I'm quite the math whiz, you know."

I thought he was going to say something different, but I quickly abandoned
those silly thoughts. "Really?" I said, "I kind of hate math. I'm only in
geometry because I really study all the time."

He looked surprised. "Seriously? You look like you're really into math and
science."

"Because of the glasses?" I smirked.

"No, no. I really like your glasses. They look good on you..." His voice
trailed off, and I couldn't help but imply that he was hinting at something
more. I blushed at the possibility, but knew it was unrealistic of me to
get my hopes up like this.

"Uh, thanks, I guess. But yeah, I really do hate math. If you could find a
way to make me enjoy it a bit more, I'd love you forever," I joked. But the
way his face turned red at the last part really got my attention. His
lightly tanned skin quickly turned a shade of pink, and his eyes moved to
the ground. I thought maybe I'd made him uncomfortable with what I said, so
I quickly intervened. "Or you don't have to," I laughed, "I was just
kidding."

"No!" He said quickly, almost yelled. "I mean... I could definitely help
you with geometry. I have a few tricks that can make math a little more
fun. Maybe... we can, uh, meet up sometime, and I can help you."

"Oh, cool." I said, surprised at how quickly he reacted.

He smiled shyly, "Yeah..."

The bell rang, and the teacher who was sitting in her desk stood up and
wrote her name on the whiteboard.

"Hey guys," she said, "My name is Mrs. Woodrift. Perhaps some of you have
had my husband's sixth grade math class back at Cedar Valley Middle
School. Wonderful man. Terrible in bed." The class let out a collective
gasp, which made Mrs. Woodrift laugh.

"Relax," She said, "Just trying to break the First Day tension around
here. And please, don't act so innocent. I hear what you high schoolers
talk about. You little nasties." That earned a round of laughter, which
verified my suspicions that I was really going to like this teacher.
"Okay, okay," She continued, "Enough with the goofiness. Time to get to
business. Let's open our books to chapter one and let's get cracking."

She really jumped into the lesson, attacking the whiteboard with equations
and shapes. She wrote with a passion, pausing only to answer questions. I
found myself lost in all of it as always. Aaron saw me staring at the board
in confusion and leaned over to my desk, where his smell overwhelmed my
senses. He smelled like light cologne, sweat, and boy. I loved it.

"You look lost," He chuckled, "What don't you get?"

I laughed, "Um, everything."

He smiled. "Point one out."

"Okay, um... there," I said, pointing to a problem I'd written down from
the board.

"All right, so triangle congruence theorems. What they're basically just
saying is that you need to find which angles and sides are the same for two
triangles. If you have the measurements here, you can find..."

He trailed off, and I listened. And I got it, too. But what I really
noticed was how beautiful he looked when he was talking. His eyes twinkled,
which showed how much he loved what he was talking about. And his lips
moved fluidly, the two soft pieces of flesh moving seductively with each
word. When he would stop and try to think of a way to explain something,
he'd take a short pause and lightly bite his lower lip with his teeth. I
felt myself falling for him even more, despite my best attempts at
controlling my emotions.

"And that's all you need to do," He finished. "Do you get it now?"

I nodded quickly, "I do, actually! Thank you. You really know what you're
talking about, huh?"

He laughed, "Yeah, kind of. At least, I hope I do."

I grinned at him, and he smiled back. I wasn't even listening to
Mrs. Woodrift concluding the lesson; I was too far lost in Aaron's brown
eyes. His soft, velvety brown eyes.

All too soon, the bell rang, and both of us jumped when it buzzed
loudly. We both laughed at each other's reactions, and then packed up and
walked into the hall.

"What class do you have next?" He asked.

"Japanese. How about you?"

"French. Do you have lunch afterwards?"

I nodded.

"Cool. Do you want to... um, maybe sit with me at lunch?" Aaron asked.

"I don't know," I trailed off, but quickly backed up when I saw that
disappointed look on his face again. "I mean, you can sit with me if you
want to, of course! It's just that I sit with my best friends, Isabella and
Ethan. Isabella doesn't take kindly to new people, but Ethan probably
wouldn't mind. But still, Isabella kind of makes me fear for your safety."

He looked relieved that I didn't just shut him down, thankfully. He just
had that carefree smile on his face. "Yeah, sure, it's fine!" He said. "I
have some old friends here who want to sit with me, but I'd uh... much
rather hang with you."

That last part turned my face red, and I had to mentally control myself
from letting out a girlish giggle. I was elated; I mean, he, Aaron Summers,
actually wanted to hang out with me, instead of his own friends!

"Yeah, you're really cool, too. I... guess I'll see you at lunch, then." I
said a little too quickly. I shot him a shy smile, waved, and headed
towards class. I was hugging my books to my chest, and if I could see
myself, I'd bet anything that I had the goofiest grin on my face.

I sat down and daydreamed of Aaron the entire class. I thought of his brown
eyes, his jet black hair, his smooth, tanned skin. I even thought of the
little things that made him special: the way he licked his lips in between
talking, the small birthmark at the crook of his neck, the way his jaw
curved underneath his perfect mouth. Everything. I loved everything about
him. I didn't care that nothing could ever happen between us. As long as I
was allowed to have some contact with him, even as friends, I'd be happy. I
looked at the clock and saw that it was almost time for lunch. I smiled to
myself. Time flies when you're thinking of Aaron. The bell rang, and I
found myself almost skipping to the cafeteria.

After ducking and dodging through the freakishly crowded lunchroom, I found
Isabella sitting alone at the far side of a lunch table.

"Hey," I smiled, pulling out my sacked lunch.

"Hi," She said sourly.

"What's wrong? Are you mad at me?"

She scoffed. "Mad, yes. At you, never. Turn around, bright eyes."

I ignored her reference to the song, "Total Eclipse of the Heart," and
turned around to see Ethan in the middle of the lunchroom, surrounded by
his 'friends.' He wore his football jersey proudly, and was visibly
enjoying the company of his new jock buddies and cheerleader fandom. He
looked like the poster boy off of a high school teen film. It made me sick.

I looked off to the side and saw Carter chatting with his best friend,
Gabe. He was already the new quarterback, but I was glad that he never let
the popularity of being a star football player get to his head. Not
once. He and Gabe have been playing football since they were like eight,
and I knew the only reason they stayed on the team was because they
actually really loved football. Unlike a lot of the other guys who joined
simply because 1. They had the sheer athleticism, 2. It got them
popularity, and 3. It got them girls. I wish all guys could be like my
brother.

I looked at Ethan one last time, hoping to draw his attention to us, his
REAL friends. His friends who've stuck up for him and cheered him up over
the years, while the people he was talking to now used to mercilessly make
fun of him back in middle school. Sadly, he was too caught up in the
splendor known as high school popularity to notice me. I turned and sat
back down.

"I'm sad now," I said.

Isabella was fuming. "Well, I'm fucking not! I'm pissed off!  How dare
he. How DARE he! Who used to tell the other kids to leave him alone when
they called him 'fatass' or picked on him in the hallways, huh? And who
were the ones who've stuck by his side all these years. AND who were the
ones who encouraged and pushed him to lose all that damn weight to begin
with, huh? US, that's who! Not those fake-ass preppy bitches. Ooh, he makes
me so mad. I oughta teach him a thing or two." She began to get up, but I
quickly stopped her.

"Isabella, stop! Don't."

"Why should I?" She snapped.

"Because if we're really his friend, we'll let him make his own
decisions. And what fun would it be if we just forced him to hang out with
us again? Isabella, this is high school. Kids change into the people they
swore they'd never be. We just have to accept that."

She glared at me, glared back at Ethan (who still hadn't noticed us),
sighed, and then sat back down.

"You're always fucking right. Always," She muttered, and then sat back
down. I gave her a cheeky smirk, which earned me a salute from her middle
finger.

Just then, I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I saw the put-off
look on Isabella's face, so I turned around, expecting Ethan. Instead, what
I got was Aaron. Not that I'm complaining. I kind of like him a lot better
than I like Ethan right now. Aaron was just standing there, smiling shyly,
and looking down at me, like he was waiting for me to tell him to have a
seat. So I did.

"Hey, Aaron, have a seat," I smiled.

"Thanks," He said. He sat down right next to me, and I could feel the body
warmth flowing out of his body, which, ironically, sent shivers down my
spine.

"Oh yeah, Isabella, this is Aaron--"

"Summers," She finished. "Yeah, I remember. You're the one who indirectly
poured salsa on my head back in sixth grade." She stared at Aaron with
slight malice in her eyes, and her remembering him made me worry even more
about how it would all turn out.

Aaron immediately turned a dark shade of red. "Look, I'm really sorry about
that. I had a lot of... problems back then."

She smirked, "What kind of problems?"

"Just... problems. But I worked them all out now. And I just really want to
put it behind me."

Isabella's face hardened some more. "Yeah? Well maybe I don't want to put
it behind me. I'm not too forgiving. How do I know you're not just gonna
dump food on me again, or beat up Riley's brother?"

Aaron winced slightly at being reminded of his past wrong-doings, but he
cleared his throat and persisted. "Well... like I said, I had some issues I
had to deal with before. But changing schools and taking up boxing really
benefitted me. I guess I just needed an outlet for my frustration."

"Wait a minute," Isabella said incredulously, "You mean to tell me that you
took up boxing to get RID of your anger problems?"

Aaron shrugged and then nodded. Isabella started laughing.

"Well, my fears are definitely put at ease," She said
sarcastically. "Honestly, that's like... a child molester becoming a priest
in hopes of changing himself."

Despite himself, Aaron started laughing as well, until I saw tears welling
up in his eyes. After he calmed down a bit, he said, "I know you don't like
me, but I have to admit, you're kind of hilarious."

Isabella let a small smile creep to her lips. "Well, you're definitely
scoring some points with that. And I didn't say that I don't like you. I
just said that I remember you, and you have to admit, your first impression
wasn't really a good one."

"Yeah... All right." Aaron nodded a little solemnly.

Isabella got up and swung her backpack over her shoulder. "Relax. Prove to
me that you're not a complete asshole and we're cool. Hey, Riley, I gotta
stop by the library real quick. I'll just meet you in biology."

I smiled up at her and nodded. I mouthed a "thank you" to her, and she
immediately knew that it was for giving Aaron a second chance. She brushed
it off, winked at me, then walked off with a smirk on her face. That wink
really threw me off though, as well as troubled me. Why did she have to
wink? Did she think that I liked Aaron? Was I being too obvious, Did she
know that I was gay? Or was it just some weird Isabella thing? I chose to
think of it as a weird Isabella thing. Hopefully. Maybe. Oh god.

"Well, she's... interesting," Aaron chuckled.

I blinked, and then hearing what he said, snorted, "Right. Interesting."

"I'm glad she doesn't hate me," He said.

"Yeah, thankfully. I really want you two to be friends. So we can all hang
out together and stuff," I said.

He smiled. "Yeah, totally. I really want to hang out with you, too."

I gave him a shy grin, and I just then noticed that he was now sitting so
close to me that our legs were touching. I felt the slightest pressure of
it pressing and rubbing up to mine. I peeked down and saw my thin leg being
ever-so-slightly pushed against Aaron's slightly muscular one. I was
wearing khaki shorts as well, so I could definitely feel every motion.

I looked back at Aaron and he was smoothly talking about what he thought of
our classes so far. I guess he didn't realize he was practically feeling up
my leg with his own. I would've basked in the feeling of the person I was
in love with's leg a little longer, but I found myself getting kind of
turned on by his smooth motions. I felt my dick starting to harden until it
was pressed right against the zipper my shorts. I tried covering the bulge
with my shirt but my shirt was kind of tight, so it didn't do much good at
all. I had to stop myself from getting a full blown boner from his sexy leg
so, as discreetly as I could, I scooted away from him while smiling and
laughing at whatever it was he was talking about (I was obviously too
distracted by... other things).

I couldn't help but notice a little frown come upon his face when I did
that, but it could've been about what he was talking about as well. I
decided to jump into the conversation before he asked me a question that I
couldn't answer because I was too busy focusing on how good his leg felt
against mine.

"And I kept hearing from my friends how batshit crazy Ms. Higgins was, but
I didn't actually believe them until now, you know?" Aaron said.

I chuckled, "Totally. Remember how she chewed that kid out for not having a
number two pencil to use?"

Aaron laughed, "Yeah. Thank God you had a spare to lend me. If she caught
me, she would've been all, 'A pencil is a tool you must sharpen! Blah! You
must hone your skills! Blah! English is an art form! Blah! I smell like
dried prunes! Blah!"

I found myself laughing hysterically, louder than I've ever heard myself
laugh before. I had to kind of lean back and clutch my gut from laughing
too hard. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I thought I saw Ethan
staring in my direction. I wondered for a split second if he was looking at
me, but I rationalized that he could've easily been talking to someone
sitting in front of him.

And that's how the rest of lunch went. Aaron telling me hilarious jokes and
making ridiculous imitations of Ms. Higgins, with me laughing like a crazy
person, and me also wondering if it was me that Ethan was staring at from a
distance.

The bell rang, and after finally calming down from our laughing fits, we
both headed to class. It turns out that Aaron and I only had those first
two classes together, and nothing for the rest of the day. I said a
slightly emotional goodbye to him, and assured him that I'd find him later
after school or at school tomorrow. He just nodded and smiled sadly.

"He looked just as sad to say goodbye as I did," I thought to myself. I
shrugged it off, though. He was probably just upset that we couldn't have
as much fun together as we did earlier. I, however, was upset for different
reasons altogether (Albeit romantic, love-struck reasons). I walked off to
biology and sat next to Isabella, who saved me a seat. She was waiting with
a knowing smile and a playful twinkle in her eye.

"You have that look on your face," I said warily.

"What look?"

"THAT look. Right now. The look that says, 'Watch out! I've got something
planned."

"Me?" She said innocently. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking to
me."

I scoffed. "Whatever. Just know that I'm on to you."

She smiled her creepy smile once again, which only heightened my fears of
what's to come. I really didn't know what she was smiling about, but I knew
that it was either something mischievous involving herself with me as the
accomplice, or something she cooked up all on her own that was meant just
for me. Both prospects made me shudder.

As we walked to our world history class the period after, she still never
failed to give me that devious smirk of hers. Even when I chose to ignore
her completely, I could still feel her staring at me, her icy blue eyes
drilling holes into the side of my head. When the bell rang, I shot her a
pointed look, which she just returned with a smile, and I hurried off to my
last class of the day, P.E.

I walked into the locker room and chose a locker, while also looking around
for a familiar face. I guess I got there earlier than the rest of the kids,
because everyone was still walking in. But I felt immediate relief at not
having to endure P.E alone when I spotted Ethan walking in. I called out
his name and waved him over. I don't know if he heard me or not, but I was
positive that he saw me. Quickly, ever so quickly, he glanced at me and
then hurriedly looked away. He joined one of his football buddies and they
changed at the lockers on the other side of the room. I felt hurt and
embarrassed at being ignored by one of my 'best friends'. But that
embarrassment quickly turned into betrayal, which evolved into anger.

"Who needs him and his fake, brittle, worthless friendship anyways," I
muttered to myself. I knew I was saying it out of bitterness, but I still
meant it with everything I had. Honestly, I was pissed off. Pissed off, yet
I accepted it. He didn't want to be friends anymore. To be specific, he
wanted DIFFERENT friends altogether. I just convinced myself that it'll
take some time to get used to. I let out a long breath, steeled myself, and
walked past him without making eye contact. Out of the corner of my eye, I
did see him glance at me, but I ignored that.

I did my laps. I did the exercises. I played the sports. But not once did I
ever look or speak to Ethan during the whole period. I did see him looking
at me during class, and I couldn't shake the feeling that he wanted to talk
to me. But if he was going to ignore me, I'd do the same. Thankfully, class
ended sooner than I expected, and I hurriedly walked back into the locker
room, dressed, and left, passing by Ethan in silence once again.

I really wasn't in the mood for Isabella's weird smiles, so I skipped going
to my locker on my way out of school. I already had all of my things with
me anyways. I walked outside and called Carter's phone. While it was
ringing, I stared up at the dark gray clouds up above. It was obviously
going to rain soon, and hard.

"Sup, little bro?" Carter said when he picked up his phone. I could hear
the voices of his football teammates in the background. I heard Gabe say to
Carter, "Is that Riley? Tell him I said 'Hi!'"

"Gabe says 'Hi,'" Carter chuckled.

"Hi Gabe!" I said, smiling. Him and Carter have been best friends since
kindergarten, and he was almost like an older brother to me now.

"Anyways, what's up?" He said.

I laughed. "Um, Carter, you're my ride now, remember? Aren't we going
home?"

Carter muttered a "Shit!" underneath his breath. "I forgot, Lee! Damn it. I
have football practice right now, and almost every other day, too."

"Oh. Well... I can wait. I'll be in the library. Just call me when you're
done."

"Alright, thanks, Lee! I'm really sorry. It's only a short practice today
anyways, since we had try-outs earlier already."

"Okay, sure, just call me. Bye!" I said, then hung up. I sighed, more time
to spend at school. And I had more of these fun times to look forward to as
well, since Carter just said that he'd have football practice every other
day for the rest of the season. Understandable, but I was still a little
put off about it. Although, I didn't mind having to stay at the library too
much; I did get to read. I found my way into the library, picked a couch,
and sat down. I pulled out a book I just started, "The Catcher in the Rye,"
and immersed myself into the story, as I do with all books. Before I knew
it, forty-five minutes had passed, and Carter was calling me.

"Hey, Lee, practice is over. I'll be waiting in front of the school. It's
raining like crazy, so make sure you cover your head!"

I laughed at his over-protectiveness. "Yes, Mother." and I hung up.

I walked outside and was greeted by a torrent of rain falling down on kids,
cars, grass, and everything that wasn't underneath the roof of the school,
which was where I was standing under. The wind was blowing kind of hard,
making the rain drops fall with a sort of 'V' shape to them. I saw Carter's
red truck in front of the flagpole. He saw me and honked his horn twice. I
ran down the steps and by the time I jumped into his truck, I was soaked to
the bone. I was surprised to see Gabe sitting next to him. Luckily, the
truck sat three people, so it wouldn't be too tight of a squish.

"Hey, Gabe!" I chirped.

"Hey, buddy. Sorry about the intrusion. I'm having my car looked at right
now. The engine's kind of busted."

"It's cool," I smiled, "This way, I won't have to suffer through Carter's
awful radio music alone." Gabe laughed and jabbed Carter's side with his
elbow.

"Lee, I told you to cover your head!" Carter said frantically, ignoring my
playful insult. He got a shower towel out of his gym bag for me to wipe my
hair with. "Don't worry, I didn't use it. Now hurry, wipe your head off!"

I chuckled, but took the towel and dried my head off as Carter began
pulling off from the school. It was then, that in the corner of my eye, I
saw Aaron looking out from under the school's roof with a glum look on his
face. I wonder why I hadn't noticed him awhile ago. I looked closer and
realized that he looked like he was shivering. It also seemed like he
didn't have a ride home.

"Carter, wait!" I yelled.

"What, what?" He slammed the brakes and looked at me frantically.

"Look, my friend's there in front of the school by himself. I don't think
he has a ride."

He sighed, and Gabe giggled. "That's it? C'mon Lee, the truck's already
full. I'm sure he'll be fine. Besides, I've never even seen you talk to him
before. He can't be that good of a friend. Who is he?"

"First off, I don't care. Second, he IS a good friend of mine. Third, his
name's Aaron Summers."

He and Gabe immediately whirled their bodies to look at me.

Carter yelled, "The one who almost gave me a concussion? And WORSE, the one
who was picking on you back then?"

Gabe interjected with, "Hold up. The one who you beat the living SHIT out
of?"

Both of them continued bombarding me with questions, but when they realized
that I wasn't going to answer, they started saying "If that's the one, then
no way is he getting in here," and "Nope," and "Hell no."

I glared up at them. "But he's freezing in the rain!"

"No." Carter said firmly.

"Grow up, you big baby. That was three years ago!"

"No!" Both of them yelled this time.

"Let. Him. In. The. Truck." I growled each word out. I realize that I was
acting like a spoiled brat, but this is the guy I was in love with for
crying out loud. And I'll be damned if I leave him to freeze to death.

"Lee, even if we wanted to, he wouldn't fit! He'd have to sit in the
back--"

"He's not sitting in the back."

"Well, see!" Carter tried to argue, "At least over there, he has the roof
over his head. He'd just be in the rain if we let him in the back of the
truck."

"No. He's riding with us INSIDE the truck."

Carter huffed, "Sorry bro, but honestly, this isn't your truck. I make the
calls, not you."

"If you don't let him ride with us, I'm never speaking to you again." I
threatened, which earned me a gasp from both of them. I've used a similar
threat on Carter only once before, and just like last time, he immediately
stiffened up.

Slightly panicked, he said, "C'mon Lee. I can't just forgive him for what
he did!" I said nothing. "Lee! He wouldn't even fit in the truck with us!"
I said nothing. "C'mon Lee, think about it for a minute." I said
nothing. "Lee, you're not seriously going to ignore me just because of
this.... Are you?" I said nothing.

He paused for a minute. Growled. Began to speak. Stopped. Groaned. Took a
deep breath. Then sighed. "Fine."

"Yay!" I yelled. I leaned over Gabe and gave Carter a huge hug and a kiss
on the cheek. He immediately softened up, and even smiled. Gabe just
chuckled and shook his head, saying "Such a softie."

I rolled down the window and yelled out to him. "Aaaaarooooooon! Hey, do
you need a ride?"

I saw him squint and look over at me, probably trying to see who I
was. Then his face brightened, and he said, "Hey, Riley! Sure, thanks!" He
started running toward the truck. Well, it kind of looked like skipping to
me, but I smiled nonetheless.

I heard Carter growl, which I responded with, "Say something and I'll
superglue your fingers together in your sleep." He shut up.

Aaron came up to the truck, and I immediately opened the doors for
him. "Hop in!"

He looked inside warily. "You sure there's any room?"

He was getting drenched, so I slammed up against Gabe, who let out a loud
grunt, and said, "Yeah! Just squeeze in!"

Aaron stepped into the truck but even with all of us squeezed together like
that, only half of his body fit.

He sighed, "I appreciate it Riley, but it doesn't look like I'll fit. Thank
you, though."

"No!" I yelled, which surprised everyone, including myself. "I mean, I
can't just leave you in the rain! Here, um... I can, uh, sit on your lap,
maybe. I'm a lot smaller than you, so I shouldn't weigh too much."

Aaron gave me a bewildered look, maybe expecting me to take back what I
said, but I didn't. The chance of sitting so close to him, ON him actually,
was too good to pass up. I just gave him as "It's cool, we're just
friends!" a look as I could. Finally, blushing, Aaron nodded his
head. After doing about a million mental backflips in my head, I smiled
back at him. I jumped out into the rain and Aaron climbed into the
truck. Then I carefully got back in and placed myself onto his lap.

Immediately, I was overcome with so many feelings. I was overwhelmed with
the amount of heat I felt coming from his body. I felt like this was
exactly where I was supposed to be. Like it wasn't wrong that I was
enjoying this feeling of closeness so much. That I could stay here for
hours and be perfectly content.

But quietly, so quiet that only I could hear, I heard a low, soft moan come
out of Aaron's lips. And immediately, all those images of me and Aaron
sitting by the fireplace holding hands disappeared. They were replaced by
images of Aaron ravaging my body in bed, kissing me so passionately that
I'd be lifted off of my feet for more, and exploring every bit of my body
while I did the same to his. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling very romantic. I
felt turned on. I wiggled my hips a little, rubbing my khaki-covered butt
over his lap some more, earning another soft moan from Aaron. Yep, I was
definitely turned on.

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

There you have it ;) Chapter 3 should be up in about two weeks. Well, time
for me to relax now, lol.