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::Present Day, September 27::
Everything was going exactly to plan.
I had the whole cake; perfect friends, perfect lover, perfect lifestyle. A fresh new year where I was at the top with my friends. No one to stomp on my perfect world.
Until he showed up again.
::Two Hours Earlier::
I stood in place with a hand on my hip, glaring at him. Oliver and James stood by my side along with the rest of my friends: Riko, Angel, Usuu, Iaki, Luki, Randy, West, Riley, and Vince. Kusa and I were side by side, hand-in-hand. They stood around, all glaring towards the guy who tortured me to the core.
Xander.
::40 Minutes Before::
“Hey, when’s lunch?” Oliver asked me, throwing his pencil lead at the back of Geumi Oyashi’s head in the middle of History class.
It was a minutes away until the lunch bell would go off. The people in my class were Geumi, Liu, Hana, Maika, Danny, Oliver, Nayu, and myself. It was a small class this time compared to yesterday. The atmosphere yesterday was similar to a gym and a bar; sweaty freshmen and party girls who had either way too much makeup on or their perfume could overpower a skunk.
People were constantly yapping about grades, drama, or music. Oliver and I were in the back of the class because of our “bright sense of style ” and “disturbance of the peace of our nature”. We didn’t care as long as we didn’t get caught for drawing d*cks on the back of the chairs and throwing gum into other people’s hair.
Today, Oliver and I were drawing stick figure comics and taking turns listening to the lesson. Oliver had his feet propped up on my lap as I wrote down notes for later. I studied his look as I smiled softly.
Oliver had his eyes closed as he sat half-asleep. He had on a black star drawn under his left eye and his lips were a dark gray. Don’t tell me he’s turning into one of those guys… I tsked to myself as I continued to study him.
Today, he had on a maroon tank top with a thick black jacket that hung loosely to his shoulders. He wore black sweatpants and checkered slip-ons to complete the outfit. He had on a couple bracelets on his wrists with a small ring on his ring finger.
It was one of his “lazy day” outfits that he wore on certain days. If it was close to Friday, he would wear casual clothing. If it wasn’t, he would plop on whatever and try to make it work.
“You done checking me out?”
I flinched as Oliver peeked an eye down to me with a coy grin. “You wish, Casanova. I was only looking at your outfit.” Oliver raised an eyebrow and sat up slightly. “Is it that noticeable?”
“You’re wearing dark colors in September. It doesn’t get cold until October so you’re going to melt by the time the month ends.”
“I’m a free spirit, Mom! Don’t judge!” Oliver protested softly as I chuckled. “Your shift’s up. My turn to take a unicorn down to Dreamland..” I drifted off, laying down in another chair, propping my feet up in his lap. “Have fun dreaming of all the hot dudes.” Oliver joked with a smirk. I just ignored him as I put myself to sleep softly.
–Couple Minutes Later–
“Reece, wake up! Class is over.” “Mngh… Five more minutes..” “I brought strawberry milk today.” I sat straight up, wide awake. “Where? Where is it??” I ask, nearly tackling him. “You’ll get it. Soon.” I sighed with a slight pout.
“We better hurry up and meet the others.” I nod in agreement and get up from my chair.
::At The Cafeteria::
Oliver and I walked into the cafeteria room with a grin on our faces. “Ah, lunch. The birthplace of ramen, yakisoba, and stereotypical groups of jocks, sluts, and geeks.”
Oliver sighed as I chuckled. “Yo! Oliver and Reece!” We looked to the source of the voice and see James, waving happily towards us. He seems happy.
Weird.
As we walked over, I gave a nudge to Oliver. “Ne, why is James all grins and smiles?” “Is it bad for someone to be happy?” “Nah, it’s just unusual. He has math before lunch and he hates it.” Oliver looked to James with a suspicious stare. “You’re right..”
“James, what’s up with you?” He sent us a confused look and blinked. “What do you mean?” “No, I mean, you’re actually happy today after Math class.” James sighed a little with a light smile.
“She wasn’t there today.” She meaning as the crazed girl that sat next to him. Lily. Lily had an obsession with James, which annoyed him to no end.
James was a pansexual/demisexual.
He liked anyone but it required a while for him to actually love someone. Although, I’ve begun to question his relationship with Oliver..
My thoughts were interrupted when I felt a nudge against my arm. “Dozing off again?” Oliver had asked me with a smirk. James was already at the table with the rest.
The people who sat at the table were Riko, Angel, Usuu, Iaki, Luki, Randy, West, Riley, and Vince. Riko and Angel were twins with Usuu being their big brother.
Iaki and Luki were the quiet ones who mostly worked on their laptops or reading manga.
Randy was the oldest of us all combined, which made him seem like the “big brother” of us all.
West and Riley were famous for skipping school and giving free panty shots to the guys from their ex-girlfriends.
Vince is Oliver’s cousin but James’ ex-boyfriend. So, whenever James visits Oliver, it’s extremely awkward and tense. Oliver and I still think Vince likes James, even though he swears to be “straight”.
Vince saw us and waved. Vince was dressed like always; a v-neck gray shirt with black sweatpants and white converse. He dressed mostly casual when it came to school.
He rushed up to us and ruffled Oliver’s hair.
Did I mention that he was really tall?
…
Vince looked over to me as he sized me up. I always hated when he did this. Now, it was getting irritating. I raised my eyebrow and placed a hand on my hip. “What?” I asked, clearly annoyed, to Vince.
“You’re still bright and colorful as ever. I swear, I feel like one of these days I’m going to go blind just by looking at you.”
“If you have an issue with my style, consult my fist as it punches straight in your prick face.” I threatened, raising my fist up to punch him.
“Guys, let’s be civilized. People are staring…” Oliver quietly murmured, stepping in front of us. “They are staring because of you, Reece. You’re short and colorful. You’re like a troll in a mob of mannequins.”
“You little…!” I stopped as I reached over to punch him, only for him to dodge back with a smirk.
“See? Like I said. A midget.”
…
Did he just?
…
Oh no he DIDN’T.
That’s when I felt my face heat up. I cracked my knuckles and lunged to him, tackling him to the ground and punching his face in one by one with quick speed. He couldn’t dodge either one of them. He tried to swing a few punches at me but failed every time.
Selfish jerk.
Oliver, James, and Randy grabbed my arms and legs, pulling me off of him. My clothes were a bit torn from him trying to claw me away from him but they were good as is.
Him, however, had a black eye, some bruises, a bloody lip, and his nose was purple and swollen. Iaki and Angel rushed to help him up and carry him to the nurse. I panted heavily as my chest was against Randy’s chest, his arms wrapping around me in comfort.
The people that gathered around were cheering and chanting, “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” Some took videos and pictures. Some of them tried to stop the fight and some watched with fear and excitement.
Oliver was too shocked to process everything. James was trying his best not to laugh at it all.
Riko and Luki had videotaped the whole thing as they chuckled to themselves at the video.
Usuu was casually eating his bento and drinking his tea as the whole thing went down.
I looked up to see Randy, hiding his laughter. I knew that he wanted to laugh. They all did. They had to hold it in because of Oliver.
“Oliver’s going to be pissed at me for a while…”
~~
After it had toned down, Oliver was silent for the whole lunch. James and I were listening to Blood On The Dancefloor and talking about the recent tests and quizzes that were coming up.
Randy was trying to keep West and Riley from taking more panty shots from the cheer table across from us.
The others were doing what they usually do: read manga/watch anime.
“What’s coming up for Miss Takihara’s class?” James asked, eating some strawberry pocky. I shrugged and continued to eat my ramen cup.
“Wait. She mentioned something about a new kid joining the production committee for this year’s play.” James informed, poking my cheek with his pencil. “New kid? Who?”
“Dunno. Apparently, he was here a while back but then traveled overseas for studies. Probably a noob.” I snickered and took a sip from my strawberry milk bottle.
“Maybe. If he’s joining the committee, that would leave us in charge of him.” James groaned at idea and laid his head on my shoulder.
“I’m too lazy to teach noobs about technology…” I chuckled and poked his forehead. “Maybe it won’t be that bad. If it’s a girl, you’d probably fall for them.”
“And if it’s a guy?” I raised an eyebrow in question. “What? I told you I’m dating Kusa.”
“I meant for me, silly.” We both smiled softly and looked at the table. “Luckily, we don’t have to go to work until the last class of the day.”
“That would make seeing the newbie more of a surprise right?” He nodded in reply and shifted his eyes up to me. I looked back in confusion. “What?”
“I missed these moments.”
“What moments?”
“Us. Chillin’ while listening to music and talking about the future. We don’t have that many classes so it gets lonely.” I looked to him in thought and nodded.
He was right.
This semester, the only classes I have with James are Writing, Lunch (that’s my favorite class), and Tech Theater. It’s the same with Oliver as well.
Oh well.
It is nice to have those moments with James when there’s a peaceful silence. We would sit together and he’d rest his head on my shoulder as we’d listen to music. It was those kinds of moments I treasured whenever I felt sad or alone and he’d comfort me.
He’s like a brother who’s watching out for me.
Clara.
Those words popped into my head as I sighed. Clara…
“Reece? You went silent all of the sudden. Is there something wrong?” James asked with concern in his voice. I shook my head with a soft smile.
“No not really. Just thinking about Clara.”
“Mn.. Okay. Well, there’s still some time left. Anything you have in mind?” I thought for a while until the idea came up. I smirked to myself and looked to James.
“Arm-wrestling.”
A/N: And there was Chapter 14! It took a while to make this one. More like a week o-o I added some cameos and did some spritz of my life with Reece’s. Comment, favorite, add to your Library! It helps so much! Thx for the 1.03k views!!! We’ve come this far so let’s continue this journey of Reece’s crazy life filled with boys, anime, and strawberry milk! X3 Stay tuned!!
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