Chapter 8-1
928 Words
Chapter 8
Charley was waiting on Tuesday morning. The moment Jayden ducked through the alley, she was off the wall and bouncing towards him, latching on to his arm enthusiastically. Her smile took up most of her face.
“So,” she said, beaming. “You ignored my texts, you ignored me on f*******:, and you’re blushing!”
He was. He could feel it creeping up his neck.
“So, was he gay?” Charley crooned, squeezing his elbow in both hands. “Did you do it? Did you ask him out?”
“I, um…well, no.”
“Jayden!”
“Technically,” Jayden added, far too quickly judging by the way her face lifted again. “I mean…yeah, no, I didn’t. Ask him out, that is.”
“Technically?” she prompted.
“He asked me,” Jayden blurted out, and the blush exploded. It didn’t feel real. The words felt heavy in his mouth, almost awkward, and he stuck his hands in his blazer pockets when Charley squealed and threw her arms around his neck.
“So…?” she prompted again, rocking him in a tight hug. “When’s it happening!”
“Saturday.”
“You have a date!”
“I have a date.” That sounded even stranger. He’d been awake most of the night, thinking over the exact way Darren had asked him, and the exact shape of his mouth and wondering if he would be at the theatre this afternoon. If he was, would it be okay—would it be expected, even?—that Jayden kiss him again? Or would that be weird and too soon?
“I take he’s gay, then?”
“Yeah,” Jayden said and flushed. “He, um. He texted me at lunch and asked if I wanted to check out this bookstore in town after school—no, that wasn’t when he asked me out, that was…”
“It sounds like he was asking you out,” Charley said.
“Well, he wasn’t.” They finally started moving, and Jayden felt so high and dizzy, he didn’t even feel the usual pre-school dread. “I mean, you know, okay, he was…he was flirting with me, but…anyway, he met me at the gate, and Canning was there being, well, Canning, and Darren got in his face and…I thought they were going to end up hitting each other, and Darren shoved him into the bins, and…when we left, I asked why he was so pissed off, and he said he hated homophobic people because he’s gay, and…”
“He just said it like that? Just out with it?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, my God. So firstly—and this is important, Jayden—firstly, you were wrong. And secondly, he’s out!”
“Well, he might not be out, but…”
“He’s out to himself,” Charley interrupted. “That’s important! You can’t go on a date with anyone who’s closeted.” Jayden wasn’t sure being closeted to yourself existed, but then Charley watched a lot more crappy soap operas than he did, so he decided to let it slide. It had probably been a storyline on Emmerdale or something. “Jayden!”
“What?”
“So? He said he was gay, and? What did you say?”
“I, um…” Jayden felt his face catch fire again. In retrospect, it was horribly embarrassing. But it had been so…good. “I didn’t. I, um…I kissed him.”
“Oh, my God, Jay!”
“Charley!” he hissed. They had turned onto the main road; there were other kids now as they approached the gates. “Look, just…don’t tell anyone, okay? I mean…I don’t know if…you know, it might not work out.”
“He’s gay, you’re gay, what’s not to work out?” She sniffed, and Jayden rolled his eyes as they passed through the gates. He glanced at the bins; Canning wasn’t there. The first coil of anxiety began to make itself known. He wasn’t looking forward to how Canning was going to react to being beaten by…by a faggot.
“It’s just one date, and it was just one kiss, and…”
“And you like him, and he obviously likes you.” Charley poked him in the arm, her shoes squeaking on the linoleum as they crossed the reception area. “I’ll come round on Saturday afternoon and help you get ready, because this is big, Jayden! Your first boyfriend! I told you we’d have boyfriends by Christmas!”
She was talking too loudly; Jayden snapped at her to shut it, then softened, and said, “He’s not…that. It’s just the one date. It’s way too early to say…”
“You need to add him on f*******: so I can stalk him,” Charley said suddenly. “Wait, why haven’t you yet?”
Jayden flushed and admitted, “Can’t find him. I think his security settings must hide him from the search engine.”
“You can do that?”
“April does.”
“Because April’s antisocial ever since she decided she was too good for us,” Charley sniffed.
“Yeah, well, Darren’s not really sociable either, so…”
“Add him anyway. Get him to add you. You need to be able to check this guy out before you go on a real, legit date with him, and I mean the actual, proper, sussing him out, not eyeing up his…”
“Charley!”
They stopped at her locker, and Jayden was smacked with her French textbook. “Don’t give me that,” she said. “And I need to meet him.”
“If the date goes okay, and if we have another one, and frankly, Charley, I think I need to get used to saying ‘date’ because this…” Jayden physically flailed for a moment, his hands fluttering uselessly about. “This doesn’t feel real yet,” he finished and flushed.
Charley cooed and hugged him again. “You’re adorable,” she said decidedly, and Jayden couldn’t decide whether he’d been insulted or not. “Are you not seeing him until Saturday?”
“Um, I usually see him Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
“So you’ll see him today?”
“Maybe,” Jayden admitted, and bit his lip. “I don’t know what to do. I mean… He kissed me back, Charley,” he said in a whisper. The bell was due to ring soon; the corridor was filling up.
Charley slammed her locker door. “Do it again!” she said, far too loudly, and Jayden winced. “No, I’m serious. If he likes you, and you like him, then get some kissing in. You don’t have to date to kiss.”
There, at least, she had a point. And nervous though he was about seeing Darren that afternoon at The Brightside, Jayden was semi-sure that he wouldn’t be able to not kiss him in the end. Not when he knew what it was like. Not when he knew that Darren was quite happy to kiss him back.
Maybe Darren would kiss him first.
“This is all complicated,” he said to Charley as they reached her classroom, and she laughed, hugging his arm.
“Yes,” she said, “but you got yourself into it.”
She was right there.
- Writer
