Chapter 4: “Don’t mention it again.”-2
865 Words
Tav did athletics. Not all the stupid jumping stuff, the running. He was a cross-country runner—he’d even been strong-armed into running for the county last year—and most Tuesdays after school he’d go out onto the field with the athletics team and join in. He was good, but he didn’t really want to do anything with it beyond keeping fit. It was just something to do, yeah? Especially when Luca was usually busy immediately after school anyway, and Tav next-to-never saw him during the school day. No use sitting around pining or something twattish like that, was there? Might as well run.
Only there was something he had to do today, which meant getting changed fast as possible and ducking out of the PE block before club was quite due to start. He wasn’t officially in the athletics team, but Coach Evans let him join in. She’d been pushing him to join proper since he was twelve.
“Maybe today’s the day you sign up for good and get serious about running, eh, Christopher?”
She said it every week; every week, Tav shrugged, elbowed a sniggering Daniel in the ribs, and ignored her. Today, however, he didn’t. He just nodded and made a beeline for the figure at the lockers in the corridor to the tech block, the wiry silhouette with the shaved-down fair hair. Now was the only time to catch him, really, and Tav had to say something for what he’d done.
“Hey! Jack!”
Jack Collins started. Tav had never spoken to him before, so it was fair enough. He’d arrived in the middle of September without a word of explanation, and as he wasn’t in any of Tav’s classes or clubs, Tav had never bothered finding out why. He was just the new kid.
The new kid who’d saved Luca’s life.
He reminded Tav of Luca’s eldest brother Antonio—that closed, hard expression that was somewhere between impassive and angry. Good-looking in a front-of-magazine, stern-faced model kind of way. The kind of guy people fancied but never tried to actually chat up. He had a tight jaw and thin mouth, and wide blue eyes that were more expressive than the rest of his face combined. In a weird way, because Tav couldn’t actually interpret the look Jack gave him.
“What?”
“Thanks,” Tav said, and stuck out a hand. Jack stared at it.
“For what?”
“Getting Luca out of the pool on Saturday,” Tav said. When Jack didn’t move, he dropped his hand. “Just…thanks. He could’ve drowned if not for you. So—seriously, thank you.”
“S’fine.”
“It was f*****g heroic.”
Jack reddened. “Didn’t do it to be a hero,” he mumbled, then squinted. “You were there, weren’t you?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You ain’t…”
“I was watching,” Tav said when Jack trailed off and frowned. “I went in the ambulance with Luca after. I saw what you did, mate, and―”
“Oh. You came poolside.”
“Yeah.”
“You were…”
Tav frowned. So did Jack.
“Are you his…” Jack trailed off again, and waved a hand. “You know,” he prompted when Tav blinked.
“Er,” Tav said, then the pieces slotted into place. Jack had only been here a couple of months, and he wasn’t in either of their tutor groups, or the other sports clubs. He wouldn’t have necessarily noticed. And it was generally old news to everyone else—nobody was interested in bullying a couple of queers, one of whom had like a million fights against his permanent record, and the other with an older brother that would scare Marines. There were jokes, but mostly from mates. It hadn’t occurred to Tav that someone in their year might not know. “My boyfriend?”
“Ye-eah,” Jack said very slowly.
“Yeah,” Tav said, shrugging. Wasn’t exactly a secret. “Yeah, Luca’s my boyfriend.”
Jack’s face twitched. A muscle between the edge of his mouth and his eye seized, and the blank, cold expression shifted for a split second. Then the moment was gone again, before Tav could identify the look.
“Don’t mention it again.”
“I have to,” Tav insisted. “What you did for him―”
“I said don’t f*****g talk to me about it again! I did nothing! You get that? I did f*****g nothing!”
Tav flinched back as Jack slammed the locker door. The f**k? The twitch was back, and it froze in place, a dark sneer twisting Jack’s stern features. His teeth were jagged and sharp in the gap between his lips. That coldly beautiful face was suddenly hideous.
“Don’t talk to me again,” Jack repeated coldly. “You or your—Luca.”
He turned on his heel and stalked away, leaving Tav alone in the corridor with a headful of ‘what the actual f**k?’
* * * *
“Hey, Luca!”
The athletics club had barely started when his name was called—but from the wrong direction, and in the wrong voice. Luca looked up from his English assigned reading, squinting against the bitter wind, and grinned at Aaron Kowalski’s approaching form.
“Alright, Az? Didn’t think your Emily was out here today.”
“She’s not,” Aaron said, jogging up the stands to sink into the seat next to Luca’s. He looked as cold as Luca felt, red-faced against the wind, but the stands were peaceful and a great vantage point for some perving on the sports teams. “It’s you I need to talk to.”
“Yeah?”
“I need a favour,” Aaron said, brushing his fair hair out of his eyes. “For my drama group, like.”
“Need a rehearsal buddy again?” Aaron was in a local amateur dramatics club thing, and got weird stage-fright on read-throughs. Luca blamed the pretty girl who always got the lead female roles.
“Sort of,” Aaron said. “Actually it’s a part in the play.”
“Not an actor, mate.”
“No, it’s a really small bit part,” Aaron said. “Literally like five lines or something. But none of the other lads at the group are up for it, and, uh…”
“Five lines?” Luca echoed doubtfully. “I don’t really have time for plays and s**t, Az.”
“It really wouldn’t be that much commitment. It’s just, uh…”
“Uh?”
“Well. Your boyfriend might not like it.”
- Writer
