Chapter 22

Safe to say, I showed up to school the next day sleep deprived.

It was for a good cause though. I'd made good progress on my birthday present. And by progress, I meant that I had an inkling of an idea what I wanted to do and sketched lines on a canvas.

But the really nice thing about all of this, was not only the fact that I knew what I wanted to give my girlfriend for her birthday present. It was that I was actually excited about creating something. I was looking forward to going back home after school and working on the painting. I hadn't felt like this in... gosh, I couldn't even remember the last time I had.

I was genuinely looking forward to making art.

Usually, Josh was the only one able to make me want to create anything artistic, and even then, it never was anything I'd planned, or anything of my own volition.

But this was different.

And I loved it.

I walked through the halls of school, exhausted, but cheery.

And my mood lifted up even more when I saw my girlfriend.

Lexi's phone had died in the middle of the night, so our call hadn't lasted until the morning.

I was happy to see her, hoping she was feeling a little better.

I walked up to her, kissing the top of her head. "Good morning."

She smiled back at me, a sweet smile. "Good morning."

"How are you?" I asked her, running a hand through her hair.

She kind of leaned into my touch. "I'm okay," she replied softly.

"You sure?" I pressed.

She didn't look particularly down, but if there a something I had learned in the last months, it was that Lexi was good at hiding her pain.

"Yeah. I mean, I'm still sad, but it's not like I can do anything about it. So, I'll focus on the nice things instead. Like the fact that my boyfriend has a beautiful chest," she said, and feigned like she was going to slip her hand under my shirt.

I narrowed my eyes at her, grabbing her hand. "It's always the chest."

"Always."

I slipped my hand in hers and dragged her along, making her chuckle.

I dropped her off in front of her class, and then headed to my own.

My hand still kinda tingled from holding Lexi's.

Having a girlfriend was proving to be quite the distraction.

Because instead of fighting off sleep during my history class, I was fighting off intrusive thought.

I tried not thinking about the other night and making out with her in my car... but I failed miserably at the task.

And then tried not to think about everything else I wanted to do with her.

The morning went by excruciatingly slowly. And I had no class with Lexi this morning, so it kinda sucked.

When it was finally lunch time, I waited for Lexi so we could grab our food together.

I was glad to see that even if she was a little sad today, she didn't lose her appetite.

When Lexi didn't eat, that was when I knew I really had to worry.

Our friends were already sitting at our usual table so, after pilling food, we headed there and sat down with our tray. The guys were already deep into their conversation.

"Look Alex, it's an easy question. It's not rocket science. It's basic. Who's the hottest? Me or Cameron. It's gotta be me. It's the only answer that makes sense," Trevor basically pleaded with him.

I chuckled at his antic. He'd been annoying Alex about this since he'd come out.

I was amazed Alex hadn't punched him yet.

"He wants to put that rocket up Uranus," Clark chimed in, but everyone around the table just ignored him, except for Shawn who laughed.

Two other people I was amazed no one had punched yet.

"You're identical twins Trevor," Alex reminded him.

"And?" Trevor replied, like that was unimportant in the argument.

"What part of identical twin goes over your head?" Alex pressed.

Lexi chuckled beside me. Our friends were morons.

"More like come on your head," Clark decided to add to the conversation, yet again.

And he was ignored yet again.

"Look, being hot is not just a look thing. It's a charisma thing. It's a shaken not stir, Bond, James Bond thing.," Trevor replied. 

"Trevor is overcompensating because he has a small wiener, sorry about that," Cameron decided to mention.

"Hey, hey, hey, shut your mouth. It's a genuine question," Trevor exclaimed, like this actually truly mattered to him.

"Why haven't you been annoying Lexi and Daphnee to give you an answer," Alex whined.

"Oh, sorry, where have you been all these years? Trevor has been pestering us about this none stop too," Lexi told him while Daphnee just nodded, her mouth full of food.

"Am I a joke to you?" Trevor asked, fake sobbing, reaching for Alex's hand across the table ignoring everyone's comments.

I had to give it to Trevor, he was persistent.

"Yeah, keep touching him like that, you'll catch the gay disease," Clark said with a snort, while Shawn laughed beside him.

Fred decided to take the moment to raise his head, which had been resting on his arms, and say while staring straight at Clark, "Will you shut up already, everyone knows you two experimented together and I don't see anyone making comments about it."

Dead silence around the table.

Clark's face turned bright red.

Shawn looked like he was about to melt under the table.

And then everyone burst into laughter. It was oddly synchronized, like it almost sounded like we'd planned this.

We hadn't. I actually hadn't expected Fred to be the one to snap.

He was always so mellow all the time. Also, he had a lot more important things to care about.

But yeah.

MVP move.

"This is bullshit. I'm out of here," Clark grumbled, while everyone still laughed, grabbing his tray and getting up.

"Bye Felicia," Dwayne said a little too enthusiastically, waving at him making everyone laugh more.

Shawn followed him with his tray, brooding too.

"Were we too mean? Did we become the very thing we fought against?" Mark asked, as we all kind of looked at them sitting further away, and seeing everyone kind of noticing the change, looking confused.

"Clark and Shawn were looking for it," Cameron replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"Look at them, with their ashamed face. They really think we didn't know," Dwayne chuckled.

"Who knows, maybe this will help them live their truth," Daphnee said before taking a sip from her bottle of water.

"Between Shawn and Clark, who would you rather date Alex?" Trevor suddenly asked.

Alex let out an exasperated breath, raising his arms in the air and then letting them fall beside him. "Cameron is the hottest twin. Cameron all the way. You don't even compare to Cameron," he said, having enough.

We all laughed again.

I looked at my Pumpkin beside me, grinning from our friends' antics. I was glad that their goofing around was lifting up her mood.

"No, no, that doesn't work. We're identical twin, so we're equally hot," Trevor shot back, contradicting his earlier claims.

"Hot is not just an appearance thing. It's a shaken not stir thang babyyyyy," Cameron reminded him, sounding pretty darn proud of himself.

Trevor pouted. "I feel bullied. Maybe I'm gonna go sit with Shawn and Clark now."

"We'll support you every step of the way if you decide to live your truth too," Dwayne told him, pressing a hand to his chest.

"And what's that truth of mine?" Trevor asked.

"That you're the unattractive twin," Alex told him, grabbing a fry from his plate.

The bickering continued, everyone joking around and teasing each other. Lexi was laughing beside me, her worries far from her mind.

All was right in my world.

_________

Happy Monday my little Pumpkins! :D

I knew a few of you were looking forward to this chapter, so I hope you enjoyed seeing Clark and Shawn being put back in their places. XD

I kinda want to be honest. Today I'm a little... like overwhelmed and honestly kind of pissed. I don't work on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. I am behind on my words for NaNoWriMo because the last two weeks have been super busy. But then I thought on Thursday, it's fine, I'll have three days to catch up. I'll be able to write as much as I need.

Nah.

First, I had to finish later on Friday because a co-worker did not come in to work. I had to replace him on Saturday because he did not come to work either. Today, on Sunday, Eve reaaaaally wanted to go get a Christmas tree, so I thought, okay, let's do it, it's good to get out. But then I had to wake up at 7h30AM to get there. I had slept maybe 4 hours. We got back around 3PM. I tried writing after, but it's not my best work because I'm exhausted, and I can't seem to get enough words still. And now. I learn. That I basically have to work tomorrow to replace my boss because there was a fire beside his house and now he needs to move and that has to happen tomorrow. And like, I get it, super awful and sad. But fuuuuuuuuck off I'm pissed. Like genuinely pissed. I am tired and I am pissed. I just wanted to fucking write. I had goddamn hopes that this years, after more than ten years I could finally complete NaNoWriMo and write those 50,000 words. I'm missing about 9,000 now and I work every day until the end of the month. I want to believe I can pull it off, but like, realistically, I know I won't. All because I have to work. Like, honestly, I kinda feel like crying and I know it's because I'm about to get my period too on top of it, so I'm already a mess. But like. I'm so fucking tired. It never stops. I just want to be left alone by everyone for like 3 goddamn days, but apparently that's too much to ask.

Ah.

Thanks. I really needed to vent.

Alright. Gonna try to get some more writing. And not cry.

Thanks for listening to my whining. I love you guys! See you all next week! <3