there was a food fight and i just threw spaghetti at the scariest kid in school au
Monty had an obsession. He loved watching people. Studying them, analyzing them, it was how he always seemed to know what people needed; kind words, half of his lunch, silence. The problem was, one person seemed to be stealing all of his attention lately. Nathan Miller was the new kid in school. He had just transferred in the middle of the year and he was an enigma. Cold, hard, and mysterious all wrapped up in a leather jacket. He was terrifying in that silent way, like a volcano, it felt like he was just waiting to erupt. His eyes held an anger that Monty had never seen before, and that scared him more than he would like to admit. Yet he couldn't take his eyes off of Nathan Miller. He watched him stomp confidently through the halls, shoulder straight, with his signature pissed off look. He watched him eat at lunch, sitting with the troublemakers—"The Johns" as Monty and his friends had taken to calling them behind their backs, John Murphy and John Mbege—sitting with them, but not really joining them fully. He seemed to always be somewhere else in his mind. Monty found himself wanting to know where he went, why was he this way, what had happened to him. This burning want scared Monty almost as much as Nathan Miller himself did.
As the weeks passed, Monty had all but abandoned observing anyone other than this mystery, his mystery. He saw Nathan—thinking of him as Miller seemed too cold for how time he spent watching and thinking about the boy—occasionally doing things when he thought no one was watching. Things like giving his lunch to the small freshman girl that never seemed to have her own. Things like helping the elderly librarian, Ms. Kane, get safely to her car after school when the parking lot was a mess of adolescent excitement.
It was near the end of the school year and Monty Green was in love. He'd never spoken, or even made eye contact with him, but he was in love with Nathan Miller. It was that aching love that poisoned his mind with nevers and won'ts; "He'll never love you. He won't even talk to you, let alone love you back." Monty was terrified. He was suffocating and getting Nathan Miller seemed like the only way he'd ever be able to breathe again. So, Monty made a plan. It was a stupid plan, and idiotic foolish plan, but it was his.
Lunch, June 5th, T-minus five minutes until The Plan was to take place. Monty had told his friends half truths about his plan. Told them that he wanted to end the year with a bang, and what better way than an enormous food fight? They loved the idea. Jasper was barely able to make it through classes he was so excited. Monty was barely able to make it through classes he was so terrified. This was it. It was about to happen. They had planned for Jasper to start the whole thing by throwing his cup of vegetables at Wells, their only friend who wasn't in on the prank because he had been out sick for an entire month and they decided to surprise him with the food fight. From that point, they hoped, everyone would get involved and it would be mass chaos.
Five, four, three, two, one, Monty nodded to Jasper. Suddenly Wells was covered in stewed spinach. There was a lull in the cafeteria as everyone digested what had just happened, then, a bread stick flew through the air, landing on Finn's plate. After that, it was chaos. There was spaghetti flying everywhere, red and blue blobs of jello bouncing off of unsuspecting teens. It was exactly as Monty had hoped. Now, time to make his move. Just as expected, the Johns where completely entrenched in the messy battle taking place in the lunch room. Monty carefully made his way over to their table, His table. Taking his spaghetti in his hand, he had a moment of clarity. "Why the fuck did I think this would make him like me?" But it was too late, he couldn't chicken out now. He released the spaghetti, aiming it right at Nathan Miller's obnoxiously handsome face. It seemed to stun the stoic boy for a moment, as if he had thought himself immune to the food fight taking place around him. Then, he slowly looked up to find who had committed this atrocity. Monty felt like life was going in slow motion; everything took on a surreal movie-like effect. Nathan's murderous gaze had finally found the culprit, but as soon as he realized it was Monty, his glare softened into what Monty could only call a smirk. Nathan grabbed his jello and, without breaking eye contact with him, stalked over to Monty and squished the red gelatin all over his face. It was now Monty's turn to be stunned into immobility. He wasn't sure what he thought would happen, but this definitely wasn't it. As he stood there, like an idiot, Nathan Miller, the boy he pined for in a way that terrified him to his core, leaned close and whispered in his ear, "I've been watching you too," and sauntered off still wearing that brain fuzzying smirk. Monty didn't think he had ever been more terrified, and he loved it.