Chapter 2: Tommy's View On Things

Tommy's Point of View

Once we all got out of the car, I went quickly to get my schedule with the rest of the gang. I found out that me and Jamie have most of the same classes and the same homeroom. Everyone was quickly sharing schedules because we were getting yelled at to get to class (because we were late for school). I was about to show Dil around, when I noticed he wasn't there with us.

I called to him. "Dil! Guys, has anyone seen Dil?" everyone looks around but no one knows where he is. Normally, I would have gone looking for him, but the front office was getting mad at us with each passing minuet. I had no choice but to go to class. Jamie walked with me to class because we had the same first period (we ended up missing homeroom). I started to worry about Dil. He won't know where to go or anything. I looked at Jamie who saw the worry on my face He put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me with all sincerity with his green eyes and said, "It will ok, Tommy. He seems smart; he'll find his way." hearing this from him felt weird in a different way. Normally, I'm the one making people feel better. To hear it from someone else feels well... good.

We come in to first period, Algebra II, late and hand the teacher our schedules. He approves and he asks us to take two empty seats next to each other in the back of the room. The teacher continued with the lesson and I could not help but think of Dil. He would be lost without me there with him. Then, another thought came to mind. Dil is gay. Who would have thought? I always kind of expected this but, I never thought he would come out and say it like this. Come to think of it, when we picked up Jamie, he was eyeing him pretty closely the whole way to school from what I could tell. I look back at him. He was focusing on his notes. I thought back to when we first met him.

Flashback: There was a new kid sitting alone a few tables away from our usual table and the usual jerks were throwing spit balls at him and calling him weirdo and other names. He didn't react to anything making the bullies try even harder to get to him. I couldn't help but feel bad for him. He looks so depressed.

"Hey guys, I'm going to try to get that kid to come over and sit with us so he won't be so alone, if not we will go over there." I say with confidence.

"But, Tommy. I don't think that we have room at the table." Kimi adds.

"Ok. We will go over there, but only if he lets us. I'll be right back." I come up to him. He looks at me but then he adverts his eyes and seems to be looking for something in the alphabet soup and says nothing.

"Hey, there. I'm Tommy. I see that you're new here, so I came to introduce myself." I put up my hand for a hand shake. He took my hand.

"I'm Jamie. I'm glad that not everyone in this school is a jerk." He goes back to looking for something in the alphabet soup.

"So, whatcha doing there?"

Again he was hesitant about telling "Oh, I'm checking for any messages left for me by the aliens. They tend to use, well... soup in general for their messages to me." He looked at me then cringed expecting me to make fun of him. Wait... Aliens? This kid believes in aliens too? Just like Dil.

"Aliens, huh. Do they leave you messages often?"

He brightened up a little. "Kind of. Recently they haven't, but I know that one will come any day now." he pauses for a second. "You know, you are the only person that has not made fun of me for saying that. Thanks."

"Don't sweat it. The alien thing runs in my family too." I say thinking of Dil.

"Really?! Cool. Anyway I saw that you have some friends over there. Don't you need to get back to them?" he says looking over at the rest of the gang. They wave at him.

"That is what I want to ask you. We were going to invite you to our table but there is no room. Do you mind if we sit here?"

"Sure. That would be great." He says now fully brightened up. He almost felt like Dil when he was around. When we all came over from the other table he just opened up like a book. He was unique, funny in some ways but he did things like Dil did things and it was like Dil has always been there and we have never left him. He would always be around me and eventually he became a new member of the gang and went everywhere we went. He even took charge of the group sometimes even when we did encounter problems such as bullies toward Chuckie and Angelica with her problems. I guess you could say that he was like me. He made me feel good inside even by his presence. Over time, he started opening up to me even deeper things. I started to share my secrets with him too. It was then that I started to notice little things about him. Things like his body features. He was kind of scrawny, but he also had muscle that tended to show while he decided to climb trees in an attempt to spot an alien starship. He also had a piercing on his right ear that took me a while to notice but when I did, it really brought out his deep green eyes.

Wait... Why am I thinking like that? I'm not gay. At least, I don't think I am. I looked back at Jamie, who was surprisingly intent on the lesson. Those thoughts just keep filling my head making me stare at him.

"Um… Tommy? You okay there?" Jamie says looking right back at me with concern.

"Uh, yea. Totally. Just paying attention to some good ole' history!" I say as I'm scribbling things onto my empty notebook.

"Tommy, we're in Algebra. Wait! Have the Aliens done something to your brain?" He gets closer to me looking into my eyes as if trying to spot something. I could feel his breath and my heart skipped a beat. It felt like forever but the teacher quickly called him out to get back to his seat for being a distraction. He quickly went back to work, but again I just looked back. I'm not gay. I'm I? From there, I started to dose off again.

It got to the point where he might have told me his biggest darkest secret.

"Tommy, do you mind if I tell you something? Something that has been on my mind for a very long time." he shifted nervously.

"Sure, Jamie. What's wrong?"

"Well, it's just... I like you. I mean really like you."

"Well yea. We're best friends now." I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

He looks into my eyes and say this with complete seriousness. "No, Tommy. I mean like-like you. Tommy, I'm gay and I've kind of liked you for a while now."

"Oh..."

Riiiiiiiiing! The bell rang for the next class. Everyone packed their things for the next class and Jamie came up to me.

"Hey, Tommy. What class do you have next?" We both look at each other schedules "Oh, I have history next."

"And I have Chemistry."

"I guess that we won't see each other until the period after in Chemistry. I need to go now. My next class I across the school. Hey, don't let the aliens take you on the way to class." he walks away skipping every few steps. Yes, he would be very good for Dil.

After the rest of the day passed lunch finally arrived. I head over to the lunchroom and try to look for someone I know. I need to tell someone about this. I keep looking around and I find my brother Dil on the other side of A-Hall trying to find the lunchroom. I run over to him and call to him. "Hey, Dil! Over here!" he looks over at me and he's pissed.

"What the hell, Tommy! Where were you? You said you would help me get around the school and meet teachers and all that stuff. I had no clue where I was going and I was at least twenty minutes late for every class. I even missed fourth period entirely; I'm still looking for it."

"Dil, I'm so sorry. Tomorrow, I promise, you won't be late for anything. Now, let's go get some lunch. I'm starving!"

"Yea, me too." We both walked to our lockers (which were right next to each other in A-Hall) and got our lunches. As we were walking back, Dil looked like he had something on his mind. We sat down and started unpacking our lunches as I ask him, "Dil, I just remembered. You got out of the car at the same time as the rest of us. What happened to you?" he just sat there looking uncomfortable; like he really wants to say something but he doesn't know how.

"Umm, Tommy. I need to tell you something." he was playing with one of his red curls coming out of his Sherpa hat.

"What is it?" I sort of knew what was coming but, you can never know with Dil.

"It's about Jamie. I think I may like him." I knew what this was about but I pretended like I didn't know.

"I knew that. You two were totally bonding when you guys first saw each other."

"No. I mean like-like him. I've never really felt this way about a person before. It feels great and I really want to be with him." I see that Dil really ment what he said. I looked into my brother's eyes and saw something that I thought I would never see in him. What I saw, was love. I couldn't help but feel happy for him. I think that the only reason on why Jamie stuck around with us in the first place, was because he was attracted to that I think about it, he was always around me telling me things, trying to get to know me better. I guess I didn't know he was that he was that way until he came out and said it. I ended up telling him that I wasn't that way and that I could go out with him. I don't think that he has told anyone else since then. It was awkward for a while, yet, we still ended up becoming best friends. I couldn't ask for a better person to be with Dil.

"Dude, that' awesome. You know, why don't we invite him over to our place over the weekend. That will be the perfect opportunity to tell him how you feel."

"Tommy, what if he's not... 'that way'?"

"Don't worry, he is. Just tell him how you feel. Trust me, it will be fine."

"What if he doesn't like me back? Tommy, I don't know what to do!" he leans forward and puts his head on my shoulder. I could tell he was really stressed about the whole thing. He was almost in tears because of it.

"Dil, look at me." He looks up still at the verge of tears. "Everything will be fine. If anything happens, you can call me to pick you up and if he doesn't like you back then he doesn't know what he's missing." Dil automatically brightens up.

"Thanks, T." he looks at the clock and it's almost the end of lunch. "Dude, we need to get going. I don't want to be late for my Earth Science class; and this time, T, you're going to show me where it is."

"Okay, D." we both start to devour out food and at the lunch bell, I showed him to his next class.