Mad About You

Chapter 2

A/N: So I'm finally done with the summarizing of past events that you've already seen in episodes……I should be moving onto my own writing now.

Peter's POV

I was at my locker the next day, praying that I would get all my things before Riley got there. I didn't want to face him after what had happened yesterday. At the track meet, we could easily avoid each other. We participated in different races and could hang out with the other guys on the team. But right now, I was alone, and if he came to his locker, we couldn't really avoid each other.

I shut my locker and spun around quickly, nearly crashing into Riley. We were so close we were almost touching and I could feel his breath on my face. It was extremely……erotic. And awkward. Well, there was no avoiding him now. I quickly backed up from him.

"Dude, yesterday……" He started. I turned around. There was no way I could face him while he was talking to me about this.

"Yeah, I know, it was……weird."

"No shit. Dude, I was half naked and you……you……got excited ! You were staring at me……Peter……do you……are you……?"

"No! No! Riley, come on! I have a girlfriend, and you've seen the way I act when the girls on the track team run by. I'm not like that……I was only looking at you because I had to ask you a question and like you said, it was just hormones. It wasn't you." Nice Peter. That was real convincing. I'm sure he believes you. He looked away and laughed.

"You're right. You're right, I'm stupid. I don't know why I would think that, you're not gay. There's no way you are. I'm sorry dude, I was really out of line, I shouldn't have just assumed like that." You're not stupid. You're far from stupid. You're perfect. Wait, stop! Stop thinking that!

"Hey, it's not your fault. It's-" I was interrupted by the sound of my girlfriend's voice. I was mostly relieved, yet slightly upset.

"Good morning handsome." Fiona said, grinning at me. I smiled back and turned around so I was facing her and my back was to Riley, who turned back to his locker.

"Good morning yourself, beautiful." I said, greeting her with a kiss.

Get turned on, get turned on, get turned on! I thought to myself, trying desperately to enjoy Fiona and I's kiss. Alright, well it's not that I didn't enjoy it……I just wanted to feel something. Anything. Finally, there it is! There was some sort of a spark. It was small, and I didn't feel much, but it was there. I quickly pulled away turned around to see Riley's reaction. He had been watching Fiona and I kiss and turned around when he caught me looking at him.

I felt a sense of accomplishment when I saw the slight trace of jealousy in his expression. Jealousy? Why did I want him to be jealous? Jealous of me? Jealous of Fiona? That didn't make any sense. I didn't want him to be jealous of me, I wanted him to be with me. No I didn't! Stop it! You're not like that! Jesus, he's your friend! Stop thinking about that!

"Earth to Peter……anyone in there?" Fiona asked. I turned back to her. My thoughts were completely wrapped around Riley.

"Uh, yeah, sorry. I just got kind of distracted." I said, turning back to Riley, who made eye contact with me when I said that.

"Well I wish you would be a little bit more distracted by your girlfriend then your surroundings." She joked. I faked a laugh and a smile.

"You know you're the only thing that can ever really distract me. Especially your kissing." I leaned in and kissed her again. We broke apart and she smiled.

"Well that certainly makes up for your ADD moments. I'll see you later." She said, hugging me and walking off.

I turned back to Riley, who had a smug expression on his face.

"Don't say anything." I said.

"Dude……distracted? Really? That's putting it lightly." I wasn't sure if that meant he knew that he was the one distracting me.

"Whatever. She bought it, isn't that all that matters?" I asked. He rolled his eyes and shut his locker.

"I sure hope not." He mumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"She's your girlfriend……you shouldn't have to worry about whether or not she bought one of your made up excuses. If I was her, I wouldn't let you pull crap like that. I would be worried if I were her."

"Riley, we're not like that. Our relationship isn't based off of lies. Alright, yeah, we lie sometimes but it's not like that at all." He shrugged.

"Whatever dude." He said on his way down the hall.

"Aw, come on. Don't "whatever dude" me."

"I'll "whatever dude" you if I want to." He joked. I loved how we could never stay mad at each other and would always find a way to joke about the bad stuff.

We got to our science class and took our seats, just beating the bell. I looked over to ask him a question and noticed a piece of paper sitting on top of his binder with a list of girls names on it. I glanced at it, then back at him.

"Hey, uh……what's that?" I asked. He took the piece of paper and stuffed it in his pocket.

"It's uh, just……this thing……my dad wrote."

"And……?"

"He……he still doesn't know that I'm gay and he was really upset about what happened with Fiona, so he keeps trying to find ways to get me a girlfriend. He decided that if he made a list of girls that he thought would be good for me, that would make things all better."

"Ri, you're gonna have to tell him eventually. This kind of stuff, the making lists of girls crap, is gonna kill you."

"It's really not that easy Pete. You don't know my dad……he's not the type that you'd see marching down the street in a gay pride parade if I came out……he's the type you see swearing and screaming "fags" at the people at the gay pride parades. Look, I've spent so much of my life trying to make him proud of me and telling him I'm gay will just ruin all of that."

I looked down, speechless. I never realized how much Riley wanted his dad to be proud of him. He's always been riding his back and making him work like crazy, especially in sports. His dad was always pushing him to be the best and be perfect, and I guess gay didn't really fit into the perfect category.

That would suck if I couldn't tell my mom I was gay at the risk of her kicking me out or not speaking to me anymore. I knew Riley didn't want to tell people at school, that made sense, but not being able to tell your parents……that must be killing him. I've met his mom, she's definitely not as tough or intimidating as his dad……I'm sure he could tell her without having to tell his dad.

"Hey." I whispered, taping Riley on the shoulder. He turned to me.

"What if you tell your mom? She's not nearly as bad as your dad, and I'm sure she'd understand. I'm sure if you talked to her she wouldn't tell your dad either."

"Are you kidding me? My mom's my dad's crony. Alright, yeah, she would be supportive and wouldn't kill me like my dad would, but she would report back to my dad. At night, before they go to bed, they talk……I used to think that I could tell my mom everything I couldn't tell my dad, until I heard her talking to my dad one night, and she was telling him the stuff I talked to her about earlier in the day……the stuff I told her not to tell my dad. There's no way I could tell her this……she'd let it slip to my dad, and I'd be out on the streets in a matter of no time."

"But what's so bad about being gay? Why does your dad hate it so much?"

"I don't know Peter! He just does, that's just him! It's not normal, it's not what a guy is supposed to be. It's not "how he raised me". It's the same reason everyone else hates gay people, I can't explain it."

"Wow, well uh……I'm really sorry dude. I didn't think this was that bad. I'm really sorry……well look, if anything ever does happen, like if your dad ever finds out……you can always come to my place. I'm here." I said, reassuringly.

He looked down and smiled.

"Thanks man. That……that means a lot."

For a minute, we looked into each other's eyes, and there was this instant spark and connection between us. Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me was all that came through my mind. Any time we looked into each other's eyes I wanted to kiss him. I started moving closer to him and was leaning in. It didn't even occur to me what I was doing until I was interrupted by Jane.

"Hey, Peter." She asked, taping me. Both Riley and I moved as far away from each other as possible. I didn't even realize until later that Riley had been leaning in too.

"What?!" I snapped at her. Why was I so pissed at her? For interrupting Riley and I's "almost" kiss? A kiss that would have happened in front of the class, and would have made everyone think I'm gay……which I'm totally not. Yeah. I'm not. No way.

Jane gave me a look and looked kind of taken aback.

"Dude, chill, I was just trying to ask if you could tell me the homework on the board. I can't see." She reassured me.

"Oh, uh……sorry." I turned around, embarrassed, and looked over at the board to tell her the homework.

"Pages 180 to 190, questions 1 to 6." I said. She wrote it down and looked back up at me again.

"Thanks……you alright, dude? You seem kinda……jumpy."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. You just caught me at a bad time." She glanced from me to Riley, who's face was bright red and stuffed in his text book.

"Bad time is right……everything OK with……" She gestured to Riley, who wasn't paying attention.

"Why wouldn't everything be alright with us? We're fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. It's not like we're a couple or anything." There was a long pause. Jane looked scared.

"Are you on meth again?" She asked. I sighed.

"No, I'm just……I've got a lot going on in my head these days."

"Alright, well if you ever need to talk about everything you have going on in your head, I'm open."

"You don't strike me as the type of person who likes to do the whole "talk" thing."

"Well you're a dude. I can do guy talk. Girl talk makes me wanna puke."

"Whatever. Everything's fine with Riley and I. It's nothing." As if on queue, the bell rang and one her way out, as she passed by my desk, Jane stopped.

"Everything's fine, huh? Because avoiding each other after you almost kiss is the definition of fine." She added before leaving class. Riley got up and left too, leaving me alone.

So Jane almost saw our "almost" kiss? It was that obvious? Who else sitting behind us saw it too? We might as well have been full on making out, because I'm pretty sure everybody saw us. Holy shit. What's happening to me? I've never once felt this way about Riley before. I didn't like this. It was making me……gay. I wasn't gay. I didn't want to be gay. I had a girlfriend, I had girlfriend's before her……Riley was just an experiment. Yeah. That's it. A test. My mind was just playing tricks on me. I just had to play along until the game was over. That was all I had to do. It would all be fine. Right? Oh yeah……I think.

Fin chapter two

So there's chapter two. Chapter three will be coming soon to a theatre near you. Look out for it.