Chapter 2

"The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring."

- Victor Hugo


11:30 AM

All throughout Algebra, I'm worrying about Chemistry. Gosh! We only met three hours ago, and Dallas has already turned me into a nervous wreck. I'm scared about this afternoon. He's the kind of guy who only has one thing on his mind: Intercourse. I've never even been on a date, let alone been kissed or even touched in that way. My glasses have been falling down all day because of how profusely I've been sweating.

Then, the bell rings for fourth period to end. That means fifth period Chemistry. With Dallas. I slowly get up from my chair after the other students have left. My knees are shaking. I start walking to try and hide it.

I walk into the Chemistry lab and, to my utter surprise, Dallas is already there. I have my eyes glued to the ground and walk to a desk far away from him, but I can just feel his eyes locked on me and a grin plastered across his face. I have no idea why he would be grinning, but I can feel it.

"Okay, class. I'm your teacher, Ms. Doll. We're going to start by putting you in an alphabetical seating chart so I can learn your names."

That's why he was grinning. He knew this was going to happen. I sigh as I stand up and wait for her to call my name, immediately followed by Dallas'. I sit in my desk near the middle of the class and cringe as Dallas slides into the desk behind me.

"You miss me, beautiful." he says.

"Not really." I whisper.

"It wasn't a question, but don't worry. You'll learn to miss me." I can feel my jaw quivering and my knees are doing the same.

Then, Ms. Doll takes out two hats, each of which has all our names written on pieces of paper. She explains that she's going to draw a name from one hat and that person will come to the front and draw a name from the other hat. Whichever name we pull out, they'll be our lab partner for the semester.

"Austin Moon." she calls on the first draw. I get up and walk to the front of the class. Luckily, since everyone's name is still in the second hat, I only have a one-in-twenty-nine (since there's thirty of us, but I can't be my own partner) chance of drawing Dallas' name. I reach into the hat and grab the first slip my hand touches. I pull it out and look.

Just my luck!

"Dallas Morgan." I say aloud. Ms. Doll writes it down and motions me to sit back down.

"This should be fun." Dallas says suggestively. "I can't wait to try some 'experiments' on you." I spin around towards him.

"If you're going to be my lab partner, we need to set some ground rules." I say. "First: No offensive comments." His face stays completely emotionless. "Second: I'm not doing all the work! You have to pull your own weight. If you don't, I will report you to Ms. Doll and get myself a new partner. Third: Don't play with the lab equipment."

"Bossy." Dallas says. "Kinky."

"Hey! Rule number 1!" I say.

"Get over yourself." Dallas says. "The rules are going out the door this afternoon." I turn back around. "Oh. Don't be like that." he pouts before turning me back around. "It'll be fun." He smiles at me, but this isn't one of those evil looking smiles. It seems to be genuine, but it only lasts for a second before he goes back to his normal half-scowl, half-grin.

"Can I turn around now?" I ask. He shrugs, seeming completely indifferent to me for once. I turn back to the front of the room.

He smiled at me. It wasn't a grin like usual. It was a genuine smile. And it was a beautiful smile. Wait. What am I thinking? He's a horrible person! But, could I be falling for him?


2:00 PM.

The bell just rang for school to end for the day. Time to continue my ritual of going straight home and trying in vain to write my own song. Ally has given me tips, but I just can't seem to do it.

I'm walking around the back of the school to get to the buses when three brutes get in my way, staring me down.

"W-W-What do you w-w-want?" I stutter.

"Just a little initiation for the faggot." The center one says. My eyes widen. I know exactly what's coming.

"Just get it over with." I say, eyes on the ground.

"It's more fun when they try to run or grovel, but-" A large fist connects with my stomach. I double over to the ground, waiting for the next blow to come any second, nothing seeming to come from my sensory organs at all. But when the blow doesn't come, I open my eyes and look up to see Dallas standing in front of the boys and reaching into his jacket pocket.

"Nobody breaks my toys." he says, pulling out a knife. He flicks it open before looking down at me.

He frowns. From what I can infer from the situation, he saw the look of sheer terror on my face and, knowing I'll never like him if I'm scared of him, he closes the knife. Yeah, he probably wants me to be somewhat scared of him, but he seems to know that there's a line. Maybe he isn't so merciless and stupid after all.

Dallas looks back at the boys. "Stay away from him. He won't always be around to save your lives." Dallas snarls. The boys run off in different directions. Dallas looks over and walks toward me. I try to get away from him, but I'm still on the ground and my stomach still hurts from the punch. He crouches down beside me and stares into my eyes. I stare back, but I don't see what I'm expecting to. I see... kindness.

"Are you okay?" he asks gently, pushing some of my hair from my face. I nod warily. "Let's take a look." he says, moving a hand to the hem of my shirt. I put my hand to the shirt as if to say Don't. "Calm down. I just wanna see how bad he hurt you." He smiles gently as I slowly take my hand back. He lifts my shirt up and looks at my stomach. His eyes widen slightly. "Well. Your abs don't seem to be damaged." I blush slightly. "It'll bruise, but you'll be fine." He drops my shirt and stands up, offering a hand to help me up. Trepidatiously, I take his hand and let him pick me up. "You work out?" he asks.

"N-N-No." I respond. "J-J-Just eat right." He smiles.

"That stuttering is adorable." he says.

"It only happens when I'm n-n-n-nervous."

"You don't need to be nervous. We're gonna have fun."

"I don't want to have f-f-fun. At least, not your kind of fun." I pick up my book and clutch it back to my chest. "B-B-But I don't really want to go home either. They might be waiting for me."

"C'mon. We'll go to my place for a while." He grabs me by the wrist and starts dragging me towards the front of the school, where parents pick up. He drags me over to a black SUV and opens the back door, motioning for me to get in. I look at him for a second and see that genuine smile again, no malice in his eyes. I smile lightly and climb in. "We have a visitor, Alfred." he says, climbing in with me.

"Very good, Master Morgan." The suit-wearing, grey-haired man in the driver's seat, who I'm guessing is Alfred, says in a British accent. I look at Dallas quizzically.

"My dad's really rich. You know that big mansion on Oak?" I nod. "Yeah. That's my house." My mouth drops open.

"So, he's your butler?" I ask in disbelief.

"Butler, driver, caretaker. Pretty much everything." Dallas says, settling into his seat. I laugh a little.

"Batman's butler is named Alfred." I explain.

"Yes. Yes. It's very comical." Alfred says. "Seat belt, Master Morgan." Dallas rolls his eyes as he puts on his seat belt. I lean forward to Alfred.

"I'm Austin. Austin Moon." I say offering my hand to shake. He cringes slightly when I say my last name, but turns to shake my hand anyway.

"Alfred. Alfred Styles. And: No. I'm not related to Harry." he says, smiling. I laugh. "Now. You should put your seat belt on, as well." he says before turning back to the front. I lean back and put my seat belt on. When he hears the click, Alfred drives off toward Oak Street.


2:45 PM

"So. Whadya wanna do?" Dallas asks as we walk inside.

"N-N-Normally, I do homework. But it's only the first d-d-day." I say.

"I'm gonna go play some video games." he says. "Wanna come?" I nod and he leads me into a home theater. He walks close to the projector screen and turns on a PlayStation 2. I sigh, reminiscing. "What was that about?" he asks, noticing my sigh.

"Oh. Nothing. I just have a lot of good memories with this system." I explain.

"Oh." he says, sitting in one of the large recliners as the title screen for Final Fantasy X comes on the screen.

"I love this game!" I exclaim, rushing over to the large recliner next to his and sitting down.

"I thought you might." he says, grinning. "I just can't manage to beat this stupid Sinspawn Gui." He's obviously frustrated.

"It's not that hard when you know how to do it." I say. "First you take out the head with Wakka and Lulu, then use Auron and Kimahri to take out the arms and body, keeping Yuna on the field the entire time to heal people."

"You know your stuff, don't you?" he asks.

"I hope so. I've beaten this game, like, ten times." He smiles at me.


6:00 PM

With my coaching, he makes it all the way to Bikanel desert in the time we spend together, bonding.

"Dinner is served, young masters." Alfred says from the door of the home theater.

"Dinner?!" I ask, not realizing how much time has passed. "I need to get home! My mom is probably worried sick about me!"

"Can't you at least stay for dinner?" Dallas asks, turning off the PS2. I shake my head frantically. "Alfred, can you please drive him home?"

"Of course, Master Morgan. Come along, Master Moon." Alfred says. I follow him off to the car.


6:30 PM

"Thank you, Mr. Styles." I say, climbing out of the car.

"It was my pleasure, Master Moon." Alfred says before driving back to Dallas' house. I turn and walk inside.

"Mom! I'm ho-" I stop when she comes running over and hugs me.

"Austin! Where have you been? I was worried sick! Are you hurt?"

"No, Mom. I was with a friend." I say, pushing her arms down.

"Why were you with Ally this long?"

"It wasn't Ally." I say. I walk towards the kitchen to get some dinner. "I made a new friend." Even though I can't see her, I know her hands are to her chest, smiling.


Aug 6

6:30 AM

Mom just dropped me off at school. I'm kinda excited today. Yesterday, I made a new friend. If that's what high school has in store, I'm ready to get started.

As I walk to the front door, I don't see Dallas around, so I figure "Maybe he went to class." I start walking to the English room and run into Dallas on the way.

"Dallas!" I run over and hug him.

"What the fuck?!" he shouts. "Get the hell off me, you nerd!" He pushes me roughly to the ground before him and his posse start laughing at me as they walk away.

What happened? One day he's asking me to stay for dinner and the next he's acting like we never met? I thought we were friends. I crawl over and slump against the lockers, crying.


A/N: Okay. Thing are starting to get interesting.

Does Dallas have a twin brother and that's why he's acting that way?

Is Austin ever going to make friends?

Will this turn into something more?

Will I ever stop asking questions you don't know the answers to?

These answers, and more, to come!


Also. A little fun fact. For my sociology class, I've been doing research on homosexuality. It turns out that for every son a mother has, the next son's chance of being gay increases by 33%. Whether this is just 33%, or 33% of the current probability, I don't know. But this gives Ross either a 66% or 58.3737% chance of being gay, and Ryland a 99% or 77.637021% chance. I'm happy now. XD