Heya people! I'm sorry that my school is stupid and gives us lots of homework. Here's the next chapter! Sorry for any errors, this wasn't edited in least bit (then again, they usually aren't) so I apologize for that in advance. Enjoy!
The guilt was finally starting to set in. Every time he flipped a page and saw the faces of every girl (and a few boys) he had rejected so harshly, their smiling faces would contort into those of rejection, sadness, anger, disgust, or all of the above. Did Alfred really need to be so cruel? Probably not, but he still had, and now the shame was affecting his confidence.
With the way he treated all of these people, why would they want to go to the dance with him after that? He was sure a few of them did't even want to see his face again, and there was no doubt that Alfred's locker would soon be filling up with it's fare share of death threats, hate mail and possibly stalker mail that mixed in with love confessions, secret crushes and everything else that he had to clean out to make room for his and Arthur's stuff.
Oh wait, now it would only be Alfred's crap that got lost behind the black, red, pink, and white envelope, because there was no way he was going to let that cheating bastard keep his personal items in his locker.
Which reminded him, he would half to call the ex and break it to him that he was an ex. Oh well, that could wait for later. There were thirty precious dollars on the line, and Alfred didn't plan to procrastinate with this.
He turned to the back of the book where his personal student directory was. It was a custom at WW Academy to leave your phone number with your signature in a year book, even if you didn't really want random people to call you. Since Alfred had made a point last year to get every person on campus at that time to sign (that included some very confused people who didn't even attend), he had everyone's numbers, right there.
This was also a good system for prioritizing. The difference between the signature pages in the year book and a regular directory, is you could tell what terms you were on with anyone else. If they liked you, the wrote something nice. If they had a crush on you, they would usually be shy about what they say, but it would always be a little flirty. If they didn't really know you, it'd be a simple signature and number. If they hated you, well, if they hated you, they usually wrote something pretty nasty, as you could expect.
Alfred immediately honed in on the names with hearts and smiley faces written around them. These were the ones he would try first.
"Tatyana Croix..." he read aloud before writing her number down on a discarded piece of paper, then moving on to the next one.
"Lacy McCarthy..." He repeated the process.
"Alice Modine..."
"Alena Morgue..."
"Patricia Lowell..."
"Feliks-oh wait that's a guy...that's kind of scary..."
Alfred continued like this for almost thirty minutes before he had both sides of his crumpled scrap paper. It shouldn't be too hard to find one person from the list who wanted to go with him.
With a satisfied sigh, Alfred stuck the slip into his back pocket for later. Everyone was still in school, so there would be no point in calling them then. Now, he just had to entertain himself until 3:30 passed around, and he could get started on winning that bet.
It was quiet that day, too quiet. It didn't take more than five minutes after coming into school for Ivan to find the cause of the silence. The annoying American wasn't there.
Hmm, yesterday he told Alfred that his "boyfriend" was cheating on him, and now the idiot wasn't here today... it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Ivan's bet: Alfred had found out anyway, despite his own attempt to save him some of the pain. Looking back on it, Ivan didn't know why he even tried. He didn't have any reason to do something for the American, and said American didn't have any reason to listen to him. It just didn't matter.
And yet, Ivan still felt bad for Alfred, and even a little mad at himself. For what, though? For failing to warn Alfred on time? For not being able to do something about it? It wasn't his problem, and with any luck, it never would be.
But he still felt guilty.
Classes went by smoother and faster without that loud commentary that usually took place in every class they had together. Lunch was pretty much the same, since he sat away from everyone else except for his three little slaves. The four of them ate in silence and either tuned out or listened in on the rooms conversations. It was the usual; who's going to the dance with who, who will have the best costume, where they'll be going to get wasted afterwards and (hopefully) get stuck out on the streets and get eaten by cannibal hobos. Just the norm.
People began to finish their lunch, and the crowd of people in the hall thinned out. Ivan was careful to never be late to class, so he threw away his leftovers and left the relieved smaller boys at the table to get his books.
Out the cafeteria door, Gilbert was at the school phone. Gilbert glared at Ivan with as much hate as he could muster before returning to his conversation. Ivan didn't stick around to hear much of it, but he could hear enough to tell that the albino was talking to Alfred.
"So, uh, hey. If you two aren't together anymore...who are you going to the dance with?" Ivan slowed his pace so he could hear this part. He was a little curious, to tell the truth. He wouldn't be surprised if the blonde chickened out and didn't go at all. Stupid American."Oh. Heh, well, it's not like you could get a date anyway. You already rejected everyone else! By now they've all gotten other people to go with...Yeah, yeah, just keep telling yourself that, kesesese...I bet thirty dollars you can't...Can't wait for my thirty dollars! Later!" Gilbert hung the phone back up on the wall and left.
Ivan now knew a few things. One-Alfred was probably going to be okay with his fallout with Arthur. Two-he was now dateless for the dance. Three-the idiot was probably going to try to get another one. And four-Alfred and Gilbert most likely just made a bet to see if Alfred would be successful in his new quest or not. Typical Alfred.
Ivan briefly wondered who Alfred would be taking, if he found anyone. But that thought was cut off as the next perios bell rang.
Yes! School was finally over, and Alfred could call away.
The first number on his paper was the first to be rapidly punched in. It rung three times before a young girls voice picked up on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Hey..." Alfred looked back at his paper, "Tatyana! It's Alfred."
"Oh...um, hey Alfred. What do need?"
"Not much. Just a cute date for tha dance~. Would you be interested?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm already going with someone. Sorry!"
"Oh, uh, no problem! Hope you have a good time at the dance with your date!"
"Uh, thanks! Yeah, see you around!" she hung up after that without even saying goodbye. Alfred was used to it though. Most people didn't really know how to act around him. His good mood was not bothered, however, that was just one girl out of fifty or so that he had written down. You can't expect to get a yes on the first try, right?
Next one. "Hi, uh, Lacy? Yeah, this is Alfred...I was just wondering if a beautiful lady like yourself would be interested in going to the dance with me?...oh...okay, sorry to bother you. See you later, then!" Well that was a no-go, too. Alfred sighed and moved along.
"Hi! Yeah, it's Alfred! I was wondering if you would like to go to the dance with me?...no? Okay, bye."
"Hi, yeah, let's just cut to the chase. Would you like to go to the dance with me? Oh, you're a guy?...-no! I didn't mean anything, I just-...okay, I'm sorry...so do you want to go to the dance?...Hello? Oh, they hung up..." Alfred sighed and crossed another person off of the list. This might be harder than he thought. Everyone was taken, or was waiting to get an answer from someone they already asked. The first half of the front side of his paper was riddled with black lines.
He crumpled the paper up and threw it on his bed. He had had enough of this for right now. He'd try again later, maybe get some new contacts, and he would get a yes from someone. Really, it wasn't like everyone had found a date already in what, two, three days? He would find someone, and they would have the best fucking time anyone ever had! Without Arthur.
The Next Tuesday
Turns out, everyone did already get a date. Either that, or he was asking the wrong people at the wrong time. Speaking of time, it was running out dangerously fast, and Alfred was starting to panic. What if he lost the bet? Not only would he loose thirty precious dollars, but his pride would be insulted. He'd be that guy who got cheated on, abandoned, and couldn't even get one person to say yes to him and would probably end up going alone, or not going at all, both of which were equally pathetic. Alfred being Alfred, pathetic just wasn't in his vocabulary, and he refused to fall prey to the word.
However much he regretted it though, he was becoming desperate. He couldn't pay attention in any of his classes because his mind was racing with the thought of falling that low. It was eating at him. He was almost certain he'd asked every single person in that school, even some he knew that would say no, and even asked Gilbert if going to dance with him would count, to which the stupid albino said no to. Jerk.
There were maybe five people that he knew he hadn't asked, all of them he wouldn't be caught dead with. Or at least, that's what he used to believe. Now that his pride was at stake, he was actually considering making a one time exception.
Uhg, he wished none of this had happened. It was all that stupid Brit's fault. What was wrong with Alfred? Was he not attractive enough? Well, Arthur was always telling him to lay off the burgers because he was already fat as it was, but he was sure he'd been joking around. Was he not romantic enough? He'd taken him on lots of dates, had shown his affection more than he thought was necessary, and was always looking for way to compliment the elder. Maybe he just wasn't taking things fast enough - no, that definitely wasn't it. Alfred had asked Arthur about staying the night at one of their places, to which Arthur declined. Maybe he had been taking things too fast...
Alfred just couldn't figure out why Arthur had cheated on him.
And now because of Arthur, he was going to be humiliated. Alfred briefly wondered how far he would go to protect his pride.
I feel like I'm taking it too fast, but at the same time I feel like I'm milking it too much...I can never be happy with my pace, can I?
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