"I need to talk to you." Alfred seemed determined, but Arthur wasn't going to give him the time of day.
He closed his locker "Well you'll have to wait. Classes are starting soon." he slung his bag around his shoulder and began walking to his classroom. Alfred followed after him, he grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"No, you don't understand. It's important." Arthur glanced at Alfred and rolled his eyes, he pulled his wrist away from Alfred's grasp.
"If it was that important you would've told me yesterday when I was at your house." He crossed his arms, he was sure he could taste the bitterness that was seeping into his voice.
"But at the time I didn't have anything to say, but we need to chat. Like, right now. I don't think I can make it through the school day, this is seriously messing me up.." Alfred's voice trailed off, he self-consciously didn't want Arthur to hear the last part. He averted his gaze to the floor. Arthur furrowed his brow, maybe what Alfred wanted to talk about was urgent. He was partly reluctant because he was worried about what it was, and Alfred acting in such a strange way didn't help that fact. He supposed that he'd let him talk briefly until the...BRIIIIING
"Oh look at that, time for class" Arthur made a hasty exit, leaving Alfred behind.
Arthur thought that he would be free from Alfred for the rest of the day, but Alfred seemed to follow him wherever he went. When it was break time Arthur went to the library with Kiku, they had been studying when Alfred entered the room. He sat down opposite Arthur.
"Hey.." He lent closer to Arthur "can we talk now?" he whispered a little too loudly and the librarian shot him a glare. Kiku raised his eyebrow at Arthur.
"No. Can't you see I'm busy?" he sighed, resting his textbook on the table so he wouldn't have to look at Alfred.
Alfred poked his head over the top of the book "Aw c'mon" he whined. Arthur slammed his book shut, almost trapping Alfred's chin in the process.
"No." Arthur tried his best to stay calm, especially in front of Kiku. Even though he considered Kiku one of his closest friends he was still afraid of scaring him off with his crudeness. Alfred stropped out of the room. "Seriously, he's such a baby" Arthur whispered, Kiku chuckled in response.
Arthur and Kiku later entered their science room. This was Arthur's least favourite lesson, of course that had nothing to do with the fact that he had to sit next to Francis because they had assigned seating. Arthur sat on his stool next to Francis who had already arrived, he avoided eye contact with him whilst he got his textbooks out of his bag.
"Bonjour, mon ami" he uttered with a wink.
"Shut up you French twat" Arthur responded bitterly, Francis laughed in response. The lesson began and Arthur ferociously began writing down notes, he knew this was one of the classes that he would need to study harder for. Francis kicked his leg from under the table. "Oi!" Arthur kicked him back harder.
"Is that all you've got?" Francis remarked, kicking him again. Arthur responded with another kick and a shove as well this time.
The teacher noticed a commotion at the front of the classroom. "Stop it you two, or you'll be sent to the principle's office".
Arthur crossed his arms and faced away from Francis. He wasn't about to get in trouble for something he hadn't started. A few minutes later however, Francis began to poke him. "Hey! Stop that." Arthur demanded. When Francis refused to stop, he figured he had no choice but to poke him too. Soon Arthur and Francis were in a poke war. Arthur stopped when he felt something hit the back of his head.
"Yes! I won! See I am the greatest, of course" Francis blew a kiss at Arthur who ignored him.
Arthur picked up the ball of scrunched up paper which he assumed was just hurled towards his head. He opened it and found a note written in very scrawly handwriting "Talk after class, okay?". Arthur looked behind him and saw Alfred giving a thumbs up in his direction. Arthur had almost forgotten that Alfred was in this class, he scrunched up the paper and threw it into the bin. He missed, but he was confident that he had made his point.
"What was that? A love letter?" Francis chuckled "It must have been meant for me, who would ever write you a love letter?" he flicked the hair out of his face with a smug look.
"Shut up, frog" Arthur mumbled, trying to get on with the rest of his work.
Around twenty minutes later, the teacher decided that the students would partake in an experiment. "Choose a partner and gather your equipment from the front." As soon as Alfred heard the word 'partner' he jumped out of his seat and headed towards Arthur. This would be the perfect opportunity to have a chat with him, Alfred was too impatient to wait and he needed to get his mind straight now. Arthur noticed Alfred heading towards him, his eyes locked on him. Arthur couldn't help but feel intimidated. He rushed out of his seat and approached Kiku, he pulled him out of his seat by his arm. Arthur then felt a firm hand on his shoulder, he turned around to find Alfred in front of him.
"..Partners?" Alfred muttered, feeling defeated.
"Yes. Me and Kiku are partners, looks like Francis is still available though." Arthur smirked gesturing towards Francis who was still sat alone.
"Damn. Why do I have to get stuck with francy pants" Alfred admitted defeat and sat next to Francis.
Arthur let out a sigh of relief. He let go of Kiku, only just realising he still had a tight grip on his arm. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to be so rough. It's just, Alfred has been stalking me all day and it's starting to creep me out." he and Kiku perched themselves on the stools in front of them.
"Maybe you should just let him talk to you. He clearly has a lot on his mind that he would like to be relieved of." Kiku glanced at Alfred as he spoke. Arthur joined his gaze and saw Alfred turn around to look at him, but then quickly turn back around when he saw that he was looking too.
"I suppose. I guess I'm just worried that whatever he tells me will be stuck on my mind too and then I'll be given this burden to carry around with me. And then who am I suppose to relieve myself to?" Arthur rested his elbow on the table and placed his hand over his forehead. Kiku gave him a friendly touch to the shoulder.
"Me or possibly one of your other friends." Arthur smiled, but upon realising that Alfred and Kiku were really his only friends, he furrowed his brow. "Or..just me." Kiku muttered as Arthur placed his head on the table.
"Maybe I'll just sleep on it." Arthur relaxed his eyes closed. Kiku whacked him on the back which caused Arthur to return to his upright position.
"You can't sleep now, I'm not going to do the experiment by myself." Arthur chuckled in response to Kiku's words.
"Alright. I'll fetch the equipment."
It was finally lunch time. Arthur walked down the hall and stopped as he approached the cafeteria. There was no need for him to go in there today as he had brought his own packed lunch, this also meant that he would hopefully be able to avoided bumping into Alfred. Kiku had promised Feliciano that he would help him study during lunch time so he wouldn't be around. Arthur figured that this would be a good time for him to eat lunch in his secret spot.
Well the 'secret spot' wasn't completely secret, he was sure that there was at least a couple of people that knew its whereabouts, but it was a nice and quiet place that he liked to go to so he could think. Arthur left the hallway through one of the back doors, he turned left past the outside of the library and walked across the field. He approached a wooden fence, he climbed over it and made his way through some shrubs and bushes. Back when he had first found this spot, there was no fence and the area wasn't so overgrown so it was easier to get in and out of. The upside to it being this way, however, was that there was a lesser chance of him being found if a certain American came looking for him. He came out of the bushes into another field like area, this one smaller, and made his way left following the path of dirt on the floor. He stepped over a small fence and came into the secret spot, trees surrounded it and an assortment of flowers grew on the bushes which gave the area some colour. The small, broken fence enveloped the spot giving the feel of pleasant solitude. Light seeped through the gaps of the trees and so the area had the right balance of shade and warmth. Arthur breathed in the warm air, the smell of overgrown grass and sweet smelling flowers lingered in his nostrils until he let out a relaxed sigh. Arthur almost jumped when he saw another person in his secret spot. He didn't know why he was so surprised though, he guessed it was because he hadn't seen anyone come here in a very long time. The boy looked up from the book he was reading, his wavy blonde hair falling over his face as he did so.
"Arthur?" he hastily placed his bookmark into his book and stood up.
"Oh, Matthew. I had no idea that you knew the whereabouts of this place."
"I'm sorry..would you like to be alone?" Matthew asked shyly. Arthur shook his head.
"No. I just came here to eat lunch actually" He smiled "Come on, sit with me." Arthur sat crossed-legged on the soft grass and patted the space beside him. Matthew obeyed and sat next to Arthur. "So, how did you find this place then?" Arthur asked, whilst getting his lunch out of his bag.
"Well...A few years back in PE we were doing cross-country. I got lost on the way round the field and stumbled across the area just outside here, I always hated PE so I figured I'd take my time and have a look around. And then I found this place..I like to do reading here. It's relaxing and away from other people." Arthur nodded, he picked up one of his sandwiches and bit into it, making sure to swallow his food before speaking.
"I see." he took another bite. He didn't care what Alfred or any of the others said, he loved his home-made food.
"What about you?"
He swallowed his mouthful of food. "Well, when I first joined the school I didn't have many friends" Arthur scratched his head 'and I still don't'. Matthew's mouth opened slightly as he listened to Arthur, it felt like he was really opening up to him. "So I used to go off exploring a lot. I always liked how our school was in a rural type area so it felt like there were so many places to explore. I used to play pirate by myself at the stream just over there." He gestured to his right, chuckling "It was all quite silly really." But Matthew didn't think it was silly at all, he had always assumed that Arthur was one of the popular type people.
"That's lovely." Matthew smiled. "Sometimes I used to come here, hoping that someone would come looking for me. But no one ever did. I suppose it was my fault for waiting in such a unknown place." he laughed nervously, attempting to lighten the mood. Arthur furrowed his brow. He thought that he had it bad, but no one even noticed when Matthew wasn't there. He didn't have anyone. Arthur gently touched his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile, Matthew's cheeks tinted light pink at his touch.
Arthur returned to eating his sandwiches, not feeling the need to say anything else. But then he began thinking, had he gotten in the way of Alfred and Matthew? He thought back to all the times that he had thought bitter things about the two of them being together. But what if Matthew really needed someone like Alfred? He sure needed someone to look out for him, but was Arthur really enough for him as his friend? He finished the last part of his sandwich before turning his attention to Matthew who had returned to reading his book.
"I don't mean to sound forward..." Matthew gazed up at Arthur, his cheeks growing redder at the suggestiveness of those words. "But..is there something going on between you and Alfred?" Matthew's face dropped.
"No. Not in a romantic sense." Arthur felt internally relieved, but shook this off.
"Sorry, I don't mean to pry..It's just that Alfred has been spending quite a lot of time with you lately so I just assumed.." Arthur trailed off, why was he telling all of this to Matthew anyway?
"Yeah..I never know where I stand with Alfred to be honest with you. When we first met we used to hang out all the time, but then I guess he forgot about me because the day we went to McDonalds was the first time we had properly communicated in months." Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose, 'stupid Alfred'. Arthur wished that he had never asked, of course Matthew was completely innocent, and now he had just reminded him of bad memories to do with Alfred. Arthur gave Matthew a light pat to the back.
"So, what book is that you're reading?" Arthur asked, in an attempt to distract Matthew.
"It's 'The Tiger in The Well' by Philip Pullman, my favourite out of the Sally Lockhart books. It was my favourite book when I was younger too. I think it still is" He giggled. Arthur was relieved that he didn't mope about on negative thoughts, unlike himself.
"Ah yes. I'm familiar with these books" he picked up the book, inspecting the front and back covers. "I was always more of a J.K. Rowling kind of guy myself though" he winked at Matthew whose eyes grew wide.
"Me too!" He responded excitingly, he blushed as he saw Arthur's surprised look as he returned the book to him "The Harry Potter series is a classic" he mumbled huddling his book close to his chest. Arthur smiled, Matthew had really opened up to him. He was glad that he had gotten to know him this afternoon. He was very pleasant company. "I have other books too". Arthur led on the grass.
"Oh yeah?" he relaxed his hands behind his head, Matthew led next to him.
"Yes. I have books by Leo Tolstoy and Stephen King and C.S. Lewis and many others" his voice became excited again.
"Wonderful, you ought to show me your collection sometime" Arthur closed his eyes, he felt Matthew shuffle around awkwardly next to him.
"Really? You'd really want to?"
"Of course. It could be quite a lot of fun." Matthew blushed, he was glad that Arthur couldn't see. "I suppose we should exchange numbers then." Matthew sat up.
"W-What?"
Arthur opened one of his eyes to look at Matthew "You do have a mobile phone, don't you?" Matthew nodded shyly in response. Arthur smiled at him and held out his hand, Matthew stuck his hand in his school bag and rummaged around for his phone, he pulled it out and placed it in Arthur's hand. It was an older, flip-up phone, Arthur had assumed that everyone had moved on to iPhones and other smart phones by now. He flipped up the top and went to add his number, he had a look at his other contacts whilst he was there. He saw one labelled 'Mom' and another called 'Dad' and one under the name 'Alfred'...and that was it. Arthur furrowed his brow, even he had more contacts than this. He even had Francis' number, but that was mainly used for prank calls. He typed in his number next to the name 'Arthur' he added on a flower emoticon at the end, to remind him of the time they had spent here in his secret spot – their secret spot. He handed Matthew's phone back to him, he grinned at it. 'Finally!'
Arthur passed his phone to Matthew, he wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first so Arthur had to show him where to put in his contact details. Matthew typed in his number next to the name 'Matthew' but instead of a flower emoticon he had put a heart. Matthew blushed as he passed the phone back to Arthur, he glanced at the name that Matthew had put for his contact 'How odd.'
Arthur then felt drops of rain fall on his forehead, he sat up. "I guess we better head back now." As he stood up, the rain started getting heavier. Arthur glanced at Matthew, he didn't seem to have his blazer on him – no surprise, the weather looked lovely just a moment ago. He pulled off his blazer and handed it to Matthew. "Here" Matthew took the blazer shyly and Arthur smiled 'This is just what we gentlemen do' he smirked to himself. Matthew put Arthur's blazer on, it was still warm from when he had been wearing it. Arthur and Matthew went back through the bushes, Arthur helped his friend over the fence and the two of them rushed back over the field. Matthew began to hold Arthur's blazer over his head to use as a makeshift umbrella as the rain started falling harder, the two of them went through the same door that Arthur had used to exit on the way out. They walked in to see a familiar American looking through classroom doors, he was looking for someone.
Alfred glanced over at the door, Arthur froze. He had forgotten that he had gone to the secret spot to get away from Alfred.
"Oh my god there you are! Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you." He approached his two classmates, the thoughtful look in Alfred's eyes made Arthur feel uncomfortable.
"What's it to you? I'm an independent person, I can go wherever I please." Arthur stated, for a moment he forgot about his polite façade and decided to speak his mind.
"Well yeah..But you know that I've been wanting to talk to you all day.." He scratched the back of his neck and glanced at Arthur who had already crossed his arms. "Hey Matthew" he muttered, he noticed Matthew clutching Arthur's blazer. 'There's something fishy going on..'.
"Yes well I've told you already that you'll have to wait. Out of school hours are appropriate to talk about things that are not to do with school." Arthur stated, matter-of-factly. He didn't believe this however, he just felt like he needed an excuse to not hear what Alfred wanted to say.
"So how about after school today?"
"Um..I can't today..I've got studying to do.." He saw Alfred open his mouth to speak again and so he hastily added "and for the rest of the week too.." Alfred closed his mouth.
Alfred glanced around the hall for a moment, he scratched his chin "How about the weekend then" Alfred smirked, what other excuse could he possibly make?
"Umm well..." Arthur bit his lip as he saw Alfred's smirk. He glanced to his right at Matthew, his eyes grew wide. "Actually me and Matthew were planning on doing something this weekend" he explained, putting his arm around Matthew. Matthew froze on the spot, but quickly nodded at Alfred's confused face.
"What?" He glared at Arthur, and then at Matthew. He sighed and pulled Arthur aside, away from the Canadian. "Why do you keep running from me?" he whispered. Arthur straightened out his shirt that Alfred had just crumpled with his grasp.
"I'm not running. And please, stop grabbing me like that!"
"Yes you are! I've been wanting to talk to you all day and you wouldn't let me have a word in edgeways." His mind wandered, what if Arthur had remembered some things from the other night? Maybe that's why he had been avoiding him. "..You didn't happen to have..uhh..any recollection of the other night, did you?" He asked, creating more of a gap between them as he shuffled backwards.
"What are you talking about? You know I don't-" He stopped as he saw Alfred's cheeks going red. "Alfred" Arthur began to raise his voice "What went on that night? What aren't you telling me?".
'Why do you always get it so wrong, you idiot!' Alfred scratched his cheek, he could feel the warmth of the blood gathering there. "Oh never mind. I just remembered I gotta run, see you!" He began to take off but then stopped, turning to Arthur. "Just..call me or something, okay?" he gave a faint smile. Now Arthur was really confused, even more confused than before.
As Alfred started running off he yelled "Now who's running away?" He brushed his hair out of his face "Git." he muttered under his breath. He turned to Matthew, he had almost forgotten he was there – he was really quiet. "Sorry about that...just typical banter" he chuckled. Matthew had seen Arthur and Alfred's 'typical banter' various times before, and this was not it. There was something going on but Matthew would rather not get involved, he couldn't help feeling that he was already involved in the happenings however.
Matthew laughed awkwardly. He smiled at his classmate "That's okay, I'm used to this sort of thing." Arthur returned a smile to Matthew, and they both began walking down the hall. "I'm free Saturday" Matthew stated. Arthur hadn't realised that he had planned something with Matthew, he hated to admit it but he had only blurted that out as an excuse. Still, he wasn't doing anything on Saturday and Matthew was a nice guy so why not?
"Me too. Your place or mine?" Arthur brushed his hair out of his face.
Matthew became slightly flustered, did Arthur say things suggestively on purpose? "Mine..I-I suppose since I could show you my books.."
"Sounds good. It's a date" he stated casually, picking some lint off of his blazer. He glanced at Matthew who had stopped walking. 'Did he mean that..in a romantic sense?' Matthew pondered at the thought. Arthur didn't give a second thought to his own choice of words, but Matthew seemed to take his statement more literally than he had intended.
He needed to be sure, however. "Um Arthur...did you mean that in-" Matthew was interrupted by the sound of the school bell.
"Okay well I guess I'll see you later" Arthur smiled "Give me a text so we can sort out a time for Saturday." Matthew nodded as his classmate waved at him, before walking in to the room on his right.
"But is it just a date or is it a..date?" He mumbled to himself.
