A/N: I know it's been a while but my laptop messed up and just yesterday I fixed my old one. Sorry, guys and thank all of you for your reviews and continued support.
Randy bit his lip and walked back to the car in silence, hating the feeling of shame and disgust that washed over him right now.
The ride back to the house was exhausting and by the time he'd parked outside he considered sleeping out there for the night. It wasn't until he remembered that he needed to get things ready for school that he forced himself out of the car.
The teen went upstairs without bothering to greet his mother. He showered and laid out everything for the next day in hopes of relaxing after experiencing what he was sure was the end of a great friendship. Randy sighed, trying to put that out of his mind as he grabbed his phone to set his alarm for the morning.
[From: Unk] Hi. :P
[From: Unk] Randy, hey it's Seth. I know I have no right to ask so I won't. I just want u to know that I won't tell if that's what ur worried about.
[From: Unk] We all have stuff that we carry around. I'm here if u need to talk.
Of course he knew who it was after reading the first message he sent to himself at the beach but he definitely wasn't prepared for or expecting the other two. His gut wrenched a bit as he thought over what to respond. It was already later than he'd like but he couldn't ignore this message. First, he focused on saving Seth's number, snorting when he thought of what clever name to put down.
[To: Rogue] Thanks but I don't like talking about it in general so don't take it personal or anything. It's good to know you don't think I'm some sort of freak or that you have to report my behavior to my parents. c:
[From: Rogue] It's only personal if I make it. Just take care of urself. I'll c u 2moro.
[To: Rogue] Yeah, see you tomorrow. :P Night, man.
[From: Rogue] Nite. Oh PS: When do we start calc lessons?
[To: Rogue] As soon as you want. Just so you know, Michaels gives you a retry if you ask for it and he sees improvement in your second test. Not to push you or anything. ;)
[From: Rogue] Yea. 2moro after practice?
[To: Rogue] Sure. Later, Seth.
[From: Rogue] Nite. :)
The ringing in his head had definitely gone down after sorting that out with Seth.. and it helped knowing that he'd have an added excuse to stay away from the house for the remaining months. Randy smiled softly as he set the alarm then put the phone down on the nightstand, yawning quietly as sleep took him quickly after a day filled with emotional turmoil.
~.~.~.~
"Dude! We just won another game! We are celebrating tonight."
"It's Thursday night." he gave his best friend an unimpressed look, shaking his head at the blond.
"And? When has that ever stopped you before? Besides, you love finding excuses to stay away from your house."
Randy flushed, looking around their group of friends and sending John a nasty glare. "Whatever."
John sighed, "I.. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry.. but it's just.. you always come along, ya know?"
"Not tonight. Maybe after tomorrow's game I'll go. Sorry, guys." He nodded at the rest of the few teammates around them as well as Mickie and April. "Have fun."
"We'll see ya round." Cody chimed in, smiling at his best friend then shooting another glare towards John. They might've known about why Randy spent so much time out of that house but the rest of their friends didn't and Cody wanted to keep it that way for as long as Randy wanted them to.
Randy only gave Cody a slight nod before leaving to the school library. He sighed a bit, rubbing a hand over his face as he adjusted his gym bag on one shoulder and backpack on the other. Randy cheered himself up by thinking about how he'd be spending time with Seth soon and the mask didn't have to be on for a few hours. It was strange, the more time he spent with Seth the more he stopped seeing him as just a friend. Seth wasn't exactly in the same category as John or Cody but whatever it was that Randy was starting to feel it made him feel at ease most of the time.
He glanced towards the library entrance, seeing Randy walking in and feeling his stomach do that annoying flip thing. 'What do you think?' Seth looked back at Roman, smiling nervously and shrugging a bit "Uh.. I have to study for the calculus test next week." he explained, trying to shift away from the Samoan once Roman's hand started traveling too low on his back.
Roman looked towards where Seth had been looking, dark eyes finding who it was right away and smiling softly because he couldn't really be bitter over something he didn't even have. He nodded at the teen "Okay. Well maybe you can take a break tomorrow and come to the party after the game.. I'm sure Randy will invite you to that one too."
"I.." Seth started but Roman lifted a hand and shrugged softly, effectively cutting him off. The swimmer bit his bottom lip and looked down, "Sorry. I seem to like making my life difficult and shooting for people that hardly know I exist."
Roman laughed, patting Seth's shoulder "Maybe the chase will pay off?" not that he would know, Seth was the first one that he tried getting at that refused his advances and Roman was pretty sure that it was only because he was smitten with Randy.
"I doubt it." he laughed softly, putting up his hair into a sloppy bun and shrugging at Roman "Thank you, though.. for not getting upset."
"We'll see. And nothing to be upset about.. not like we were already dating."
Seth gave a quick nod and hugged Roman quickly before making sure his calculus book was in his bag then walking into the library. He'd never get used to the rows and rows of books or the ten different study sections there were in this library especially since his old school was about half the size of his senior class here. The teen pulled out his phone and shot Randy a text.
[From: Rogue] Where r u 2day? :x
[From: Doe Eyes] What are you saying?
Randy ignored the second text, he couldn't think about this right now especially because Taryn was acting as if he'd broken up with her when as far as he knew they'd never been dating. How could they when they hardly talked and when they did it was about weather and potential parties; all he did was point that out to her. He shook his head, typing a response back to Seth.
[To: Rogue] Same place as yesterday. The one close to the windows overlooking the field.
[From: Rogue] Whiteboards?
[To: Rogue] Yes. How are you supposed to practice without them? ;P
Seth huffed, rolling his eyes at the sarcasm he could practically taste from the message and pulled his bag to secure it on his shoulders before heading straight to the third study section from the entrance. He dropped his bag on the long, wooden table and glared at the other teen "I don't need your sass, okay? I was just asking because I'm not used to being in this place yet."
"You're finishing off your second week!"
"Exactly." he pulled out his book and notepad before taking out his case and sliding on his glasses. Seth glared at Randy warningly as if expecting the smart remark about his glasses like the first time Randy had seen them and every day since.
Randy pressed his lips together, trying -and failing- to hide a smirk as he looked at Seth. It wasn't that the man couldn't pull off the glasses but rather that they made him look younger and nicer than he actually was and Randy would always find that hilarious because, as he'd learned these past four days, Seth could have a mean streak. He cleared his throat, "Where are we startin' today?"
Seth breathed out a sigh of relief though his cheeks were still a little flushed. If it wasn't for him swimming his eyes wouldn't be hurting after practice so much that he had to take out his contacts. "Uh.. integrals?"
"You sure? You were still having some trouble with derivatives last time." Randy flipped through the book for a question he was sure
Michaels would put on the next test and pointed it out to Seth before tapping the teen's notepad "If you solve this one on your own we'll move on.. if not we'll keep going."
"Randy.." he huffed, almost pouting at the other teen.
"You wanted me to teach you and I've never done anything half-assed. I'm sure as hell not starting now. Besides.. Michaels is giving us an extra week to study since last scores were lower than he expected.." he grinned when Seth mumbled under his breath "What was that?"
Seth's cheeks heated up and he bit his lip, shaking his head in embarrassment and getting to work on the problem. He was so focused on the problem that he didn't notice Randy's eyes on him.
The football player looked down at Seth's paper after a while, seeing him erase something then bring the pencil to his lips to chew on it nervously. He scanned his gaze over the teen's lips before looking away and clearing his throat once more. This couldn't happen. One of his friends had a thing for Seth and he was sure Seth had heard too much of Randy's personal life to see him that way any more.
"There." Seth grinned victoriously, shoving his notepad towards his tutor/friend and tapping his left foot anxiously as he waited for
Randy to check his work. He grumbled when the man just did a quick pass and hummed, wondering how this man had such a knack for the horrid subject.
"Okay. We can get this going." He nodded and flipped to the right page in his book before getting up and writing some stuff on the whiteboard.
The study session went by slower than usual and Seth had a feeling that it was because Randy asked about Roman and him and Seth panicked and said they were too different and Randy had been seemingly lost in thought since then. He scratched his chin, the barely there stubble aggravating his finger a little as he stood in front of the whiteboard and worked on his second problem of the night since the first 40 minutes had been Randy writing simplified notes and examples while they chatted about their sports teams.
Randy looked at the teen from his seat, resting his elbows on his knees and humming softly as he waited for Seth to begin. It took Seth about 15 minutes to finish the problem and Randy frowned when he looked at the wrong answer. He shook his head and pointed out the mistake about halfway through "That's okay. You just have to remember the rules.. it solves itself." he assured Seth.
He calmed down at that, nodding and erasing everything after that point before finishing off the problem successfully and even doing two others that were just about the same difficulty. "Ha!" he grinned, throwing his hand up in the air but promptly shutting up when a group of students glared his way. "I knew I was ready for this!"
Randy smiled, having accepted what they spoke about earlier, as he squeezed Seth's shoulder softly "Yeah, now you can do the rest of the homework on your own. It's only two more questions." he smirked a bit, stretching and glancing at the clock "Fuck. It's almost closing time. I didn't mean to talk your brain out so much."
"You wouldn't have to if I would've gotten it the first time." he muttered, cheeks flaming a bit as he felt slightly guilty for making Randy spend his night here when the rest of the team was having a party.
"I didn't mean it that way.. I told you, you're doin' me a favor." he smiled as they started collecting their things "Besides, I didn't have any plans tonight anyway."
Seth blinked, "What about the party?" he said before he could stop himself.
Randy shrugged "Rome invited you? I'm not goin'. Wasn't in the mood.. besides, I had better places to be."
He felt his cheeks flush as he nodded, looking down "Oh. Okay.. well thank you. I'll let you go get some rest."
The football player smiled and gave a quick nod "I won't for a while, bit thanks. Oh! Wanted to ask if we could skip tomorrow's lesson and do it on Saturday instead?"
"Uh.. sure."
Randy grinned, "awesome. Now you don't have an excuse to say no to our football party tomorrow?" He chuckled, looking at Seth hopefully.
"Uh.. I might need a ride but.. if I can get one, yeah."
"I'll take you. Don't worry about it. It's after our game which should end about two hours after your practice. If you can be ready and at school by then we can leave from here."
Seth nodded warily, old nerves and experiences with jocks making him want to run away now that he'd be at one of their parties. "It at the beach again?"
Randy smiled, having an idea of why Seth asked that especially since the teen was biting his lip nervously. "Yeah. So we can just split away from the rest if it gets bad."
Seth breathed out a sigh of relief, nodding at Randy and this time smiling at him "cool. I'll see you then!" He blushed when Randy winked at him and patted his shoulder, returning the gesture with a slight bump to the teen's hip.
Randy knew it for sure now.. but he didn't want to feel it or admit it so he just grinned at Seth like he always did before they said their goodbyes.
