Blaine exited his geometry classroom feeling as if he had been hitting his head repeatedly on the desk. Math was definitely not his thing. Not only had it been a difficult exam, but it was also an extremely long exam. Blaine had left at least three problems blank and didn't even have time to start the last question. Hopefully he would be able to scrounge a B.
Upon meeting Erin outside the front doors, Blaine noted that she didn't look any happier than he felt. "How'd it go?" he asked tiredly.
"Like crap," she responded sourly. "I definitely mixed up when to use the preterit and subjunctive and whatever other tenses we were supposed to know in my essay. And I wrote about my dog. I don't even have a dog. It was terrible."
"At least your exam was supposed to be in a different language," Blaine said. "I'm pretty sure that I only understood about half of the works on my geometry exam. The rest was just … God knows what."
Erin laughed. "Well, at least we can all relax now! That was the last exam of the year!"
"Thank God," Blaine said in agreement. "I don't think I could have stood one more minute in that building!"
Micah came jogging out the door to meet the two, holding a paper clutched in his hand and with a large grin on his face.
"Why are you so happy?" Erin asked.
"Why aren't you? Exams are over!" Micah replied.
Erin gave him a look that clearly stated that she knew that wasn't all that the boy was excited about.
"Well, I'm pretty sure I just aced my English exam, and then afterwards, my teacher wanted to talk to me in private. She said that she'd recommended me for the paper staff for next year! She showed the advisor one of my papers and they want me to be a writer for The Tiger Tribune!"
"Micah, that's fantastic!" Erin exclaimed, hugging the younger boy.
"Congrats!" Blaine said. He gave Micah a high-five as soon as Erin released him.
"Now we have a real reason to celebrate," Erin said.
"School letting out wasn't reason enough for you?" Blaine asked.
"Well, yeah, but so was everyone else. Now we're being original."
Micah rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Shall we get a move on? Shane's school should be letting out soon."
The group began walking down the street towards the middle school.
"Is Becca meeting us downtown?" Blaine asked, turning toward Erin.
"No, she left last night for vacation with her family. They're going to Pennsylvania, I think."
"Oh. Cool."
"Yeah. She'll be back in a couple of weeks, though. Are either of you guys doing anything over the summer?"
"We usually go abroad somewhere over the summer, I'm not really sure about this year though," Blaine said.
"Wow," Micah said quietly. "I've never even been out of the country."
"I've gone to visit relatives in Canada. But that's just about it," Erin said.
Blaine felt slightly awkward around his two friends. The significant disparity between his parents' annual income and theirs' rarely came up, and it never seemed to be an issue, but Blaine did usually try to keep quiet about certain things.
"Well," Micah said, shattering the silence, "I think I'm going to try to get a job over the summer. You know, keep busy, earn some cash ..."
"I have running camp and then preseason, but none of that starts until August. We might go visit some relatives, but otherwise I'm here the whole summer."
"Once Shane and I figure out our plans, I'll let you know so we can figure out how we're going to spend these next few blissful months," Blaine said.
They now approached the middle school just as the final bell was ringing. Only a few moments later, the doors burst open and preteens came pouring out. Erin, Blaine, and Micah waited on a bench outside the main office doors, hoping to catch Shane as he ran out.
Shane was one of the last kids to exit the building. He was walking with a few other boys, but upon seeing his brother, he turned to them and uttered a word of farewell. Their disapproving glances were not lost on Blaine.
Shane, noticing nothing, came running over to the trio. "Hey!" he called.
"Hey, little brother. How does it feel to be officially done with middle school?" Blaine asked.
"Fantastic," Shane said fervently. "So, what's the plan for today?"
"Well," Erin began, "we don't need to take the bus. It's not too long of a walk downtown, and anyway, it's really nice out."
The others agreed and they began their walk. A group of four couldn't walk together along the sidewalk; instead, they split into two groups of two. Blaine and Erin led the group, talking about neutral topics such as which movie they would go see that night.
Shane and Micah lagged behind. Micah soon found himself overanalyzing everything he said and did. Shane was animatedly talking about his classes for next year. Micah was trying his hardest to pay attention, but then he noticed his arms. Did they always swing like that? He suddenly felt like a gorilla. He tried to manage the swinging, but now they were jerky and irregular. As his arm swung forward, he felt it make contact with Shane's hand. Micah blushed furiously and stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets. He missed Shane's small smile at the contact.
"Which teachers should I try to get?" Shane asked.
"Well, you definitely need to avoid Strickland," Micah said. Realizing what that implied, he quickly added, "I mean because you look so much like Blaine. He'd definitely know you were related and then he'd probably hate you too."
Shane chuckled appreciatively. "Yeah, I figured that one out on my own. Who do – did – you have for English?"
"I had Ms. Corey. She's really nice, but not a tough grader or anything. It was a pretty easy class actually."
"Sounds like my kind of teacher," Shane said. "I'm so excited for high school!"
"Believe me, it's not all it's cracked up to be."
"Yeah, but you're there." There was a slightly awkward silence after Shane's admission. "And Blaine and Erin," he added quickly, trying to cover up his slip. "All my real friends are there already."
Friends, Micah thought, that's all we are.
"Movie now or eat first?" Erin said, turning around to address the two boys. Neither had noticed that they had already arrived downtown.
"Uh...how about food?" Micah said. Shane nodded in agreement. Blaine looked at the two of them and raised his eyebrows at Shane. The younger brother blushed and looked away.
"Where do you want to eat?" Blaine asked. He was faced with a silence from everyone else.
"In case you hadn't realized it already," Micah said, "we're all pretty indecisive."
"Fine," Blaine said. "I guess I get to decide then." He began walking down the street and the others followed behind him blindly.
Blaine proudly stopped in front of Pizza Castle, a small, locally-owned pizza joint that served the best pizza around (at least in Blaine's opinion it was the best), but was out of the way, so few people knew about it. Erin and Micah gave him questioning looks, but Shane's countenance immediately brightened upon seeing the quaint building and he plowed ahead through the doors.
"Trust me. This place is fantastic," Blaine said in response to Micah and Erin's doubtful looks. "Not many people know about it though since it's kinda far from most of the exciting stuff downtown."
"It's cute," Erin said.
"And it smells good," Micah added.
The three pushed through the doors after Shane and joined him at a booth in the corner. Almost immediately, a waitress came over to the table to take their drink orders. Micah and Erin poured over the menu, but Blaine and Shane sat patiently, waiting for their friends to decide what they wanted.
"Do you go here that often that you have the menu memorized?" Erin asked.
"Not really. It's actually been a while since we've been here...a couple of months, at least," Blaine explained.
"We just know what's good here," Shane supplemented.
"And that is...?" Erin asked.
"Deep dish pizza with onions, pepperoni, sausage, olives, and mushrooms. Garlic on the crust," Shane said with a dreamy expression on his face.
Blaine continued, "The owner's from Chicago, so his deep dish is actually pretty legit. You can't eat it with just your hands. You need a fork and knife."
"Well," Shane said, "I guess you could technically eat it with your hands, but it'd be disgustingly messy..."
"I get it," Erin said while Micah chuckled appreciatively.
"You ready to order?" Blaine asked the rest of the table, seeing the waitress approaching from the corner of his eye.
"I think so," Micah replied musingly.
"Y'all ready?" the waitress asked cheerily.
Shane relayed the order for his and Blaine's small pizza.
"Uh...I'll just get a small cheese," Erin said.
"I'll have a small hawaiian," Micah said.
Everyone passed in their menus to the waitress, who said, "Great. They'll be out here in about 25 minutes."
As soon as she walked away, Micah turned to the others. "Won't we have a lot of extra pizza? I mean, you two are splitting one, but they sound really filling..."
"Exactly," Shane said.
"We can all kinda share. And then there'll be extra to eat later," Blaine elaborated.
The group fell into easy conversation while waiting for the food to arrive. Shane and Micah were sitting next to each other, and every so often one's hand would accidentally brush the other's. Every time this happened, they both pulled away, blushing profusely. Erin observed this with a bemused grin on her face.
When the pizzas arrived, Shane was the first to dig in.
"I'm starving here," he said as he pulled a giant slice of pizza onto his plate and began ferociously cutting it apart. Once the first bite entered his mouth, he closed his eyes and sighed in contentment. "It's like a little slice of heaven," he said.
Micah grinned and began eating his slice with more dignity than the boy sitting next to him. "Oh my God," he said after swallowing. "This is fantastic."
Shane and Blaine exchanged triumphant smiles. "Told you," the younger boy said.
"Movie next, right?" Erin said.
Mouth full of pizza, Blaine just nodded in agreement.
"Which movie?" Shane asked, mouth full. He received nothing in response but a withering glance from Erin. "Sorry," he said, swallowing. "Which movie?"
"I don't know. What's out now?"
"Uh, there's Up, The Hangover, Adventureland, Angels and Demons..." Blaine began reciting.
"Not Angels and Demons," Micah said. "Movies based on books are never as good."
"Fine, not that. Any of the others sound good?"
"Well, The Hangover's rated R, right? So we can't get into that," Shane said.
"And I'm not really a fan of Kristen Stewart," Erin said.
"But Ryan Reynolds is in Adventureland, too," Blaine pointed out.
Erin shot him a look that immediately shut him up.
"Well?" Shane asked.
"Well, I think you all know that I vote for Up," Blaine said.
"Any objections?" Micah asked.
No one raised their voices against the movie.
"So it's settled," Erin said. "We'll go catch Up after this."
The waitress came back over to the table. "Are y'all done eating? Want me to box those up for you?"
"Yes please," Micah responded in his kind, quiet voice.
"Sure thing. I'll be back in just a minute."
Erin slid the box of left-over pizza into her bag, and the group paid and left the restaurant. As they were exiting, Blaine stopped short, grabbed Micah by the shoulders, turned the other boy around, and pointed at the door to the restaurant.
"Hey! – what are you doing?" Micah asked, brushing Blaine's hands off.
"You said you wanted to get a summer job, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, why not work here?"
Micah stared at Blaine. "What?"
"Look, they're hiring," Blaine said, pointing to the sign on the door. "Plus, it's out of the main downtown area, so you won't run into many people from school, you'll get really good tips, and I bet there's a wicked employee discount."
"I don't know, Blaine," the other boy objected.
"No, it's a really good idea!" Shane said as he joined the conversation.
Micah looked to Erin, pleading with his eyes for her to take his side. "Sorry, Micah, you're on your own on this one. I think it's a really good idea," Erin said with the slightest hint of a grin on her face.
"It's settled then!" Shane exclaimed as he reentered the restaurant and asked the manager for an application.
"But –" Micah objected weakly. "Fine," he said resignedly, accepting defeat as he took the application and stuffed it into his knapsack.
After the movie let out, the four gathered in the courtyard outside the theatre.
"Hey, Blaine," Erin said, grabbing the boy's arm. "I think I dropped my phone in the theatre. Can you help me look for it?"
"Oh, um, sure," Blaine replied, shooting his friend a confused look at her urgency. They walked back into the theatre, at which point Erin sat down on a bench in the lobby.
"Want to tell me what's going on?" Blaine asked, sitting down next to her.
"Oh, come on. You can't honestly tell me that you don't see anything between those two," Erin said.
"Oh."
"Well?"
"I mean, Shane told me that he … but do you really think that they … and Micah?" Blaine spluttered.
"Yes," Erin answered simply and firmly.
"Oh."
"Let's give them a few minutes."
Shane and Micah sat on a bench outside the theatre, waiting for Erin and Blaine.
"Uh, Shane?" Micah asked uncomfortably.
"Yeah?" the younger boy answered, turning his eyes on Micah's face.
"I was wondering … do you think maybe – you'd want to go out sometime? With me?"
Shane was silent for a moment. He looked away from Micah to hide the huge grin that was now spreading across his face. "Yeah. I'd like that."
Micah smiled in relief. "Good. Great. How about Sunday?"
"Sure." Shane nodded his head enthusiastically. "I think I'm free all day."
"Cool."
When Erin and Blaine exited the theatre a few minutes later, Erin's face broke into a triumphant grin upon seeing the two boys.
"So?"
Shane looked up from where he was sitting on the floor of his room. Blaine stood casually in the doorway, hands in his pockets and an expectant grin on his face.
"What?" Shane asked, determined to avoid his brother's eyes.
"Come on. Do I seriously need to spell it out for you?"
"Spell what out?"
"Really?" Blaine rolled his eyes. "Fine. You and Micah."
Shane blushed.
Blaine walked past the threshold, shut the door, and sat down next to his brother. "Spill?"
"He asked me out. That's all."
"What? When? Where?"
"Sunday. I'm not sure what or anything, though."
"What – what about dad? How are you going to get out for a couple of hours and explain it to him?"
Shane's face fell. "I, uh, I hadn't thought about that."
"He probably won't care," Blaine said quickly, trying to alleviate Shane's worries. Realizing what his previous statement implied, however, Blaine rushed to add: "Not that he won't care that you're going out, just that he'll assume you're with Maggie or another friend. You don't have to tell him who you're with. A little white lie never killed anyone."
"Yeah," Shane agreed, somewhat unsurely. "Right. Thanks, Blaine."
"Anytime, little brother," Blaine said with a warm smile. He clapped Shane on the shoulder before standing up and exiting the room.
When Blaine entered his room, he quietly took a seat on his bed. He had a strange empty feeling inside him. It's not that he was jealous, he had no feelings for Micah, but he had always assumed that, as the other brother, he would be the first one to step into the world of dating. (For real – Erin didn't count since neither was interested in the other).
Picking up his guitar and quietly strumming, Blaine scolded himself. He was happy for Shane. And for Micah. They were both his friends, two of the most important people in his life. He wanted what was best for them. He wanted them to be happy. This was...it was just petty thoughts.
Shane stood somewhat awkwardly in the entrance way of the downtown Barnes and Noble. He felt so unlike himself. Usually, he was brimming with exuberance and energy, but right now, Shane Anderson wanted nothing more than to hide behind a large rock. He nervously pulled at the hem of the purple tee shirt that he was wearing over his black jeans. His unruly curly hair, so like his brother's, was especially clean today, having undergone two washings and extra conditioner. As a result, it was extra soft, bouncy, and shiny. Shane had then spent almost an hour on the phone with Erin, attempting to pick out the perfect outfit. Finally they had settled on his current ensemble; not too nice, as it was an afternoon date, but also not too casual. Just enough to show that he wanted to look his best.
His breath caught in his throat as two boys he recognized from school passed him. "Hey, Anderson," John Adams, one of the boys, said as he stopped to chat.
"Oh, h-hey John, Steve," Shane answered nervously.
"What're you doing here?" Steve, a tall, muscular, and tanned boy with dark hair and smoldering grey eyes, asked.
"Oh, I'm just waiting for some people. I'm meeting someone soon," Shane said, voice cracking in nervousness. The other two boys exchanged grins at the voice crack, but said nothing.
"Hey, man, is it that chick Maggie that you're always hanging around?" Steve asked, winking at Shane.
Shane was growing increasingly flustered. "Um, no – no, I'm not meeting Maggie, just another friend..."
The door to the Barnes and Noble opened and Micah walked in. His face immediately brightened upon seeing Shane standing there and waiting for him, but quickly changed to confusion and then a mix of worry and anger.
Shane was standing in the vestibule waiting for him, just like they'd planned, but he looked absolutely terrified as two boys stood in front of him, backs to the door. Micah caught Shane's eye, and Shane mouthed the words, "Call me!" and "Go!" before turning back to the two boys.
A moment later, Shane's phone rang. "Sorry, this might be them," he excused himself to John and Steve.
"Nice man," John said with a grin.
"We'll leave you to it," Steve added. "See you around, Anderson."
As the two boys walked away, Shane answered his phone with a loud, "Hey!"
"What's wrong?" Micah immediately asked. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it was just a couple of guys from school," Shane answered.
"And you didn't want them to see us together?" Micah guessed in a small voice.
"No! I mean, yes, but not because of you – Listen, I can explain better in person. Where are you?"
"I'm on one of the benches across the street."
Shane hung up his phone and rushed across to Micah. Before he could even open his mouth, though, Micah spoke. "Look, Shane, I really like you, but if you don't want to do this, I'm okay. You don't have to pretend for me, okay?"
"What are you – ? No, Micah, it's not that at all. I like you too. A lot. Just ask Blaine. It's just that I've seen Blaine come home from school so many times when he's been beaten up or whatever just because he's gay. And I'm scared... So, yes, I do really, really want to go out with you, but I don't want to come out just yet."
Micah smiled a little. "It's okay, I totally understand. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't just me."
"Believe me," Shane said with a large grin, "it is most definitely not you."
"Well now that that's settled, shall we go?" Micah asked, standing up and holding out a hand to Shane. Shane took the older boy's hand as he stood up and squeezed it slightly before letting go.