(06) The "Phase"
"Every good friendship begins with strangers." —Anonymous
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Knock. Knock.
'Come in,' a voice called sweetly from the nurse's office.
Cristóbal pushed the door open.
'Who are you?' he asked, helping Jack into the small room.
'Miss deRoi,' the young woman replied, making her way over to them. 'I'm the new school nurse.'
"Like, damn," Jack thought. "Either I'm hallucinating, or the new school nurse is fucking hot!" He glanced at Cristóbal for confirmation and was reassured to see that interest was written all over his face as well.
'Y-you're the nurse?' Cristóbal stuttered.
'Uh-huh . . . Now, which one of you is hurt?' she questioned, looking from one boy to the other. 'Ah, you,' she said to Jack. 'Come and sit in this chair over here and I'll look you over.'
Jack swallowed and sat down in the chair, allowing her to gently run her slim fingers over his head wound.
'It doesn't look bad. You boys have nothing to worry about. It's just a slight knock to the head,' Miss deRoi told them.
'Are you sure?' Cristóbal asked anxiously.
'Positive,' she replied with a smile.
"She's much too happy for a nurse," Jack thought. "Aren't they supposed to be all depressed or something from seeing people who are sick and wounded and stuff?"
'Unfortunately, there's not really much I can do about it,' she said, looking at Cristóbal.
'No medication or anything?' the teen inquired.
'Nope.' She looked at Jack again. 'It's nothing serious, but it's probably a bugger, innit? I can give you an icepack if you'd like.'
'That would be great,' Jack muttered.
'Okay. Give me two seconds and I'll go get it for you.' With that said, she disappeared into the next room.
'How are you feeling, Jack?' Cristóbal asked, leaning in close to the other teen to inspect the wound.
"Other than the uncomfortable feeling I'm having from you standing at such a close proximity from me, I'm just dandy," Jack thought, though he knew better than to say such aloud.
'I've been better,' he said offhandedly. 'Disappointed though. I really wanted to freak out Ms. Levington.'
Cristóbal laughed.
'I'm sure that there will be other times, love.'
Jack started. Had Cristóbal just called him "love"? What happened to being "just friends"? Cristóbal had promised that he would never do anything to get between Jack and Ralph, so what the hell did he think he was doing!
Not wanting to hurt his head anymore than it already did, Jack chalked the matter up as a slip of the tongue and determinedly avoided the other's gaze.
'Er . . . Aren't you going to be late for class?' Jack asked the floor.
'Yes, but that's okay,' Cristóbal reassured him. 'I'll just tell the prof that you had been involved in a horrific accident this morning and were too mentally distressed to logically venture out into the oh-so-crowded corridors of our school that I felt a great compulsion and duty to escort you, regardless of the resulting tardiness or consequences.'
Confused, Jack glanced up to look at Cristóbal's beaming face.
'Translation—' the latter said, '"I'm late because Jack was hurt and I had to help". If that isn't a good enough excuse, I don't know what would be.'
'Fair enough. Just for the record though, it probably isn't a good enough excuse.'
'Why not?'
'Because it's me.'
'I see . . .'
A few minutes of silence passed before Miss deRoi reentered the room.
'Sorry it took me so long,' she apologized, placing a bag of ice into Jack's hand. 'The freezer in the staff room is not too organized at the moment and I had difficulty getting the ice out without having frozen dinners pile on top of me.'
'That's okay,' Jack replied, smiling with gratitude.
Ring.
'Oh dear, and now I've made you late for your next class!'
'That's okay,' Cristóbal echoed Jack, trying to reassure the getting-frantic nurse.
'Well, all right, but the least I can do is write you boys a note to explain the situation to your teacher.' She turned towards her desk and bent over to search one of the bottom drawers for a pen and some paper, leaving an oh-so-wonderful view for the teens.
Cristóbal winked at Jack, indicating the taut "derrière" with a slight tilt of his head.
Jack tried to appear uninterested. He was having a hard time enough trying to stem his guilty feelings for being with Cristóbal when he still had Ralph, so why should he add to his list of sins? Okay, "sins" is a harsh word, but the principle of the matter was that Jack felt guilty enough as it was.
"But . . . wow . . . she must work out,' he thought, allowing himself a brief glimpse. "Wait . . . AHH! NO! STOP LOOKING!" he scolded himself.
'Er . . . No, Miss, I think that I'll just explain the situation to my teacher. I'm sure she'll understand.' Without a backwards glance, lest he felt tempted to stay longer, Jack fled from the office and into the corridor. He only managed to make it about a few doors down before someone grabbed his arm. 'Gah!'
'Wait, Jack, it's just me,' Cristóbal said soothingly, releasing him.
'Holy shit, Cristóbal, you almost gave me a heart attack,' Jack claimed, grasping at his chest.
'Sorry. That wasn't my intention. God knows that I don't want any more harm to come to you than that what you already have, if an "almost heart attack" counts as actual. Anyway, where are you going in such a hurry?'
'Uh . . . Class.'
'Ah, right,' Cristóbal said, although he didn't seem entirely convinced.
Jack sighed.
'So . . . um . . . Let's go then. There's no point in being later than we already are, right?'
'Wait . . . Jack . . .'
Jack was about to turn around when—
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
'Shit,' he muttered. 'Who the hell decides to have a fire drill this early in the day?' He rolled his eyes.
'Maybe it isn't a drill,' Cristóbal suggested.
'Maybe,' Jack replied.
The two teens allowed themselves to be swept away by the crowd that was steadily filling the corridor as the students made their way to the nearest exit.
'Come on, people, keep it moving!' an official-sounding voice was saying. 'This is not a drill!'
One of the other teens shuffling nearby sighed and rolled his eyes.
'They always say that,' he said pointedly to Jack.
Jack was about to mutter something in reply when a frantic freshman roughly brushed past him, upsetting his sense of balance.
'Fuck,' he murmured, bracing himself for the trampling of many feet.
'Easy there, Jack,' someone said, and strong hands grabbed Jack's biceps and placed him upright once more.
Jack turned around to express his gratitude to his rescuer.
'Thanks, Cristóbal,' he said, smiling.
'Don't mention it.'
'No, really.'
The other teen shrugged.
'I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.'
"Are you planning on coming to my place to spend some time?" Jack unwillingly thought. "Aw, fuck it. I'm such a perv! Why the fuck am I thinking of Cristóbal like this?"
After some time of scurrying about the corridors like rabid hamsters, the two boys finally made it outside and into the fresh air.
'Finally!' Jack sighed.
'What? Don't stop!' a panicked youngster exclaimed. 'We're not far enough away from the school yet! I'd rather not get burned to bits, thank you.'
Jack was about to beat the other kid up for mouthing off, but Cristóbal beat him to it.
WHAM!
'Ow!' the freshman whined, clutching at his now-bruised cheek.
'Do you have something else to say, kid?' Cristóbal demanded.
The other fearfully looked his superior in the eye and disappeared into the crowd.
'You're going to get in shit for that, you know,' Jack told his companion, knowing that he would be surprised if the latter got away with that punch. (That is to say, evaded any form of punishment. The young teen would undoubtedly tell a teacher or two.)
Cristóbal shrugged.
'Whatever. It was worth it.'
Jack grinned. Who would have thought that Cristóbal had a slightly sadistic side to him? He seemed so innocent . . . most of the time. Well, the times when he wasn't hitting on Jack.
'MR. LYORI!' they suddenly heard someone's call; it carried above the raucous noise of the students crowded outside. 'SOME GUY PUNCHED ME!'
Jack saw Cristóbal paled and, from the sudden chill he felt in his cheeks, he knew that he had as well.
'Stupid brat,' he murmured. 'Perdón (Excuse me), Jack. I must . . . uh . . . disappear for a moment.'
'Good luck,' Jack said, patting him on the arm as he slithered away. The former sighed, wondering where his friends were amongst the large, rowdy group.
As if in answer to his call, John suddenly appeared at his shoulder.
'Hey, Jack! Where were you this morning?' he asked his friend.
'There were some . . . circumstances,' he murmured.
'Eh?'
'Ouch. Where'd you get that, man?' Lee questioned, staring pointedly at his injury.
'A little green fairy from Neverland came and threw a handful of pixie rocks at me.'
'Ha! What a joker!' Terry exclaimed, slapping him on the back heartedly.
'No, really, Jack,' Fred said.
'You don't want to know,' Jack muttered.
'Come on! Tell us!' John urged.
'Yeah, come on,' Terry said.
'Well . . . A book . . . kind of . . . sort of . . . fell on top of my head.'
'Ouch,' Lee said again.
'Man, that's killer,' Fred added.
'Heh! That's what you get for being such an intellectual,' Terry said. 'I, on the other hand, have the brawn to make up for the brains!'
'Or whatever is left of them,' John muttered under his breath. Not a moment later, he was caught in Terry's headlock and given a noogie.
'How immature and uncouth,' Jack teased, playing upon Terry's "intellectual" idea.
'Just quit it, Jack,' Fred said. 'That kind of talk doesn't suit you.'
'So what are you saying exactly?'
'He's telling you the truth, man,' Lee said. 'You ain't cut out for that shit. You're like us, except . . . you just like to play around more, if you catch my drift.'
'Not anymore,' Jack replied firmly, all humour gone from his tone.
'Oh, really?'
'You know it's true! I would never—'
'Never what?'
'I would never betray Ralph!'
Lee appeared to be pondering this for a moment.
'Just out of curiosity, can you define the word "betray" for me?'
'What's to define?' Jack demanded. 'It's self-explanatory!'
'Is it?'
'Yes!'
'So I guess that doesn't include certain . . . thoughts?'
Jack immediately bit back his rebuke.
'I don't know what the fuck you're talking about,' he murmured.
'I think you do.'
'Hey, come on, guys, stop fighting,' Terry said, stepping between them.
'We're not fighting,' Jack stubbornly said. 'Just arguing. There's a difference, Ter.'
'But—'
RING!
That was the bell, signaling that everyone should return to class.
'Like, damn, that was just another fucking drill,' Terry said with wonder.
'No shit, Sherlock,' John replied.
'Hey, you want another noogie?'
'Nah, I'm good.'
The pair laughed and casually followed the crowd with Fred on their heels. It didn't take a Sherlock Holmes type of detective to see that they were pacing themselves, taking as much time as possible to return to class.
'Hey, Jack, man,' Lee said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. 'You know that I didn't really mean it the way I said it, right?'
'Yeah.'
'But . . . I still have to talk to you . . . today, if possible.'
'What about?' Jack asked curiously.
'What do you think?' Lee asked back. 'You're not stupid, Jack. You know what it's about.'
The look in Jack's eyes immediately hardened.
'Wait, you just have to hear me out first,' the other teen insisted. 'Please, Jack.'
'Fine. Whatever. Do you just want to get this over with now? Like, it doesn't matter if I show up to first period five minutes late or fifty minutes late. I'm still going to get shit for it.'
Lee glanced back at the school as the last of the students entered the main door.
'Yeah. Let's get the fuck out of here then.'
'To where?'
'The forest.'
'Right.'
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'So, you and Merridew, eh?' Sam asked.
'I didn't know that you swung that way, Ralph,' Eric added.
Ralph shrugged. He had just told the twins about the relationship that he and Jack shared. Since he had hardly gotten to know them again, he strongly wondered what their reaction would be upon hearing the news. In the end, however, he realized that there was really only one way to find out, and so . . . yeah. They reacted pretty well to it; better than he could ever have ever hoped for, let alone expected.
'I didn't know that either,' Ralph admitted. 'I guess it's just . . . Jack.' He sighed and leaned his head back against the tree that he was seated against. He and the twins had wandered off from the others again, finding a quiet place in the park to eat their lunch and catch up on their lives. 'It wouldn't really matter to me if he's a male or female. In the end, it's just the person I care about.'
'But . . . surely you must have a preference,' Samneric insisted.
'Hard to say. I haven't really gotten past . . . er . . . foreplay with either sex, at least not to the extreme,' Ralph said, blushing crimson as he did so.
'But before him, you only liked females?' Samneric asked.
'Yeah.'
'We see.'
'So . . . what do you think?' Ralph questioned anxiously.
The twins looked at each other.
'Well . . .'
'I think that it's wonderful for you two to be together,' Eric finally said.
'But isn't the whole "long distance" thing difficult?' Sam asked.
'Definitely,' Ralph sighed. 'But it can't be helped. But Mum said that if my dad's job doesn't work out or whatever, we can go back. But I don't know when that will be. But maybe it will be soon. But I don't know.'
'So, you have a fetish for "butts", eh?' Samneric teased.
Ralph laughed nervously.
'Um . . . Guys, can I tell you something?'
'Yeah.'
'It's . . . kind of a secret, but I need advice . . . so . . .'
'Is it about Merridew?'
Ralph nodded.
'I really love him,' he began, flushing as he said that, 'and I want to go back to him, but . . . I don't know how he will react.'
'What do you mean?' the twins inquired.
'Well . . . I think that . . . he may be . . .' Ralph sighed again. 'Does Jack seem to be the cheating type?'
There was a very awkward silence.
'Well . . . that's difficult to say,' Sam said.
'Yeah,' Eric agreed. 'When we knew him, he seemed . . . that way.'
'But from what you tell us about him now, he really seems to care about you.'
'I guess,' Ralph replied hesitantly. 'He even lost a bet for me.'
'No way!' Sam exclaimed.
'We'll get back to this "bet" thing in a minute,' Eric intervened. 'First we have to discuss this problem . . . Has Merridew ever cheated on you?'
'No,' Ralph responded.
'So what makes you think he's doing it now?'
'Uh . . .' Ralph blushed again. 'It's kind of stupid. We were talking on the phone one day and he didn't . . . he didn't say that he loved me before he hung up.'
The twins glanced at each other.
'That's it?'
'Basically.'
Then they suddenly started laughing.
'Come on!' Ralph said indignantly.
'Don't worry, Ralph, I don't think that you have anything to worry about!' Sam said.
'Yeah. He was probably just busy or it slipped his mind or something,' Eric said.
'But . . . he fought so hard to . . . er . . . have me, so why . . .?' Ralph trailed off uncertainly.
Having noticed the distressed expression on their friend's face, the twins immediately stopped laughing.
'Well, I don't want to lie to you Ralph, but maybe . . . maybe this long distance thing isn't working out,' Sam said seriously.
'Or maybe this is one of those "phases", like what Jackson and Kyra went through. Remember, Sam?' Eric inquired.
'Eh?'
'Jackson and Kyra—their "phase".'
'Oh, yeah. Every couple goes through that at some point.'
'What happens?' Ralph asked.
'Well, the two people just sort of drift apart for a while,' Samneric said. 'That's when they get annoyed with every little thing the other one does and the drift just . . . happens. Sometimes they argue, sometimes they don't, and sometimes it reaches the extreme and the two people break up.'
'Do they ever get back together?'
'Sometimes,' the twins said again. 'They work out their differences and whatever. Or, like in Jackson and Kyra's case, they realized that they missed each other and wanted the other in their lives to suck each other's faces off. Kind of cute, really, in its own sickening way.'
'Oh,' Ralph said, quite worried now. What if he and Jack didn't end up like Jackson and Kyra? "Happily ever after" endings rarely occurred in real life, so the chances of them breaking up were much higher than the chances of them staying together.
"Is it really possible to stay together with someone over such a great distance and still be in love? Not just love them, but stay in love with them? Jack and I have been apart for so long that I have almost forgotten why I was—why I am—in love with him. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . I'm not in love with him. What we had isn't really true love then, is it? Aren't two people who are truly in love suppose to stay together forever and ever, through thick and thin? So do I still love him?"
'It looks like Ralph is in his own little world again,' Eric whispered to Sam.
'Yeah. Do you think that we should snap him out of it? Or just snap him?' The latter made a flicking motion with his fingers in the air.
'Not yet.'
"Jack . . . I don't know what I should do . . ."
