“So what are you looking at?”
“Suburbia.”
“Let me rephrase my question, why are you looking at suburbia?” Jay asked as he glanced down at Metis. The not-so-emo boy had been sitting off the edge of the school roof quietly looking out toward the town when he had come up to avoid a crowd of fans.
He fingered his bangs. Maybe it was too bold a move to dye his bangs, especially in this school filled with their odd fan girls who called him a bishounen…whatever that was.
“Because it’s the only view I have,” Metis looked up and grinned cheekily at Jay who only frowned at the fake enthusiasm. “What are you doing up here, don’t tell me you’re skipping class?” Metis fired back at him.
“I had a run in,” Jay explained and Metis nodded, it explained everything.
“Jay, you’re just too damn hot for your own good.”
Jay’s hands began to wander back up to the hair starting to fall in his face before Metis interrupted his movements. “You were long before you dyed them.”
“Really…” he muttered, dropping his hand back down to his side. “I hadn’t noticed.”
Metis studied his friend for a moment, deciding whether or not he was being serious. He couldn’t decide, so he changed the subject and answered Jay’s initial question. “Well I am skipping class. There’s nothing worse than going to your least favorite class, where your least favorite person insists on talking to you on such a nice afternoon, so I decided not to bother with it and came up here. Not my best ditch, but Charles would be in an uproar if he heard I actually left campus again.”
Jay opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it when he was interrupted by a familiar, and irritated, voice behind him.
“Charles is in an uproar that you decided to ditch at all.”
Metis and Jay turned their attention to the entryway to the schools roof. Charles stood under it, arms folded and looking none too pleased at his best friend.
“Charles!” Metis cried out, albeit rather guiltily, as he stood and walked away from the roof edge. “Interesting seeing you here at this time of the day.”
“Save the act May, I’m not in the mood. And before you try to counteract me by asking how I could find out you’re skipping unless I am skipping as well, I was sent to find you.”
“By who?”
“Our devoted teacher of course, both he and your boyfriend are wondering where you are.”
Metis tensed, and he couldn’t keep the furious blush that started to form on his face. Charles knew he hated it when Josh was called his boyfriend. He only did that to get a rise out of him, but it’s not as if Metis couldn’t and wouldn’t do the same.
Jay watched the exchange and wasn’t too surprised when Charles walked past him to get within conversational distance of Metis without a word toward him, though he did get a look and a slight nod. He supposed he ought to count his lucky stars.
Right.
Though he hadn’t told Metis, he was well aware that dying the front of ones bangs equaled attention, whether it was positive or negative. He hadn’t expanded as to what sort of attention he was after either, he supposed it didn’t matter much as he wasn’t getting the attention he had aimed at.
He sighed lightly and glanced to the side, thoroughly annoyed with himself. Charles wasn’t even anything particularly interesting really. If everyone had labels, and he knew everyone did, Charles would have to be labeled as a social misfit. He was a nice guy, a little quiet, but his social skills beyond Metis were almost non existent. And when it came to May…hell. The guy was a different person. Loud, outgoing, full of advice, and more over protective than any of Jay friends ever were.
But he and May were best friends, devoted to each other through and through, so that sort of behavior was expected.
He turned and headed for the doorway. “Time to leave,” he muttered to himself. As he breached the doorway Metis’ call stopped him. He turned and looked over at the guy, and Charles.
“Jay, where’re you going? No point in going to class halfway through right?”
Jay could see right through May’s seemingly obvious question. He didn’t want to deal with Charles’ wrath alone. Metis may have been a friend, and in any other circumstance he’d be more than happy to ward off unwanted soon-to-be lectures, but this wasn’t any other circumstance so instead he gave May a small smile, a wave, and walked down the stairs heading back to the second story of the school.
“I was ignored,” Metis said bluntly as he eyed the spot Jay had just occupied.
“You weren’t ignored, he smiled and waved at you.”
“I saw but…you know Jay’s been acting weird the past few weeks, and that smile wasn’t a real Jay smile.”
“No?” Charles questioned disinterestedly as he found himself resuming the position May had been at earlier. Sitting at the edge of the roof, feet dangling over, though rather than look across at suburbia, his eyes were downcast as he viewed the ground three stories below him.
“No,” Metis joined him at the edge. “I’m almost worried about the guy.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“Real encouraging words there.”
“May the guys got a whole clique of people to worry over him.”
“Yeah,” Metis nodded in agreement. “But he’s not close with any of those guys like we are. We should invite him out more when we actually emerge from my den, or why not even invite him to join us in the dark under world of your boring games in my incredible console?”
“How about not?”
The grin that had been forming on Metis’ face dropped. “Why not, he’s a friend you know.”
“He’s not mine.”
Metis eyed Charles strangely. He was acting oddly out of character. Sure people weren’t Charles’ favorite living thing, but he thought he at least had patience with Jay. It always seemed like they had potential to being closer, but could never get a hang of it.
“Besides,” Charles went on as he glanced quickly over at Metis’ bewildered expression. “He doesn’t even like me, you see the way he flees a room, or in today’s case, a roof, whenever he sees me. It’s like he can’t stand to be around me.”
Unfortunately Metis couldn’t deny or confirm what Charles was saying. Jay did have a…tendency to take his leave when Charles was around.
“I realize I’m not you,” Charles continued, “and I’m not a jock like your boyf- like Josh,” he corrected himself at Metis’ death glare. “But you’d think he’d acknowledge my existence every once in awhile.”
Metis leaned back on his arms and gazed at the clear sky. If there was one thing he prided himself on it was seeing the obvious, on occasion. It was too bad Charles and Jay didn’t. Oh well, it wasn’t his place to inform them of what they weren’t seeing. Besides it’d be more fun to sit, listen, and watch. He was sure eventually they’d get the hang of things, now that he realized what was going on. And if they didn’t well…he’d crack eventually and tell them.
The sound of the bell rang out and Metis snapped out of his thoughts, jumping slightly and he gasped the second he realized he jumped a little too much and a little too forward. He didn’t even have time to let out a yelp before Charles had grabbed him and flung him to the side, landing on top of him.
They both panted hard out of complete shock rather than physical exertion.
“Fuck…whoa,” Metis panted, taking deep breaths. “Did I almost just…”
“Yeah,” Charles gulped in some air. “You almost fell off the edge of the roof.”
“Ugh,” he sighed out as Charles climbed off him. “They really ought to think about putting a railing up.”
“There isn't supposed to be any reason to, students aren’t supposed to be up here,” Charles responded, laughingly lightly, though it was more of a nervous laugh. That had shaken him a bit. If he had reacted a second later he wouldn’t have been able to grab Metis from a very long fall.
“Lesson learned, maybe I should find other places to hang out at when I don’t feel like going to class.”
Charles stood and brushed off his pants, offering his hand down to May, who grabbed it. “Or maybe,” he said as he heaved the guy to his feet. “You shouldn’t skip class as that was clearly an omen.”
“Omen my ass,” May responded. “And how did I know you’d say something like that?”
Charles laughed and he and Metis walked across the roof to head down to their next class, before they were later than necessary. -
Jay continued to eye the spot Charles and May had just finished…well he couldn’t tell what they had been doing. But it wasn’t difficult to envision what had happened. He hadn’t seen Metis’ near plummet to the ground, not even Charles’ catch. All he saw was Charles leaned over May and not much more. So he put a rather distorted two and two together.
He fingered his bangs again. Blending in hadn’t worked, and neither had standing out. Metis’ best friend simply wasn’t interested. As he headed for his next class he thought of that rumor he had once heard, or maybe it was a myth, maybe it was true. It didn’t matter either way. But it went something along the lines of changing your appearance when things between you and a potential didn’t work out…
Jay nodded to himself and eyed the roof once more before entering the school.
-
The next day both Charles and Metis heard the stir amongst their peers voices, though they were having troubling understanding them.
“What the hell is going on?” Metis wondered out loud annoyed as he slammed his locker shut.
“What you haven’t heard? And here he’s supposed to be your friend.”
Metis ground his teeth together as he eyed Josh’s looming stature. “Who is and about what?” He hated asking the guy for anything, even if it was just a bit of gossip.
“Your friend Jay cut his hair and dyed his bangs back to his real color.”
“He did what?” Metis asked, regardless that he had already gotten his answer. He looked at Charles who looked back blankly.
“I cut my hair and dyed it,” Metis, Charles, and Josh turned to look at Jay’s approaching figure. He was running his hand through his shoulder length hair and looking around, weary of the attention he was getting. “Though it’s not my natural color…I can barely remember what my natural color is,” he added thoughtfully. “Anyway, I needed a change.”
“Needed a change? You only just dyed your bangs!” Metis protested.
“Yeah,” he responded back without further explanation. “I have to admit though, I didn’t mean to cut my bangs this way. In that, ‘too short to fit behind my ear, but long enough to peg my eye every minute of the day,’ way. It’s a little irritating.”
“Oh, yeah I get that sometimes,” May answered back.
“Hey, Jay, are you coming or what?!” A voice called out from the side, from a friend of Jay’s that neither Metis nor Charles hung out with.
“Yeah,” he called back and turned to grin at May and Charles, evening giving one to Josh who had been staring at him like some sort of alien for the past minute. “I guess I’ll see you guys later. There are more people who have yet to see the new look. I’ll call you sometime Metis,” he said as he started walking backward before turning and heading toward his friend, not seeing May give him a weak wave.
“Shit,” May cursed and Charles glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What?”
“Something is really wrong with him.”
-
“Then go ahead and file the remaining papers after they’ve been graded.”
“Sure thing Mrs. Zandaci,” Jay said to his young English teacher. She had asked him to grade a few papers for her after class, and like half the guys in the school he wasn’t completely immune to good looks and a good personality, even if it didn’t really do much for him. She was nice, and needed a favor, so he didn’t mind helping her out.
“Thanks again Jay,” she said with a smile as she grabbed her things and headed for the door. “See you tomorrow in class.”
He only nodded and watched her leave before turning back to the papers in front of him. It paid to be a teacher’s favorite. He was trusted with certain tasks that few others were…like grading term papers. Granted he was given an answer sheet, and she would be looking over his grading afterward, but it was the thought that he had a little power that counted.
Perching himself on a desk near a window he glanced over the papers, and over the answer sheet before he starting grading. A little ways through grading he pulled out a cigarette and lit it after opening the window that was beside the desk. Sure smoking in classrooms was definitely prohibited, but that was only the case if someone found him. Seeing how it was three hours after school had been let out he doubted he’d have to worry about any sort of suspension.
“Why Josh,” he muttered to himself after taking a short puff and exhaling out the window. “Never knew you had such little talent in the English language…what exactly is a feild and an orgonizortian…”
“Probably some sort of tropical disease,” came a voice he knew pretty well.
Jay jumped and dropped his cigarette on Josh’s paper, swearing slightly as he shook the paper to get the ash off.
“Damnit,” he muttered as he eyed the small cigarette burn now gracing the jocks paper.
“That should be a lesson, no smoking while grading other people’s papers,” Charles said as he walked further into the classroom, stopping a few desks away from Jay. “Metis would be none too pleased to know you lit up.”
“May isn't exactly a saint,” he murmured. “Can I help you?”
“I came to talk to Mrs. Z about something.”
“Three and a half hours after the final bell? Don’t tell me you just finished some sort of practice for a sport now?”
Jay watched as Charles sat himself down on top of one of the desks, choosing to stare bluntly at him rather than answer. “Long hair suited you better,” he finally said.
“Short hair’s easier to maintain.”
“May’s worried.”
“Are you changing the subject?”
“It’s the same topic. He’s worried because you cut your hair.”
Jay quickly finished grading Josh’s paper, deciding he would deal with the browned specks from the burns later. “And that concerns you…how?”
Charles expression didn’t change and he kept eyeing Jay without a care in the world. “Because May concerns me. When he gets worried about something, I get worried about him.”
“You always were a mother hen to him,” Jay responded. He leafed through the remaining papers he had left, disappointed when he saw that he still had over half to look through.
Escaping was not an option.
“I like to think of it as making sure he doesn’t do anything too fucking stupid.”
Jay stopped his meaningless shifting through papers to meet Charles’ eye. “I’m fine. You can tell him that.”
“You tell him.”
“Are you sure I won’t be intruding on your territory?”
Charles hopped off the desk and approached Jay, leaning down to eye him closer, leaving his bangs to fall in his eye. “I wasn’t aware Metis was a thing.”
Jay kept the eye contact only for a moment before he realized he couldn’t keep it up. He didn’t want to risk doing anything ridiculous…like blushing. So he averted his eyes back to the small stack of papers he was supposed to be grading. “I have to get back to work,” he said decidedly.
“That’s fine,” Charles responded as he retreated back to a desk, though he chose to pick one directly across from Jay. “I’ll wait.”
“For what?”
“And here I thought you were smart, for you. Who else?”
“…You don’t have too, besides this could take me a few hours.”
“That’s okay,” Charles said as he extracted a book and notebook from his messenger bag that had been strapped around his chest. “I can do homework while I wait.”
Sighing in slight aggravation Jay glared at the blonde, “or you could do it at home, why stay here?”
“Because I’m waiting for you,” he answered as he turned through his textbook.
“Won’t Metis wonder what’s happened to you?”
Seeming to have found the page in his text that he was looking for, Charles opened his notebook to a fresh sheet of paper. He even shifted through his bag for a pen before he answered the guy across from him. “He’s currently dealing with Josh, so I’m sure the last thing on his mind is my whereabouts.”
“Those two have gotten closer haven’t they?” Jay questioned as he finally took a term paper and decided he ought to try grading it.
“Yup, you know May always popular with the jocks.”
“Meaning you don’t like them?”
“Naturally. I’m a bit of a social misfit and if the stereotype is correct we don’t get along with the sports people, but Josh is okay.”
“Let me see if I get this straight,” Jay began as he nicked off a point of someone’s paper. “You think Josh, the guy who sucker punched May in the jaw is okay, but you have issues with me?”
“I do?”
“Seems that way, you don’t exactly give me hello’s when you walk past me.”
“But I acknowledge you don’t I? Aren’t you the one who dislikes me? You like to disappear when I show up and even today I saw you glance through those papers, no doubt to see if you could escape right?”
Both Jay and Charles stopped the tasks that they weren’t really doing anyway to share eye contact. “Looks like we have a misunderstanding,” Charles said with a smirk.
Not bothering to hide his smile Jay nodded, “want to grab something to eat after this?”
“Eating could be nice.”
Finding that agreement, and resolving their misunderstanding they went back to work, and the clock in the classroom continued to tick away.
“Though I have to say,” Jay suddenly said interrupting the silence.
“Hm?” Charles wondered distractedly as he took a few notes.
“I’m not too partial at the idea of you and May being a couple, gay factor aside.”
“…what?”
“I don’t see it working out,” Jay finished, but he didn’t add why he didn’t see it working out.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Charles bluntly asked, slight confusion laced in his question.
“I saw you and May tumbling around on the roof yesterday after I left.”
Charles stared at him bewildered for awhile as he thought of what Jay could possibly be talking about. Him and May? That was far too disturbing on far too many levels. Besides, May had Josh…even if neither of them knew it yet.
Suddenly it clicked. The rooftop.
“We have another misunderstanding,” Charles started and watched in surprise as Jay let out a sigh of almost…was that relief?
“I’m glad you said that, now I can grow my hair back out again. I think long hair and dyed bangs suited me better too.”
Charles was beginning to wonder what ran through Jay’s brain, especially now. But the guy seemed to be back to normal, cheerful and easy going personality all included, and while he wasn’t sure how he had made it happen, he wasn’t going to play with fate. He’d inform Metis in the morning that Jay was back to his usual self, and then they could laugh over the idea that Jay imagined them a couple.
Because there was nothing absolutely more ridiculous than that.
The End
Written by Kari/Luce-nu/Faery Goddyss