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It’s 8 am as Travis walks down the mostly empty hall to his locker, music threading through his skull as he turned up the volume. Base vibrating against his ears, isolating the world around him.
He turned the corner to see a couple of his friends had beat him there, locking eyes with one. He examined the boy briefly as he got closer, brown hair was covered by a black baseball hat, and red flannel was thrown over a grey hoodie. He smiled as he reached his locker, just a few down from where the three others were standing, Ethan's locker being next to them.
“Hey bro.”
"Sup man” They gave each other a nod, Travis pulling his headphones to rest on his neck. The other guys had agreed to go to class early, shooting a stupid look at them as they left. ‘Bastards’ Travis thought because let's be honest, it's probably true. ‘Do they know’ he suddenly thought, head going into overdrive as the brunette walked over to him leaning against the locker next to his. ‘Would they care? Did they tell tell him? They wouldn’t have said anything to him because they don’t know! Your overreacting!’
"So I know it’s like actually way too early to be thinking about this,” Ethan started, breaking Travis out of his slowly worsening spiral, “but the guys and I are going to go out for lunch if you wanna join.”
Travis closed his locker staring into Ethan's dark brown eyes. “Uh, yeah, sure dude, sounds lit. As long as I get aux.” He told him as they started walking back through the halls.
“As long as you don’t have shit aux man.” Ethan elbowed him in the ribs, he recoiled as Ethan kept walking. He quickly collected himself ran up and jumped on Ethan, pulling him into a headlock and getting looks from the kids that started filing through the hallway. Travis didn’t mind the looks, he laughed with Ethan like they where the only two in the building, and maybe it was a little selfish of him to cherish that as much as he did but Travis couldn’t help it. The laughter died down as Travis’ arm lingered a little longer than he would have liked, quickly moving it to his side.
Casual silence spread across the two of them for a brief minute as they reached the upstairs forum of the school seeing a couple of their friends walk over to them. Travis couldn’t really zone in on the conversation, still lost in thought, subconsciously moving closer to Ethan. The taller didn’t seem to mind, simply holding the conversation for himself letting Travis faze out. Shortly after the bell rang and the group went towards their classes startling Travis out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Ethan waiting for him, smiling with a small laugh at his jump back to consciousness.
"Come on, we're gonna be late.” He said walking towards the stairs to the third floor.
“The bell just rang like two seconds ago man!” Travis called to him, hurrying to catch his pace. They both had their first classes on the third floor, so they walked together most days.
They started going up the stairs to their classes, “Are you okay, you seemed kinda out of it for a minute there dude?” Ethan asked as they slowly went up the very crowded stairs. Travis hates the stairs when they are like this. The close proximity to a bunch of people trying to got in different directions made it uncomfortable to navigate most days.
“Uh yea, just tired i guess.” Travis responded, you know, like a liar.
"Okay well the group is in for lunch, although we have no clue where to go.” Ethan said as they had gotten to the top of the stairs. “Alright, meet in the side parking lot right.”
“Yep”
“Alright catch ya later then bro.”
~0-0~
The bell rang for lunch, Travis walking out to the parking lot trying to spot Ethan's car amongst the other parked cars. After a minute he noticed a tall boy leaning against a black SUV. He walked across the lot quickly, making his way to see him, heart racing. The sunlight reflecting off him made him glow a yellow tint, his hat no longer resting on his head making his hair look fluffy in the wind. He was so glad this was a group lunch, he would probably panic (, gay) if he had to be alone with his crush for lunch.
“Yo Ethan!”
“Hey man.” he looked up from his phone, dapping him up when he reached him.
"So who are we waiting for?”
"Actually,” Ethan rubbed the back of his head before grabbing his hat and throwing it on backwards, “They left already."
"What?” Travis was stunned, “Why would they dip on lunch?”
“I don’t know, something about the hasty market down the road. I offered to give them a ride but they all said no. Goofy idiots,” he said chuckling before lowering himself into the car and gesturing for Travis to follow suit.
Flushed, Travis walked to the passenger side of the car, opened the door and quickly sat down. ‘Holy shit I’m going to be alone with him for lunch. The others left. Do they know? Holy shit I hope they don’t know.’ Travis thought. Mind spiralling into oblivion. The only thing he could register was a hand waving in front of his face.
"Yo, Wyatt. You there?” Ethan asked, a concerned expression sewn on his face. “You said you wanted aux bro.” Ethan handed him his unlocked phone.
“Yeah, thanks,” Travis responded as he went to his account from Ethans, pulling up his playlist. Ethan hesitated before turning back around and turning the ignition.
“Are you sure you're okay? I can drive you to your place if you're that tired.” Ethan said waiting to pull out of the slot his car was parked in. Travis shook his head, secretly admiring how much he cared.
“No it’s alright, i’ll get an energy drink or something while we’re out.” he laughed nervously as they had gotten onto the road.
They sat in silence for a minute, it had started softly raining as they hit the intersection down from the school. They decided to drive to a place farther away, to avoid the rush of grade nine idiots trying to get fast food unloading their coin-filled wallets and taking forever to sort out the amount they have only after they order. No. They were going downtown. Close to downtown anyway. There was a pizza place the group had gone to before down there and loved, that's where they were headed.
Travis shivered, cold from the ac being off in the car and the rain making it feel colder. Ethan must have noticed because at the next red light he turned around reaching into the back only to pull a blue fluffy blanket out of seemingly nowhere.
“Oh,” Travis said, shocked at his sudden kind gesture, flushing slightly as he wrapped the blanket around him. “You didn’t have to do that, and where did you even pull this from dude?"
"My sister is always cold, since this is her car, she keeps a blanket in here because the seat warmers are broken.” He said, still waiting for the light to change.
“Isn’t that a hazard?” Travis laughed, making Ethan join in. He loved that sound, the light laugh Ethan made, spilling from his smooth pink lips and exposing his surprisingly white teeth. There is no way that’s natural.
Travis could see the pizza place in the distance as they calmed down, in turn failing to notice Ethan looking at him, admiring how soft the smaller looked, attention split between him and the intersection. Apparently not split evenly though as a car sped down the intersection trying to make the light before it turned red, just missing the cutoff. As it sped by it collided with the front of Ethan’s sister's car just enough to shatter the front windshield and dent the front.
Ethan threw his arm out in front of the boy to his right who brought the blanket up to shield his face from the blow, heart racing and body frozen.
The car that hit them was long gone within seconds continuing to speed down the street. The cold air and the sound of rain suddenly became more prominent as they seeped through the shattered glass on both the windshield and Ethan's slightly damaged side window.
Both of them sat there, frozen in place while they got soaked by the intruding rain. Travis turned to face Ethan, breathing heavily and eyes wide, panic starting to flood him. He reached over to Ethan, lightly placing a hand on his cheek. The boy looked up at the sudden contact meeting Travis’ eyes and stunned expression, “What are-” he was cut off by a stinging coming from the left side of his face.
“You’re bleeding…” Travis said softly, retracting his hand, now coloured crimson.
Ethan examined Travis, seeing no cuts or bruises on him at all, the blanket having covered his body and his face being mostly covered by his hood so the glass couldn’t have hurt him. Throughout the interaction Ethan hadn’t moved his hand away from Travis, only noticing when the smaller moved his left hand to grasp his wrist. Ethan didn’t move though, because he could see Travis’ expression. He was scared, most likely in shock, still frozen in place like if he were to move they would be in worse shape.
“Travis, hey,” Ethan spoke softly as he tried to get his attention. “Trav, can you look at me?”
Almost immediately his eyes were locked on him, staring intensely at his, worry struck across them. It shot a pang through Ethan's body.
“Your okay, alright? We’re okay, you're going to be fine, we are going to be okay,” he said over the rain that had picked up since they left the school.
“Right? We are okay. Yes?” he waited for Travis. After a beat, he nodded looking down and loosening his grip on the wrist of the other. He took a deep breath and reached back out to Ethan's face, trying to clean the blood off his face a little. Ethan dropped his hand when he heard a knock from behind him, a woman in a paramedic uniform standing just outside his door.
“Can you both move?” she asked. “You should step out of the vehicle.” Ethan nodded, and she backed away, giving them space to get out.
“You can get up right?” Ethan asked, finally moving his hand down from its place on the base of Travis’ neck. Travis in turn dropped his hand too.
They moved out of the car and walked over to the paramedic car, sitting in the back as the lady cleaned Ethan's cut. They were sitting shoulder to shoulder, Ethan reflexively reaching over and squeezing Travis’ hand trying to fend off the pain, intertwining their fingers as she cleaned the cut.
Travis having been preemptively examined by her, having given him the all-clear, was now sitting there, holding hands with his crush, while sitting in a paramedic vehicle. Ethan relaxed in his grasp, Travis looking up at him seeing his eyes now trained on the floor in front of him. The paramedic having walked through the rain to talk to one of the officers by the car. What startled him though, was the sound of laughter. Ethan was sitting there chuckling.
“My sister is going to be so pissed.” he laughed.
“Yeah,” Travis started laughing after a beat “Dude you’re so fucked. Her car got wrecked and I’m pretty sure there is no salvaging her blanket.” with that the two of them laughed harder, using one another for stability as they laughed trying not to double over. Never daring to release their hands.
“Oh, shit, your arm,” Travis said after they had calmed down enough to form coherent sentences. Ethan's left arm was covered in gauze, Ethan followed Travis’ gaze before making a face of realization.
“Oh yeah I, uh, left my hand on the wheel as the window shattered so I got pretty scratched up, did you not notice her bandaging it up?” Ethan looked up eyes glued to Travis’ at the end of his sentence, Travis looked at his feet now, not wanting to give in to his eyes.
“Oh no I guess I didn’t,” Travis said.
“Travis.” Ethan's tone was serious, making Travis wince a little as he looked up to see the boy staring at him, worry lacing through his eyebrows but confusion written all over his face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine, you heard the paramed-”
"No I mean, are you okay? You have been spacey and quiet since that happened, hell you have been all day, are you okay?”
Travis took a breath, “Yeah I’m fine, I was just distracted.”
“By what?” Ethan asked. Well, here goes nothing, the day his best friend goes from being absolutely perfect to being absolutely perfect and hating him. He just couldn’t help it. The way everything seemed to slip into place had made it so Travis was unable to keep it a secret anymore. Maybe it was the adrenaline or the exhaustion, or maybe it was their still conjoined hands that made it so he just had to say it.
“You.” Travis said simply, still not looking up from his feet, now noticing the slight rips in his airforces. Damn.
“...Me?” Ethan breathed.
"Yeah… you were just there, smiling at me in the hallway, then at the cars, you were literally glowing somehow, and then you said it was going to be us and I spaced,” Travis took a breath, blushing uncontrollably at this point, “because I didn’t know if I was going to keep you from finding out I have a massive crush on you."
The silence that followed that confession made the birds basking in the rainwater sound like they were all in front of them. Travis was calm, surprisingly, even though he had just ruined the best friendship he has made because his stupid heart couldn’t take it anymore ‘Holy shit i fucking told him.’ there it is. The panic you could see coming had finally hit him, barrelled towards him like a train, ‘I just RUINED my life. I could have just waited for this to pass. I couldn’t just keep my damn mouth shut.’ his head was pounding. Ethan must have noticed because he squeezed their conjoined hands turning to Travis.
"Oh shit Travis sorry, no don’t freak out please.”
"I’m so stupid,” was all Travis could muster before feeling a warmth on his face.
Ethan had pressed their lips together, his soft lips against Travis’ rough ones. It was like time stopped. It took only a second for him to start kissing back, relaxing into it and squeezing their hands again as he reached up to brush Ethan's cheek, purposefully avoiding the gauze sitting on his cheekbone. Ethan in turn slid his hand to rest behind Travis’ neck, playing with the bottom of his hair slightly. Their lips moved in sync like they had done this before, perfectly and beautifully. Ethan broke the kiss, leaning down slightly to rest his forehead against Travis’, neither opening their eyes.
"You do not understand how long I’ve been wanting to do that.” Ethan breathed, smiling wide enough to where the bandage on his cheek was starting to crease. Travis’ face mirrored his expression. They sat like that for a minute before Travis moved away, slapping Ethan's shoulder. The taller recoiling, still smiling like a psychopath.
"Don’t do that man, you scared the hell out of me. I swear I was preparing for you to throw me under a truck or something.” The two laughed together before shuffling to sit side by side again, Travis leaving on Ethan's shoulder this time, but never having released their hands. “I would never, I like you too much,” Ethan said, feeling Travis smile.
~0-0~
The paramedic deemed it safe for the boys to go about their days, medically they were fine. So when Ethan’s dad picked them up, after the initial worry and questions, he told them to go back to school. So that’s how the two ended up running towards their classes, maybe if they were lucky they could catch just the end of third period. Ethan slowly entered the room, catching his breath quickly before entering.
“Well, nice of you to show up. Care to explain…” his teacher, Ms.Vrees, said to him before noticing his arm and face.
“I- I got in a crash on my way to lunch, sorry I’m so late,” Ethan said, catching his breath, unable to help the smile on his face. The whole class had heard the conversation and was watching him as he walked to his desk in the back and sat down. He didn’t care.
“Hey man.” his friend said, turning in his seat to face him while Vrees was distracted. “Are you alright?"
“I’m just great,” Ethan said, still smiling. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, pulling it out to see a notification from none other than his now boyfriend
Travvy: Got to class
The guys don’t believe I got in a crash :(
Just because I don’t have war wounds doesn’t mean it didn’t happen
Why did you have to be all heroic and throw me a blanket
E<3: Couldn’t let that pretty face of yours get damaged
That shit’s irreplaceable ;)
“No phones.” Vrees voice boomed towards him. He was okay with that though, he knew Travis. He knew that he would be too flustered to answer back with anything more than a ‘shut up’ or an emoji.
When asked what happened at lunch that day, the two told their stories, leaving out the end. They were each other's secret. They wanted it to themselves for now, and it didn’t matter to either of them who thought what. Maybe one day they will tell people, but who cares. What mattered was that when they were together, nothing could destroy the day they had finally gotten together. War wounds and all.