He hadn't read the guy wrong. Not completely at least, because when he entered the school on Monday morning, he didn't get as much as a second glance from the raven-haired football player who had crashed at his place the previous Saturday. This, of course, was completely fine with Dylan, even though he found himself searching for Chris's eyes throughout the day.
Felicia had decided that she was going to take a sick day or two. She'd told him that she needed to collect herself, and Dylan had understood fully.
That being said, he decided to take a trip to the school gym after classes when he didn't have anyone to drive home. The football team had practice, so there was a low chance of running into any of them. When he'd changed and gotten out of the locker room, he was met with a completely empty gym.
This was a rare occurrence, as there was almost always someone lifting weights or running on the treadmill. But then again, it was Monday, most students were tired after the weekend's shenanigans. Dylan moved towards the free weights in the corner of the room. He had soccer practice the day after, which meant mostly legs, and therefore today would be an arm day.
He put in his earphones and started the workout playlist that Felicia had constructed for him.
"Umm..." A voice from the right of him made him start, almost making him drop the weight. He'd always had a habit of zoning out when he was focused and definitely didn't expect someone to come into the gym. He pulled out one of the earphones and turned toward the sound.
"Yeah?" He asked, raising his eyes which landed on a familiar raven-haired boy. "Eh, hi."
"How's your friend?" He asked, raising his head in a way that screamed self-confidence as if the conversation were a formal matter.
"She's," he cleared his throat, "she's okay, she's taking a sick day. Thank you for picking her up." Chris raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, sure," he stared into Dylan's eyes before turning abruptly and going back towards the locker room.
"Don't diss me on Thursday!" Dylan called after him. He heard a faint huff in response and reasoned that that was the only response that he was going to get. Looking at his phone, he realized that he'd been working out for about forty minutes, and sweat had made its way onto his forehead.
He put the weights away and made his way homeward.
__
Wednesday was slower than most of the days that had been. Felicia was back in school, but she'd spent most of her day talking to Blaire, and both Landon and Shawn were sick. On top of that, he hadn't seen Chris all day. Wait, why did he care again?
For once, the cafeteria actually served good food. That was something that happened maybe once every six months, so Dylan ate with astounding vigor. He sat at his usual table, but today Felicia had brought Blaire to sit with them.
"I heard there was some fight between him and his old teammates," Blaire kept her gaze locked on Felicia, but her words caught Dylan's attention, "I think he stole someone's chick back when the summer had just started, that was one of the reasons that he moved."
She had to be talking about Chris, and Dylan found himself unable to not listen. He instinctively leaned closer to the girls but made it look like he was just resting his head on his hand.
"Really?" Felicia gasped quietly. "He doesn't strike me as the guy who would do that."
"That's the point," Blaire hissed, "he has this whole soft-but-also-bad-boy-thing going for him."
Dylan stopped listening after that, being occupied with a lively conversation that Cole started about the party, even though it was four days ago.
__
Dylan didn't see Chris for the entire Thursday, either. Complete radio silence. Because of that, he was very surprised when the library doors opened at 3:50, by none other than Chris. He looked like he hadn't slept in ages, dark circles decorating the area under his eyes, but the most unusual part was the deep purple black-eye that covered most of his left eye-socket.
"I- didn't think you would come," Dylan probably looked as surprised as he sounded and Chris huffed and forcefully pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Me too," he muttered.
"Okay, well-"
"I want to do the project on the skeletal and circulatory systems."
Dylan was a little shocked. He didn't think the guy would be this prepared... or prepared whatsoever.
"Okay, that's a great topic. We-"
"How do we start? I wanna finish this shit as soon as possible."
"Look, Chris, I get that you're in a bad mood, I know why, too, but I am trying to help you so could you just shut the fuck up and listen to me?" Dylan snapped, getting some angry glares from a librarian. Chris stared at him, then nodded once. "Good, we'll start with the basics. There are a ton of great books here in the library to help you get started. We'll need to print some diagrams for the poster, but the main focus will be to present the latest scientific discoveries about your topic."
"Alright, does the kind of discoveries matter?" Chris asked, actually getting a notebook and pen out.
"No, but medicinal are probably the easiest to find." Dylan searched through his papers to find the instructions but was stopped when Chris gave him a copy. "What?"
"What?" Chris furrowed his brow.
"You," Dylan frustratedly searched for the right words, "you are like that one Katy Perry song and I can't read you!"
Chris looked him dead in the eye and held Dylan's gaze. Then, as if Dylan wasn't confused enough already, Chris started chuckling. Dylan's jaw dropped a bit.
"What? You're laughing now?" He sounded absolutely exasperated. Chris didn't stop, though, for a long while.
"I'm sorry," Chris smiled a side looped grin that made Dylan's gaze soften. "But I- you just compared me to a Katy Perry song."
"Well, can you blame me?" Dylan exclaimed. "One day you give me the cold shoulder and the next you actually come prepared and laugh. I have never, in these past three weeks, heard you laugh." He threw his arms out. Maybe he was exaggerating a little bit, but still.
"Okay, yeah, you're right," Chris sighed.
"Are you going to tell me how you got the bruise?" Wrong thing to ask, maybe, but Dylan had an urge to know. To know if what Blaire said was true. Chris sighed.
"I just encountered some old assholes that I have some... history with. It's nothing I want to talk about."
"I get it, you have a reputation, but are you really surprised that they got mad?" Dylan, who was usually very non-confrontational, pried further. Chris clenched his jaw, and he found Dylan's eyes.
"You... don't know the half of it." He said, his teeth still clenched together.
"I've heard things," Dylan continued, surprising himself with the boldness in his words.
"Look," Chris almost growled, "do you trust me?"
Dylan looked at him with skepticism. He wanted to say yes, but something held the word back. "I mean-"
"Whatever, it doesn't matter, just- believe me when I tell you that whatever you've heard, it's not true," Chris sighed, "And even if some of it is, there is way more to the story."
Dylan stared quietly. The intensity of Chris's glaring look held him captive, but eventually, he managed to get a low 'okay' out.
"Okay, let's continue," Chris broke the contact, looking back to his notebook. "So, basics, diagrams, developments. Do I need to get something else down?"
"I- no, I think you've got it. Otherwise, you have the rubric with the full instructions." Dylan cleared his throat, throwing a glance on his phone.
Right at that moment, the screen lit up and Felicia's name filled the caller ID. He answered right away, not even bothering to say anything to Chris.
"What's up?" He greeted.
"She contacted me..." Felicia sounded confused and her voice quivered a little, "The girl that Xander slept with, she wants to meet with me."
Dylan frowned. "What did you tell her?"
"I told her the truth, that I wanted some time, and then we made plans on meeting next month."
"What does she want to talk about?" Dylan asked, "There isn't that much to talk about, right?"
"I don't know what she wants to talk about, I didn't ask," Felicia paused, "but I talked to Blaire and she promised to be my backup. I'm sorry I didn't ask you, but I thought she might get the wrong idea."
"You know that males and females can just be friends, right?" Dylan teased and he heard Felicia sigh.
"Yes, I know that but you have to admit that it is quite rare, so it might seem a little... suspicious?"
"I know, I'm just kidding."
"Okay, I just wanted to get you caught up, I'll see ya."
"Alright, bye."
After Dylan had hung up the call, he put his phone away and turned back to Chris.
"Was that your, um friend-"
"-Felicia, yes." Dylan finished and Chris nodded.
"What, um, had happened last Saturday?"
Dylan hesitated. It was kind of private. But Chris had helped a lot, so was he entitled to the information? Yeah, kind of.
"Her boyfriend cheated on her." He said blatantly, not bothering to sugar coat anything. Chris was a grown man, after all.
Chris frowned. "Really?"
"Yeah, he just started college here and she walked in on him fucking some other girl."
"What an ass."
Chris's reaction confused Dylan a little. It went against every rumor that he'd heard, but Chris's own words echoed through his head. Everything was just confusing.
"Yeah," Dylan breathed.
"I'm sorry," Chris turned to his back and got his phone out, "Anyway, can you give me your number? Just so that I can message if I need more help with this," he gestured at his notebook, "Or if I for some reason can't make it."
Dylan took the phone from his hand and quickly made a new contact, filling in all of his information.
"Dylan Brooks," Chris repeated the name when he'd gotten his phone back, looking at the screen.
"That's me, Christopher Davis."
Chris pushed a button on his screen. Not a minute passed before Dylan's phone started ringing and Chris's number lit up the screen. He declined the call and then proceded to add the number to a new contact.
"Alrighty, I think we're done here," Dylan sighed, closing his notebook and watched Chris do the same.
"'Alrighty'," Chris chuckled, "Nerd."
Dylan huffed, not being able to hide the smile on his lips.
"Yeah, yeah," he sighed.
They left at the same time for the first time. Not that there had been many times, but still.
"How was practice today, then?" Dylan asked when he noticed that they kept going in the same direction.
"It was fine, you have a great football team here," Chris replied, "Good guys."
"What, you didn't have that at you're old school?" Dylan joked but noticed Chris's shoulders tense up.
"They were... different than these guys."
Dylan was about to pry, but stopped himself, remembering what Blaire had said. "Okay."
Later that night, when Dylan lay in bed, looking up at the ceiling, he felt as though the relationship had changed. A voice in his head told him that they weren't going to be as up and down as they had been thus far. Another told him that it wasn't going to be as he expected.
Still, a weird fluttering had found its way into his stomach. It made him slightly nauseous, but he didn't mind it that much. When he finally drifted into sleep that night at twelve, which was way later than he had planned, he felt good. He'd almost finished the project that he was helping Chris with, and now that he'd started it with Chris, there wasn't as much stress anymore.
The morning after, he still felt the fluttering in his stomach. Maybe he should see a doctor, or ask Felicia about it. She was better at telling what was wrong than he was.
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