Wayward People

Disclaimer: The usual rules apply here. If you aren't legal in your area to be reading material(non erotic, mind you) about homosexuals and the activities they may or may not participate in, then please don't read. This story has been copyrighted and is not to be used elsewhere in any way without the express permission of the author (that would be me). For everyone else, enjoy!

Wayward People

Chapter 2 "Mr. Wild Hamilton"

I'm not usually one to wake up early on the weekends. I believe that if God gave us one thing, it was for us to be able to have our weekends for peace and relaxation. Two days to wind down after a stressful week. And two days to sleep in.

Of course, Sunday's didn't really count in my case or the cases of anyone here in Wayward. We all went to church on Sunday. Simple as that. My family though, went to the later service, which started around 10:30am.

So I didn't even wake up on Sundays until about 9. After all, the church was practically within walking distance of my house. I could wake up at 10:25 if I wanted to and still get to church on time.

Today, however I was up early. 6:30 in the morning early.

When I woke up, I noticed that the rain had stopped, which was a very good thing. I hated the rain. Not it exactly. Just afterward when everything is all wet and muddy and just soaked. I can't stand to be outside before or right after it rains.

But I was still surprised to find that I had gotten up so early. And realizing that there was no way that I was going to be able to fall back asleep, I just sat myself up and looked around.

I felt excited for some reason but briefly couldn't for the life of me remember why. And then that was when I remembered just what had happened the previous night. I had almost given up on the arrival of my host exchange student until he showed up a little over four hours ago soaked as he possibly could have been.

He showed up. That was the most surprising thing for me. He had made the effort. And he showed up.

Troy Hamilton was hotter than any guy I could have possibly imagined coming to stay with me. He was perfect physically, as I had gotten the lucky chance to see. And that was all I knew about him so far.

That and the fact that I was really attracted to him. But I knew better than anyone, looks weren't everything.

Realizing that I had one hot bodied exchange student sleeping right next door made me wake up fully, and facing that there would be no more sleep for me, I decided to get out of bed and get dressed, putting on my slippers and bathrobe.

I was unsure of what to do first. It wasn't like anyone else was up. So carefully, I opened the door to my room and slowly crept out. It was chilly outside my room, as it always was whenever I first awoke.

But there was something else I noticed. Somebody was up.

There was a sound coming from my brothers room that sounded almost like a tv. I found it odd that Max was up so early as he normally slept even longer than I did whenever he got the chance.

So I made my way over to his door, which was open slightly and stood by it, about to knock on it, but stopped when I heard voices.

"Aw, dude no fair!"

It sounded like Troy.

Why was Troy in my brothers room at six in the morning? I didn't know why but was about to find out.

"Ahem," I said, clearing my throat outside the door.

I noticed my brother get up from the floor and open the door.

"Mike? You're up early," he said surprised.

"I could say the same thing about you," I replied as I made my way into the room.

Troy looked up at me briefly and smiled before turning his attention back to the PlayStation 2 game they were both playing together.

It didn't surprise me that Troy was into games. After all, my brother was big on them. Most of the guys at school were into them too. I myself wasn't into them much as I preferred reading and writing.

I sat and watched as my little brother and Troy battled it out in what looked like some kind of intense fighting game before Troy lost. Again.

"Okay, new game," Troy said, setting down his controller.

"I warned you didn't I?" Max asked, a sly grin on his face.

"Yeah, whatever," Troy mumbled.

Max turned off the game and went over to his closet to rummage through it for games.

Troy looked up at me.

"We didn't wake you up did we?" he asked.

"Oh, no. No, I just....got up on my own," I replied.

Troy nodded but didn't look away.

There was something about that stare of his that had my insides feeling all jittery.

I had to say something. Anything before I had a problem.

"Uh, did you sleep okay?" I asked. "I mean, I know the guest bed isn't the greatest, but-"

"It was fine," Troy replied.

That was good to hear. Had to keep the conversation flowing though.

"Ah, so do you normally wake up this early in the morning?" I asked.

"Pretty much," Troy replied. "I like to work out in the mornings. But Max said you didn't have any exercise equipment.....when I ran into him in the hall twenty minutes ago after I woke up.............I guess we just sort of stayed up."

"Yeah, and I kicked his ass in Tekken 5, too," Max called out from his closet.

"Yeah well, I let you win those few times," Troy spoke. "So don't get too cocky."

Something about the way Troy said that made me wonder about his own personality. I had every intention of enjoying spending time with Troy while he stayed with us the rest of the year and realized that I wanted to get to know him.

"So, your folks sleep in on Sundays, or...."

"They'll be up soon," Max said. "So we can go to church."

"Church. Oh," Troy said flatly.

Max and I exchanged looks.

"Uh, yeah, I mean, do you not go to church-"

"No...not really," Troy replied. "My parents aren't too forthcoming in the religious department."

I noticed that Troy seemed to be speaking about his parents in a way that would make it seem as though he didn't like them or something.

"Oh, well I mean, you don't have to go...if you don't want to..." I found myself saying.

Of course I knew that wasn't true at all. My mom would no doubt find some way to make Troy attend this morning, despite him only being here for a few hours.

"No, I'm part of this family now, I guess," Troy replied. "So if you all go to church, then I guess I'll be going too."

And things grew silent for a few moments as Troy seemed to be lost in his thoughts, as was I.

Max, though, broke the silence a few minutes later.

"Ah, so....shall we play a round of Splinter Cell?"

I watched Max and Troy play their games for the next hour, all the while thinking about various things.

I wanted this thing with Troy to work. I really did. And all signs indicated that it would. But I just couldn't shake the feeling that maybe I was wishing for things to work because I was attracted to him.

And that in itself could get me into some major trouble if he were to ever find out.

Of course he wouldn't. No one knew about me. Not even Max. And it wasn't like I wasn't going to be able to not keep my hands to myself. I was good at controlling myself, even if Troy's very presence was making that a hard feat to accomplish.

The game-fest was broken up however with the arrival of my mother, who was surprised to see all of us up, as she normally woke up and cooked breakfast before waking everyone up. Something she wasted no time in doing this particular morning either.

Troy opted to take a shower while breakfast was being made while Max and I decided to help my mom cook.

"So did either one of you get around to asking Troy how well he slept?" my mom asked as she grilled another omelet. "You know how the guest bed is."

"Yes mom," I droned. "We're not completely horrible hosts"

"Well that's good to hear," my mom replied. "I suppose we'll have to go out and get a new bed for Troy sometime this week."

"Do you think we could get some weights too?" Max asked. "Troy normally works out."

"You'll have to talk to your father about that one," my mom replied.

The thought of watching Troy working out shirtless and sweaty loomed in the back of my mind as I mixed up some orange juice.

My dad finally made his first showing this morning coming into the kitchen looking especially bed-headed and groggy. Which was understandable after being jolted up at 2am last night...or rather this morning.

"Hey dad can we get some weights?" Max asked.

"What....huh?" my dad asked, looking thoroughly confused, but not so confused that he didn't know where his plate of breakfast was.

But my mother promptly slapped his had away from the food.

"Not until our guest gets out of the shower," she said.

He sure was taking an awfully long time. Well to me anyway. I normally took about five minute showers. Same went with Max.

"Honey, maybe you should go check on him," my mother said, turning to look at me.

I knew there was no 'maybe I should do this' with her. In her words that meant that she wanted me to go check on Troy and she wanted me to do it now.

I wasn't upset with her for it though, and did as I was told.

I walked back upstairs and stood outside the bathroom door. I was just about to knock when a strange event occurred.

The door opened for me, and at it stood a fully naked Troy, visible in all his wonderful glory.

Once I got over my initial shock, I quickly looked away.

"You mind getting me a towel?" he asked, grinning.

He made no move to cover himself or shut the door.

"Uh...yeah," I replied, heading for the laundry closet.

"Thanks," Troy said, taking the towel from me and wrapping it around his body.

I wasn't sure why Troy hadn't had a towel in the first place but didn't want to be rude and not ask.

Only, he seemed to answer that for me.

"I ah...didn't know where the towels were," he replied, still standing at the open bathroom door, dripping wet. "I figured I'd make a mad dash to my room when I got out and put on my robe or something instead."

"Right," I replied, unsure of what else to say.

For a few moments, the two of us just stood there, staring at each other. It was weird. I could feel this electric intensity coming off of Troy. A heat that was starting to excite me again.

"Everything okay up there boys?" came the call of my mother from the bottom of the stairs.

"Uh yeah mom," I replied, still staring at Troy. "Everything's fine."

I watched as a coy smile grew on Troy's face.

"Uh, you're kinda in the way," he said.

"Oh, right. Sorry," I replied, watching his back as he went into his room and shut the door.

I wasn't sure what to make of the whole experience. Strange yes. Hot, definitely. I'd only known the guy a few hours and I'd already seen him naked, which wasn't such a bad thing If I had to admit it.

I forced myself to go back downstairs and rejoin my family, but my thoughts were still elsewhere.

"Is Troy alright hun?" my mom asked as she put food on the kitchen table.

I noticed Max was looking at me funny. He could always tell when something was bothering me and right now was no exception.

"He's drying off," I replied. "He'll be down soon."

"Good," my dad replied, eying the food at the table. "Because I'm starving"

"Mike what's wrong?" Max asked, looking concerned.

Right on schedule.

But there was no way I could tell him what happened.

"Nothing," I replied. "Just ah...."

I had to make it sound believable.

"Just....I hope that Troy doesn't think going to church'll be boring."

There. That sounded good enough.

"So Troy really has never been to church huh?" My dad asked. "I guess he's gonna get to try something new this year."

"He'll enjoy it, I'm sure," my mother spoke as she took a seat at the table with the rest of us.

That, I doubted. I didn't even like church and I'd been going for quite a while now.

We were joined shortly right after that by Troy who looked surprised to see everything all set up and everyone all together at the table.

"Wow," he said, taking a seat across from me. "Everything looks and smells great."

"Well I hope you like everything," my mom spoke. "I'm not sure what you're used to up in Canada."

"It's fine," Troy replied.

"Okay, so I guess I can lead us in grace and then we can eat," my father spoke.

Max, my mom and dad bowed their heads as my father started praying. Troy and I just stared at each other. Troy's look seemed to be a little more gloomy. Kind of edgy and off putting but we quickly pretended like we'd been bowing our heads as my father finished and we dug into our food.

We usually arrived at church at least ten minutes before it started. Today was an exception. Seeing as though everyone had awaken earlier than usual, we'd all gotten ready right after breakfast and drove down to the church.

Today we were about twenty minutes early but most everyone showed up early so there were still a lot of people here.

Most of them that were chatting amongst themselves before we arrived seem to stop and stare once we all showed up with Troy.

Being a small community, for us to show up to church with someone they all hadn't seen before was quite alarming, especially since my mother was quite an avid church member. Sure we all attended with her, but it was mostly because of her. She was the one who organized all the charity events and bake sales, so she was viewed as a pillar in the community. Obviously, people wanted to know who Troy was.

Especially our preacher, Reverend Thomas, who upon seeing us enter, came straight up to us.

I noticed that the volume level had gotten considerably lower as he approached and everyone blatantly stared our way.

"Well, it's nice to see you all this morning," Reverend Thomas started.

"Good morning Reverend," my mom said.

"I see you have a guest with you this morning," Reverend Thomas said, looking at Troy, smiling.

I didn't really feel comfortable being so close to the man. I'd never actually been this close to him and most certainly never interacted with him like this before.

"This is Troy Hamilton," my mom replied, looking back at Troy. "He's an exchange student. From Canada. He's going to be staying with us for a while."

"Ah yes," Reverend Thomas said, shaking Troy's hand. "How wonderful."

Apparently, everyone in the church had heard that, and went back to their chatting once they saw that Troy wasn't some illegitimate love child my parents just found out about.

"Why don't you all have a seat up front," Reverend Thomas replied, motioning for us to have a seat in the row directly in front of the podium where he gave his sermons.

We never sat up front mostly because Max, dad, and I overruled mom when it came to where we sat in church. Our rule was she could make us attend, but we got to pick where we sat, which was normally at the back so that we could make a speedy escape.

Of course, I always made a speedy escape. Max and dad always stuck around for a little while to talk. They had people to talk to. I didn't. So I normally just walked home and was always there a good ten minutes or more before any of them showed up.

"Nice place," Troy said, looking around.

"Yeah sure," I replied.

"Hey boys, why don't you go introduce Troy to some of the other kids,"my mom spoke just as soon as we sat down.

Troy and I exchanged glances but Max seemed to be all for that as he quickly led Troy away, leaving me to follow.

This was the part I dreaded the most. Social interaction. Don't get me wrong, by no means was I antisocial. I wanted company and to talk to people. The problem wasn't that I didn't want to but that I was too shy to.

Not to mention that a lot of the popular kids from school attended the same church, including Evan Parker, who was the first to notice Troy among the popular kids.

"Uh hey Max!" Evan called out.

Max had been trying to avoid Evan, but Evan had thrusted himself in the way, forcing the three of us to stop and acknowledge his presence.

"What, Evan?" Max asked, obviously still pissed over what had happened last week.

"Look.....I'm sorry about what I did, okay? I really am," Evan said, looking and sounding sincere. "I was having a bad day and.......I'm sorry."

I knew Max couldn't stay mad at Evan forever. They were really good friends. I on the other hand had a reason to hold a grudge.

"So who's your friend?" Evan asked.

"Oh," Max started, looking over at Troy. "This is Troy. He's an exchange student from Canada."

"Canada? Really?" Evan asked.

"Yeah," Troy replied.

"I dated a Canadian chick once," Evan started. "I swear, she had the biggest-"

"Evan, church remember?" Max pointed out.

I figured Evan was a dense as he looked, but damn.

"So come on, I'll introduce you to some of the other guys," Evan said, putting his arm around Troy to lead him away.

I wasn't sure what it was exactly, but something caused me to intervene.

"Uh, actually," I started, removing Evan's arm from around Troy. "I think maybe he'd better stay with us."

"Mike," Max started with one of his 'whats your problem?' looks.

Troy looked confused but pulled me aside, away from Evan and Max.

"Mike what's going on?" he asked.

"Evan's bad news," I replied. "It'd be best if you stayed away from him."

Maybe I was doing it for selfish reasons, but keeping Troy away from Evan seemed like the best thing to do, to me.

Unfortunately, Troy didn't seem to see it that way.

"Look, if you have some kind of problem with him, then that's between you and him," he started, looking back at Evan.

"Troy-"

"Just let me decide who I wanna be friends with. Okay?"

He didn't give me a chance to respond as he made his way back over to Evan, who was now surrounded by a pack of girls, one of which was his girlfriend, Sienna.

Max looked back at me quizzically, but I just shrugged and made my way back over to where my parents were sitting.

Troy was right. It wasn't up to me to decide who he should and shouldn't be friends with while he's here. But still, it would make me feel a lot better to know that he WASN'T hanging around the town's biggest tool.

The rest of the morning went very strange, to say the least. While church proceeded as normally, once it was over was when the strangest of events began occurring.

For one, within the short amount of time Troy had even been here, it seemed everyone in church who went to my school knew Troy. They all made points to come over and talk to him once service was over. Most of them, I noticed, were the more popular students. Among them were the pretty cheerleaders and the football jocks. And Troy seemed to be loving all of it, as he'd pretty much forgotten all about little unpopular old me.

But when he did finally realize that I was still alive and decided to join me again, was when Reverend Thomas decided to come speak to us, for the second time that day.

Like I said I was uncomfortable around the man for several reasons. He was a homophobe, that much I knew. And sure it was a priests duty to condemn homosexuality, but that just seemed ignorant to me.

It didn't help matters much that he decided to pull us off to the side, like we were in some kind of trouble or something.

He told us that he wanted to have a chat with us alone sometime before next Sunday. All Troy and I could do was agree to meet him one day. After all, we would look rude to refuse, even if the man gave us no indication as to why he even wanted to talk with us.

But then another strange thing happened.

Troy all but forced me to come with him as he went back to talk to the people from my school who spent their entire lives ignoring me.

And when he did was when the insanity continued.

Apparently, they were all going somewhere later on today. Of course I wouldn't have known seeing as though I was never really into the whole 'popular affairs.'

But then something weird happened.

Evan Parker actually turned to me and asked:

"Wanna come with Mike?"

It was weird for two reasons.

One, he was asking in front of all his other popular friends as if it was no big deal to be asking if I wanted to tag along. And two, he actually called me by my name.

I wanted to refuse, but for some reason I found myself nodding that I'd come, wherever they were going.

Maybe I wanted to protect Troy from 'Big Bad Evan Parker'. Maybe I actually wanted to feel like I was a part of something for once.

Nah, that wasn't it. It had to be the first reason.

I just didn't want Troy to turn into another Evan Parker while he was staying with us. Otherwise it would be one uncomfortable year.

Either way though, I was still going with them wherever they were going.

Being the small town that it was, Wayward wasn't exactly the best place to live when it came to entertainment value. Now of course, none of that mattered to me. Give me books, some paper and something to write with, and I'd be happy anywhere.

But it became clear to me that there wasn't much to do in this town once I saw exactly where we were all going.

A park? A park is where these people had taken me.

Altogether there were about twenty kids, which included myself, Max, Troy, Sienna, Evan, and his best friend Andrew, as well as other jocks and preps from school.

I wasn't concerned with them though. I found myself keeping a pretty watchful eye on Troy as he chatted in the center amongst the majority of people at the small park.

Max, however, had stayed with me, as we were sitting on the grass about ten or so feet away from everyone else.

"So you gonna tell me what's bothering you or not?"

I looked over at him, puzzled.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

I really didn't have a clue what he meant.

"You've been acting...I don't know, weird, since this morning," Max replied.

Well considering all that had happened to me starting with the incident this morning......but still, I didn't think I was acting any more different than usual.

"Nothing's wrong," I replied."I guess I'm just trying to get used to Troy."

"He's great isn't he?" Max asked, looking over at him.

I wouldn't know seeing as though we'd barely spent more than ten minutes alone together. Troy was a people person, that much I knew for sure.

But anything else about him was still a mystery to me.

"Hey Max," came the baby soft voice of none other than Sadie Pierson.

Sadie was a petite girl with a soft face and delicate frame. She was a bit on the short side as was her shoulder length dark brown hair. But she was very friendly and very smart.

She also just so happened to be the girl my brother was interested in.

He and Sadie had been friends for a quite a while, but Max had always had a crush on her. I wasn't sure if she knew that and if she did, it didn't matter, as she just so happened to be the girlfriend of Andrew Norris, Evan's best friend.

I think I despised the guy more than I did Evan and Max wasn't to fond of him either, but the two tolerated each other, more or less for Sadie's sake than anything.

"Hey, Sadie," Max said standing up.

"Can we talk?" she asked in a sweet voice.

That's right. Just ignore the invisible older brother.

Max looked over at me and when he did it seemed to be when Sadie finally noticed me as well.

"Oh, hey...uh....-"

"Mike," I finished for her. "It's Mike."

"Right," she replied.

"I'll be back in a little bit?" Max asked, looking down at me.

"Sure," I sighed.

I couldn't be mad at him for having a life.

Not really wanting to sit alone in the grass, I decided to go and get something to drink from one of the vending machines near the park restrooms.

"Stupid piece of crap!"

It was Sienna and she seemed to be upset with the vending machine. I guess it must have ate her money or something because she was trying to shake it. But given her petite frame, she wasn't moving it very much at all.

I approached her cautiously and stood just a little bit behind her.

I wasn't sure what to do or say, not being too experienced in the social interaction department.

She shook it a few more times before sighing angrily and quickly turning around.

When she noticed me, at first she looked surprised and embarrassed, but the look quickly faded as she tossed her hair back and stared at me staring at her.

"Uh, ate your money huh," I said, trying to ease some of the awkwardness of the situation.

"Yeah well, it's cheap anyway," she replied.

I looked over at the vending machine before handing her one of the dollars I had in my pocket.

"Try it again," I said.

She smiled and took the dollar from me and turned to the vending machine.

Once her diet drink had come out and she'd gotten it, she turned back to me, smiling still.

"Thanks," she spoke.

"No problem," I replied, moving past her to get my own soda.

I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that she hadn't left yet. In fact, she seemed to be watching me get my drink.

I got it and turned around cautiously to face her.

"You're Max's brother right?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," I replied.

She nodded and looked over in the direction of where her boyfriend and Troy were laughing loudly.

"Sorry about last week," she said. "So is Evan."

"So I've heard," I replied.

Things grew quiet between us and neither one of us made an effort to leave.

"So Troy is staying with you for the rest of the year huh?" she asked, looking in his direction.

"Yeah," I replied, joining her looking.

"So what's his story anyway?" she asked, inquisitively.

"I wouldn't know," I replied.

Which was the truth. Troy didn't really seem to be all that interested in trying to get to know me. Evan, however, seemed to be the one he couldn't wait to get to know, which it looked as though he was succeeding in doing, judging from their laughter and loud chatter.

Sienna looked as though she wanted to question me further but was stopped from ever doing so as Evan called her and surprisingly me, over to where he and Troy were talking with everyone else.

I walked behind Sienna for some reason instead of next to her and approached the group, which noticeably got quieter as I approached, with caution.

"So Troy tells me that you kick butt in Tekken five," Evan replied.

Well I had done considerably better than Troy when we were playing the game earlier in the morning, but I was nowhere near as good as Max, who I noticed was absent from the large group.

"Yeah, well-"

"And that you like macking on guys, just like we all thought."

I was shocked. For one, I wasn't sure what Evan was talking about exactly. But I knew it had to have something to do with Troy if Evan had said his name.

"What?" I asked, feeling panicked.

"Oh come on man, this morning? When you were scamming on him when he got out of the shower? Ring any bells?" Evan asked.

I looked at Troy incredulously, who just had this weird little smirk on his face.

"You told them about that?" I asked.

"Yeah why not? I'd say he was trying to warn us to watch our dicks in gym class," Evan laughed.

And when he laughed so did everyone else.

"Troy," Sienna said sternly, with a threatening look on her face.

She and Troy started arguing about something, but I was too panicked to hear what. The only thing that I knew was that Troy was trying to ruin my life. I thought that him coming was going to be good for me. Not the polar opposite.

"Yeah well I hear all football players are gay," Troy joked.

And while most of them laughed, they all seemed to have this measuring looks on their face.

I couldn't understand it really. What the hell was Troy trying to do? To me? To everyone?

I couldn't be around any of these people anymore. I had to go. I had to get far far away from them. Which is exactly what I was thinking as I took off, hearing the laughter of everyone as I did.

But I didn't care. I just wanted to go. That and sleep. Maybe if I slept, I'd wake up and realize that this was all just one big horrible nightmare.

Like yesterday when I'd waken up feeling excited but couldn't remember what I was so excited about, today I'd waken up feeling an overwhelming sense of dread but couldn't remember why.

It wasn't until I fully remembered yesterdays events, particularly those occurring at the park, that I realized that what had happened was in fact real and not a terrible nightmare.

Troy was another Evan Parker, my worst fear. And unlike Evan, where I only saw him at school for a few hours five times a week, Troy was living with me until next summer, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The thought alone made me want to puke but I didn't as I forced myself to get ready for school.

Obviously no one knew what was wrong with me as Max had told my parents that I hadn't been feeling well all day. At breakfast no one brought up what Troy did which led me to believe that they didn't know about it.

Troy sure was acting as though nothing happened, even trying to talk to me during breakfast.

He pulled me aside later on and apologized for what he'd done. But I wasn't really paying attention as I was to busy trying to kill him with my mind.

It didn't work though and I found myself feeling even worse as I drove Troy and Max to school.

As soon as we got there I wanted to leave Troy and do what I did everyday. Pretend no one else existed just like they did me. But I remembered that Principal Vanderholt had wanted me to bring Troy with me to his office first thing today, to check in I suppose.

Which is what I'd done.

"Ah, so you're Troy from Canada," Mr. Vanderholt said, sticking out his hand for Troy to shake.

"I'm Troy from Canada," Troy replied, shaking his hand.

Troy and I had a seat as Mr. Vanderholt sat at his desk.

"Well I'm sure you've had a chance to learn all about me and our school from Michael here," Mr. Vanderholt spoke, looking in my direction.

I rolled my eyes and looked down to my right.

"Yeah, Mike's been really helpful," Troy replied.

What an asshole.

"Well, I have your schedule of classes for you."

I watched as my principal handed Troy the slip of paper

"I took the liberty of placing you in all of Michael's classes," he continued. "That way you learn a little bit faster. Mike's a bright student you know. Very bright."

"I'm sure he is," Troy responded.

Hell. That's what this year was going to be for me. Complete and utter hell.

I'd almost had it up to here with Troy and his complete asshole personality.

Mr. Vanderholt talked to us for a few more minutes before he told us to get to first period before we were late.

I said nothing to Troy as I walked to first period Physics but that didn't stop him from trying to talk to me.

"Mike would you slow down?" he asked.

I was walking kinda fast. So what. I was trying to ditch him.

"Listen," he started.

The bell had sounded and the halls were officially empty. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I really am."

"I hate physics," was what came out of my mouth. "And there's a desk open next to me. Don't try sitting next to me and making things worse."

Troy said nothing as the two of us entered the classroom.

We didn't get in trouble for being late because of Troy being considered a new student. We went through the whole introduction thing and got out of it. And Troy didn't sit by me, thank god. Probably because he recognized some of the kids from yesterday, who were in physics this period with me.

"Okay, so we were talking about thermodynamics last week," Ms. Navier started. "Can anyone tell me the concept behind this?"

I heard snickering coming from the back somewhere.

Next thing I know, Troy's raising his hand.

"You know, Mike probably could," He said. "He told me this was his favorite class."

WHAT...THE...FUCK!

I shot an angry glare at him but was forced to turn back around when Ms. Navier actually decided to listen to Troy and ask me if I knew about thermo-whatever it was.

Last week I hadn't been paying attention much in class as I had spent most of my time daydreaming about what Troy would be like, which I could clearly see was a waste of time now that I actually knew what he was like.

He was a lying asshole who at this point, I wished had never come.

When I responded that I didn't know the answer, I heard more snickering, this time coming from most everyone in class.

I made a mental note to avoid talking to Troy the rest of the year.

I unfortunately couldn't make good on my promise to avoid talking to Troy once lunch rolled around and I found him getting next to me in line.

"Hey, how's it going?" he asked, a cheeky smile on his face.

How's it going? How's it fucking going?

I snorted in disgust at him as I hurried to gather the rest of my lunch and waited to pay.

Troy grabbed the same things I had gotten and slid his tray along the metal bars next to me.

"So about earlier-"

"Let me guess. You're sorry and you didn't mean it," I said, cutting him off.

The nerve the guy had was beyond anything I felt I was ever going to be able to understand.

Troy was seriously giving Canadians everywhere a bad name.

"I don't know what it was, really," he said.

"Yeah, I'm sure you don't," I replied, paying for my lunch.

Troy paid for is lunch and quickly caught up to me.

"Why don't you come eat with us today," Troy said, walking beside me. "Evan invited you."

"I don't think so Troy," I replied.

At this point I felt myself losing my appetite by the second.

"You don't have to blow the guy off just because of what he said, which may or may not be true," Troy replied.

May or may not be true? Was he serious?

"Look, Troy, I don't think-"

I was so caught up in what I was about to tell Troy that I failed to notice the person I'd bumped into. which just sop happened to be Andrew, and spilled my tray of food, all over the ground, along with Andrew's.

"Moron!" Andrew exclaimed, bending down to salvage what he could.

"Oh, look I'm sorry," I replied. "I'll buy you-"

"No just fucking get away from me," Andrew exclaimed. "I'm not here for you anyway. I'm here for Troy."

I looked over at Troy as Andrew stood up.

"Come on man, everyone's waiting."

Troy paid no attention to me as he once again blew me off in favor of Evan and his friends, who had seen the entire thing and were laughing at their table, a few feet away from me.

I paid them no attention. I was way too upset anyway. I stormed off, already making up my mind about what I wanted to do about Troy.

The rest of the day I managed to not have to talk to Troy. And he didn't try much to talk to me either. I just showed him where our classes were and made it a point to not sit by him in any of them.

I hadn't seen Max all day and wouldn't be seeing him any time soon since he had swim practice.

Which left me and Troy together. He'd followed me to the parking lot, expecting a ride to my house I guess, but detoured once he saw Evan, who offered to give Troy a ride later.

I guess they were going to do something together. But it was fine by me. I had already made up my mind concerning Troy.

It occurred to me sometime during the day that I didn't have to put up with Troy. If I wanted, I could end the exchange program and send him packing. Or at least have him stay with some other unlucky kid at school.

I thought about all this as I got his shit together and packed it back up. I thought about it some more as I brought his bags downstairs and threw them out the front door.

And I thought about it until Troy came home a couple hours later with a perplexed look on his face.

My parents weren't home and wouldn't be for at least another hour, which would be about the time that Max came home as well.

No one was here to try and stop me.

"Uh, my stuff is all outside," Troy said, approaching me carefully. "Why?"

"If you have to ask, you must really be more like Evan than I thought," I replied as calmly as possible even though I really wanted to scream Troy's head off.

Troy stared at me for a couple of minutes before he said anything.

"Mike....I'm sorry about everything," he said. "I get nervous around new people. Sometimes I do weird things."

Weird was right. But I didn't believe his nervous bit for one second.

"If that were true, you wouldn't have agreed to be an exchange student in the first place." I said coldly.

Unless he had no choice in the matter. But I didn't care either way. I just wanted him gone. I'd deal with whatever punishment and talks I was to receive later.

Troy actually seemed to look like Evan looked yesterday and last week when he was apologizing to me. But I knew better now.

"Mike, come on, they were just jokes," Troy said, his voice uneven.

"Maybe I'll laugh at them when you get the hell out," I said.

"Mike-"

"GO!"

I was beyond pissed off. And wanting to emphasize that I wanted him gone, I walked over to the door and opened it.

Troy turned around and stared at me for a few minutes before he slowly walked over and out the door.

And without saying anything else, I slammed it shut.

Let Troy be somebody else's nightmare. Not mine.

A/N

I'm not sure how the mistake in the title happened here on Nifty, but just so we're all clear and in case you didn't figure it out, the story is actually called 'Wayward People' not 'Here Comes the Storm' But if you did figure it out, liked the story and either sent me an email or joined my YahooGroup, then I thank you sincerely. Support and any comments at all is always appreciated.

And if you haven't sent me any email, don't be afraid to. I respond to every email, even if you have any complaints about the story. My email address is: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com. And if you haven't at least taken a look at my YahooGroup, the link is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JoJoPresents-GayFiction/. There you can find more chapters of Wayward People as well as my two other stories, Angst and as-of-now group exclusive story This World.

Copyright 2005