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 Twenty Seven-"Suspect"

When you first meet someone, the way you get to know that person is by asking questions.

About their likes, and dislikes.

Their personal believes.

Among other things.

But now that it was the beginning of May and nearing the end of Troy's stay with us, I was realizing that I could count on two hands the amount of things I knew about him.

Troy himself was a very guarded person.

He was so good at it, you'd almost think it was something he practiced.

The thing was, I seemed to be the ONLY person who was even slightly suspicious of these things.

Was it normal to invite a person into your home to stay with you for an extended period of time that over the course of eight months you knew about as much as you did about them now than you did then?

At least, I was the only that thought that person up until Evan came along.

Evan and even Troy had focused their attention on Pete, claiming that he was a suspicious person.

But it turned out that Evan was only making false accusations because that was the type of person he was back then.

I dismissed Troy's claims as being that of him being overprotective of a person he saw as helpless.

But now, I was starting to think that Troy was trying to take attention away from himself because it was him all along that I should have been suspicious of.

He knew it and now I knew it too.

Who was this guy that lived with me and my family?

"Broke the schedule," were Troy's first words to me as I made my way into the kitchen.

I glanced over at him while I made my way over to the cabinet to get a bowl and spoon.

"What?" I asked.

"Coming out our rooms at the same time?" Troy replied. "We do it everyday. You could practically set your watch by it."

"You guys still do that?" Max asked, mouth full of seriously. "Cuz that's weird."

Troy had been grinning at me before but when he saw the look on my face, which must have been a troubling one, it faded.

I knew exactly what he was talking about.

I stayed in my room on purpose.

I mean, who do you know that EVER wakes up at the same time as someone else every single day when they're in different rooms?

I'd always thought it was a little strange, but I just assumed it all came with the territory that was Troy.

Now I had my doubts.

And questions.

"I think maybe we should wake up ten minutes apart from now on," I suggested. "Try something new."

Both Max and Troy were staring at me like I had some kind of problem.

I couldn't really blame them as I had had plenty of problems this year. I'd spent a good chunk of it being a sarcastic smart ass, so they were probably still trying to get used to figuring out how to tell when I was being serious and when I wasn't.

"If you say so," Troy replied.

I had some things I had to figure out.

It wasn't that I was suspicious of Troy because I thought I had a reason to be.

I was more curious than anything.

He rarely told anyone anything about himself and I just wanted to know why.

Without having to ask him why directly.

"Man I so can't wait for school to be over," Max said as he finished his cereal.

"Yeah, three more weeks," I said, trying to sound as normal as possible.

I noticed Troy actually looked a little concerned there were only three weeks of school left.

"Three weeks? Really?" he asked, looking a little side-tracked.

"Yeah, trust me I've been counting the days," Max replied.

"Huh," Troy spoke, still looking like he had a lot on his mind all of a sudden.

"Yeah it's too bad I'm not a junior like you guys or we'd all be graduating next year," Max said. "College is where the real fun is. And you can bet that I'm not going to school anywhere near this boring town."

"Boring, huh?" my dad spoke as he walked into the kitchen, ruffling Max's hair. "Maybe you would've liked to have been raised somewhere more festive? Like, say, maybe Mars perhaps?"

"You know we found you on someone's doorstep, right?" I decided to add.

"Can't fool me with that one," Max spoke. "I've seen the birth certificate."

"All fabricated, I assure you," my mother spoke as she joined all of us in the kitchen.

"Now why do you guys always have to gain up on me?" Max spoke, dodging my dad's air punches. "Just be thankful SOMEBODY is giving you grandchildren."

I didn't take offense to Max's comment because I knew he meant no harm in it.

Besides, by now my parents seemed to be completely comfortable with me.

"Well there's always adoption," my mother spoke. "But can we not talk about this so early in the morning? You boys need to get to school."

"Hey dad if I get all A's on my report card at the end of the year can I get a car?" Max asked.

"Ask your mother," my dad replied, grabbing his briefcase. "Because I have to get out of here. I'm so late!"

"Mom-"

"No," my mom replied calmly while washing our breakfast dishes.

"I get no love around here," Max replied, shuffling towards the stairs.

When I looked over at Troy he STILL looked like his mind was a million and one miles away.

I wasn't sure what it was and wasn't really sure I'd ever find out.

Max was right, with only three weeks left of school, Troy would have to go back home.

And then just a mysterious as he was when he arrived would he be when he left us.

I'd never know who he was.

Well, one thing was for sure, Evan had made good on one of his promises for once.

When he told me in the hospital weeks earlier that he wasn't going to bother me in school anymore, he had meant it.

He didn't even so much as look at me when we were in the same room together.

And while I had to admit that part of me liked that, another part of me was still a little worried about him.

Kissing me and getting beat up had definitely changed him.

Evan didn't pick on anyone anymore.

Not that he could, really, as he had since lost his title as most popular guy in school.

That title now belonged to Clark.

Evan was kinda like the old me now.

He did his work in class and got good grades from what I could see whenever the teachers would randomly tell us our grades out loud.

He stayed to himself and was pretty quiet.

And I couldn't be entirely certain, but I think he may have even had a senior picking on him.

And why not?

After all, I was sure Clark and the rest of the parasites had spread word around that Evan was gay and of course we just COULDN'T have a gay kid in school.

People didn't really touch me because they couldn't.

None of my friends would let them.

And it didn't hurt that Sienna, Troy, and Max were all still pretty popular.

I had finally learned to like and accept my life.

I no longer cared about any of the school politics and I was sure that my new attitude was reflected in my writing.

I'd even started keeping a journal again.

Life was good.

Well, life was mostly good.

I'm sure my concerns, while however small they were, were evident.

To me at least.

"I for one am ready to say goodbye to this crappy school year and hello to the land of the seniors," Sienna sighed, as she leaned against her locker.

"You and everyone else," I replied.

"It's just, you'd think at some point people would finally realize they need to grow up and get a life," Sienna said. "But then you're still stuck in a class full of idiots."

"It's not like being a senior is gonna change any of that," I said, putting a book into my locker.

"Yeah, maybe not," Sienna replied. "But at least I'd know that next year I'd be in college with adults, not children."

Sienna really was pretty mature for her age, most of the time.

I could see why she was so ready to start college.

I was still just trying to live life a day at a time.

"So I bet you're happy," Sienna said, looking past me.

I glanced to where she was looking to see Evan walking down the hallway.

Before he'd always looked so big and threatening.

But now he just looked helpless.

He was being bumped into by people in the hallway and was walking with his head down.

It was pathetic really.

I felt bad for him.

"Evan's staying away from you, just like he said he would," Sienna replied. "I heard some seniors are even picking on him too. Now if that isn't justice, I don't know what is."

Sure, Evan deserved to know what it felt like to have someone make life feel horrible for him.

But at the same time, I always had SOMEONE.

When he started picking on me, I had my brother.

Then Troy.

And eventually Sienna and Pete.

I was never forced to deal with things on my own.

And as far as I could tell, all of Evan's friends had abandoned him.

And he didn't have a brother around like I did.

He was alone in everything.

And that had to make things a lot worse for him than they had been for me.

"Look at him," Sienna spoke. "He looks pitiful."

Yeah, he really did.

But there really was nothing I could do about it.

He told me he was going to stay away from him and I wasn't inclined to start interacting with him again.

"So you don't have any feelings at all left for him?" I asked.

After all, Sienna HAD to know Evan was a bully before he started picking on me, among other things, yet she stayed with him for so long.

And then one day, the two of them just weren't together anymore.

How do you turn off romantic feelings for a person just like that, no matter what they do?

Sienna looked over at Evan before looking down and sighing.

I knew Sienna well enough by now to know that she wasn't a cruel person.

There was no way she was taking delight in seeing her ex boyfriend looking so defeated.

"What he did to you-"

"Was bad, and I can't say I disagree with your decision to break up with him either," I cut in. "I just....I don't know.....what do I know about this kind of stuff?"

I mean, I barely had a chance to get really serious with Pete before he died.

Who was I to talk about all this relationship stuff?

Sienna didn't reply and I felt like I'd said too much already.

So I didn't push her.

"Well, I'm gonna go find Troy," I said. "We have class."

"Right," Sienna spoke, suddenly looking like she'd just forced herself to perk up. "I'll see you at lunch?"

"Yeah," I replied.

Great.

Me and my big mouth.

First I'd somehow made Troy feel weird.

And now Sienna.

And I wasn't even trying this time.

I just needed to stop before I made things worse for all of us.

"Well, three weeks left huh?" Paul started.

As usual, he was sitting on the edge of his desk with his legs extended and arms crossed with the sleeves to his long sleeve shirt pulled up partially and rolled back.

He had been cool everyday I'd had him.

I was actually going to miss having him as a teacher.

"Man, where did all the time go?" he asked.

"Up your mom's ass," Clark spoke, trying to cover it up with a cough.

"So did your mom find it yet?" Paul shot back.

Everyone liked him.

Even Clark could joke around with him now.

"But seriously though, it's been almost five months and I still don't feel like I know all there is to know about you guys," Paul started.

He got off the edge of the desk and walked over to the blackboard.

"How many more of Summer's STD's do you need to know about?" Clark asked.

"Shut up scag!" Summer shot.

"You want me to put the two of you out?" Paul asked, still facing the blackboard.

"You'll be bald and fat when you get older as per karma," Summer mumbled.

"Love you too," Clark spoke, licking his lips to Summer's gasping at him.

"Okay, be quiet guys," Paul spoke, turning around. "Gosh, you try to teach a class..."

I looked past Paul to where he'd written something on the blackboard.

"Uh, Family Lineage assignment?" I spoke. "What's that all about?"

"Well I was getting to that," Paul started. "As you can probably tell, it's an assignment about family. And in the process you guys, as well."

A family tree project?

With three weeks of school left?

So not cool.

"Wait, so we're actually gonna have to do some work in this class?" Clark asked.

"Only people who never do their work would think this is work, Clark," Paul spoke. "I flip a coin, heads or tails, you fail, keep it up."

"I'll shut up now," Clark spoke.

"Thank you," Paul spoke. "Now as I was saying, this is a family tree project, which incidentally counts as half your final grade and as all of you know, some of you need the points. Clark."

Clark looked away like Paul wasn't talking about him.

"You'll research your family lineage and write a report on your findings," Paul continued. "This project can be as boring or as interesting as you make it, you decide. Bottom line, I wanna know about you guys and your families."

"Well what do you wanna know exactly?" I asked.

"Does history of mental disease in the family count?" Summer asked, looking over at Clark who stuck his tongue out at her.

"That all depends on what you want to tell me, Mike," Paul replied. "You can put in the report that you're the son of Superman and a crack head on the street. Might not be true, but as long as it's researched and interesting, you'll do fine."

"The son of Superman...I like that one," Clark spoke.

"Heads..."

"Okay, okay," Clark spoke.

"Like, what do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, Superman has a cousin, Supergirl, and a father Jor-El, and a mother....you see what I'm getting at. You can't just have any and everyone you want to be related to you because it'll sound completely made up," Paul replied. "Of course, this is on the off chance you want to make up your family, because like mine, yours isn't really worth talking about. But who really wants to do that?"

This actually sounded interesting.

If I wanted to, I'm sure it would have been completely easy for me to make up a family like the one Paul described.

But I liked my own family well enough.

And I was curious to know about my ancestors.

"Here's the actual assignment details," Paul spoke, starting to hand out sheets with information on them. "These assignments are due the last day of class, so that gives you three weeks to work on them."

"Wow, huh?" I spoke, looking over at Troy.

Troy stared at me with a blank look for a few seconds before he looked up at Paul.

"I'm sorry but what the hell does this have to do with World Studies?" Troy suddenly asked.

It was already mostly quiet in the classroom, but all of a sudden it sounded really quiet.

Like someone had put the breaks on a car all of a sudden.

Paul continued handing out papers as if the question hadn't even phased him.

"Well, that's a good question Troy," he said. "There's only three weeks left, we all know that. But I just wanted to remember each and every one of you after this. So I guess, to answer your question, nothing then."

Troy shook his head a little before pursing his lips and letting them go.

"Well then I'm not doing it then," he replied.

"What?" Paul asked, finally looking up.

"This is World Studies," Troy replied. "You assign a project pertaining to World Studies and then I'll do it. Otherwise, I'll take my free A now."

I swear it got even quieter than before.

This was so unlike Troy to speak out like that to Paul.

I was under the assumption that they were good pals or something.

He had, after all, invited the guy to my seventeenth birthday party.

"Troy, it's not like I'm asking you to sell your mother's soul or anything," Paul bargained.

"Which you'd probably be having us do if we had more weeks left," Troy shot back.

Troy and Paul seemed to stare at each other for a bit, almost like they were challenging each other.

Then, the bell rang.

At first no one moved.

It was like people were afraid to leave or something.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," Paul spoke, still staring over at Troy.

I guess that was all the conformation everyone needed because they all shot up like their seats had just shocked them in the ass and rushed towards the door.

If there had been a fire, they wouldn't have made it all trying to get out like that.

Troy gathered his bags slowly as did I.

I fully intended to talk to him as soon as we got out of the room, I just wished he'd hurry up.

"Uh, Troy could I talk to you for a moment?" Paul asked.

I looked over at Troy, who looked annoyed.

I for one wouldn't want to talk to him alone when he looked like that.

I knew what he was capable of doing when he was really upset.

"Mike could you give us a moment?" Paul asked.

I looked over at Paul then back at Troy.

I almost didn't want to leave him.

But I figured if the two of them needed to talk, I wasn't going to get in the way of that.

So I gathered my stuff and left, leaving them alone.

"What?" Troy asked.

"That's what I was gonna ask you," Paul replied.

"Like you asked me if I wanted to tell you about my family?" Troy asked. "Because FYI, I don't."

"Okay, okay," Paul replied. "You don't need to be so defensive Troy. No one's out to get you."

Troy snorted and crossed his arms.

"If you don't wanna do the assignment, I won't force you," Paul replied. "It was really just extra credit anyway."

"Good," Troy replied.

"Although, I am curious to know why you don't want anyone to know about your family," Paul spoke. "What are you hiding Troy?"

"It's complicated," Troy replied, pulling his backpack up a little.

"You know you can talk to me about anything right?" Paul asked.

"Yeah," Troy replied, heading for the door.

"Even if your family is the dangerous type."

Troy stopped and stood at the doorway with his back to Paul for a few moments before he just kept walking.

I never really thought that I was a nosy person, but I wanted to know what Paul and Troy had talked about.

Of course, Troy wouldn't tell me.

And I couldn't be upset with him, as he didn't have to tell me anything if he didn't want to.

But still, I wanted to know!

"You think I should do something really out there for like the last day of school?" Sienna asked, absentmindedly stroking her hair.

"I don't know," I replied. "Like what?"

"Like, I don't know....running the halls naked?"

I turned and flashed her a `don't be stupid' look.

"Weren't you the one complaining about people being immature?" I spoke.

"Well yeah, but I just feel like I need to do something, big," Sienna replied. "I wanna have something nice to remember about my junior year."

And I could understand where she was coming from.

Just this year alone she'd broken up with her boyfriend and had to deal with her best friend dying to cancer, among other problems I'm sure she'd had.

Those weren't happy things to think about all.

In fact, they were so big, unless she did this big thing she was talking about, she'd probably always remember those things being the only big things to happen her junior year.

"Oh hey so did Paul assign you guys that family tree project Monday?" Sienna asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I've already started."

"Yeah me too," Sienna replied reaching into her locker. "Check this out."

I watched as she pulled out a medium sized broach from her locker and handed it to me.

It was about half the size of my hand, all silver on the outside with a gleaming ruby in the middle.

It looked real enough to me.

"Is it real?" I asked.

"Yeah," Sienna replied. "It was my great great great grandmothers and it's still in the family. It's sterling silver and that's a real ruby in the middle."

It really was nice looking, for a broach.

I wasn't really a jewelry person, but I wasn't a fool.

The thing had to be worth quite a bit of money.

"Sienna, why did you bring this thing to school? What if you lose it?" I asked.

"Relax," Sienna replied, taking it from my hands. "It'll be completely fine in my locker."

"I think you should at least hide it," I replied.

"I'm the only person that knows the combo to the locker, Mike," Sienna replied. "You're worrying enough for the both of us."

Somebody had to.

But if she was okay with it being here, I guess I had to be.

"Alright, so I have to go talk to Principal Vanderholt about Troy's transfer papers," I said. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah okay," Sienna replied.

It was getting closer and closer to the end of the year, and getting Troy's transfer papers for my parents to sign was one of the things that showed that.

I didn't want to get them because that was just admitting that I would have to say goodbye to Troy soon.

And despite the fact that I knew next to nothing about him, it still didn't change the fact that he was like a brother to me now.

A brother I didn't want to have to say goodbye to.

I never really had to come to the office much during my high school career so far.

In fact I'd only been in it three times this year, twice about Troy, once about myself.

That was probably the reason I didn't feel quite comfortable with having to come to the office.

Our main office was in this house-like thing behind a smaller house-like thing, where the receptionist sat in the front.

If you needed to get from one side of the school to the other, you had to pass the receptionist, something I had to do nearly every day.

Because of that, I had since started to figure the receptionist didn't like me very much.

She always flashed me these weird looks if I happened to look her way.

Maybe she knew I was gay and didn't like it.

Either way it didn't make for comfortable school atmosphere, having to pass by her.

And now, I was going to actually have to talk to her.

"Um, hi, I have a pass to see Principal Vanderholt," I said, handing the receptionist my pass.

It almost seemed like she'd snatched it out of my hand.

And she sure was examining the damn slip as if it were forged or something.

After nearly a minute of me waiting for some kind of conformation that I could go back into the office, she handed me back my pass and told me I could go in, going back to her magazine.

I passed her ask quickly as I could and went straight back to Principal Vanderholt's office.

When I got there, there was a familiar face already there doing something not so familiar to me.

"Paul?"

Paul turned around so quick, I nearly jumped back.

"Oh, Mike, you scared me there man," Paul spoke, smiling.

I looked past him to notice he was standing at a file cabinet, which was open, and which one of his hands was on.

"Um..."

"Oh," Paul spoke, shutting the cabinet. "Just putting a file Principal Vanderholt gave me back."

"You don't need to explain anything to me," I replied, forcing a grin. "I don't care."

Paul stood there shaking his head ever so slightly for a few moments before he started towards the door.

"Well I take it you have an appointment with the principal so I won't get in the way," he said.

"Okay," I replied.

"Oh and by the way," he spoke, hanging in from the doorway. "You don't need to tell the principal about me putting the file back. He was expecting me to bring it back."

"Um...okay," I replied, forcing another grin.

"Okay, well I'll see you in class," Paul spoke, before leaving.

I wasn't sure why but that whole situation just felt weird.

I didn't have much time to think about it though because Principal Vanderholt came into the room a couple of minutes later.

`You aren't gonna put on there that I was adopted are you?" Max replied. "Cuz like I said, I can show you the birth certificate."

"Max, you know we're just kidding when we say we found you," I replied. "Of course, we aren't making up the part about you being from another planet."

Max shoved me before taking a sip of his soda and looking over at Troy.

"So what's wrong with this picture?" he asked.

"What?" Troy asked, flipping to another channel on the television.

"He's doing a family tree project and you're watching t.v.," Max replied. "I thought you guys have all the same classes."

"Troy's not doing the project," I said, continuing to work on my own project.

"What?" Max asked.

"He told Paul that it didn't have anything to do with World Studies so he wasn't gonna do it," I replied.

"What?" Max asked. "Dude, why I am I just now hearing about this?"

I decided I was gonna let Troy answer that one.

"It's just stupid, that's all," Troy replied. "We understand each other now."

"Why is he making you guys do a family tree project when if he wanted to know about all our families all he'd have to do is ask Principal Vanderholt for our personal files," Max said.

Suddenly, something clicked in my head.

That was the reason Paul had been in the office earlier.

I turned around in my chair to face Troy.

"I think that's what he did," I said.

Troy looked over at me, looking a little alarmed.

"What?" he asked.

"I caught Paul going through Principal Vanderholt's file cabinet today," I replied. "He said Principal Vanderholt was expecting him to bring back a file but...."

"But what?" Troy asked.

I sighed.

"I don't know, the whole thing just seemed kind of weird to me," I replied. "That's all."

"I guess your teacher decided that he wanted to know about you and you family anyway, huh Troy?"

Troy just stared hard at the wall before squinting his eyes for a second then turning back to the television.

"I guess so," he mumbled.

I couldn't be entirely certain yet, but I think the family history project was turning out to be one of the most interesting assignments I'd ever had to do.

I'd learned so much about my family doing it and it was fun.

I'd actually done it two ways.

I did it the right way and then I'd made up a family the way Paul described.

I think I'd done a pretty good job with both ways so far, and was having a tough time deciding which one I wanted to focus the bulk of my efforts on.

Either way, I was having fun with the whole thing.

"I got my neighbor's grandma to loan me a tribal Native American garment," Sienna spoke. "Did you know I was part Indian?"

"No, it would still be Native American," I spoke, correcting her. "You'd be part Indian if you had Indian heritage."

"That's what I meant," Sienna replied. "I'm both."

Oh.

Well in that case, that was completely random then.

"Hey what's with Troy lately?" Sienna asked. "He hasn't really been hanging with us much."

Not since Monday when I'd opened my big fat mouth and made him feel uncomfortable probably.

Why did I have to do that?

"I don't know," I replied. "I think maybe he wants to stay here or something. He's been on edge ever since he realized we only have a few weeks of school left."

Of course, now we only had two weeks of school left, but that was beside the point.

Something was wrong, and if that wasn't it, then I wasn't sure what was.

"Well I wish he would stop acting so stupid," Sienna spoke. "My creative juices flow better around him."

"Is that so?" I asked. "Well I think you need to let those creative juices of yours stew for a bit. I'm gonna go see if I can find Max."

"Good luck trying to pry him away from Sadie," Sienna called after me.

Sienna smiled and shook her head as she started going through her locker looking for something that, to her horror, was now missing.

Trying not to panic, she started taking things out of her locker and lying the on the ground next to her.

One by one everything came out until she realized it was gone.

"Shit!" Sienna cursed aloud.

A few people nearby stopped, shocked to have heard Sienna lose her cool like that.

"Ugh!" Sienna mumbled, kicking her locker.

"Whoa, whoa, what's wrong?" Evan asked, rushing next to Sienna.

"My grandmothers broach is missing," Sienna replied without fully realizing whom she was speaking to.

Evan looked inside of Sienna's empty locker and then over at how stressed out she looked.

"Sienna-"

"And-"

Sienna stopped when she realized she was talking to Evan.

A scowl grew on her face as she bent down and started to angrily pick up her things.

"What the hell do you want?" she asked, shoving her stuff back into her locker.

"Nothing...I thought-"

"What?" Sienna asked.

Evan paused.

"It just kind of seemed like something was wrong," Evan replied.

"What was your first clue?"

Evan didn't know what to say.

Sure Sienna was his ex girlfriend, but it had been so long since either of them had been friendly towards each other.

"Maybe...maybe I can help?"

"Oh you know what Evan-"

"Sienna, let me help," Evan cut her off. "Please?"

Sienna stared into Evan's eyes for a few moments before turning away from him and back to her locker.

"I have to find that broach," Sienna replied. "I mean, my mom'll probably throw me out on the street if I don't bring it back. Of course, that's when she finds out I took it in the first place."

"Well, where was the last place you saw it?" Evan asked.

Humoring Evan, Sienna responded.

"I was showing it to Mike-"

"Mike?" Evan asked.

Sienna stared at Evan's expression.

"Oh don't," Sienna replied. "I trust Mike more than my own brothers and sisters."

"I wasn't saying that," Evan replied. "I was just....."

Sienna stared at Evan who looked down at the ground.

"Why did you stop picking on Mike?" Sienna asked, a lot calmer than before.

Evan looked up at her.

He looked away and back before responding.

"He didn't deserve to be picked on to begin with," Evan replied. "And now I know what that feels like."

Sienna stared at Evan, trying to figure out whether or not he was being sincere before she finished picking up the rest of her stuff and shut her locker.

"Janet Elrod," she started. "I bet that bitch saw me with it and got one of the shop class geeks to get my locker open."

"That's giving her more credit than she's worth," Evan chuckled.

Sienna smiled at Evan before she started walking.

"You can help me," she started. "But don't expect a finders fee when we find it."

Evan just smiled back at her.

"Hey," I greeted Troy upon entering Paul's class.

Normally we were always together, so I would have came to class with him, but he was spending a lot more time to himself lately.

It bugged me the way he acted sometimes.

Or all the time.

So unreadable.

So seemingly emotionless.

I wondered how a person could even be that way.

Troy looked up at me and straightened up in seat, but he didn't say anything.

"Hey, by any chance have you talked to Max since we got here?" I asked.

It looked like Troy was about to respond but whatever he'd started to say was drowned out once Clark and co turned their attention their way.

"So what have you learned about your family Carson?" Clark asked. "You finally find out being a fag is your family signature?"

Troy tried lunging towards Clark but I pushed him back.

He looked over at me like I was crazy before all of a sudden he looked upset and turned away from me.

"I understand you not wanting your boyfriend to beat me up," Clark said. "I think it's kinda sweet actually."

"And to think, one day you're actually gonna have children like you," I said.

Clark looked stumped for a moment and was about to respond before Paul walked into class.

"Okay everyone," he said walking in. "Sorry I'm late. Did you know they had oysters in the cafeteria?"

Oysters?

At 10:30 in the morning?

"Moving on, how many of you have managed to complete your family history projects?" Paul asked.

A few people raised their hands.

I was pretty much done but I didn't want to raise my hand prematurely only to have Paul call on me to present my findings or something.

"How many of you are almost finished?" Paul asked.

Okay now I could raise my hand.

Boy, he was being thorough.

When I looked over at Troy he was leaned over to the left sitting with his palm resting on the left side of his face.

He looked annoyed and I seriously hoped no one bothered him while he was like that.

I noticed Paul seemed to look over at Troy briefly before he clapped his hands once and started rubbing them together.

"Okay, movie time," he said, walking to the back of the class to load up the DVD player.

"You know I just got that new Ethan Hawke movie," Summer spoke. "Let's watch that."

"So we can hear all about how you pretend put your mouth on his-"

"You don't wanna finish that statement Clark," Paul spoke with his back to all of us, still getting the DVD player together. "Trust me."

I've always thought any kind of movies in school was the teachers way of letting someone else be the babysitter, if even for just a few minutes.

But a movie was a movie.

Not much I could do about that.

"What movie are we watching?" I asked.

"Phantom of the Opera," Paul replied.

"Great so now were watching movies that have nothing to do with the class," Troy mumbled.

"Phantom of the Opera? That's scary right?" Clark asked.

"Only if you hate opera," I replied.

I didn't watch too many movies, but I made it my business to know about a lot of them.

Or at least the people who wrote and directed them.

"Can I go to sleep if I want?" Clark asked, shrugging down in his seat.

"Can I give you a big fat F if I want?" Paul asked, starting up the movie.

Clark frowned and crossed his arms.

I turned back around just in time to notice that Troy was gathering his stuff.

I leaned over to talk to him so no one would hear.

"Troy, what are you doing?"

"First the project, now this?" he replied, zipping up his backpack. "There's other way's I can waste my time."

I watched as Troy stood up, putting his backpack over one of his shoulders.

People turned their attention to him, including Paul.

"Troy, where you going buddy?" Paul asked.

"First of all, I'm not your buddy, I'm your student," Troy replied making his way towards the front of the room. "And I think I'm gonna go get myself some of that oyster stuff you mentioned."

"Troy, I didn't tell you that you could leave," Paul spoke sternly.

"And I'm sure no one told you that you could waste our parents' tax dollars," Troy spoke.

"Don't your parents live in Canada?" Clark spoke.

Troy and Paul glared at each other.

"I can fail you, you know," Paul spoke.

"No you can't," Troy replied. "According to you, we're done with everything already, remember? The family tree project is just extra credit."

"Troy-"

"So I guess I'll be officially leaving this class," Troy replied.

I bent down to grab my stuff.

"Michael, don't," Paul spoke.

I wanted to go after Troy.

But I figured he definitely needed to cool down if he was acting like that.

There wasn't really anything I could do.

"Dude, your boyfriend rocks," Clark spoke.

What the hell was wrong with Troy?

"Hey," Sienna spoke. "I talked to Janet. She's so stupid, I could tell she had no idea what I was talking about."

Evan chuckled at Sienna before sighing.

"Well, I have some good news and some bad news," he started. "Which do you want first?"

"Good," Sienna replied.

"The good news is," Evan replied, pulling his hand from behind his back and extending it to show Sienna her missing broach. "I found your broach."

Sienna took it from Evan and looked it over with glee.

"What's the bad news? I have to sleep with you now?" Sienna joked.

"I'm the one that took it," Evan replied.

The smile that had been on Sienna's face previously vanished upon hearing that little tidbit.

"What?"

"Just hear me out okay?"

"Evan, how in the hell-"

"I-"

"Oh my god," Sienna gasped. "I forgot. You know my combo. I told it to you when we dating."

"Sienna-"

"And so you stole from me? You decide you wanted to add stealing to the list of reasons hell wants you?"

"Sienna, please-"

"God, and then you pretended to help me look for it when you knew all along," Sienna spoke.

"I saw you showing it off. I mean, all in the hallway. The thing looked expensive and I knew how easy it would have been for someone to get a hold of it if they wanted to."

"Obviously," Sienna spat out. "It looks like the only thief I had to worry about was you."

"I took it to keep it safe Sienna," Evan spoke.

Sienna stared at Evan.

"You took it to....Evan, do you not realize how STUPID that sounds!" Sienna exclaimed.

"I didn't want anyone stealing from you-"

"So you did it for them-"

"And I just wanted a way to spend time with you."

Sienna stopped.

"I still care about you. And I know we can't be....together anymore, but I still don't want to see you hurt."

Sienna looked down.

"You took my broach out of my locker Evan," Sienna spoke. "What a way to show a girl you care."

Sienna shut her locker and walked away from Evan, leaving him standing alone.

"Troy!" I called out as soon as I stepped one foot in the house.

He hadn't been at school for me to give him a ride home and quite frankly some of the things he'd said in class had me worried.

I couldn't stop thinking that he was going to leave earlier than expected.

Sure I'd be sad when Troy left, but I wanted to face that when I had to.

And with two weeks left, now wasn't the time.

"Mike, maybe he's not here," Max spoke.

"What's going on boys?" my mom asked, coming from the kitchen.

"Mom have you seen Troy?" I asked.

"Have I seen Troy? Shouldn't he be with the two of you?"

It was obvious that she hadn't.

"What's wrong?" my mom asked, sounding worried.

"Troy went postal," Max replied.

"Postal?" my mom repeated.

"He got into an argument with one of our teachers," I replied. "And I haven't seen him since."

"I'm sure we have nothing to worry about," my mom replied. "Troy seems like a capable young man."

I wished I had some idea of what kind of places Troy would go if he felt bad.

"I'll go check his room," I replied.

And I was hoping that when I got up there his stuff would still be there.

And so would he.

I practically ran up the stairs, two at a time, feeling like I couldn't get up them fast enough.

The door to his room was closed, but that wasn't new.

We all kept our doors closed when we were in them and when we weren't.

One of my mom's rules.

I knocked on the door for some reason, just in case he was in there.

When I didn't get a response I just flung it open, unprepared for what I saw when I got inside.

"What the...no, Troy!"

I rushed over to him.

He was lying on the ground on his side.

I was shaking him but he wasn't responding.

"Troy!"

"What's going...shit!" Max spoke rushing beside me.

"Call an ambulance!" I shouted.

I couldn't tell anything like this.

Whether he was passed out or.......

I just knew that I was worried about him.

I didn't want to see another person I loved die.

YahooGroup (w/ advanced chapters of the story): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JoJoPresents-GayFiction/

Personal email: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com

Copyright 2006