Asher still hadn’t touched a single bite of the food on the lunch tray in front of him — and this time, it wasn’t because of how gross the cafeteria’s cooking was.

He was on-edge, battling a strange combination of nervous excitement, guilt, and irritation that he’d been unable to shake all day.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t been able to literally feel his best friend’s eyes on him from the other side of the cafeteria. He and Ollie still hadn’t said a word to each other all day.

That morning in Trigonometry, Asher had seen Oliver trying desperately to catch his eye all during class, but he ignored him. And as soon as the bell rang, Asher had made a beeline for the door before Oliver had the chance to corner him.

Luckily he had Landon to distract him — after practically jogging to keep up with Asher’s rapid exit from the classroom, Landon very sweetly offered to walk him to his next class (something which had temporarily replaced Asher’s confusing mixture of emotions with giddy excitement and butterflies).

You’ll have to talk to him eventually though, Asher reminded himself firmly as he stole yet another glance in Oliver’s direction. It was all the more painful to see Penny sitting right beside him too. You can’t keep pulling this silent treatment crap with him forever. That’s like third grade stuff! Grow the fuck up!

Yes, he’d have to talk to Ollie… Later. Right now he had more important things to focus on.

Asher pulled his thoughts back to the present, trying to listen-in on Landon’s conversation with his friends once more.

“Yeah, I mean, you know the signing period’s not til February anyway, but I think I’m going with Georgia.” Landon’s friend Desmond was explaining. “Me and my parents decided over Christmas break.”

Justin, another member of the football team, appeared saddened by these words. “Shit, that’s so far…”

Desmond appeared unconcerned. “Yeah, but it’s not forever.” He replied with a shrug. “What about you, Landon? Make up your mind yet?”

He shook his head almost sadly. “No… I’m still figuring it out.” Landon gave a small glance in Asher’s direction as he spoke.

Asher couldn’t help but feel his heart sink slightly at the reminder that Landon could be leaving at the end of the school year.

“Oh shit, yeah. Sorry.” Desmond looked apologetically between both Asher and Landon.

Asher wasn’t sure exactly how much he knew, but neither Desmond or Justin had seemed to question his sudden arrival at their lunch table with Landon that afternoon. Landon had mentioned being out only to his closest friends, and Asher had a feeling that these two were who he’d been referring to.

“You’ll figure it out, man. One way or another.” Justin chimed-in encouragingly. “I mean, you and Riley did, right? Kind of? Even if it kinda sucked for you guys…” As these words passed his lips, Asher recognized the painfully familiar look of ‘Oh God why did I just say that?’ cross Justin’s face.

“Riley?” Asher turned quizzically toward Landon, who was now holding his face in one of his hands. “Who’s Riley?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Landon muttered uncomfortably from behind his hand.

Thankfully, Desmond seemed to recognize the awkwardness immediately. “So, uh, speaking of plans for next year… You said you’re studying for the SATs, right?” He asked Asher. “Man, those were a bitch. Good luck, dude.”

Landon finally emerged from behind his hand, smiling warmly at Asher before he had the chance to reply. “Nah, Asher won’t have any trouble. He’s a genius. Seriously.”

Asher’s cheeks grew warm at these words. “Okay, genius is totally pushing it…”

Relieved the awkwardness had passed (but still very curious about this ‘Riley’), Asher fell back into the conversation with Landon and his friends. Desmond and Justin weren’t nearly as dick-ish as Asher used to let himself believe, and he was grateful for both the chance to spend more time with his new maybe-boyfriend, and for the distraction from thinking about Ollie.

A few minutes later, however, when he got up to dispose of his lunch tray, he let his curiosity get the better of him. He took another glance back in the direction of his old lunch table, but was surprised to find both Oliver and Lily missing. Only Penny sat there now, meeting his gaze from across the cafeteria with the usual sour expression she’d been wearing any time they interacted lately. Where did they go?

“Asher?”

He almost jumped at the sound of Lily’s voice from over his shoulder. Asher tried his best to hide how much she’d startled him. “Hey, Lil. What’s up?”

“Uh, nothing!” Her reply was painfully unconvincing. “I just wanted to talk to you for a second before we go back to class.”

He smiled at her. “Oh, sure. What is it?”

Lily bit her lip for a moment. “Um, let’s go talk somewhere quieter…”

She inclined her head towards the doors that led out to the patio area. Students normally weren’t allowed out there during lunch, but it was a spot Asher and his friends sometimes snuck out to when they wanted a more private conversation, away from the rest of their peers.

Asher’s stomach sank a bit. Uh oh. This can’t be good. But what if there was something wrong? What if Lily needed him? “Okay…” He glanced back toward the table where Landon was waiting for him and gave a little shrug. “I’ll be right back.” He mouthed.

Landon seemed to get the message. With a nod and a cute little smile, he went back to talking to his friends as Asher followed Lily toward the door.

As usual, the teachers in charge of monitoring the cafeteria were huddled together talking to one another, rather than paying attention to the students. It was easy to slip away unnoticed.

But the minute he stepped outside, Asher wanted nothing more than to turn around and go back in. “Seriously, Lil?” He grumbled, his eyes locked on Oliver’s guilty face as he spoke.

“I know, I know… But we knew you wouldn’t wanna talk if Ollie asked.” Lily explained, biting her lip. “And you’ve gotta talk to him, Asher. He wants to apologize!”

Oliver stepped forward at his friend’s words. “Thanks, Lily. I think I can take it from here.” He gave her a look that distinctly said ‘please leave us alone’ which, thankfully, she seemed to understand.

“Okay, fine, I’ll go back inside. But just… promise me you’ll kiss and make up or whatever it is you have to do to make things go back to normal?” When neither Asher nor Ollie replied, she let out a small sigh of defeat and turned around to head back inside.

As soon as they were alone, Oliver took another step forward. “Asher, look…”

“I have a question for you.” Asher interrupted him before he could continue. Now that they were finally face-to-face, he could feel the heat of nearly two weeks worth of anger starting to rise in his chest. “How many times did I ask you what was up with you and Penny? How many times did I ask if there was something going on?”

“Ash…”

“And how many times did you lie to my fucking face about it?!” He cried. “It was always ‘What are you talking about?’ or ‘Oh, you worry too much’. And I actually believed it…” He shook his head slowly.

Asher had been telling himself for so long that Oliver would never lie to him. But apparently he was wrong. And now he felt like such a fool.

“I’m sorry! You’re right. I’m a total piece of shit. I should’ve told you.” Oliver’s tone was almost desperate as he replied. “I just… I knew you’d be pissed when you found out. I was trying to figure out how to tell you.”

Asher shook his head slowly. “Yeah, well I’m a hell of a lot more pissed off about being lied to than knowing you and my sister are…” He couldn’t even bring himself to finish the sentence. It was just too weird and upsetting to think about. “You should’ve just told me! It still would’ve been weird as fuck, but I wouldn’t have been mad about it.” Still hurt and upset, probably, Asher admitted grudgingly to himself. But not mad.

To his surprise, Oliver let out a humorless laugh at his words. “Oh, come on… You would’ve been pissed no matter what, Ash.” He insisted.

“Why the hell do you think that?”

Oliver sighed. “Because every friggin’ time I even looked at Penny since Homecoming, you were grumbling and glaring at us like we’d both kicked a puppy or something.”

“What?! N-no I wasn’t!” Asher spluttered awkwardly. Oliver was totally exaggerating, wasn’t he? “I was just annoyed because you two were being so goddamn obnoxious with your stupid flirting!” The words seemed to be coming out of Asher’s mouth more quickly than they could fully form in his head.

His friend’s eyes widened. “Excuse me? We were obnoxious? What about you?! You haven’t shut up about Landon in months! I mean, I’m surprised you even noticed me and Penny at all. Figured you were too busy drooling over that dumb jock to notice.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Asher was practically screaming now. “Don’t say shit like that about him!”

At last, Oliver’s expression softened. His look of anger had been replaced by one of guilt and regret. “You’re right. I took it too far.” He admitted.

Unfortunately, Asher’s anger had not abated the way Oliver’s had. “What the hell is your problem?! You’ve had this goddamn stick up your ass about Landon for months! It’s fucking ridiculous! If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost think you were…” Despite his anger, he managed to catch himself before the word passed his lips.

“What?” Oliver demanded. “You’d almost think I was what?”

Asher turned away, his face warm with a mixture of both anger and embarrassment. “Nothing.” He took a few steps back toward the door. “Guess we’d better get back inside before one of the teachers notices we’re gone.” Asher was surprised their arguing hadn’t already caught someone’s attention. “And Penny’s probably looking for you anyway.” He added bitterly.

Oliver let out a heavy sigh. “Asher, wait.”

He shook his head. “We’re done here. You wanted to apologize, you apologized… I could’ve done without the side of making me feel like shit. But thanks, I guess?” Asher was so hurt and angry that he was almost shaking. He nearly missed the sound of the opening door behind him.

He turned around, expecting to see Lily, or Penny, or a scolding teacher. Instead, he was met with a very pleasant surprise.

Asher had never been so relieved to see Landon in his life. “Hey, sorry for disappearing.” He forced the best smile he could as he looked up into Landon’s handsome face.

Asher noticed Landon’s green eyes flick toward Oliver for a moment. “Um… am I interrupting something?” He asked uncomfortably.

Asher shook his head. “No, I was just heading back inside.” He assured him. Behind him, Oliver remained silent.

“Well, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.” The older boy smiled at him. “And uh, the bell just rang, so I thought I could maybe walk you to your next class? If you want?”

This time, Asher’s smile was much more genuine. “Yeah. Yeah, that’d be really cool! Thanks, Landon.”

Landon seemed to hesitate for a moment. He glanced quickly over his shoulder through the windows at the near-empty cafeteria, then back at Oliver, who still watched them awkwardly from a distance.

Then he leaned forward and gave Asher a quick kiss on the cheek.

Asher smiled at the gesture of affection as a little flurry of butterflies soared through his stomach. They were both keeping things pretty lowkey at school for now, but Landon seemed to have decided to take advantage of their lack of an audience.

As Landon pulled away from him, Asher heard an awkward shuffling of feet behind him. “I’ll… I’ll see you later, Asher.” Oliver mumbled, walking by them. He didn’t even look at Landon as he passed.

“There you are, Ollie! I was looking for you!” A shrill voice cried from the doorway.

Asher looked up just in time to see Penny take Oliver’s arm and whisk him away. The sight made his anger bubble up slightly once more.

Landon seemed to take notice. “Hey… Are you okay?” He asked softly, glancing briefly toward the door through which Oliver had just disappeared.

“Yeah.” Asher lied. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go.”

He hesitated for a moment to make sure that Ollie and Penny were gone, then led the way back inside.