Learn How to Love (Boy x Boy)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟐

"Ugh," growled Sadie.

I glanced up from the corndog I was eating. I didn't really like the way the school cooked their hotdogs, so I was just nibbling the sweet cornbread around it. I was trying to multi-task between eating lunch and finishing my book for the report due at the end of the semester. We had to do three of these every year, one for each semester, and what made them so horrible was that you had to read an entire book within a semester, write the report, and then share your report in groups of four or five. Since Sadie was my only friend, that meant I'd be presenting it with a bunch of judge-y assholes.

"What's wrong?" I asked around a mouthful of breading.

Sadie shook her head, annoyed. "Those stupid douchebags. Luke keeps looking over at you, like he wants you to look up or something. Watch him do that stupid sucking gesture that Justin always does," Sadie spat.

It took me a few moments to realize what she had said. Luke? I looked to the corner where the Douche Squad always sat, and saw that Luke was trying to grab my attention. He was completely ignoring his friends, and kept craning his neck and staring earnestly in my direction. When we finally locked eyes I saw his shoulders relax, and he held up his phone and pointed to it. 

Check your messages, he mouthed across the cafeteria.

"What did he say?" asked Sadie. 

I shook my head, brushing her off. "Nothing. He probably said something stupid." I glanced down at my phone in my lap. Sure enough, the screen was lighting up with text messages from Luke. I grimaced. I tried my best not to talk to Luke while we were in school. I was pretty sure that once we figured out how Luke was supposed to "learn to love" we'd go back to normal, so I didn't want Sadie finding out that we had something like a truce going on right now. Besides, I'd rather hang out with her than shovel saucy pasta into a black hole. Maybe that was unfair. I had to admit that I kind of liked taking care of Luke. He was like my pet cat, which made sense given the circumstances. I think I kind of liked having him around, which sucked because it only made me start dreading his departure. I clicked on the notification and waited for the app to load. 

A couple bubbles popped up from times we had talked before, but now there were half a dozen text messages sent all in a span of two minutes from Luke.

L: Answer your phone

L: I think I figured out what I'm supposed to do

L: Look at messages

L: Look at me Kylar

L: Answer the PHONEEE

L: Stop eating the fucking corndog and notice mee for fuck's sake

I frowned. Was he seriously that desperate? I thumbed through the bubbles. So did this  mean he had an idea on what he was supposed to do to break the curse? I looked up from my phone at Luke, who was practically wriggling where he stood. I saw Justin nudge him on the arm, a puzzled expression on his face. When Justin's gaze traveled to where Luke had been looking, I made a point to flip him off. Justin glanced at Luke accusingly, but Luke said something that made the douche laugh, and then they went back to normal.

K: What do you mean? What did you figure out?

L: What I need to do to break this stupid curse! Meet me in the upstairs bathroom, the one next to the janitor's closet where people always go to screw

K: How romantic

The little label that Luke had read the message popped up, but his icon vanished. I looked up, and he was already gone. I narrowed my eyes. It felt like I snuck off way too often to hang out with Luke. I almost wish we could hang out normally, but I know Sadie would have to be like twenty kinds of high in order to even have a normal conversation with him. Seriously, if she knew we were hanging out, she'd probably straight up just combust. I stood up and stuck my phone into my pocket.