The Art of Faking Straight

Chapter Three

         "Mr. Kingsley, to whom do I owe this pleasure to?" Mr. Ball asks as soon as I burst through the doors of his classroom. He's a genuinely nice man, quiet and shy, but nice. My personal favorite teacher, and no, it isn't just because he's gay.

         "Sorry sir, I just really need to talk to Jack for a moment," I tell him politely.

         "Very well then, but please make it fast, it's not even believable how far behind your friend here is late on all of his work," Mr. Balls says, then waves me off to go get Jack.

         Jack immediately stands up, then grabs my shoulder and loudly says, "Thanks for the saving man, I hate this class so much."

         "Daniels, I am still in the room you know, maybe keep it down. Liam, please take your friend out into the hallway, and bring him back when you teach him some manners," Mr. Ball says, then gets back to his latest art piece. He's incredible at what he does, but he doesn't quite enjoy students with very little motivation for art.

         I begin to laugh, then head back out into the hallway before Mr. Ball actually gets annoyed, because Jack and him are always going at it and Jack has the guts to say anything.

         "So, what's this miraculous thing ya need to talk to me about? Or were you just finally being that friend I've always wanted?" Jack says, then walks out the door that led to the art facilities. He's smiling wild and I know that most of what happened earlier is probably further towards the back of his mind. I sure wish I could wipe my own worries away that quickly. Lucky man.

         For such an underprivileged school, we still have two different buildings. One belonging solely to the music and art classes our school provides, and the other to all of the general classes high school students take. To be honest, the art opportunities are some of the best things our school provides, because we are lucky enough to find Mr. Ball. He's always been an incredible teacher with an impressive resume, how he got sucked into this hellhole is beyond me.

         "We really need to go somewhere....more private," I tell him, easing into it despite the fact I'd probably get my point across faster by yelling, oh hey, guess who slept with a sixteen year old girl himself! Maybe you and Connor can bond some over this.

         "Oh shit, this is serious huh?" Jack asks, then runs a hand through his hair. "Is it those two again? Cade and Connor?"

         I nod my head slowly, then walk faster to the main building of Mulberry High. "Just come on, we'll talk about it in a minute, you have to talk to this girl who I have lunch with first."

         "No, tell me right now man, what did those fuckfaces do?" Jack asks me sternly, a look of worry creeping onto his face. People can call him a lot of things, but he really isn't completely bad, he does always have my back no matter what, even if he sometimes is the reason I need backing up in the first place.

         "Did they threaten you or something? I swear to God, if they bring you into this-," Jacks says, but I cut him off.

         "I can fend for myself you know, chill out. It's not about that really, I just found out some interesting stuff about Connor that's a little hypocritical," I tell him, hoping to calm him down a bit. If he gets this angry over just the mere mention of them, he'll flip out when I tell him about Connor.

         "Then what is this about Liam? Just tell me already, I don't care if people hear. Though, I'm pretty sure we're save from all the big bad wolves right here, look around, no one's out here," Jack says then twists around in a full 360 spin to prove his point. "We're safe here."