Trigger Warning: there will be very sensitive content in this story in future chapters in the form of flashbacks.
For Reid Thompson, being popular was the only thing he had going for him. If you asked his friends, they'd tell you that he wasn'...
It was extremely hard to get to know a football player. Well, this specific one, anyway.
Lance sighed as he watched the green-eyed boy he'd come to know as Reid. Lance had no one else to blame but himself for thinking Reid was just a football player based on his Letterman jacket. Oh no, Reid was also in soccer. And basketball. And he apparently did MMA training on weekends.
He'd tried many times throughout the week to find a meeting time that was good for himself and Reid, but the more athletic boy just couldn't find a space in his schedule.
Lance's eyes trailed around the bleachers he himself sat in, looking at the girls who cheered and giggled to each other when, "omg, he looked at me, did you see that?!" slipped out of their mouths. There were a few guys who seemed genuinely interested in the game itself, cheering when deemed appropriate and yelling in outrage when the coach said something they didn't like about a certain foul being called.
Lance couldn't keep his eyes from Reid for too long, so his eyes flickered over to the sweaty, tall boy who brought his shirt up to wipe the sweat on his face away. He could see Reid mumbling something to the coach and nodding to a few guys on the team before he smacked the coach on the back and grinned. He couldn't stop it—Lance found himself smiling slightly as soon as Reid had grinned, not even noticing until the foreign feeling started hurting his cheeks even though it was so small.
Eyebrows furrowed, he looked away and sighed. Get ahold of yourself, Lance. This is a new opportunity; a new school means no one that knows you. No bullying, no name-calling... just keep to yourself and don't let yourself feel.
Swallowing hard, he made himself look at his feet for the rest of Reid's practice, which was only about thirty minutes... But he found those thirty minutes difficult as he watched his fidgeting hands and feet.
Because the green-eyed boy who Lance knew kept a lot of secrets, had dyed his hair blue. A deep yet shocking blue that made his green eyes pop out even more, which just made them even more expressive and called out to Lance even louder than they had before.
His fingers twitched, not for the first time but more like the millionth. He'd been holding himself back from drawing—hadn't done anything that the art teacher hadn't asked of the whole class... hadn't done any drawing or painting that he hadn't already started before everything had happened. But he knew that was over now.
Lance needed to draw those expressive eyes and get them out of his system.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Lance stood next to the locker room, foot rubbing against his calf as he nodded at a few guys who came out and gave him an odd look.
He was nervous—this was definitely drawing more attention to him. He wondered if they thought he was some kind of pervert and then groaned silently at the thought. He didn't need that going around his new school.
"Hey, Newbie. Watcha doin' out here?"
His mouth pursed to the side as he tilted his head up so he could properly see Darren. He waved softly and gave a small, fake smile as he nodded.
