29 #2
“I’m dying to see his abs.”
“Wayne, stop it. He’s only sixteen. You might put yourself behind bars for grooming.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Oh my God, who is he?” another student whispered dramatically from the corner.
“Girl, don’t tell me you don’t know him?”
Her friend stared at her in disbelief.
“That’s Sky Granger.”
“What? Really? I’ve only heard about him before, but seeing him in person is making my hormonal pills go crazy.”
“Just be careful around him, Gianne. I’ve heard he’s a gangster and a fuckboy.”
Those were only a few of the whispers, murmurs, and hushed conversations drifting through the locker area.
Sky had thought the attention would die down once he graduated from primary school, but it had only gotten worse, far worse than he had expected.
Pretending not to hear them, he continued down the hallway.
As he passed, students instinctively stepped aside, clearing a path for him while their eyes remained fixed on him.
Some looked at him with admiration, others with curiosity, and a few with a kind of desire that made his skin crawl.
Sky kept his gaze lowered to the floor and quickened his pace. The crowd had practically split in two, leaving him an entire way to himself. Instead of feeling pride, it only made him uncomfortable.
What made it worse was that many of the students staring at him were not even his age. Most of them were seniors and college students, their lingering gazes following him wherever he went. The attention felt suffocating, and all Sky wanted was to get out of their sight as quickly as possible.
“Oh my God, look!”
“Wait…are they about to bump into each other?”
“That guy is so cute. Who is he?”
“That’s Jude Finn. He was the famous valedictorian at Saint Therese.”
“No way. He’s handsome and adorable at the same time. He’s a walking green flag.”
“Exactly. But smart people intimidate me.”
“Jude! Watch out!” someone suddenly shouted.
The whispers spread through the hallway in an instant, growing louder with every passing second.
Curious eyes shifted between the two boys, anticipation hanging heavily in the air as the distance between them rapidly closed.
Sky lifted his gaze, his brows knitting together at the sudden commotion.
That was when he noticed a boy with kinky hair walking straight toward him.
The boy had earphones plugged in and was completely absorbed in studying a crumpled sheet of bond paper that appeared to be a school map.
Oblivious to the crowd, the whispers, and the path he was taking, he continued forward without looking up.
Sky stopped in his tracks, his hands creased, still buried in his pockets, watching the stranger who seemed entirely unaware of the world around him.
Someone from the crowd moved as if to pull the boy away, but they were too late.
A collective gasp swept through the hallway.
The boy walked straight into Sky, his forehead colliding with Sky’s chest. The impact caused him to stumble forward, his face pressing against Sky before he quickly pulled back.
Rubbing his forehead and simultaneously fixing his eyeglasses on the bridge of his nose, the boy finally looked up.
“I’m so sorry,” he said immediately, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
Then he smiled.
It was a small, sheepish smile that softened his features. His eyes curved into crescents, dwindling as he softly grinned, completely unaware of the stunned silence that had fallen over the crowd.
Tug. Dug. Tug. Dug. Tug. Dug.
Everything around him fell eerily silent. The whispers, the chatter, the noise of the crowded hallway. All of it faded away until the only thing Sky could hear was the slow, heavy thud of his own heartbeat.
This is fucking impossible. Sky blinked hard, trying to shake away the strange thoughts creeping into his mind, and forced himself to meet the boy’s gaze.
That was a mistake.
Sky had never seen eyes like that before—vivid gray eyes, soft, innocent, striking, and beautiful.
Staring at those eyes conveyed a lot of emotions and stories.
Sky was curious about them. Behind those lenses, there was something that made Sky feel as though he were being pulled under, sinking deeper and heavier the longer he looked.
His throat tightened, and he swallowed hard before forcing his eyes elsewhere, afraid that staring any longer might drive him insane.
A few strands of the boy’s kinky hair danced in the breeze. His glasses rested neatly on a freckled nose, framing features that seemed almost unreal. Then there were his pink lips and that gentle smile.
Everything blurred.
Time slowed.
Sky could not understand why his eyes refused to look away. He could not explain why the rest of the world had suddenly disappeared, leaving only the boy standing in front of him. All he knew was that, for the first time in his life, he felt completely and utterly lost.
“Oh my gosh, he’s crazy.”
“He has the guts.”
“Of course, he wasn’t aware.”
“It’s Sky Granger, for heaven’s sake.”
“He’s definitely dead.”
Kring! Kring! Kring!
The sharp ringing of the bell snapped Sky back to reality. In an instant, the crowded hallway erupted into motion. Students hurried toward their respective classrooms, scattering in every direction, while only a handful lingered behind to witness the aftermath.
Sky remained silent.
Sky’s gaze drifted to the crumpled sheet of paper the boy was holding. Printed at the top was a room number.
AB204.
Great.
They were in the same class.
“Sorry again,” the boy said casually.
To Sky’s surprise, the boy did not seem intimidated in the slightest. Instead, he flashed that same apologetic smile and scratched the side of his head once more before leaving, as though the collision had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
Somehow, that only chafed Sky further.
There was something about the boy’s innocence. The effortless sincerity and the complete lack of fear struck a nerve deep within Sky. He could not explain it. He could not even name the feeling. All he knew was that something about the boy was already getting under his skin.
Sky watched his back as the boy walked away, leaving him completely speechless.
The boy did not seem to care at all. No hint of awkwardness, no surprise, no admiration, not even a passing glance of interest. He acted like Sky was not worth his attention, unlike the others around who always tried to catch his eye. That in itself felt wrong.
Sky bit down on the inside of his cheek, frustration curling in his chest, while a darker thought slithered to the edge of his mind.
I’m going to make his life miserable.
And…Sky did.
The start of everything.
END OF FLASHBACK
Jude’s cold, unconscious body pressed against Sky’s warm skin as he carefully lifted him into his arms. Sky stared down at his face, still carrying the same untouched innocence throughout the years.
He had grown more handsome. He had grown more mature.
He had grown wiser. He had grown a light stubble.
He had grown prettier. Although he did not smile as much as when they first bumped into each other.
But it was the patented naivety in his expression that drew Sky in the most.
Sky never wanted to admit it. Never even wanted to believe it. But if love at first sight existed, then he had been doomed the moment he met Jude.
And for the first time, Sky wished they had never crossed paths.
Romantic love had never meant anything to Sky. It never would. Not after what his parents had become. He refused to believe in it. No matter what. Not even for Jude.
Whatever this was…whatever people called love, Sky wanted nothing to do with it.
But why did it feel like this?
As Sky carried Jude in his arms amid the chaos of the raging disaster, amid the chaos of their separate worlds, with Jude trapped safely against him, something in him refused to let go.
Why did it feel like he did not want Jude walking the road alone?
Why was his heartbeat so unsteady, so loud?
Sky did not believe in love. He was straight. He knew that much. He reminded himself of it every single day.
And yet…whenever it came to Jude, nothing about him felt certain anymore.