Will

The rest of the class Tony does minor things to annoy me and despite my shaking head Mason continues to shut them down.

It started with just whispering towards me whenever Mrs.Heston had her back turned, but eventually he stopped because I didn't turn around and Mason slapped his arm.

That's when he started rolling up paper to throw at me. I rolled my eyes at his attempts to annoy me, but Jenna gave him death glares every time one hit my desk.

"It's fine Jenna just ignore him" she practically growls "he's a fucking asshole I can't stand people like him" I sigh "your right he is, but I can't change that and I don't want to make it worse" she's reluctant to agree with me but finally nods "yeah I guess, it's just unfair why does he always pick on you?" I shrug "must be jealous I guess" I crack a smile but Jenna gives me more of a grimace.

I turn back to the lesson, but another paper ball hits my desk and suddenly I hear a bit of commotion behind me. I turn noting how Mason is tightly gripping Tony's arm and Tony grins at him sheepishly "oops thought it was the trash"

I can tell Mason is getting worked up and quickly look to Mrs.Heston, who thankfully hasn't noticed, before looking back and whispering "stop it! It's fine"

I'm looking at Mason and he's glaring at me, but thankfully after a couple seconds he shoves Tony's arm away from him.

I let out a breath of relief when I glance at Gage, he is sleeping on his desk and hasn't noticed anything that's been going on.

Tony behaves for the rest of the lesson but stands quickly the minute the bell rings. I turn to start packing up my stuff when suddenly I'm slapped upside the back of the head and Tony scoffs "loser" I jump up from my desk quickly, not to confront Tony but to step in the way of Mason whose charging toward him.

"Stop" I stand directly in his way and he glares at me "get the fuck out of my way Will" I roll my eyes "it's fine Mason just leave it, please" he seethes and I'm worried he's going to ignore me, but he just shoves me out of the way and stalks past me "whatever" he leaves and Jenna grins "we'll that was hot" I can't help the chuckle that leaves me. After such a tense class, some humour is needed.

I reach for one of the paper balls Tony had thrown at me and toss it at Gage "wake up asshole!" He jumps up knocking his knees against the top of his desk cursing before blinking at me "dude what the hell?!" I chuckle "class is over" he looks around and looks surprised "where's Mason?" I shrug "he left" Jenna crosses her arms next to me but I ignore her I know she wants me to tell Gage about Tony, but it's not going to happen.

All three of us are the last to leave the classroom and I turn to Gage "I'll wait until practice is done, Jenna and I can study on the bleachers" he shrugs still half asleep "sure Man whatever" he yawns loudly and I chuckle heading to my next class.

Jenna sighs when we get to our classes, across the hall from one another. "I'll meet you after class?" I nod "yeah sounds good" she smiles and goes into her class while I head into mine.

My class is easily the most uneventful of the day and I'm thankful when it ends so I can just be done. Today was more stressful then usual on top of my added Mason stress.

Jenna smiles when she sees me and I'm happy she seems to have calmed down about Tony. We head to our lockers before grabbing our stuff and going to the bleachers.

When we get there the guys are already on the field practicing and Jenna wiggles her brows at me "gonna watch Mason take out his frustrations?" I make a face and she grins "oh you'd prefer he takes them out some other way?" She winks making me cringe "please stop" I grin so she knows I'm not actually annoyed and she just shakes her head "you'd be all over that if you had the chance" I blush lightly "not gonna happen" I turn my eyes away from the field and nod "how do you think you did on the English test?" She shrugs tossing a M&M in her mouth "I don't know it wasn't hard, but I didn't study so it could go either way" I cringe at the thought of having not studied.

She nudges me "what about you?" I bite my lip thinking about the test "question 4 had two potential answers...I went with my gut but if I have to explain it to Mrs.Fryer I will" she rolls her eyes "In other words you got perfect like you always do" I shrug bashfully "I studied" she laughs shaking her head "don't I know it" suddenly she stands "oh hey!" I turn and smile when I see she's waving at Kenny.

Kenny is Jenna's cousin, he's 2 years older then us but was held back a year so he's still in high school. He goes to the high school a couple streets over and meets us after school sometimes to hangout.

Jenna looks at me "I texted him forgot to tell you" I shrug smiling "that's okay it's been a while" he grins and holds out his hand for that typical bro handshake, the kind I always mess up. Kenny sits down on the bleachers above us "you watching these fools practice?" I chuckle "no not really, just waiting for Gage to finish practice" Jenna nods "he's our ride home" Kenny takes out a cigarette lighting it.

I cringe because smoking is so bad for you, no matter how cool people think it looks it's just gross. Jenna rolls her eyes "those will kill you slowly" he shrugs and takes it out of his mouth blowing smoke in the air.

"Y'all want a ride home?" I shrug looking to Jenna "whatever you want to do" she stands "only if we stop at starbucks!" Kenny shrugs letting out another puff of smoke "fine you paying?" Jenna sighs "fine fine if you insist I'll help a poor boy out" Kenny swats at her and she squeals jumping away from him.

He stands and offers me his hand pulling me up "let's go losers" I sling my bag over my shoulder and follow Kenny off the bleachers. I shoot Gage a text to let him know I left and don't need a ride home.

Kenny plays his friends bands music in the car and talks about his girlfriend Nicole. Nicole is really sweet, her and Kenny have been dating for 2 years and you can tell they're truly happy. Nicole is in her first year of college to be a baker and sometimes she sends Kenny with goodies for us to try. None today unfortunately.

Jenna and I recount the mostly awful day I had, leaving out the parts that include Mason sleeping in my bed.

Kenny shakes his head when Jenna finishes telling him about Tony "guys can be real dicks Will, just show him your not bothered by him one time and he'll back off" I make a face "I don't know..I usually ignore him, but he keeps going" Kenny nods "he's probably waiting for a reaction, so give him one just not the one he wants" I think about his words maybe that could work.

After we drive around for a bit and get Starbucks Kenny drops me off at home. I thank him and head inside. I freeze barely in the door when Gage glares "who picked you up?" I blink knowing why he's asking "Kenny" he huffs "of course, you know I don't like that guy"

I roll my eyes because Gage's unnecessary "dislike" of Kenny stems from one thing and one thing only "he only beat your at basketball 2 times" Gage makes a face "he smokes and he's an adult in high school" I roll my eyes again "he's only a year older then you"

Gage points at me "that's two years older then you" I nod moving into the kitchen to find something to eat "happy you can count" Gage finally gives up and just huffs "whatever if he gets you into drugs that's on you not me" I just nod not bothering to entertain Gage's ridiculous comments, but when Gage speaks again this time not to me "you ready?" I pause half a rice cake breaking in my hand.

I turn following his gaze, Mason is here. How had I not noticed? I shake my head as he removes his piercing gaze from me and ignore them until they go downstairs.

••

The rest of the night is uneventful. Gage stays downstairs with Mason and I do my homework. The doorbell rings and I wait for Gage to go and open it, but he doesn't making me sigh.

Gage is notorious for inviting people over and then having his music so loud or being so invested in his games he doesn't hear when they arrive.

I walk downstairs and open the door finding Austin and Jack standing on the porch "hey man, Gage invited us over" I nod giving them a small smile "okay"

I move out of the way so they can come in and Austin nods "we're going to play Determinator you want to play?" I cringe because I'm seriously bad at video games.

"Uh...Gage puts up with me at school, but I don't think he wants to hangout with me if he doesn't have to" I joke Austin rolls his eyes "nah" he looks up suddenly and grins "Gage you don't care if Will chills with us right?" I cringe "it's fin.." Gage shrugs "whatever he's shit at playing though" Austin grins at me "I'll help you out" I feel my cheeks tinge pink and hope no one else notices.

I follow the rest of the guys downstairs and sit down on my usual beanbag. Austin sits on the couch next to me, Jack next to him, Mason on the chair across the room and Gage on the beanbag next to him. Gage starts tossing remotes to the guys, Mason and I the only 2 without one. Not that I'm complaining no need to embarrass myself.

I awkwardly sit and text Jenna while the guys play when suddenly Austin taps me with the controller "want to play?" Gage has handed his controller to Mason and I bite my lip "uh I'm not very good" all the guys are watching me and my leg starts to bounce nervously. Austin, however, shrugs "who cares just it's just a game" I feel bad saying no and take the controller. He grins at me and I try to remember the controls Gage taught me before.

We start the round and I'm doing terrible, like extremely terrible. Despite trying my best I literally cannot do any worse. Suddenly Austin slides off the couch sitting on the floor next to me "you really are shit at this huh?" I nod blushing "I told you" Gage laughs "what did you expect? I took at the talent in the family" I roll my eyes at him and Austin chuckles reaching over and pointing to some buttons "use that one...yeah? See and this one to jump" he explains a few more things before just adjusting my hands where he wants them.

"Okay there, hopefully you won't just be completely annihilated now" I bite my lip "yeah" I focus back on the game and surprisingly Austin's tips did help, at least the ones I could remember, and I was able to not just die. I was still doing significantly worse then everyone else but it wasn't so bad.

At one point my character is head to head with Jack's and somehow I'm managing to not be killed although I'm close to it. Suddenly just before I die Austin reaches over clicking a button and my character ignites a bomb I didn't know I had killing Jack whose eyes widen "what the fuck?! How did you...that is so cheating!"

Austin smiles at him cheekily and turns to me "nice one" I shrug but there's a real genuine smile on my face "that was all you" he chuckles holding up his hands "I can't take the credit the controller wasn't in my hands" I chuckle and Gage shakes his head "first time Will's ever won a battle" I nod but Austin shrugs "next thing you know he'll be beating you" Gages face sours at that "no fucking way" I chuckle and my eyes drift to Mason freezing.

He's glaring hard at me or Austin or maybe both. I bite my lip I was annoying him. I hand Austin the controller and stand "well thanks I have to go uh study" Austin shrugs "alright good game Baby Jackson" I roll my eyes at the name and he just chuckles.

Jack nods "good game even if you cheat I know you couldn't defeat me otherwise" I smile "your probably right" he chuckles and I head towards the stairs but Gage calls out "you coming back down for pizza?" I tilt my head "dads not coming home for dinner?" Gage chuckles "not with us it's his surprise date night for mom remember" I cringe at the thought of our parents dating "ew" Gage chuckles "my thoughts exactly, so you want to eat with us then?" I look down at my phone and notice Jenna asked me to hangout "I don't know Jenna wants to..." Gage rolls his eyes "she can come over too" I nod "okay cool yeah"

Before I can walk away Jack speaks "is Jenna your girlfriend? She's kind of hot" I grimace at the thought, both of me and Jenna and of Jenna and Jack. Austin slaps Jack "dude gross that's his best friend" I chuckle "we're not dating" Jack makes a face "why not? You've got the perfect opportunity!" I cringe; maybe because she's a girl.

Instead I shake my head "I don't it's not..." he chuckles "you like someone else?" My eyes widen and unintentionally flicker to Mason for half a second "no" I hope I'm far away enough that they don't notice my cheeks tint.

Jack shakes his head but before he can comment yet again on my relationship with Jenna, Gage grunts "okay enough talking about my brothers love life I don't even want to think about that, gross" I roll my eyes and finally head upstairs. I call Jenna once I'm in my room.

"Hey?!" I smile she sounds like she's in a good mood "hey want to come over for dinner?" She scoffs "of course! What are we having?" I lay down on my bed "pizza...Gage has friends over though so we're eating with them" she makes a annoyed sound "is Tony there?" I cringe "no I wouldn't be staying if he was"

"Good, I'll come over now then?" I nod mumbling "mhmm" she says goodbye and let's me know her ETA before hanging up the phone. I head over to my desk and decide to actually finish up some homework before she arrives .

••