- Wednesday, April 6th, 2016 -

– 10 months ago –

I’m not really awake this early in the morning. I’ve always had struggles with waking up and overall, I’m just not a morning person. Half of the time I wonder how I get to school safe without getting into an accident because I’m never paying attention to my surroundings. So before first class starts, I don’t notice much around me, even if there would be a pink elephant parading around the school. I just use the moments of freedom, prior to first class, to further wake up and the final minutes in the hallway to have some sort of breakfast.

I’m leaning against my locker, while Emma is going through hers to find whatever book she’s looking for. Finnley is beside her, chuckling because of the mess.

“You should clean it up,” Finnley tells her matter-of-factly. “That’ll cost us less time to find the right books for you.”

“It’s not that bad.” Emma sends him a glare. “It’s my mess.”

“It’s chaos.”

“It’s an organized chaos.”

“If it would be organized, you would be able to locate your calculus book.” Finnley lets out another round of chuckles. “It’s on the bottom.” He pushes her aside, retrieving the book from the bottom of the stack.

“Thanks Finn.” She smiles at him with gratitude and a little admiration. “You look good today.”

“Thanks Em.”

Emma closes her locker, appearing in my line of view. “Are you finished with breakfast?”

“Almost.” I mutter, re-chewing a sandwich that tastes awful.

“Well, I’m off.” Finnley tells us. “I’ll see you guys at lunch.”

“Bye Finn! Have fun today.” Emma watches while he takes off, before looking back at me. “I like his new style.”

“His new style?” I shake my head a little, before scanning the hallway for Finnley, who’s already out of view. “What new style?”

“The clothes.” Emma rolls her eyes. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice Finn is wearing fashionable clothes and styled his hair.”

“Like he wore on my party?” I remember Finnley was wearing different kinds of clothes and looked hot. Maybe he did like the attention that he got.

“Yes.” Emma nods. “I didn’t think he could look even better, but I was wrong.” She stares dreamily into the distance while we start to walk towards our first class of the day.

“Why are you even dating Jacob if you like Finn?”

“Jacob is cute.” She shrugs a shoulder, pulling the backpack on her shoulder again. “He’s sweet, he’s cute, he’s a good kisser.”

“Oh, a good kisser. Yeah, he’s definitely marriage material.” I chuckle while she playfully pushes me in annoyance.

“Finn is not interested in me. If he would be, I would have known by now, wouldn’t I?”

“Maybe not. Maybe he’s good at hiding things.”

“Not for you.” She grins towards me. “Finn tells you everything.”

“True.” I would have known if he was into Emma. But Finnley never had a girlfriend and I’ve only seen him with a girl once; Janet, at my party. And I don’t even remember that part of the night. Janet just hates my guts because I broke off whatever happened between them.

“I’m thankful you were there to get Janet away from him.” Emma reads my mind, she does that a lot. I just don’t know how she does it.

“Well, Finn needed protection from the schools biggest slut, right?”

“Right.” Emma nods. “So, tell me…” She drawls, taking a seat at her desk. “If it would have been me, would you have interrupted us too?”

“Eeh, no?” I shrug. “I don’t think I would.”

“Why not?” She pulls up an eyebrow. “I would’ve taken advantage of Finn just like Janet, if it would have been me.”

“Well, if you put it like that.” I shrug. “I’m just still a bit puzzled about Finn.”

“Why?”

“Well, the clothes, the hair, the drinking.”

“Maybe for once he decided to listen to us and have a taste of fun life.” She smiles. “He did have a great night at your party. Even though he felt a little out of place until he had enough drinks.”

“I would feel out of place myself if I would be at a party and be the only sober person there.”

“True.” Emma chuckles. “Well, I hope he liked it enough to come to our parties more often.”

“I doubt he will.”

* * * * *

“Ok, biggest fear?” I dip my hand in the bowl of popcorn that’s in between Finnley and me.

Finnley snorts. “Dense people.”

“Serious Finn!” I chuckle. “Why do you never answer any question seriously.”

“I do. Dense people scare the shit out of me.”

“No, they don’t.” I hit him in his arm to which ho scowls.

“You know what I’m afraid of.”

“I forgot, remind me.” I chuck down a hand full of popcorn in the meantime.

“People talking with their mouths full of food.”

“FINN!” I grin, showing a toothy smile with bits of popcorn sticking out.

“Gross.” He rolls his eyes. “The dark, you know that.”

“You still afraid of the dark?” I cock a brow and finish the popcorn still in my mouth, zapping from channel to channel on the TV.

“Not so much the dark, more the fact of not being able to see something, you know.” Finnley shrugs. “I’d kill myself if I ever go blind.”

I get that, sounds horrible to me too. “Agreed. I’d never be able to check out girls.”

“You’re the worst kind of dense.” Finnley chuckles, pushing me softly, flipping a page in the book he’s reading. “Most embarrassing memory.”

“Oh.” I already feel my face heat up at the thought of that. “You ask the worst kind of questions.”

“I like it when you feel uneasy.” He chuckles. “You’re all tough talk and big words. But when embarrassed your face looks like tomato.”

“Thanks dude. I love you too.”

“I know. So, what memory came to mind?”

“My mom caught me jerking off to some porn.” I mutter. “I wanted to die when she told me to stop using towels to clean the mess up.”

“You use towels?”

“I was 13!” I call out in defense. “The hell did I know about it?”

“Well, enough to find porn and jerk off.” Finnley grins.

“So, what’s your most embarrassed memory?”

“No double questions, you know the rules.”

“That’s not fair!”

“You kept me from asking the same questions you did.”

“Yeah! Because you weren’t putting in effort to come up with your own.”

“Yeah, well, no repetitive questions. Try again.” Finnley flips another page, scanning the page, before closing the book, throwing it off the bed.

“Your biggest crush.” I remember why I started this stupid game up again. Emma is really curious if Finnley is currently interested in anybody.

“You.” He smirks.

“No! Finn!” I groan. “I told you to be serious!”

“What? Can’t handle a little gay-loving Cris?” He wiggles his eyebrows, placing his hand on my leg.

“Ugh, you’re stupid.” I push his hand off. “Honest answer, or answer your own question.”

“So, gay love isn’t allowed?” He chuckles, looking towards the TV. “Dude! One channel back. Brooklyn nine-nine, I love that show.”

“You watch Brooklyn nine-nine?” I cock a brow.

“Well, yeah. A friend convinced me to watch it and now I’m kinda hooked. Put it on.”

“And gay love would be allowed if…” I overthink my answer and look sideways to Finnley, who’s focusing on the TV by now. “No, scratch that. It’s not allowed because it’s not normal. I’m just curious if you have a girl you’re interested in.”

“Nope.” He shrugs.

“Nobody? What about… Emma?”

Finnley snorts and sends me a look. “Emma?”

“Yeah, she’s cool. And she accepts al your weird habits.”

“So do you.”

“Well, only because you accept mine.” I chuckle. “So, no Emma?”

“Nah man! She’s like… my sister.” He shrugs.

“Okay, then explain your change of clothes and hair.” I pull on his flannel shirt, which actually makes him look… hot.

Nope. Bad thought, not hot, but… good-looking? That’s probably just as bad to think about your best malefriend.

“Your… favorite thing about me.”

“What kinda question is that?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “Curiosity got the best of me.”

I cock a brow and stare at him while he just remains watching the TV-show I find so utterly annoying. What is my favorite thing about Finnley? Am I going to answer this question for real? “The way you can endlessly think about difficult shit.”

Finnley scrunches his nose and snorts. “What?”

“You know… like when you go on and on about stuff you learn in school that I never get.” I shrug.

“That’swhat you like about me?” He’s in full on laughter now.

“What did you expect me to say? Your humor? Because it’s the worst kind.”

“Dick.”

“Idiot.”

“I meant my dick.” He’s still laughing and he’s laughing even harder when I my face flushes at his remark.

“O my god Finn!” My eyes widen at the thought.

“Now you even sound gay. Oh my gawd!” He mocks my words with a high-pitched voice, waving his hand in a girly-like way. I hit him in his arm. He doubles over in laughter, wiping away some tears of laughter.

“You should have seen your face.”

“I hate you.” I whine, pushing him again because he won’t stop laughing. “Stop making fun of me. You embarrass me.”

“You embarrass yourself.” He is taking in a couple of deep breaths, clutching his stomach.

“Fuck you.”

“Buy me dinner first.”

“What has gotten into you today!?” I jump up, since his remark made a thought of actuallyfuckinghim flash through my mind. “You’re gross!”

“You started acting like a girl.”

“I’m not a girl,” I deadpan.

“Thank god for that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I cock a brow, still standing in front of him, watching down on him while he slumps down in the couch a little more, grinning like a fool.

“Nothing, hakuna your tatas dude.”

“Right.”