Categories > Original > Romance > MindStalker
Nobody said highschool was easy, and Reona knows it best. He's gay, he's in love, and guess what? He reads minds, but the only person his powers won't work on is Ashton, the way-out-of-his-league c...
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Chapter nine – Call yourself a man
Ashton peeked his head into the classroom, immediately picking Mae out by her raging red hair. He waited for her to notice him, and when she did, she scowled at him so hard her eyes were just slits, and turned away, acting as if he wasn’t there – by the looks of it, she was still mad at him for bashing her sweetheart. He put his hands together, begging, and after a while she gave in and elbowed Candy, pointing him out.
The blonde shot backwards, smiling smugly when she saw him on the doorway, and skipped her way up to him. “Hey, Ash. It’s been a while,” She got to her toes and put her arms around his neck, tilting her head to the side to pull off cute. “I missed you,”
“Hey,” he sighed. Since when does having a girl this hot all over me turn me off? “I was wondering if you’re free tomorrow,”
She clicked her tongue and smiled. “I might be,”
Ashton looked over her shoulder and saw Reona sitting in the back, staring at them, but he hung his head just as quickly, pretending to read, so he couldn’t quite see the look on his face. “Wanna go for a drive? I’ll come pick you up after class,”
“Sure,” Candy gave him a little peck on the lips and shot him that look. “We can go somewhere now, if you want,” she offered, smiling suggestively.
Had this happened two weeks ago, Ashton would’ve blown off practice and followed her to some dark corner for some serious making out. It wasn’t that he particularly liked her, but hell, you couldn’t possibly pass getting with the hottest girl in school and still call yourself a man – blame it on genetics. He’d had no actual reason to turn her down when she’d come around to him, so what was the harm in going with the flow? But things were different now. He was different.
“Can’t, I’ve gotta get to practice now.”
“Come on,” she pressed, twirling a lock of his dark-brown hair between her fingers. “You know you wanna,”
“Some other time,”
Candy pulled away, looking a bit put off.
“I’ll come get you tomorrow,” he promised, forcing one of his killer smiles, and leaned down to kiss her. Candy wasn’t used to getting jilted and he didn’t want her in a mood with him when they met the next day. The kiss predictably softened her up, and after a while she let him off the hook.
Just as he was walking out the classroom he shot Reona a baiting look, and waited for him down the corridor. After a while Reona came to him, dragging his feet and making a bid deal of not making eye-contact. When Ashton finally got a good look at his face, he stopped having second thoughts altogether about what he was about to do with his life. So he smiled. “Hey,”
“Hey. You wanted to… talk?”
Believe me, talking doesn’t exactly top my priorities at the moment. “Yeah, there’s something I want to talk to you about. Well, more like there’s something I want to tell you,”
Reona put on that same face he always wore after their little rendezvous, the one that made Ashton feel like he was bullying him – a cross between disappointed and resigned, as if he was going to ask him to stay but couldn’t quite bring himself to.
“Today’s a half-day, right? You have any plans?”
“Uh, no, not really,”
“Why don’t you meet me by the gate when you get off? I can give you a ride,”
“Uh, okay,” Reona nodded, looking down with a flap of those long, black eyelashes, and bit his bottom lip.
Oh, fuck. No wonder Keith was so taken with bullying him, if that’s the kind of reaction he got. God, even he wanted to bully Reona, to be rough with him, to make him cry. To pound him against a wall and whisper mean things into his ear, and then kiss him against his will, overpowering him while he thrashed about. I wonder if that makes me a bad person. Anyway, now wasn’t the time to dream of dragging him to some dark corner.
---
Reona sat on the cold concrete stairs, sorting himself out. When he’d seen Ashton walk into the classroom, some silly part of him had hoped the jock had come for him, on that short moment before Candy was all over him and the dark, bitter pang of jealousy pang hit him. He felt so foolish. She was his official girlfriend, so what was he getting all jealous for? And why did it hurt a tenfold more to see them acting all lovey-dovey now?
And what’s worse, Ashton wanted to talk. He knew what that meant, it was like code language for ‘you’re getting your ass dumped’. He’d gotten tired of playing him and was throwing him away, just like Elliot said he would. Not that he’d been caught by surprise – Reona couldn’t be any readier – he just wished it’d last a bit longer, but maybe that was just how first loves went…
“Hey,” The jock walked up to him and offered a hand to help him to his feet. “Sorry for the wait,”
“Uh, hey,” Reona still hadn’t quite mastered speaking coherently after having Ashton smile down at him, but he was getting there. He took his hand and yelped when the jock yanked him onto his chest, blushing up to his ears. He followed him into the car, and almost half the way went by before either of them spoke. For some reason Ashton was dragging it on, but it wasn’t like Reona wanted to rush it.
“I’m meeting up with Candy tomorrow. I don’t know if you caught that,”
Of course I did. Since he couldn’t read the jock’s thoughts at will, he’d been all eyes and ears.
“I’m breaking up with her.”
Reona just stared at him for a moment, and of the million questions he had popping in his mind he went with the only that mattered. “Why?”
Ashton laughed out loud. “What you mean, why? I thought it was pretty much obvious by now,”
“I… I don’t understand,”
“I said I’d make it work, didn’t I?”
“But—,” Reona suddenly realized that got they weren’t on his way home anymore. “Uh, I think you missed my turn,”
“I know. I never said I’d be giving you a ride home,” Ashton flashed him a smile so wicked it could stop earth from spinning, and before Reona could ask where they were headed, he stopped in front of a two-story brick house, and killed the engine. “We’re here,”
“Where are we?”
“My place. I told you I lived close by,”
Reona could only stare at him while it sank in, and for once he actually didn’t care that he was blushing red like a ‘don’t cross’ traffic light. Ashton is bringing me home. He was so not ready for this.
The jock got off the car and he mechanically followed him into the house. They walked into what seemed to be the living room, where a girl was munching down a bag of popcorn, sprawled on the floor in front of the TV.
“Hey, Ash,” Ashton poked her with his foot. “Clean up that mess, we’ve got people over,” She perked up to them, eyeing Reona with interest. “That thing there’s my sister. Ashley, this is Reona,”
She flashed him a wicked grin. “Hi there,”
“Uh, hi,” Reona blushed again. Ashley was surely one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen – not like Candy, all curvy and feminine, but more like Mae, with a wild, tomboyish kind of beauty. She was athletic and probably a little taller than him, and somehow the spitting image of her brother, so he couldn’t help feeling flustered, even though she was a girl.
“I was getting worried that you didn’t have any normal friends, bro. He’s pretty cute,”
“Yeah, whatever,” Ashton put his hand on Reona’s shoulder and pushed him to the stairway. “We’ll be upstairs,”
He followed the jock up the creaky stairs and into his room, taking his time to look around. His room was just like he’d expected, and everything screamed in there ‘Ashton’, even the heady scent that wafted in the air. It was too good to be true.
“Sorry for the mess,” the jock apologized, putting away some of his stuff that was lying around to clear the bed. “Come sit,”
Reona slumped beside him, doing his best not to think that he was sitting on the very same bed Ashton slept in. “Uh, what’s with the names?”
“We’re twins, me and Ash. Our mom wasn’t expecting two kids at the same time, so when we were born she just went with the names she’d picked out. It’s a pain, I never know if I’m the one getting called out. Good thing we don’t go to the same school,”
“Where is she? Your mom,”
“She passed away when we were kids. This is my grandma’s place,”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Smooth, really smooth. Reona mentally slapped himself.
“It’s cool, don’t sweat it,”
There was an awkward silence and Reona looked around for something to talk about now that he’d practically murdered the mood, and saw a familiar game case on the floor. “Oh, you play?” he asked, picking it up.
“Yeah, you?”
“Elliot got me into it. I’m not much of a gamer, but he’s the real deal,” Reona explained, all keyed up now that he’d stumbled onto something they had in common. The jock pressed his lips to a thin line. “What stage are you on?”
“I haven’t played in a while, but I remember I got stuck somewhere in the middle,”
“I can show you how to clear it. If you want,” he offered.
“Sure,”
They both sat cross-legged on the floor and Ashton started setting up the console, and then handed him a controller. Reona was just about to ask if he wanted to play doubles when the jock shuffled to spoon against his back, holding him from behind.
“I’ll just watch,”
Calm down. Breathe in, breathe out. How was he supposed to calm down when Ashton was literally on his back? To ignore the breath on his neck, the tingly warmth seeping into his body, the heady smell plaguing his nostrils? It was simply asking too much.
Ashton hugged him a bit tighter and started nuzzling his neck, and Reona actually thought his face might roast from blushing so much. There was just so much going through his mind he could barely focus on the game. He gripped the controller tighter, trying to hang on, but then the jock began slowly kissing up his throat, and he could hear the soft snapping of his shirt’s buttons being undone.
He kept quiet, partially because he was afraid he’d let out some sort of girly little noises, but mostly because he didn’t know what to say – he wanted to tell him to stop, but he didn’t want him to actually stop. This was all so new to him – he was somewhat used to getting with Ashton, but this was the first time they did it somewhere with a bed, and just the thought threw him off balance. Reona was pretty much pressing random buttons by the time Ashton was done with his shirt, and then the game’s intro was playing again.
“Game over,” Ashton purred into his ear, taking the controller from him and tossing it away. He pushed Reona down onto the floor and moved on top of him to kiss him, propped on his elbows and knees, and slowly ground his weight on him so he could free one of his arms and fondle his chest.
Reona was getting more and more nervous. They’d never gotten far beyond first base, since the breaks in between classes were so short and they could get walked in at any moment, but now there was no stopping the jock, and it looked like Ashton was taking full advantage of that. He started kissing him on the neck again, and Reona managed to get some of his sense back now that he didn’t have to struggle to keep up with Ashton’s skilled kissing.
“Hey Ash, come down, granny fixed you guys a snack,” came Ashley’s voice.
Ashton rolled onto his side, panting. Reona tried to sit up and fix his clothes, but the jock stopped him, putting his arms around him. “Reona,” he purred, “are you free on the weekend?”
“Yeah—, I mean, no, Elliot’s tutoring me Saturday. He took me back,”
Ashton sighed angrily and squeezed him a little tighter. “You’re always with him. I don’t like it,”
“But he’s my best friend,”
“And I’m your… boyfriend,”
Reona just closed his eyes and smiled, lying very still as if afraid the happiness he’d bottled inside would spill if he moved.
Ashton peeked his head into the classroom, immediately picking Mae out by her raging red hair. He waited for her to notice him, and when she did, she scowled at him so hard her eyes were just slits, and turned away, acting as if he wasn’t there – by the looks of it, she was still mad at him for bashing her sweetheart. He put his hands together, begging, and after a while she gave in and elbowed Candy, pointing him out.
The blonde shot backwards, smiling smugly when she saw him on the doorway, and skipped her way up to him. “Hey, Ash. It’s been a while,” She got to her toes and put her arms around his neck, tilting her head to the side to pull off cute. “I missed you,”
“Hey,” he sighed. Since when does having a girl this hot all over me turn me off? “I was wondering if you’re free tomorrow,”
She clicked her tongue and smiled. “I might be,”
Ashton looked over her shoulder and saw Reona sitting in the back, staring at them, but he hung his head just as quickly, pretending to read, so he couldn’t quite see the look on his face. “Wanna go for a drive? I’ll come pick you up after class,”
“Sure,” Candy gave him a little peck on the lips and shot him that look. “We can go somewhere now, if you want,” she offered, smiling suggestively.
Had this happened two weeks ago, Ashton would’ve blown off practice and followed her to some dark corner for some serious making out. It wasn’t that he particularly liked her, but hell, you couldn’t possibly pass getting with the hottest girl in school and still call yourself a man – blame it on genetics. He’d had no actual reason to turn her down when she’d come around to him, so what was the harm in going with the flow? But things were different now. He was different.
“Can’t, I’ve gotta get to practice now.”
“Come on,” she pressed, twirling a lock of his dark-brown hair between her fingers. “You know you wanna,”
“Some other time,”
Candy pulled away, looking a bit put off.
“I’ll come get you tomorrow,” he promised, forcing one of his killer smiles, and leaned down to kiss her. Candy wasn’t used to getting jilted and he didn’t want her in a mood with him when they met the next day. The kiss predictably softened her up, and after a while she let him off the hook.
Just as he was walking out the classroom he shot Reona a baiting look, and waited for him down the corridor. After a while Reona came to him, dragging his feet and making a bid deal of not making eye-contact. When Ashton finally got a good look at his face, he stopped having second thoughts altogether about what he was about to do with his life. So he smiled. “Hey,”
“Hey. You wanted to… talk?”
Believe me, talking doesn’t exactly top my priorities at the moment. “Yeah, there’s something I want to talk to you about. Well, more like there’s something I want to tell you,”
Reona put on that same face he always wore after their little rendezvous, the one that made Ashton feel like he was bullying him – a cross between disappointed and resigned, as if he was going to ask him to stay but couldn’t quite bring himself to.
“Today’s a half-day, right? You have any plans?”
“Uh, no, not really,”
“Why don’t you meet me by the gate when you get off? I can give you a ride,”
“Uh, okay,” Reona nodded, looking down with a flap of those long, black eyelashes, and bit his bottom lip.
Oh, fuck. No wonder Keith was so taken with bullying him, if that’s the kind of reaction he got. God, even he wanted to bully Reona, to be rough with him, to make him cry. To pound him against a wall and whisper mean things into his ear, and then kiss him against his will, overpowering him while he thrashed about. I wonder if that makes me a bad person. Anyway, now wasn’t the time to dream of dragging him to some dark corner.
---
Reona sat on the cold concrete stairs, sorting himself out. When he’d seen Ashton walk into the classroom, some silly part of him had hoped the jock had come for him, on that short moment before Candy was all over him and the dark, bitter pang of jealousy pang hit him. He felt so foolish. She was his official girlfriend, so what was he getting all jealous for? And why did it hurt a tenfold more to see them acting all lovey-dovey now?
And what’s worse, Ashton wanted to talk. He knew what that meant, it was like code language for ‘you’re getting your ass dumped’. He’d gotten tired of playing him and was throwing him away, just like Elliot said he would. Not that he’d been caught by surprise – Reona couldn’t be any readier – he just wished it’d last a bit longer, but maybe that was just how first loves went…
“Hey,” The jock walked up to him and offered a hand to help him to his feet. “Sorry for the wait,”
“Uh, hey,” Reona still hadn’t quite mastered speaking coherently after having Ashton smile down at him, but he was getting there. He took his hand and yelped when the jock yanked him onto his chest, blushing up to his ears. He followed him into the car, and almost half the way went by before either of them spoke. For some reason Ashton was dragging it on, but it wasn’t like Reona wanted to rush it.
“I’m meeting up with Candy tomorrow. I don’t know if you caught that,”
Of course I did. Since he couldn’t read the jock’s thoughts at will, he’d been all eyes and ears.
“I’m breaking up with her.”
Reona just stared at him for a moment, and of the million questions he had popping in his mind he went with the only that mattered. “Why?”
Ashton laughed out loud. “What you mean, why? I thought it was pretty much obvious by now,”
“I… I don’t understand,”
“I said I’d make it work, didn’t I?”
“But—,” Reona suddenly realized that got they weren’t on his way home anymore. “Uh, I think you missed my turn,”
“I know. I never said I’d be giving you a ride home,” Ashton flashed him a smile so wicked it could stop earth from spinning, and before Reona could ask where they were headed, he stopped in front of a two-story brick house, and killed the engine. “We’re here,”
“Where are we?”
“My place. I told you I lived close by,”
Reona could only stare at him while it sank in, and for once he actually didn’t care that he was blushing red like a ‘don’t cross’ traffic light. Ashton is bringing me home. He was so not ready for this.
The jock got off the car and he mechanically followed him into the house. They walked into what seemed to be the living room, where a girl was munching down a bag of popcorn, sprawled on the floor in front of the TV.
“Hey, Ash,” Ashton poked her with his foot. “Clean up that mess, we’ve got people over,” She perked up to them, eyeing Reona with interest. “That thing there’s my sister. Ashley, this is Reona,”
She flashed him a wicked grin. “Hi there,”
“Uh, hi,” Reona blushed again. Ashley was surely one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen – not like Candy, all curvy and feminine, but more like Mae, with a wild, tomboyish kind of beauty. She was athletic and probably a little taller than him, and somehow the spitting image of her brother, so he couldn’t help feeling flustered, even though she was a girl.
“I was getting worried that you didn’t have any normal friends, bro. He’s pretty cute,”
“Yeah, whatever,” Ashton put his hand on Reona’s shoulder and pushed him to the stairway. “We’ll be upstairs,”
He followed the jock up the creaky stairs and into his room, taking his time to look around. His room was just like he’d expected, and everything screamed in there ‘Ashton’, even the heady scent that wafted in the air. It was too good to be true.
“Sorry for the mess,” the jock apologized, putting away some of his stuff that was lying around to clear the bed. “Come sit,”
Reona slumped beside him, doing his best not to think that he was sitting on the very same bed Ashton slept in. “Uh, what’s with the names?”
“We’re twins, me and Ash. Our mom wasn’t expecting two kids at the same time, so when we were born she just went with the names she’d picked out. It’s a pain, I never know if I’m the one getting called out. Good thing we don’t go to the same school,”
“Where is she? Your mom,”
“She passed away when we were kids. This is my grandma’s place,”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Smooth, really smooth. Reona mentally slapped himself.
“It’s cool, don’t sweat it,”
There was an awkward silence and Reona looked around for something to talk about now that he’d practically murdered the mood, and saw a familiar game case on the floor. “Oh, you play?” he asked, picking it up.
“Yeah, you?”
“Elliot got me into it. I’m not much of a gamer, but he’s the real deal,” Reona explained, all keyed up now that he’d stumbled onto something they had in common. The jock pressed his lips to a thin line. “What stage are you on?”
“I haven’t played in a while, but I remember I got stuck somewhere in the middle,”
“I can show you how to clear it. If you want,” he offered.
“Sure,”
They both sat cross-legged on the floor and Ashton started setting up the console, and then handed him a controller. Reona was just about to ask if he wanted to play doubles when the jock shuffled to spoon against his back, holding him from behind.
“I’ll just watch,”
Calm down. Breathe in, breathe out. How was he supposed to calm down when Ashton was literally on his back? To ignore the breath on his neck, the tingly warmth seeping into his body, the heady smell plaguing his nostrils? It was simply asking too much.
Ashton hugged him a bit tighter and started nuzzling his neck, and Reona actually thought his face might roast from blushing so much. There was just so much going through his mind he could barely focus on the game. He gripped the controller tighter, trying to hang on, but then the jock began slowly kissing up his throat, and he could hear the soft snapping of his shirt’s buttons being undone.
He kept quiet, partially because he was afraid he’d let out some sort of girly little noises, but mostly because he didn’t know what to say – he wanted to tell him to stop, but he didn’t want him to actually stop. This was all so new to him – he was somewhat used to getting with Ashton, but this was the first time they did it somewhere with a bed, and just the thought threw him off balance. Reona was pretty much pressing random buttons by the time Ashton was done with his shirt, and then the game’s intro was playing again.
“Game over,” Ashton purred into his ear, taking the controller from him and tossing it away. He pushed Reona down onto the floor and moved on top of him to kiss him, propped on his elbows and knees, and slowly ground his weight on him so he could free one of his arms and fondle his chest.
Reona was getting more and more nervous. They’d never gotten far beyond first base, since the breaks in between classes were so short and they could get walked in at any moment, but now there was no stopping the jock, and it looked like Ashton was taking full advantage of that. He started kissing him on the neck again, and Reona managed to get some of his sense back now that he didn’t have to struggle to keep up with Ashton’s skilled kissing.
“Hey Ash, come down, granny fixed you guys a snack,” came Ashley’s voice.
Ashton rolled onto his side, panting. Reona tried to sit up and fix his clothes, but the jock stopped him, putting his arms around him. “Reona,” he purred, “are you free on the weekend?”
“Yeah—, I mean, no, Elliot’s tutoring me Saturday. He took me back,”
Ashton sighed angrily and squeezed him a little tighter. “You’re always with him. I don’t like it,”
“But he’s my best friend,”
“And I’m your… boyfriend,”
Reona just closed his eyes and smiled, lying very still as if afraid the happiness he’d bottled inside would spill if he moved.
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