FicWad

Chapter three

~~~~~~~~

“I swear to God he’s avoiding me! He skipped History like three times, and hasn’t been in gym at all! He always says he has something else to do. It’s not fair!” Alex complained to his sister as she walked him to school the day before the presentation.

Alex had barely seen head or tail of Kiff inside or outside of class since the last Saturday. He always had some excuse as to why he couldn’t meet up with Alex, asking him to just tell him what to do on the project and he would do it at home. Alex wasn’t even sure if Kiff would show up for the presentation, speaking as he hadn’t been able to ask him about it when Kiff had given him the last information sheet the day prior. He had run off too quickly.

What he was more worried about was if Kiff could do presentations. What with his stuttering and shy demeanor. Alex wasn’t trying to be mean in thinking this, but it was a legitimate concern of his. Kiff could barely make a complete sentence to one person, he could barely imagine what would happen during a presentation.

He had seen Kiff speak in front of the class only twice before. The first time was in public school before Alex had switched schools, he had attempted to get out information on the Canadian natives and had screwed it all up, getting information backwards and mispronouncing words. He had ended up running from the classroom and had been excused from any further presentations. The second time had been in grade nine. Kiff had been forced to read Shakespeare to the class. About three stuttering minutes into the first two lines, the teacher told him to forget it.

‘Come to think of it, she was kind of a bitch. Not to mention the laughing from the rest of the class. And I didn’t see Kiff in class for three days after that.’

“Than don’t ask him to hang out, just show up. If he says he has to leave, ask him if he’s avoiding you. After that, you can apologise for what ever the hell you did to piss him off,” Sara stated as if she were reading from one of her beloved psychiatry textbooks. “Remember what I said before, be careful. Kiff’s obviously got some problems.” Sara turned to him and regarded him seriously, “I’m proud that you want to help, but you don’t know how far he would go to get people to leave him alone,” Sara hinted.

“You think he’s dangerous!?” Alex was flabbergasted, the thought of Kiff becoming violent almost comical.

“I never said that, just be—” Sara was interrupted by Alex finishing her sentence, and rolling his eyes.

“I know, I heard you the first thousand times, and I don’t agree. I don’t care what kind of problems he has. I just wish I could see him smile, at least just once,” Alex sighed as he said goodbye to his sister and pushed the school gate open, entering the grounds from the east footpath.

He was late, horribly late. In fact, he had missed Geography and was just in time for History. He had been hoping to catch Kiff before class and had also wanted to ask the teacher about him and Kiff presenting for just her, as to remove some of the stress that was probably keeping Kiff from showing up. But no, Sara’s car had to get fucked over and he had to walk to school—not to mention that he had been up all night worrying and, when he had finally fallen asleep, he had woken to find that he had forgotten to set his alarm.

Alex dragged himself to the History room, somehow managing to take ten minutes to get there and ending up about fifteen minutes late. He slipped into the room and glanced around, spotting Kiff in the usual spot at the back, head bent over his papers. He didn’t seem to notice that Alex had entered the room, and didn’t even look up when he got scolded and sent to the office for a late slip. Which, if you asked him, was extremely redundant. ‘You’re late for class and are missing the lesson, so, since I’m mad, I’m going to send you back out so that you can miss more of the lesson, and not have to go to class!’

It was annoying and Alex toyed with the idea of just skipping. But, by the time he got to the office, snagged the attention of the secretary, and had gotten his note, he was starting to feel guilty about his thought. The one time Kiff showed up for class and Alex decides to skip? It seemed kind of self defeating.

He slipped into the seat beside Kiff once back in the classroom and gave him a quite ‘hello.’ Kiff didn’t answer, he just stared at his desk, unmoving, blinking every few moments. He tried again.

“Kiff? Hello?” he said softly near Kiff’s ear and placed a hand on his elbow. Kiff jerked away, swivelling his head around, wide eyed and looking slightly confused.

“Wha-?” Kiff looked up as far as Alex’s nose and blinked blankly.

“You alright?” the blond asked tentatively and tilted his head down to get a better look at Kiff. He turned away from Alex and looked back at his desk with a quick nod. And that was pretty much the end of it. Kiff barely muttered a word for the rest of the day. But, to Alex’s pleasure, he agreed to meet after school. A few meek nods and they agreed to meet at the library once again.

The only question that remained was, would he actually show up?

Alex waited anxiously in the library that night. A half an hour he sat and went over their information, tweaking things around to try and take as many of the spoken lines for himself as he could. He glanced at his watch one last time and sighed, dejected. With a sluggishness impeding his movements as he packed his things and headed for the door.

The sun was due to set in less than an hour, the streets filled with that hovering light that could cast a depressing or romantic glow depending on your situation. Right now it was the former over the later.

He felt rejected as he kicked a pebble out of his way and turned down the street.

He pulled to a stop and let a small grin hover to the front of his lips. Kiff was walking in the direction of the library, head bend almost impossibly forward, back slouched, and backpack slipping to bump his elbow.

‘I knew he’d show up!’ Alex thought triumphantly and strode forward.

“Hey! I almost thought you weren’t going to show,” he laughed lightly as he fell in step beside the other, noting how Kiff slowed to match his pace.

“S-sorry. I-I didn’t kn-now if y-you’d st-ill ... ” he trailed off, his bottom lip completely disappearing into his mouth, teeth visible, bitting into his flesh.

“Be here? Yeah, I was actually just about to leave. Thought you’d stood me up or something,” Alex said with a hint of embarrassment as they entered the library and headed straight for a back table. Seated in the old, crickety chairs once again, Alex pulled out his books and slid it over to Kiff. All the information they had put together was arranged in a script format. Little K’s and A’s indicating who was to read what.

“Here, I thought we could practice reading. Your first bit’s there,” the blond pointed out a section and Kiff stared at it, his mouth opening and closing a few times, “Go ahead, I read it a few times over while I was waiting and got it mostly memorised,” Alex trailed off slightly, cursing himself in his head when he saw a blush brighten Kiff’s face and his back hunch a little. He stammered out an apology and picked up the note book. The words that came out of his mouth were hesitant and stuttered to almost intelligibility. His voice grew weaker and weaker and he just stopped talking maybe a few words short of finishing.

“I-I’m s-s-s-sorry,” he nearly choked out, his shoulders quivering lightly.

“It’s alright, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you to do that,” Alex ran a hand through his hair, flipping the slightly over long lengths to one side as he sat back and closed his eyes. “Fuck, what are you going to do? If we can’t present this, the teach might not want to give us the marks–Kiff?” Alex snapped his eyes back open when he heard a few low sniffles from the other. His shoulders were still quivering slightly and his hand lifted up ever few seconds to wipe at his cheeks. Alex jumped to his feet and moved around the table and dropped to his knees beside Kiff. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Did I do that? Why are you crying?” he asked softly, furrowing his brow when Kiff just started shaking his head vigorously. He looked deflated, spent. And miserable.

“Alright, come on, I’ll walk you home. We can talk to the teacher tomorrow and see if we can do this a bit different. Alright?” Alex gave the other a reassuring grin as he glanced at him. A few seconds passed and Kiff gave a soft nod.

In the end, kiff had opted to walk home alone and, still not meeting the blonds eye a singe time, gave him a nod before leaving off, steps shuffling against the concrete as he drew further and further away from Alex.

~~~~~~~~

The next day found Alex slumped down in the back of the History classroom with his head buried in his arms with a sigh. He had stayed up so late the night before worrying about Kiff that he nearly fell asleep on his desk.

Lo and behold, Kiff didn’t show up for the presentation. Alex glanced at the clock again as he began to fidget in his seat.

‘I swear to God, if he skipped out on this—Gah!’ Alex sighed in annoyance as he realised that, not only would he not chastise Kiff, he wouldn’t even be able to hold it against him. But, it was still annoying! Alex knew Kiff was shy, but he had agreed to show up—he DID care about his schooling, didn’t he?

Alex sighed again as Spencer and Clare finished their presentation—some nerdy, greasy haired, science club geek, and a bouncy red head who probably couldn’t even tell what side of her lipstick was up. Judging this last thought by the fact that once she had gotten to her seat, she pulled out a tube of lip gloss, and promptly proceeded to try and unscrew the bottom.

Alex let out one last, long sigh, as he and Kiff were pulled from the teacher’s hat. He felt like banging his head on the table. Kiff was unreliable. Alex rolled his eyes at the snickered remark of one student that mirrored his previous thought, and grabbed the project board and presentation papers from where he had stashed them on the floor. There was no use dwelling over it, he might as well get it over with and grumble about Kiff later.

“Hello class, I am Alex Grayham, my partner was Kiff Dustin, but, unfortunately, he is not here to help me with this presentation. So, I am here to tell you about Prince Vlad of Walachia. Otherwise known as, Dracula, the Impaler Prince.” As Alex went on with is presentation, and he got more and more weird/disgusted looks—especially when he discussed the impalement—he realised exactly how morbid Kiff’s interests were. It was actually kind of amusing to see the horrified expressions caused by a topic Kiff had obviously (even if it were expertly hidden behind stuttering and long bangs) enjoyed quite thoroughly.

By the end of the presentation Alex was grinning—making himself look morbidly disturbed—and he had almost completely forgiven Kiff. What he really wanted to do was tell Kiff about the class’ reaction and laugh about it. Kiff definitely needed the humour in his life. Alex removed himself from the front of the class and sat back down, wondering about how much Kiff would have loved the presentation—minus the crowd.

“That was disgusting Alex,” a girl to Alex’s right whispered with an odd expression on her face. She scooted her chair closer and slightly sideways until her knee was pressed into Alex’s leg. “Why did you chose that?” The bimbo batted her eyelashes at him, her voice a sensual whisper as not to disturb the presentation at the front—but it did disturb him, in fact, the girl’s voice had his stomach doing disgruntled back flips that made him want to vomit. He had never reacted like that to a women. Sure, he was gay, but he had never been so turned off by a woman’s touch that it made him want to wrinkle up his nose and poke at the chick with a stick as if it were fascinating road kill.

“Kiff chose it,” Alex said with a shrug, “I’m not much into history, so I went with what Kiff wanted—”

“That explains why it was so disgusting! I knew you weren’t that disturbed,” the girl snorted in a tone that spoke the matter to be true. She was assuming quite a lot. “He has always been messed in the head. I wouldn’t be surprised if the weirdo was a Satanist!” the girl finished, showing her ignorance of religion with her bad attitude and hidden jealousy. He remembered this girl for being one of the ones that went to the teacher to ask to work with Alex instead of their own designated partners.

“Oh, the topic was quite interesting,” Alex put on a condescending tone, one that he wasn’t used to using with girls. He usually was flirtatious with the fairer sex, even if he didn’t want any of them. Alex plastered an arrogant grin across his face as he continued, “Although, I wouldn’t expect someone of your ... standings,” Alex gave the girl a sideways look, “Would be all that interested in little known history. I apologise if the significance went straight over your pretty little head,” Alex gave the shocked girl a withering look and turned his eyes towards the front with a satisfied and cruel feeling he couldn’t remember ever having.

~~~~~~~~

‘So, that would make the answer ... seven? No, then the number before would have to be ten, and it isn’t. FUCK! I’m going to fail—well, it’s not like I’m on the honour role or anything,’ Kiff swore to himself as he stared down at the triangles and circles in his textbook, completely exasperated.

“I give up,” Kiff sighed quietly in a light whisper, setting his pen down as he ran a hand through hair messed from the repeat motion of his agitated molestation.

“Now, don’t do that!” Alex said from above Kiff’s left ear. He was praising any and every God that Kiff had been too preoccupied to notice him sneak up behind him. “You missed a step, that’s all,” Alex said and rested his hand on the table on one side of Kiff while reaching around the other side to pick up his pen, effectively trapping the boy between himself and the table.

Kiff flinched as he felt Alex’s arms come around him. ‘Gah, I should be far, far away here!’ Kiff’s mind screamed at his traitorous body, which refused to move as the heat from Alex sent a chill down his spine. An odd combination of temperatures, really.

Alex watched Kiff’s lips as they formed a silent ‘oh’ after watching Alex jot down a couple numbers to show him where he had gone wrong.
“Th-thank you,” Kiff mumbled, his pale cheeks staining a faint pink as Alex set down the pen, pulled away, and perched himself on the table beside Kiff, looking around to make sure there wasn’t a teacher or librarian around to make him move. Kiff looked over his error and found that he really wanted to add something along the lines of: ‘Yes, thank you for pointing out my mistakes ... now go away,’ but, instead, he just sat there and awkwardly stared at the table. What else was he supposed to do? Make conversation? How? He had no idea how to do something like that—not that he wanted to. Of course.

“No problem. So, you missed our presentation ...” Alex started awkwardly, sighing lightly as Kiff lowered his head a fraction. “I did it myself, but, god!” Alex started to snicker lightly, “You should have seen the look on people’s faces when I started explaining the impalement. It was hilarious. That makes me sound disturbed, doesn’t it?” Alex waited for a second and got no response. He felt as if he were talking to an object. Or a dog. Alex had opened his mouth to try again when Kiff finally attempted to participate in the conversation.

“Why wou-woul ...” Kiff started but just trailed off, ducking his head, and stuttering an apology.

“Huh?” Alex raised an eyebrow in question, “What were you going to ask?”

“N-nothing, I-I’m sorry, I-I have t-to go,” Kiff began to collect his text books and shove them into his bag, his hands trembling as he began to sweat in nervousness.

“Where do you have to—what happened to your hand?!” Alex exclaimed, looking at a larger cut just barely visible under the other’s sleeve, scabbed over and probably looking worse than it was. Kiff jerked his hand back and made to bolt, completely forgetting about his bag and Alex grabbed his elbow in reflex, gripping a little too tightly. Kiff flinched and recoiled in a combination of wide eyed fear and a stinging pain.

Kiff decided then and there, that he was better off in an isolated corner than he was in a social setting.

“I f-f-f-fell.” It wasn’t necessarily a lie. He had been on the floor.

“Fell,” Alex asked dubiously, “On what?,” Alex held Kiff’s hand up for a closer inspection and used a callused fingertip to trace over the back of his hand..

“Fags!” someone snickered from their right, causing Kiff to flinch ... again. An action that seemed to be as natural to him as it was for his heart to beat.

“I-I’m s-sorry, I really h-have t-to—” Kiff stuttered out and pulled his hand away from Alex. He grabbed his bag and made a quick retreat out the door and headed toward the main building, planning on heading for the music room and safety. This turned out the be a bad idea.

“Hey guys! It’s Kiff!” Mark laughed, blocking the door with an outstretched fist planted on the wall. He looked down at Kiff smugly, a malicious grin hiding things from view as he watched Kiff stumble back. “I hope you made sure Alex had fun, how much do you charge an hour? Well, guessing from your appearance, not much! Alex must like them cheap. Or maybe he likes them used? The ones with more experience?” Mark advanced on Kiff, his friends forming a circle around them both, reminding him a lot of a pack of hyenas. “Get on your knees.”

Kiff, his eyes already cast downward, stared at the ground, anxiously and hesitated, his joints frozen in place as his mind raced with images created by the familiar command. Kiff swallowed noisily as he contemplated refusing. But, it wasn’t like he could run, even if he was able to duck under the arms of one of his captors, the next time would just be that much worse. As always.

“Did you hear me?” Mark barked. Kiff dropped to his knees—much to the delight of Mark’s friends and the spectators that had stopped to watch. Kiff flushed with humiliation as Mark grabbed a handful of his hair and forced his jaw open, “Suck them like the whore you are,” he laughed as he shoved his first and second fingers into Kiff’s mouth, almost gagging him. Kiff obeyed. Fighting tears as he began to rub his tongue along Mark’s intruding digits, hating the feel of the coarse callus against his tongue, hating the drool that wets his lips and started to seep down his chin as he tried desperately not to swallow, not wanting any of Mark in him. He’d swallowed enough weird things in his past as it was, and he wasn’t about to ingest what ever the hell was on Mark’s fingers.

“What the fuck! Get the hell away from him!” Alex pushed his way through the crowd and Mark pulled his saliva soaked fingers from Kiff’s mouth to turn and watch the other’s angry approach, “What the hell are you doing?!” Alex positioned himself beside Kiff and glared up at his older schoolmate, just daring the other to do something. He knelt down beside Kiff and rubbed his back lightly as he listened to him choke and spit on the ground.

“You want to get in my way? Not this time Alex, this time the whore is mine.”

“Don’t you dare call him that again,” Alex gritted his teeth as he seethed at the other. He stood up and placed his feet slightly apart, instinctively preparing for a fight. The spectators that had gathered all stared in shock, surprised and amused by the unexpected turn of events. Alex hoped at least a few of the people in the crowd were enough past their human blood rage to realise the wrong they were doing and at least feel a little guilty. But, at this point, he had too many doubts in the human race to hope for support.

“I can call him what ever I want, he’s nothing but a common who—” Mark’s words were cut off as Alex’s palm connected with his cheek.

“You son of a BITCH!” Mark screeched and rushed at Alex, who gasped in pain as his back hit the wall. Bets were being placed, and most where in Mark’s favour. But, even if he didn’t look it, Alex was quicker, and had the upper hand of having been in forced kickboxing for six years. He caught Mark in the chin and Mark stumbled back in shock, allowing Alex the time he needed to recover completely from the few blows Mark had been able to land in his gut. Alex tackled Mark and pined him to the ground.

“Fuck! Get off of me!” Mark futilely attempted to free himself from Alex’s grip, squirming like a trapped worm.

“I think you should apologise to Kiff, don’t you?” Alex grunted, grinding Mark’s face into the cement with an anger he hadn’t felt since the time his cousin had pushed some five year old and taken her candy, claiming that he could do it because he was rich.

“Fuck you!”

Kiff stared in amazement and watched blood well up from a cut on Alex’s lip. He suddenly felt sick. He couldn’t remember when Alex had gotten hit, but he knew it was his fault. Kiff’s mind was jumbled as tears stung his eyes, and his knees began to ache from kneeling for so long. He couldn’t fathom why Alex was doing such a thing for him.

Alex let Mark up, finally having forced an apology from him and the apology rang in Kiff’s ears.

It took a long second for Kiff to realise he was no longer on his knees, the crowd was gone, and Alex was talking to him. He looked worried, why, Kiff couldn’t understand—Kiff wasn’t the one that had been fighting.

“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Alex inspected Kiff’s face before pulling him into a soft embrace.

Kiff was beyond confused. No one liked the pathetic mess that was Kiff—He didn’t think it was a possibility. Kiff pushed Alex away. And fled.

He ran as far as he could at a speed that would make any member of the track team proud. He ran down the street, ignoring the shocked mutters and looks he received, and continued running even when he realised he had forgotten his backpack. His father would kill him if he ever found out. He had to make sure that didn’t happen. He would have hoped that Alex would pick it up for him, but he had just run away from the other teen, so the chances of that were very slim.

Kiff was panting by the time he reached his house. He slowed at the bushes that blocked him from view of the door and approached slowly. He was being paranoid, his father wasn’t home, he wouldn’t find out that he had skipped school. But, he was better off playing it safe.

Kiff sighed as he let himself into his house and looked around the living room, wishing that things could be less complicated. He moved stiffly down the hallway and down the stairs to his room, sitting on his bed to wait.

He hated waiting, sitting on his bed doing nothing, unmoving, just … waiting for everything to start once again. But, what else was he supposed to do? Plan an escape?

~~~~~~~~
“Do you actually think he might be scared of—”

“Afraid,” Sara interjected, annoyed, earning a questioning expression from her brother, “You can’t be scared of something. Scared is a state of being, you can be scared by something, but not of it. Just like you can’t be afraid by something—but, as you were saying?”

“What? Afraid? I was say—I was asking if you thought he was afraid of me!” Alex squealed the last part, almost in hysterics.

“Well, you were just about beating Mark, and he ran away from you. After what you told me about Kiff getting hurt all the time, do you think he would want to see more violence?”

“But, but, I was defending him! Mark was practically chocking him,” Alex hung his head, “I couldn’t let that go on, I just couldn’t ... do you think maybe he hates me?”

“Oh Alex, I wouldn’t go that far. You have to talk to him—maybe give him his bag back? You can’t keep beating around the bush. You’re beginning to piss me off with this,” Sara frowned as she stared into one of her giant text books, ignoring her brother as he stuck his tongue out at her and left for his own room.

Oh yeah, she would make a fantastic psychiatrist with her amazing people skills.

Alex sighed and moved over to his desk, laying his head down on a pile of papers and shutting his eyes. All he could see beneath his lids were scratches. Half healed cuts over the palms of soft hands.

‘Does anyone but me care about him? At all?’

Alex woke the next morning to the insistent beeping of his alarm clock. Distant on the opposite side of his room. He lifted his head up and yanked a paper from its stuck position on his face. He moved slowly, his joints cracking as he moved out of his desk chair and began to dress, forgoing a shower and collecting all his things with a sleepy sluggishness that carried him down to the kitchen. And then back up to his room when he realised he had forgotten, not only his own bag, but Kiff’s as well.

He couldn’t precisely remember getting to school, but, just moments short of too long, he found himself searching for Kiff. He was starting to think that Kiff might have forgotten that he had a second period class.

He walked through the halls, his bag on his shoulder and kiff’s held loosly by the shoulder strap (the top handle missing). He let it swing around and bump into his side as he began to actually wake up for the day.

He couldn’t find Kiff.

Surprising, right?
‘Because he’s usually SO easy to find.’ Alex mocked himself.

“Yo, Alex!” a voice interrupted the blond’s sordid thoughts as a large, bulky jock saddled up beside him. Alex had no idea who the person was.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Fine, you?” the guy continued without waiting for a response, “I’m inviting you to my party, dude. You gotta come! There’s this chick that’s commin’ and she’ll only bring her sister if I can get you to come! It’s sure fire that you’ll get laid!” he stopped and looked up at Alex expectantly, pulling at his sweat slicked jersey. Did he think he looked hot drenched in sweat? His hair sopping and flopping around? That was not something Alex liked, and he had no idea how any women could want this guy. He was laterally dripping in hormones.

“Oh, is that so? And what’s this sister like?” Alex asked with a grin, his amusement at the situation coming off as lecherous to the other teen, who grinned back wolfishly.

“So can I expect you there?”

“What do you think that sister would think if I were to bring my own date?” ‘who happened to be a man,’ Alex added in his head, smiling even wider as he pictured Kiff frightened in a corner of a jock party. No, he could never take Kiff to a place like that. He would probably faint or have a heart attack, which was actually kind of cute—the fainting, not the heart attack. The poor kid was so skittish. Speaking of Kiff. Alex caught sight of Kiff just leaving one of the class rooms, ducking out slowly at first before quickening his pace towards the exit. So Kiff left the school for lunch. Where on earth did he go?

“Talk to me later and give me the info, I have something to do,” Alex said with a backwards wave. He seriously doubted he was gong to show up to the party—somehow his absence from all the jock parties had just made him more wanted by the idiotic girls. Apparently it made him seem mysterious.

“Kiff!” Alex called and Kiff didn’t slow down, he just kept his head down and continued towards the door. “Kiff! Hey! You’re being mean! Please stop!” Alex whined loudly as he ran to catch up. Surprisingly, it worked. Kiff stopped and turned slowly, his eyes cast down as he fidgeted with his shirt, pulling it firmly over his waistband.

“D-did you … want?” Kiff said in his usual manner of not completely finishing his sentences.

“Yes, I have your bag,” Alex said and stood awkwardly still, completely forgetting to pass Kiff his bag and the other just stared at him.

“Oh … o-okay?” Kiff regarded Alex with a quick glance from under his bangs before turning away. Alex caught him by the arm.

“Wait, I haven’t even given it to you yet,” Alex laughed nervously as he finally got it into his head to actually give Kiff the bag. Kiff excepted the backpack after only a couple seconds hesitation. Alex shifted his weight from foot to foot as he tried to figure out how to address him.

‘Well, there’s no point in being all shy about it!’

“You aren’t mad at me are you?”

“Wha ...?”

“For, you know, beating Mark up? I know you aren’t—or, you don’t seem to be a … very … violent … person?” Alex frowned. He was an idiot for even opening his mouth.

“N-No, I—” Kiff felt a grin stretch at his lips as he shifted his bag onto his shoulder. His brain was telling him to shut up and run away, but his gut was telling him that he had one chance at this, and he better not screw up. If only he could figure out what that ‘this’ was referring to. “Th-thank you,” Kiff forced out in a near whisper before his confidence deflated and he moving away as quickly as he could without running.

Alex was left staring in his wake, only one thought going through his head: ‘I made Kiff smile! A REAL smile’