Take Your Time 2.0

"How do pants like that even work?" Angelina asked with a slightly confused tone, looking at the black skinny jeans Adam was wearing. Adam laughed and raised his eyebrow, as if he wasn't sure whether she was being serious or not.
"What's wrong with them?" he asked, looking at his legs and then back to Angelina. "You wear skinny jeans as well, right?"
"I do," Angelina admitted, "but those are… tight. Like really, really tight. What I want to know is how on Earth did you manage to get yourself into those. I would give up without even trying."
Adam grinned and flipped his hair. "Baby, I'm a professional, I don't share my secrets with anyone," he said and winked. Angelina punched his arm and Adam tried to look like it hurt, but he was smiling too much to be convincing.

"Anyway, you look good today. I mean, you look always good, but you're looking especially good today. Meeting someone important today?" Angelina asked with an innocent expression on her face as they walked toward the school. Adam's hair was perfectly styled, he had a little more eye makeup than usual and he was wearing the tightest jeans Angelina had ever seen, a black T-shirt with a silver print and one of his numerous leather jackets. Adam seemed to have an endless supply of leather jackets.
"Maybe I am," Adam said light-heartedly and smiled at Angelina. "Are you doing anything special today, by the way? I think you meant to ask me something yesterday, but then my idiot of a brother called me and you never finished your question."

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me! There's this new shop down at the mall and they have really neat leather jackets there, and I was wondering if you would like to come with me," Angelina explained. "I need someone with a sense of style, so your help would be appreciated. Oliver is a sweetheart, but he always says that everything looks 'nice', so…"
"So you need someone to stop you when you're about to buy something absolutely hideous?" Adam finished the sentence. Angelina nodded in answer. "Okay, I'm in."
"Great," she said, beaming with delight. "I knew I could trust you."

As they reached the schoolyard was both excited and nervous, because he didn't really know what to expect. He glanced at Angelina, who gave him a mischievous smile in return. "What?" the girl asked and ran her fingers through her purple hair nonchalantly.
"As if you didn't know," Adam muttered and punched Angelina's arm gently. She pouted and tried to look offended, but gave up after a few seconds and grinned. "Come on, let's go," Angelina commanded. She grabbed Adam's arm and lead him through the crowd, scanning the schoolyard all the while.

"He usually sits somewhere around there before class," Angelina said and pointed to the other end of the yard while dragging Adam towards it. "And during it as well if he doesn't feel like showing up… And usually during lunch as well. I think he spends most of his time there," she added. Adam mumbled something that sounded distantly like "Really?"
Suddenly they stopped and Angelina let go of Adam's arm. She stood on her tiptoes, trying to see behind a group of tall guys instead of walking past them. "I don't want him to see me, I would look like a stalker," Angelina explained when Adam gave her a slightly confused look. "Let's see… Ha! There he is, I told you so!" she squealed happily and clapped her hands.  

Adam took a few steps closer to the girl and looked at the direction she was pointing at. "Where exactly is 'there'?" he asked, with a touch of excitement in his voice.
"I'll show you. Come, there's a free bench over there, let's go there so we can walk past him and you can take a good look at him," Angelina decided and tugged Adam's sleeve. He nodded, and they made their way through the crowd.  
"He's right there, see?" she whispered, trying to look casual and carefully nodding at Tommy's direction. She had to keep her voice down, because for a moment they were so close to Tommy that the boy could've easily heard what she was saying.

Oh yes, Adam did see Tommy. In fact Tommy was the only thing he saw. When Adam finally saw the blonde boy everything else around him seemed to disappear.
"Oh my god," Adam breathed and squeezed Angelina's hand hard enough to make the girl squeak in pain as the duo sat down. He was so focused on staring at Tommy that he didn't even notice he was hurting Angelina. "Why didn't you tell me that he's perfect?"

"He is?" Angelina asked, sounding confused and surprised. Adam glanced at her and slowly let go of her arm, looking like she had just kicked a puppy or done something equally objectionable.  
"Do you even have to ask?" Adam asked in turn. "I mean, just look at him. He's absolutely gorgeous." Adam's gaze was quickly returned back to Tommy, who apparently didn't notice that he was being stared at. Adam silently thanked the universe for that, because it would've been hard for him to stop staring at Tommy right now.

Tommy's fingers were playing with his blonde hair (that covered the boy's right eye) and he was staring at the horizon. His face was expressionless, but Adam was sure that Tommy had the prettiest smile ever because his face was absolutely beautiful. He liked everything about it, from the brown eyes to the slightly pouted lips.
Adam forced himself to look away from Tommy's face and took a good look at the rest of the boy. Tommy was definitely shorter than him and he had a smaller frame, which he liked. He was wearing a striped sweater and a pair of skinny jeans that were similar to Adam's, although Tommy's jeans weren't nearly as tight.  

All in all, Adam liked what he saw. He liked it very much.  
"So he's your type, huh?" Angelina snickered, returning Adam back to reality. He grinned at her and ran his hand through his hair, trying to get his thoughts back together.
"Am I that obvious?" Adam asked, even though he already knew that he was. Besides, Angelina could always tell when he liked somebody. The girl knew him all too well, Adam couldn't hide things like this from her.
"Pretty much, yeah," Angelina replied with a smile. "Well, I'm glad you like him. It would've been awkward if you didn't," she giggled. It made Adam laugh as well.

"What's the time?" he asked. Adam wanted to know how much time he had before the class would start. Not that he really cared about whether he would be late or not, though; he had far more important things in his mind right now than maths.
"You have about five minutes before the bell rings," Angelina said after taking a look at her watch. "But I can go and tell mrs. Johnson that you are doing something for the drama club and will be late because of that… I don't really feel like going to class either, so I can use the same excuse later."

"I love you, did you know that?" Adam grinned. Angelina was the queen of excuses (even though she didn't skip classes as often as he did) and was always willing to help him with her skills.
"Thank you," she smiled. "Now go and talk to him. I know you want to."
Adam rolled his eyes and let out a dramatic sigh. "I will go and talk to him, but I need some to get myself together. I can't think straight right now."
"Can you ever?" Angelina asked with faux innocence. Adam sighed again and she giggled.
"That was a lame joke, Angie."
"I know."

The bell rang and the yard started to get emptier as people moved over to the front doors and entered the building. Adam glanced at Tommy, who looked like he had no intention of going anywhere. All of a sudden he started to feel really nervous. He turned to face Angelina and bit his lip, trying to breathe as calmly as possible. She noticed his nervousness right away. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Not sure," Adam muttered. "How do I look?"
"Dashing as always, darling… And I really have to go now," Angelina replied. She turned around to leave but stopped after a few steps and looked over her shoulder, giving Adam a reassuring smile. "I'm sure everything will go smoothly."

Adam looked at Angelina as she disappeared behind the wooden doors, counted slowly to ten and stood up. The yard was practically empty at that point, which made him feel a little less nervous. He started to walk across the deserted yard and tried to convince himself that he had no reason to be this antsy over such a simple thing. Adam had talked to a lot of guys before, so this was nothing new, nothing to get stressed over.

"Hi," Adam said as he sat next to Tommy. "Your name is Tommy, right? I'm Adam." The calmness of his own tone surprised Adam. He didn't sound as nervous as he was, not at all. It was certainly a good thing. "Not feeling like going to class either, are you?" he continued with a smile.
Tommy looked at him and Adam saw how his expression went from blank to a more cautious and withdrawn one. "What do you want?" he asked in a cold voice, looking straight into Adam's eyes. The blond boy looked almost defiant, which confused Adam a little.

"What do you mean by that?" Adam laughed, ignoring the tone of Tommy's voice. The boy wouldn't get rid of him that easily. "I just thought that you looked lonely and assumed that you might want some company. That's all."
"Well I don't," Tommy snarled  in response. "I don't want to hang out with anyone from this fucking shithole, so you can just go away." He looked away from Adam and crossed his arms over his chest, ignoring the presence of the other boy.

"I don't blame you," Adam said, still overlooking Tommy's behaviour. "This place is pretty horrid… But not everyone is completely awful, you know. I can already tell that you are a lot better than most people around here."  
Tommy blinked and his expression changed for a brief moment, and Adam was happy that he'd gotten some kind of a reaction. It wasn't exactly the smile he had been hoping for, but it was better than the reserved expression the blonde boy had been giving him before now.

"I like your hair, by the way," Adam pointed out. He suddenly had an urge to pet Tommy's hair, and he had to use all of his willpower to suppress that urge. Tommy's hair looked really soft, and he wanted to find out if it really was as soft as it looked like.
"Do you–" Adam was about to ask something when Tommy grabbed him by the chin. The action was really sudden and surprisingly rough, considering Tommy's tiny body.
"Shut up," Tommy growled and kissed him. Hard.

Adam was sure he could feel his brain stop working for a moment. The kiss was hot, very hot, and all the thoughts in his head suddenly vanished. The rest of the world seemed to disappear as well, and there was only Tommy, Tommy's lips against his lips and Tommy's tongue in his mouth, exploring every corner of it.
When Tommy finally let go, Adam felt dizzy and light-headed. His heart was pounding, his hands were shaking slightly and his head was a complete mess. Adam distantly realised that his smile was so wide that he probably looked like an idiot, but he didn't really care right now. He was too high to care about something like that.  

"Okay, you've won your bet. Now leave me alone." Tommy's icy tone dragged Adam back to reality and he gave the smaller boy a confused look.
"What?" Adam asked, trying to get his head straight. "What are you talking about?"
Tommy rolled his eyes and gave Adam a condescending look. "Don't act like you don't know, I'm not stupid. You got your kiss and have proven that I'm as easy as everybody says I am, so you can stop bothering me. Or do you have to sleep with me to win?"  

Adam frowned, not sure how he should handle a complicated situation like this. "I have no idea what you're talking about, honestly. It's not anything like that. I meant what I said earlier – I just saw that you were alone and decided to come and talk to you. I have no secret motives," he assured, although he was quite sure that Tommy wouldn't believe him. Apparently the other boy had already decided that Adam wasn't on his side.
Tommy let out a joyless laugh and stood up. "Do you really expect me to believe that? I know how you people are, I know what you say and think about me. I'm not dumb enough to believe that, so save your effort." The blonde boy turned around, picked up his messenger bag and walked away.

Adam just sat there and stared at Tommy until he couldn't see the other boy anymore. He wasn't sure what to think about everything that had just happened. He wasn't even sure what he was feeling right now.
After a minute the raven-haired boy pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and wrote a quick message to Angelina. He needed her right now.

"you need to do something for the drama club right away. meet me at my locker."

~

"Wow," Angelina sighed after Adam had explained what had happened between him and Tommy. She looked about as confused as Adam felt like. "Didn't see that coming, right?"
"Not at all," Adam replied. "I mean, I know that he has had a rough time and I didn't expect him to trust me right away or anything like that, but… I wasn't expecting something like that either." Angelina nodded understandingly and pursed her lips in thought.

"I feel like I should say I'm sorry," she said and looked at her feet. Adam laughed and ruffled her hair gently, shaking his head.
"It's not your fault, silly. You couldn't have known that this would happen," he said. He couldn't possibly blame Angelina for anything; he had no reason to do so.
The girl nodded. "So… what are you going to do now?" she asked carefully, sounding like she wasn't sure if she was allowed to ask that question.

"I'm not sure," Adam answered truthfully. "A part of me says that I should just give up and move on, because his reaction was… like that." Angelina nodded. "But another part of me says that I shouldn't give up on him just yet," he continued, "because there's something about him that I like. He fascinates me."
"Really?" Angelina asked, sounding almost surprised. Adam lifted his eyebrow at her tone.
"Does that surprise you? Yes, I do like him, even though the feeling may not be mutual," he grinned. "He stands up for himself, and I like that. He's a feisty little kitten."

The girl giggled at his choice of words. "Kitten?" she asked in an amused tone.
"What are you trying to say?" Adam asked with a smile.
"I don't know… I mean, kitten, out of all animals? Why?" Angelina asked, trying to keep quiet in order not to disturb all the good students that were still in class like they should.
Adam shrugged. "I don't know, it was the first thing that I thought of," he replied. "And there is something feline about him, even though I can't really put my finger on it."
Angelina nodded, biting her lip as she tried not to giggle. "Okay then."

"Okay, enough of this for now," Adam stated. "I need some time to think, we can talk about this later. Speaking of which, we are still going to the mall after school, right? I think I need some shopping therapy."
"Of course, if you want to," Angelina said.
"Do you really think that I would ever say no to shopping?"
"No."