Chapter Text
Patton Sanders was the prettiest boy in the whole college. Actually if Remus had anything to say about it- the whole town. Maybe the whole world, but he didn’t have enough data on that yet.
Remus was not the prettiest boy in the school. Or, second prettiest, because Patton’s status was uncontestable. Either way; Remus was barely a contender. He was always covered in bumps and cuts and bruises from fighting; he was steadily adding piercings wherever he could; his nose had long since gone crooked from a previous break; and he hadn’t quite got the hang of hairbrushes. It didn’t help that he was an avid football player, and so was unfortunately often in a state of disarray after practice, even though he was really careful to shower each time, honest!
They were nearing the end of first semester of junior year, when one morning Remus made the decision that he was going to ask Patton Sanders out. It was a decision prompted only partially by the way Patton was currently floating gracefully down the gymnasium hallway for cheer practice, bestowing godly smiles here, there, and everywhere to grateful mortals. Remus felt his knees go a bit weak.
He was knocked from his thoughts when someone smacked the back of his head, and he startled to realise that he’d frozen dead in the middle of bounding down the hallway with his friends, roughhousing their way to the changing rooms. “Where’s your head at, Duke?!” Toby cackled, and Remus shoved him away with an eye roll.
“Nunya, October, get away,” Remus said, still gazing after the pretty cheerleader. His lovesick sigh was far too loud and Toby wasn’t stupid. The look on his face set off warning bells in Remus’s head. “Shit. You saw nothing. Nothing!” He smacked Toby on the ass with a whoop and they chased each other off to practice.
Conveniently, for a certain cheerleader at least, he missed the way Patton turned to look, drawn by the commotion. And more importantly he missed the way Patton’s eyes swept over him quickly, as he bit his lip.
Dexter O’Reilly (currently trying to go by ‘Deceit’, but that wasn’t catching on) was a busy young man. He had a double course load this year thanks to a light one in sophomore; a budding mostly-illegal gossip mill business plus bonus popular college secrets blog; and a very troubling crush on Patton Sanders.
It was troubling for several reasons. Firstly; it was widely known that one of the footballers was harbouring a crush of his own, and that would definitely beat out his own feeble suit in the battle for Patton’s heart. Secondly; Patton was quite vocal about his distate for Dex’s (not that he knew it was his, luckily) secrets blog, citing the unpleasantness it always stirred up as his main reason. And thirdly; Dex was cultivating an aura of cool, calm suaveness. Going repeatedly tongue-tied and red in the presence of Patton Sanders actively worked against that image.
He had spent Winter break at college this year, so he wouldn’t have to leave his business for too long, and so he could earn some cash on the side to save up for some kind of character defining statement piece. He was thinking gloves, or a cane- something retro and vaguely threatening…
Everything would have been fine if Patton hadn’t also stayed over break. Because, really, there were only so many times you could accidentally end up having conversations while you were working in the cafe he liked to frequent while he studied, before the crush grew and you started to wonder if you were actually in with a chance. And there were only so many times you could look over at your crush while you were sitting with him on your break (after he offered and bought you a drink) and find him glancing away with a blush and a shy smile, before you started to dream about reaching out and touching his freckled cheek, tugging him a little closer, holding his hand… silly stuff like that.
Patton did whisk off for Christmas and New Year, but he was back on the first and all too soon classes were resuming and their closeness was in peril. Dex… never quite managed to say anything important, and he hoped he didn’t imagine the slightly sad way Patton had said bye after Dex’s last seasonal shift at the cafe.
What he hadn’t said was “I hope I see you during the semester”. What he hadn’t said was “I’ve really enjoyed spending time with you and I love you will you marry me”, but honestly to Dex those two statements were equally as unimaginable.
And then it was back to business as usual. Dex was back to his important business of spreading the truth; Patton was back to being beloved of basically everyone and an untouchable tier one cheerleader; and although Dex didn’t know it and definitely didn’t care- Remus Duke was about to change their lives forever.