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When exactly does a person grow out of being a gay disaster? That was the only knowledge that Thomas wanted out of life. All he knew was that it definitely wasn’t the age of eighteen because his birthday had just passed, yet there he was, struggling to function the second that a pretty boy entered the room. And, of course, by ‘a pretty boy’ he meant Logan Reid, probably the smartest boy in their class and with a pretty face to match. It felt like a silly teenage crush - mainly because it was - but that didn’t mean that Thomas’s brain was functioning at more than half capacity every time Logan walked into the room, which was incredibly strange to go through, since they shared a lot of classes.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help that their psychology teacher, Mr Picani, was a known matchmaker around the school. So, when Thomas was paired with Logan for a project, he was hardly surprised. Just downright terrified.
Like a normal person, Logan approached Thomas after class that day and gave him his phone number, neatly written on a square of paper that he must’ve torn out of a notebook.
“Feel free to text me outside of class so we can arrange a time to meet up and talk about the project. I’m available most days, as long as you give me a day’s notice or so.”
Thomas looked down at the piece of paper before attempting to act normal, stuffing it into his pocket and looking back up at Logan. “Uh- Yeah. Right, I’ll... I’ll make sure to do that. I’ll text you after school.”
Logan simply nodded and walked off, visibly relaxing, if Thomas had bothered to look. It was actually a good thing that he hadn’t, though. Maybe he would’ve misinterpreted it as a bad thing.
Thankfully, Thomas found it a lot easier to communicate with Logan over text and the two of them agreed to meet up at Logan’s house just a couple of days later, right after school to make the most of their time.
Thomas drove over, though he did take a few minutes to hype himself up in his car, and went up to Logan’s front door like he wasn’t panicking on the inside.
Few seconds after he managed to knock on the door, Logan’s mom answered, smiling as she saw the teenager there.
“Hi, you must be Thomas. Logan said you were coming over for a school thing.”
Thomas nodded. “Yeah.. We’re just working on a psychology project, something simple to keep us busy now that testing is all over.”
“Right,” she nodded, letting Thomas in. “It’s nice that they’ve got something simple going to keep you guys busy.”
“Yeah, Mr Picani is a pretty cool teacher, a lot of other classes are still just doing testing as usual.” Granted, they weren’t particularly difficult tests, just stuff so the teachers would be able to say that nobody was just sitting around for the last few weeks, but tests were tests.
“Well, Logan is right over here in the living room. Logan, come greet your friend,” she called out, though Logan was right across the room that they walked into.
Logan shut his laptop and stood up, going over and smiling at Thomas.
Thomas wasn’t sure how he was still standing after seeing such a beautiful sight, but there he was. “Hey, Logan. You ready to get this project out of the way?”
“I am, actually. I’ve been writing down some ideas for what we should do, though I’m not really sure what you might want to do.” He and Thomas were pretty different, Logan was all about neat, simple projects and Thomas was a bit more colorful. Not excessively so like that Roman kid in their class, but more than Logan.
“Right... Well, I guess we can talk about that now, then.”
Logan nodded and sat down with Thomas, showing him the ideas that he’d come up with.
“In any case, knowing Mr Picani, I’m certain we can easily ace this project.”
“Aww, if only that could help boost your GPA, right Logan?”
Logan gritted his teeth at his mother’s comment. “Mom, do you have to bring that up now?.. We’re just trying to work on this project, I’m not sure Thomas wants to hear any lamenting over my class rank.” Class ranks had been finalized about a month ago and Logan’s mother still hadn’t recovered from the shock of Logan dropping from first in his class to fourth.
She shrugged. “I’m just voicing my disappointment. You know what, I’ll just stay in the other room.” She got up and left and Logan had to use every bit of self control not to let out a huge sigh of relief. He loved his parents, he truly did, but they did have a tendency to go overboard with pushing him in his studies and this was one of those occasions.
“Is she talking about the stupid class rank thing?” Thomas asked. He wasn’t the only one who believed Logan was the smartest kid in school and that was because Logan was the smartest kid in school, which for most of their high school career was shown by him keeping a tight hold of the first place spot in their class rank. Recently, however, Logan was dethroned by some other idiots in their class. It wasn’t like it was easy, of course. Their advanced chemistry teacher was known for running an extremely difficult class with absolutely no make up work and was even more well known to being oblivious to the amount of cheating that went on in his room.
Unlike the rest of his peers, Logan decided to take on the challenge of attempting to get through that class with hard work alone, but he was barely able to pass the first semester and by the time the final grading period before ranks were locked in came around, that had been enough to destroy his rank. While the three kids who’d leapt above him loved bragging about their new spots, some of the more humbled people in their graduating class felt pretty bad for him.
Logan, however, wasn’t one for self pity. The amount of time he’d spent on studying to try and raise his grade in that class was no less than atrocious, there was nothing more he could've done without cheating. Of course, he’d still felt and dealt with the sting of losing his spot as valedictorian, but he was far less upset about it than his parents. After all, he was still in the top one percent of his class. It wasn’t everything, but when it came to trying to impress colleges, it was more than enough.
“She is... I’m afraid neither of my parents have gotten over it yet.” And because they hadn’t and he had, they came up with the brilliant conclusion that Logan simply let his grades slip. He was such a quiet kid, they didn’t know how late he would stay awake and he was so used to functioning on minimal sleep that there wasn’t a difference in his behavior for them to notice. The accusation hurt, though he knew that there was nothing he could say to convince them that he’d tried his best. Their minds were already set.
“That sucks... I mean, I get it, you were seriously cheated out of that spot, but everyone in school knows that you’re the one who deserves it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’ve heard it a thousand times. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but you’re not going to be able to change their minds, they’re set on thinking that I just stopped trying.”
Thomas almost laughed at that. “Seriously?.. No offense, but your parents must be seriously oblivious to think you’d just stop trying at anything. I mean, you said it yourself, this project is going to be an easy A and you’re still putting so much effort into it. You go to tutoring for classes you have a near perfect grade in and end up helping everyone else without realizing it. You had to have been working like crazy just to get through that stupid chemistry class without cheating like everyone else, no matter what anyone else says. You’re crazy smart and you’re such a hard worker, Logan. Anyone who can’t see that has to be blind.”
Thomas didn’t even realized he’d went on a rant until it was over and he saw the look on Logan’s face. He looked mildly horrified, with his entire face going bright red to finish it off. “I... I’m sorry, that must’ve sounded so crazy,” Thomas said with an awkward chuckle. “I just... I mean... You’re, like...” He paused for a second. “I should go, right?”
“No!” Logan said, almost too quickly. “I mean... No, I just... You surprised me. That was kind of a lot. Do you... Really think that highly of me?”
Thomas shrugged. “Yeah... It’s kind of weird that not everybody thinks that much of you. You’re a genius and you’re nicer than people would expect a genius to be. And you’re so hardworking, anybody who doesn’t think at least that about you should be examined.”
Logan actually laughed at that, boosting Thomas’s confidence. Logan never laughed. “Thank you, Thomas, that’s really sweet of you... I always thought you’d think I was some kind of clumsy fool.”
“Why would I think that about you? You’re literally one of the most composed people I know.”
Because that was what he felt like any time Thomas came around. “I don’t know, I guess it was just my imagination.” Logan shrugged. “So... Do you think you might like to hang out some time after we graduate?”
If the two of them had been in school, Thomas may have fainted right then and there, but something about being there with Logan in his house, something about being so physically and, at the moment, metaphorically close to him helped him stay at least as composed as the average human was. “I think I’d really like that.”
“Great. You seem like you’d be a great friend.”
Friends. They’d only been friends for about ten seconds, but they’d both already been waiting months to become something more.