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It really was quite annoying how they kept getting forced into these situations.
God, Fitz hated having a sister sometimes. He tells her one thing, one little thing about some odd feelings he's been having, and suddenly she's been spending a significant amount of time trying to find ways to lock Fitz and his friend into rooms alone together.
Dex and Fitz had only just become friends--actual friends--recently, too. For the first two years of high school, there had been some weird tension between them. Dex had seemed to hate him; if Fitz ever tried to talk to him, the other boy would mutter dumb nicknames under his breath in a very annoyed tone of voice. Fitz got the message and left him alone, though he also did pretend to forget Dex's name a couple times out of annoyance from being disliked.
It wasn't until around three months ago when they had been forced to sit next to each other in Phys. Ed that they became friends. A conversation had started mostly on accident about how annoying they thought the gym teacher was. It was after this that Fitz apologized for whatever it was that he had done that had upset Dex so much. Dex had, after a couple minutes of awkward silence, sighed and said that Fitz hadn't even done anything, that it was stupid and didn't matter.
And then they were friends, suddenly.
"Well," Dex said, leaning against the wall of their History classroom. "This is the third time this has happened within the past two weeks."
"Yeah," Fitz mumbled, more focused on glaring at the door that he was sure Biana was hiding on the other side of than the conversation. "Odd."
Earlier that day, Biana had given them a note saying that their History teacher wanted to talk to them after school. They had come to the classroom and, after standing in the room wondering where their teacher was for a couple minutes, found that the door was locked. Fitz had quickly come to the conclusion that Biana had locked them in.
Honestly, Fitz should have expected this. He should have known when the note had come from her and not the teacher herself.
You see, a little over two weeks ago Fitz had told Biana that he had been having some… feelings about--towards--whatever--his new friend. She had been overjoyed at the news and had promptly decided to play matchmaker. She then began doing whatever she could to get them trapped in rooms alone together.
It was so, so, so, so annoying. Fitz wanted to strangle her.
Dex sat down in a chair. Fitz stayed standing, still glaring at the door. He had his phone. He would call a friend for help, but he didn't want to have to explain why Biana was locking him and Dex in a classroom. Also, he wasn't exactly opposed to the idea of spending time with him, so…
She would let them out soon. (Hopefully).
"Biana did this," Dex said. "Just like how she got us locked in your bathroom the other day."
"Yup."
"Why?"
"Because she sucks."
"Ah."
With a sigh, Fitz sat down in a chair next to Dex.
"How did she even manage to do this?" Dex asked. "Did she, like, steal the janitor's keys or something?"
"Probably. She's good at being sneaky like that."
"Hmph." Dex leaned forward, putting his chin into his hand, and, god, the slightly annoyed expression he had on his face was very cute, and--
No.
"I guess since we're stuck here, I'll just do some homework to pass the time," Fitz said.
Fitz pulled out his folder and a pencil and began trying to get his math worksheet done. Dex sat there in silence, watching. Unfortunately for Fitz, Dex intently observing what he was doing was making it very difficult for him to focus. Plus, he had leaned a little more towards him to look down at his paper which was kind of making Fitz's brain stop functioning.
This little… problem of his had arisen, ah, maybe a month or so ago. After his strategy of ignoring his feelings had failed, he had asked Biana for help, but her advice had been to "Tell Dex you like him!" which, well, that was not an option.
He wasn't really scared of being rejected by Dex. The fear of society, though, rejecting him or whatever was definitely present. Everyone in school liked him, thought he was cool… what if that all ended if he started dating, well… another guy? They might think he was a freak. He did not want to be a freak. Biana not thinking he was a weirdo didn't mean everyone else would think the same.
He finished his math worksheet and put it away, deciding he would do the rest of his homework once they managed to get themselves out of this little situation.
It was quiet for a little while, them sitting there together in an odd sort of silence.
"This is fun," Dex said.
"Yup."
It was at that moment that Fitz heard music begin to play, coming from the direction of the door. On the floor, right by the entrance to the room, was a phone, and there was definitely music coming out of it.
That phone had not been there before. Had Biana opened the door and stuck it in while he was working on homework? How would he not have heard? Was he really so distracted by Dex's presence that he hadn't heard the goddamn door opening?
Ugh.
It was some love song. The guy singing it was saying something about bad boys and stealing hearts. The lyrics were stupid and Fitz decided not to pay attention to them, ignoring the phone's presence. That is, until Dex stood up, walked over to the phone, and, after glancing at the screen, laughed.
"Austin Moon… ? This is a song from that Disney show," Dex informed him. "Um… Austin & Ally. The triplets have watched it a couple times. It seems pretty dumb from the bits that I've caught."
Fitz stood up and walked over to the phone so that he was standing beside Dex. "Why would she have… ?"
If she was trying to set a romantic mood, this song was certainly not the right pick. It was upbeat and stupid. Fun, kind of, but stupid.
"The song is called 'Steal Your Heart.'" Dex giggled, and Fitz passed away. "She's got it set to play on a loop. I'd turn it off but it provides entertainment, I guess."
"It's going to start to get really annoying after a while," Fitz noted.
"Yeah. We'll deal with that when it happens, I guess."
He, again, giggled, and Fitz, again, passed away. His face was probably very red. Dex, now standing in the middle of the room, spun around, then began moving his head along to the beat of the music. It was very cute.
Fitz could not handle this.
He picked the phone up and turned the music off.
"Oh, did it get annoying already?" Dex asked.
Fitz put the phone down on the nearest table. "Uh… yeah. Such a stupid song."
"Are you okay? Your face is really red."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, y'know. Tired. I guess."
The silence that followed that exchange was very tense--at least, it seemed that way to Fitz. They both stood there, awkwardly, not saying anything. Maybe it was that tenseness that he was feeling that drove him to say what he said.
"Dex, I have something to tell you."
"Uh… what is it?"
Fitz started to walk towards his friend and tripped over nothing. He managed to regain his balance and not fall, but he definitely made himself look stupid. Dex laughed and walked over to him, placing a hand on Fitz's shoulder as he studied himself.
"You okay?" Dex asked.
"I like you," Fitz blurted out.
Dex's hand dropped from Fitz's shoulder, and the other boy took a step back. "Huh?”
Well, it was much too late to turn back. He repeated, "I like you."
Dex narrowed his eyes. "You mean, like….not in a friend way?"
"Um… yeah?"
"Oh."
And then it was quiet. Something about the silence made Fitz feel like he was being choked. In order to end his own misery, Fitz grabbed the phone again and hit play on the stupid song.
Dex glanced at the phone in Fitz's hands, the music now playing again, and then said, "Yeah, I like you, too."
Fitz hadn't really ever thought about whether or not Dex liked him back. His thought process had more been something along the lines of… If you tell him how you feel, everyone around you will think you're a weirdo. Less about Dex and more about… everyone else. Still, despite never having really had anxiety about being rejected by his friend, Dex saying that he liked him, too, was definitely shocking. Fitz's brain may have shut down a little bit.
"You do?"
"Yeah."
"Oh."
It was quiet. Again. Fitz appreciated a comfortable, soothing silence every once in a while but, really, this was torture.
So, since his brain was short-circuiting and he couldn't come up with anything else, he repeated, "You do?"
"Yeah. Actually, that's why I hated you."
"... Huh?"
"Oh, y'know. I just thought… " Dex waved his hand. "Well, I thought you were so, so perfect. It bothered me."
Fitz blinked, not yet having fully processed what Dex was telling him.
"Y'know… "
"You mean, like… " Fitz grinned as it settled in. "You hated me because you liked me? So… for all of these years--"
"Shut up. I hate you."
"Well, if hate is equivalent to like here, then I hate you, too."
As the obnoxious Disney song ended and then began playing again, Dex said, "What now?"
Fitz shrugged and looked down at the camera on the phone. "You don't think Biana is, like, filming us on this thing, do you?"
"Wait." Dex grabbed the phone out of Fitz's hand and started inspecting it. As he did this, he said, "Has she been doing all of this to like--"
"Play matchmaker. She sucks."
"Huh."
"I'm surprised she hasn't let us out yet," Fitz said. "It feels like it's been a while. You don't think she forgot and left, do you?"
"Or maybe we really did get called here by our teacher, and she forgot she was meeting us, locked the door with us in here because she didn't see us, and then left."
"Then how would we explain the phone suddenly appearing with that song playing?"
"Ah. Right."
"Yeah. So Biana is still definitely the most likely, ah, cause of this whole thing," Fitz decided. "If she doesn't let us out within, like, the next ten minutes, I'll call her."
"Okay."
A part of Fitz wanted Dex's idea about it really having been a mistake on their teacher's part all along to be true because he did not want to have to admit to Biana that her little schemes had been helpful.
"Should we sit down in the meantime?" Dex asked.
"Yeah, I guess."
And so, as Austin Moon sang about how some innocent girl was making him want to steal her heart, Dex and Fitz went and sat down at the nearest table. And, well… It felt nice to be able to be sitting there with him. It felt nice to have gotten his feelings out into the open. Really, what did it matter if a couple kids in their school thought he was a freak?
Fitz might have reached out to hold Dex's hand. Maybe he would keep doing that in the future.