Chapter Text
Balthazar stood outside the Donaldson’s house for the first time. He was nervous but only because he didn’t know Pedro that well and he always found small talk just excruciating. But he mentally prepared himself for the uncomfortable silences and rang the doorbell.
The lady who answered the door, presumably Mrs Donaldson, looked amiable but confused as to Balthazar’s identity. “Hello!”
“Hi, is this Pedro’s house? I’m, um, from school. We’re doing a project together.”
Mrs Donaldson smiled and welcomed him in, insisting on making him a drink and indicated the way towards Pedro’s room. “Pedro, your friend’s here!”
‘Friend’ may have been overstating it slightly. I mean, yes, they had shared classes and things but Balthazar couldn’t really remember if they’d ever actually spoken. They just had a different group of friends.
Balthazar gave an awkward knock on Pedro’s bedroom door and then pushed it open.
“Hi, bro.” Pedro was sitting at his computer in shorts and a green t-shirt, his hair sort of messy as if he’d just gotten up. “How’s it going?”
“Oh, you know,” Balthazar said vaguely. “I, I’m, excited about this project.”
“Really?”
“Um, no. That was a joke.”
And to Balthazar’s surprise, Pedro laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Hey, do you want a drink?”
“Nah, your mums getting me one.”
“Cool, sit down, man. Is working in here alright?”
Balthazar agreed, sat on the bed and began to get his history books and laptop out of his bag.
“So Mrs Fletcher is a bit of a pain in the ass, right?” Pedro said, conversationally while finding his own textbooks.
“I don’t know,” Balthazar responded, “I mean, I kind of like her. She’s pretty fair.”
“Oh, so you’re one of those students.”
“What?”
“You think the dunces get what they deserve,” Pedro said with a glint in his eye.
“I, I, what?” Balthazar felt flustered but wasn’t sure what had happened. “No, I mean, I’m not – you’re not a dunce. You always get the best mark in essays.”
“Not always. And that doesn’t mean I enjoy writing them.”
“I don’t think the fact that we have to write essays makes Mrs Fletcher a pain in the ass. We have to write essays.”
“Do we though? Do we really?” Pedro laughed. “And this whole project thing is a bit annoying. We are old enough to choose our own partners, right? It’s like she’s deliberately put us with people we don’t know or don’t get on with just to make it more hard work. She put Bea and Ben together! Like that’s going to be productive.”
“Weren’t you - I thought you were trying to set them up. Isn’t Mrs Fletcher helping you out a bit there?”
Pedro gave Balthazar a funny look. “Do you watch those videos?”
Balthazar felt himself getting hot in the face but it was more because of Pedro’s accusatory look than actually feeling embarrassed. “Um, you do know that like everyone in the school watches them, right? Like, probably the teachers as well.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Oh wow. Maybe Mrs Fletcher is trying to set them up.”
“Huh, yeah, probably.”
Pedro considered Balthazar for a moment and then said, “I wasn’t being funny before when I said about partners. I don’t mind doing this with you, that’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
“We just don’t know each other very well. You normally hang around with all those girls.”
“Yeah, well, I’m gay so I thought I better do at least one thing to live up to the stereotype.” And because Pedro was giving him another funny look, Balthazar added, “That was a joke. Well, um, not that gay part, just that isn’t why I have lots of girl friends, I um, I think.”
“Yeah, no, I just didn’t realise that was true about you being – Oh, I don’t mean that-” Pedro gave a pained expression. “There’s no reason you shouldn’t be. I’m not being – Shit, don’t think that I’m – I’m pretty sure I’m bisexual myself so -” Then he really did cringe. “Shit.”
“Um… are you alright?”
Pedro was shaking his head like he was giving up on life. “Yeah, yeah, I just haven’t actually told anyone that yet.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, maybe it would be good if you didn’t tell any of your girlfriends I said that.”
“I, um, yeah, I wouldn’t. I mean, I’m not going to out you.”
Pedro looked up at Balthazar and seemed to be deciding if this was an accurate statement or not. He nodded, though, seemingly satisfied. “Well, this has got off to a weird start.”
“Yeah,” Balthazar agreed. “Not exactly sure what I was expecting but… this isn’t…”
Pedro laughed this really open, generous laugh. “No, not exactly. Sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
Pedro’s smile was appreciative. “Now I’m wondering why we’ve never hung out before.”
“Oh, um,” Balthazar felt an uncomfortable squirming feeling inside, “I don’t know.”