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Nobody seemed to notice the small touches that the russet haired sophomore and the icy senior exchanged between each other. From the small taps on his pale wrist to the gentle hand squeezes, nobody seemed to notice the touches of PDA. The teachers even noticed, eyes flicking over to the interlocked fingers with out expression. It was almost unfair to the other students, who were shouted at for the simplest hand touch.
Now, the two were holding hands, and the teacher that was taking role call barley even noticed. "Michael Jones?" A small squeeze was passed between the two, and the owner of the name looked up. "Here." He muttered, voice quiet. The teacher nodded, and they went back to their ignorance of the world. Gavin Free wanted to know why he and the senior got to express their love for each other in public, while all others had to hide in private.
The photography student had loads of evidence if the principal didn't believe him. He had gotten a snapshot of them sitting close to each other after school, legs intertwined and a sandwich in each of their fingertips. He had gotten the senior- which he later found out as Ryan Haywood- making funny hand gestures at the younger, while Michael was staring with concentration. He even got one of the two laying in the grass, Ryan's fingers gently combing through Michael's hair.
"They never even talk!" Gavin explained to his pseudo-brother, Geoff, who was sitting at the dinner table in front of him. His eyes stared back at him lazy, the baby blue irises lazily looking over the pictures. "So... You're taking pictures of two people from school? Is that what you want? I have calculus homework to do, dude." He went back to his scribbling, and Gavin groaned in frustration, running his hands through his hair.
Gavin ran around, ranting to all his friends about the unfairness of the situation of the couple. Ray had told him it was creepy, Jack didn't care, and Geoff had just told him to "fuck off" after asking about it a second time.
"Don't you think it's weird, Ray? That the teachers don't care about what they do? Even Mary doesn't care!" Ray looked up from his book, sighing. "I don't fuckin' know. Go ask the guy if you really want to know. Now, go away- I need to finish this before second hour or I'm boned." Gavin grinned, grabbing his backpack and rushing out of the library as the bell rang.
Gavin casted a side-long glance at Michael, who was slouched on in his head and phone in his hands. His companion was nowhere to be seen. The sandy-haired lad grinned to himself- he would catch and ask the lover why he was able to get away with loving someone at this school.
When the bell rang at the end of the hour, signifying the end of the day, Gavin lept out of his seat, shoveling everything into his backpack with little to no finesse. Michael was already out, and Gavin sprinted to catch up to the classmate. He was already out of the front doors of the school by the time Gavin caught up with him. "Michael!" He didn't react. Maybe he wasn't loud enough.
"Michael!" He shouted, leaping up. Still no reaction. Gavin frowned at his ignorance. He was ignoring him! Gavin rushed up to him, tapping him on the head. "Hey, Michael!" Michael whipped around, staring up at the taller boy with fear, and then quick anger in his eyes. "Why were you ignoring me?" The boy made frantic hand symbols, and Gavin narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not playing charades, Michael!" Michael's eyes narrowed, and he grabbed Gavin's sleeve to drag him around to the side of the school. Gavin made frantic noises. "Are you going to hurt me?" When there was no reply, Gavin made a squawking noise and tried to get away.
Michael grabbed his arm, pulling him to the ground. He stared at Gavin's frantic face, words carefully forming on his lips before coming out of his mouth. "STOP TALKING, ASSHOLE." The words were loud, almost shouting level, and Gavin cringed.
Michael pulled out a small piece of paper, shoving it into Gavin's hands, before letting him go and walking away, hands in his pockets. Gavin unfolded the paper, looking at typed words with interest.
'If you're reading this, then, you fucking finally tried talking to me, Gavin. I've seen you fucking staring at me in English, and you're fucking annoying. My helper, Ryan, told me that you thought we were a couple. Haha- Gross. He's my helper, and he helps me with school and shit because I can't fucking hear anything. I'm deaf, if you've not been able to tell.
You probably ran up to me and tried to fucking talk to me or some shit, and I probably had to talk to you. I can't read lips- sorry, asshole, that I can't do whatever's convenient to you. I only grew deaf a few years ago, due to a car accident. I don't want to have to pour out my life story to you so you can read it, dumbass.
If you want to be my friend, and if you want to try and actually treat Ryan and I as actual human beings, and not looking at us like fish in an aquarium, I'd like that. You seem nice enough, just a bit dense.
Ryan also says that you call me 'Mi-Cool'.
It's Michael, dumbass.'