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Was this messed up? Gally thought it might’ve been a little messed up. Oh, well. It wasn’t like he meant for it to end up like this.
Gally wasn’t dumb. But sometimes he felt like he had better things to do than the work assigned to him. Alby told him that it was common for gifted kids to not view their classwork as worth it and that led to a slip in grades, Gally just brushed him off. He knew that was a stupid decision when his Chemistry grade went from a nice 82 to a damn 45 in a week. So what did he do?
He started cheating off of Thomas Lopez, of course. That guy was smart, and he always aced his classes. And although Gally was pretty sure Thoms knew he was cheating, he still didn’t say anything and just let him continue. Until one very fateful Friday, right as the bell dismissed.
Gally was shoving his things into his backpack when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Nice grip , he thought right as he heard the person say, “Hey, can I talk to you?”
Ah, Thomas.
“Yeah, sure, just gimme a second here. Gotta put my stuff away.” He said, nodding slightly as he shoved his binder into his backpack and then zipped it up. He shrugged it over his shoulder before turning to look at Thomas.
Thomas, who looked annoyed with him right this very moment.
“You’ve been cheating off of my work for weeks now.” Is what Thomas starts off with, “And I’ve decided that I’m not letting it happen anymore.”
Most people are normal, so at this moment they would apologize and take whatever Thomas had planned for them. Gally was not normal.
“Oh, really?” He chuckled, raising an eyebrow at Thomas that just seemed to annoy the scholar even more, “And what, pray tell, are you going to do if I don’t stop?”
That remark earned Gally a nice, strong hit to the jaw that knocked him flat on his butt.
He heard a few oohs from his peers who still had yet to leave the classroom, but he wasn’t paying attention to them, not in the slightest. Instead, he was looking up at Thomas with what was probably some kind of starstruck look that made him seem like some kind of fool.
“I want to tutor you,” Thomas said, as if the punch was enough to answer Gally’s previous question–it was, “I even talked to Mr. Janson about it. If you get at least a C on Friday, then I’ll continue tutoring you for the rest of the year.”
Gally’s jaw was probably on the floor and it would not cooperate with him, so he just nodded.
“Good. Now, I can start whenever. My only extracurricular is track–” So he works out, no wonder why he was so damn fit– “But we don’t have practice today, so I’m free.”
“Oh– uh– I’m free, too. I only have my woodworking club, but the teacher isn’t here today.” Gally sputtered, scrambling to get on his feet as he finally came back to his senses, “Are we going to the library?”
Thomas nodded, “Yeah, at least for now. You can tell me whatever you’re struggling with in Chemistry while we walk. C’mon.”
Thomas started walking without even waiting for a response from Gally, who proceeded to follow like a dog.
—
Gally had taken to arguing with Thomas just to see him mad. He would not listen to anyone judging him, not even Minho, who Gally had found out knew Thoams through track and was(probably but most definitely) dating him.
“Look, I get it, he looks good. Looks really good when he’s mad,” Minho said, the two of them skipping class on the abandoned fourth floor, “But eventually he’ll stop getting mad at you, or even annoyed, and he’ll just start ignoring you.”
Gally gave him a look, still trying to make him admit they were dating. Minho just shrugged, “I’m not afraid to admit when a guy is attractive.”
“Okay. But like, would he really only go silent? Won’t like… lose it or something?” Gally asked, and Minho’s brows furrowed before his eyes widened in realization.
“You want him to hit you again.” He whispered, voice full of wonder, “ You actually want him to hit you again. Gally, Gally, are you some kind of masochist?”
Gally’s face went red and Minho started wheezing and cackling like some kind of maniac, “Oh my god! You are! You’re a freaking masochist and you want my boyfriend to slap you or something so you can see him all mad at you like before! This is great .”
“Your boyfriend? ” Gally asked, attempting to change the subject.
“Wait– no– didn’t mean that–”
It worked.
—
Gally got a 79 on the test, his grade now a 69, and as hilarious as that was to him, he didn’t like it because now it felt like something had changed with him in Thomas.
Thomas had been the one to bring it up at one of their sessions, smiling just enough to make Gally’s heart skip a beat.
“I’m glad you’ve actually been putting effort in now, Gally. Dare I say, I’m proud.” He said, patting Gally on the shoulder. It took all the restraint Gally had to resist leaning into it.
“Yeah, yeah. I don’t need you to act like a dad about it.” Gally grumbled, crossing his arms and kind of shrinking in on himself. It doesn’t do much, considering he’s not exactly small.
“I’m not being a dad about it,” Thomas said, his voice softer than usual, “I’m being a friend about it. I… I care about you Gally. I’ve grown to. Which is why I’ve apologized for hitting you like, fifty times.”
“And I keep telling you it’s not that big of a deal.” Gally rolled his eyes, fixing his posture and letting out an annoyed sigh.
“Y’know, I didn’t believe that for a while. And I still don’t because a certain someone told me that you liked it! ” Thomas grinned, and Gally looked up at him the same way he had looked at Minho. Face red, eyes wide.
“So you and your boyfriend gossip about me?”
“Minho is
NOT
my boyfriend.”
“I didn’t say a name.”
“I’m gonna kill you.”
Perfect deflection.
–
Gally had a system with his little brother, one that he knew Thomas was vaguely aware of because Gally had used it during one of their sessions once.
Chuck got bullied a lot. Enough that he could sense when a confrontation was bound to go sideways. So, he would text Gally anytime he thought something was coming and tell him where he was. Gally had only missed the text once, and when he saw Chuck’s bruised up face, he made sure he’d never do it again.
Of course he was wrong, blame this damn teacher for forcing him to make up a test.
Once he was free and saw the text, having come five minutes before Gally had been let out, he was rushing to the hallway Chuck said he was in. It was around his Math class, one he shared with Thomas.
He was panicked, of course he was. He hated the idea of Chuck getting beat down while he was in some classroom. He hated knowing that whatever he was about to walk in on was going to be far from pretty.
Except he was wrong, it seemed.
Instead of walking in on Chuck curled up on the floor like last time, or maybe even walking in on a group cornering him, he saw Thomas fucking Greene holding some guy up against a locker while two others lay either unconcious on the ground or purposely not moving in fear of what Thomas would do to them.
“Who do you think you are?” Thomas growled as he pushed the other guy even harder against the locker, “You think you can just start hitting some random freshman because he’s smaller than you? Because you think he’s lame or something?”
The boy sputtered, shaking his head frantically but not being able to get out any words. As that happened, Chuck noticed Gally and rushed over to him.
“Gally, Gally!” He whisper-yelled, “Are you seeing this?”
Gally just nodded, pulling Chuck close and ruffling his hair lightly as he watched Thomas in awe. The honor student scowled at the kid he had pressed to the locker before backing up and dropping him to the floor. Gally watched as the other guy looked up at Thomas, seemingly weighing his options before scurrying away down the hall with his hand to his nose. Gally thought it was probably broken.
Gally took a step closer to Thomas, who let out an annoyed sigh before looking over at Gally. When he spotted him, his eyes seemed to light up and he gave him a small smile, “Hey, Gally. I, uh, was gonna talk to Ms. Kane about an assignment but then I saw these guys bothering Chuck.”
“And you beat the shit out of them?” Gally asked, raising an eyebrow as he glanced down at one of the boys on the ground. Thomas nodded, seeming almost bashful about the way had defended Chuck. Chuck, who was currently at Gally’s side and grinning up at Thomas like he was the coolest guy he had ever seen.
“Well, it’s what I woulda done.” Gally shrugged, patting Chuck’s head, “You guys wanna go and get something to eat?”
Chuck let out a victorious ‘yes!’ under his breath, like he always did when he knew he was about to get pizza or ice cream. Thomas hummed, “Maybe. Can I bring Minho?”
Chuck’s jaw fell open at the prospect of Minho joining them, and he looked up at Gally with a look he knew meant ‘You better say yes.’
Of course, Gally said yes.