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“Hey, Simon?” Daniel whispered.
Simon rolled over in his bed to face Daniel. “What?” he asked, annoyed. He’d been trying to get some sleep, but it was kind of hard when Daniel spent the whole night on his phone.
“You remember that time when I got grounded for saying I hated girls?”
“Daniel, three in the morning is not the time for reminiscing.” He rolled back over, determined to go back to sleep.
“One of the cheerleaders tried to kiss me that day.”
“That’s not a reason to hate all girls, Daniel,” Simon mumbled tiredly.
“I don’t hate all girls. I’d kill if someone tried to hurt Emma.”
“She’s only turning ten. I don’t think you have to worry about boys anytime soon. If ever.”
“Whatever. But if that cheerleader had been a guy, I wouldn’t have minded.”
Simon was not getting any sleep tonight. “I don’t know why that would matter, but go off, I guess.”
“I’m gay.”
“Well that explains it.”
“That’s… it?” Daniel asked timidly, contrasting with his typical brashness.
“May I remind you that it’s three in the fucking morning. We can talk about cute boys when I’m actually awake.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Goodnight, Daniel.”
“Night, Simon.”
After slogging through his morning routine, Simon finally got a chance to sit down on the bus. Almost immediately, his phone buzzed. He debated ignoring it until it buzzed a couple more times in quick succession. Fishing it out of his pocket, he saw that all the texts were from Daniel.
Daniel: cute boy time?
Daniel: Si?
Daniel: r u even awake?
Simon looked over his shoulder to a couple rows back, where Daniel normally sat. He looked up right then and the two made eye contact. Guess I won’t be getting any extra sleep here.
Simon: alright
Simon: tell me about your cute boy
Daniel: I don’t have class with him
Daniel: But I sit near him at lunch
Daniel: He’s pretty popular but I just want him to look at me
Simon: Wow way to come off strong
Daniel: shut up
Daniel: your turn
Simon: Um
Simon: I don’t have class with him
Simon: But there’s also this one girl at the table I sit at and the two of them always end up arguing over something
Simon: He’s just really passionate. I could listen to him talk for ages. And then he’ll ask what I think and he actually cares about what I have to say, even when we disagree
Daniel: aww
Daniel: You’re in love!
Maybe just a little. Not that I’d tell him that.
Daniel: Better make sure he’s good enough for you
And that’s why.
Simon: You don’t even know who he is
Daniel: You sit with like three people at lunch
Daniel: It’s pretty obvious who he is
Simon: Fine
Simon: You can sit with him today
Simon: But I get to sit with your crush
Daniel: Ok
Daniel: We can trade clothes and stuff in the bathroom before lunch
Josh was a little surprised when Simon didn’t show up at the table immediately, but he didn’t think much of it at first. They weren’t really friends; maybe he had to go do something and just hadn’t told Josh. But… he’d really like to be more than that.
“Hey, Josh,” Simon said as he sat down.
“Hey. How’s your day been?” Maybe he’d learn why Simon was late.
Simon shrugged like he was trying to be nonchalant about it, but he moved rather stiffly. It reminded him of when he was a kid and had to wear dresses for special occasions… except he’d never noticed Simon acting this way before.
That’s weird. I know he doesn’t like being pushed to talk about things, but I’ll say something if he keeps acting like this. “So you remember that one guy I said I was teaming up with in debate? Connor? Well yesterday he came in talking about heavy metal music. How do you even go from jazz to heavy metal? I have so many questions for him.”
Simon’s eyes seemed to glaze over… dreamily?
No way. He’s probably just tired. “Did Daniel keep you up again last night?”
Josh didn’t know Simon could actually look angry until then. “I did not – I mean, no! Yes! Ugh!” He suddenly got up and left.
What was that about?
Connor got to his usual table a little late, as usual. The only open spot happened to be across from – Daniel, he was pretty sure the guy’s name was. They hadn’t talked too much, but Connor had caught him sneaking glances from time to time. He couldn’t deny that Daniel was attractive, but with drastically different schedules they hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know each other.
“I don’t think we’ve gotten the chance to talk yet, but I’m Connor. You’re Daniel, right?”
Daniel’s eyes widened a little. “Yeah – yeah, I’m Daniel,” he said, almost like he was reassuring himself.
He might be just as nervous as I am. “What do you do for fun? I volunteer at the animal shelter and babysit for my neighbor’s son, which I know isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but I enjoy it.”
“Oh, you know… I like a lot of things… listening to music, screwing around on my phone…”
“What kind of music do you like? I’m usually into alternative and jazz, but lately I’ve been getting into heavy metal.”
“Uh…” Daniel seemed to shrink a little, far from the usual outgoingness he displayed when talking to the others at their table. He suddenly pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I-have-to-go-bye!” he said before running off.
“You’re usually not distracted like this,” Connor said at the debate team meeting that afternoon.
Josh sighed. “One of my friends was acting strangely at lunch. It just seemed… out of character for him.”
Connor shook his head, grinning a little. “Sounds like we had the same day.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s not a friend exactly, but I could still tell that one of the people I sit with was acting strangely. He was a lot more nervous and reserved.”
Josh laughed. “That’s more how my friend usually is… but today he seemed uncomfortable and confused, and then he suddenly got mad and ran off.” He stopped to think for a moment before his eyes widened. “Who’s the guy you were talking to?”
“He’s tall, blonde,” Connor said, not understanding what Josh was getting at. “His name’s Daniel.”
“They switched places on us.”
“Who did?”
“Simon and Daniel. Simon doesn’t talk about Daniel much, but they’re identical twins.”
Oh. “Why would they switch places like that? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I have no idea. Maybe… we could try talking to them at lunch tomorrow? It’s not very crowded in the corner of the cafeteria where I usually sit, so we could talk there.”
“And if we get both of them together, one of them will have to crack,” Connor said, a plan forming in his mind. “Then we’ll have our answer.”
“We should plan out what we’ll say beforehand,” Josh said, their debate research completely out of mind as he flipped to a blank page in his notebook and started writing down ideas.
The next day, Daniel was headed to his usual lunch table when Connor intercepted him. Connor, who Simon had spent the previous day’s lunch period talking to as Daniel.
“I was going to sit at a different table, if you wanted to join me?” Connor asked.
“That – That sounds good!” He swallowed nervously.
Connor led Daniel over to the part of the cafeteria where Daniel had sat yesterday, posing as Simon. “I was interested in what you had to say at the end of our conversation yesterday,” Connor said offhandedly.
Shoot! Simon never told me what they talked about, only that Connor seemed nice and that we would get along! “I… don’t really remember what we were talking about. I realized I had to run to the library and print something for my next class.”
Connor looked disappointed. “Oh. What class was it for?”
Fuck! My next class is gym! And I’m not spending the rest of the semester pretending that it’s English or something. Yesterday was bad enough as it was – I’m not pretending to be someone else ever again. “It’s whatever… just a crappy elective I had to take because I couldn’t get into the class I wanted…”
Connor nodded sympathetically before waving to someone else. “Hi, Josh!”
Oh no.
Simon was sitting across from Josh, in the same spot where Daniel had been yesterday. If he’s having as hard of a time as I am, then we’re screwed. This was the worst idea I’ve ever had.
Before Daniel had the chance to get away or cause a distraction, Josh spoke up. “Wow, you two really do look alike… I bet you could switch places with each other easily if you wanted to.”
Too late now. Daniel sat down next to Simon, while Connor took the empty seat across from him. “When Josh brought up the possibility yesterday at debate, I had to admit that I was curious,” Connor said with a glimmer in his eye that sent Daniel’s heart racing. “But then I wondered… why would the two of you even do that?”
Neither of them spoke, so Josh filled in the silence. “I know that, for as different as you two are, you do care about each other.”
“Is that it?” Connor continued as he leaned across the table, the proximity making Daniel’s face flush. “Some… odd attempt to help each other out?”
“I-I like you, okay?!” Daniel sputtered out before slamming a hand over his mouth.
Connor’s expression faltered, going from complete control to utter shock in an instant. This clearly wasn’t the confession he’d been expecting.
“And, um,” Daniel continued, trying to find his way out of this mess, “Someone says that I have a bit of an overprotective streak,” he continued, glaring at Simon.
“You have said that,” Josh agreed.
Simon fidgeted a little at being called out like that, but quickly regained his composure. “And someone decided to keep me up at 3 AM. If I hadn’t been so sleep-deprived, I wouldn’t have agreed to your terrible plan.”
“Maybe you should let us be the judges of how terrible it really was,” Josh said.
“Fine.” Simon took a breath. “I told Daniel that I had a crush on you, and he decided that we should switch places so he could decide if you were good enough for me.”
Josh and Connor exchanged a look.
“You’re both terrible actors,” Josh said.
“Agreed. And now we have two relationships to settle in private,” Connor finished, grabbing Daniel’s hand and dragging him off… not that anyone minded.