Chapter Text
After chilling at the cemetery with Rachel, Cal decides to head over to Andre's house.
Okay, well, he doesn't decide to. He planned to, like, three days in advance. Actually, he didn't plan it; Andre told him to come over. At 1:00 pm.
Right now, it was 3:42 pm. So he was two- nearly three, actually- hours late to a planned meeting with Andre. Andre Kriegman.
If Cal Gabriel were a boy with common sense, he'd be freaking out. Nervous, at the very least. But Cal was not a boy with very much common sense.
And as such, he was somehow fazed when Andre was angry at him.
"Where the fuck have you been!" Andre shouts at him when he opens the door to his home, but still stepping aside so Cal could enter.
"I was just hanging out with Rachel," Cal replies as he strolls inside, vocally recoiling in a way that in anyone else would indicate meekness, but Andre knew meant he was being defensive. Andre closed the door behind him, a fire alight in his dark brown eyes.
Cal and Andre had been friends for a while. Cal had also been friends with Rachel for a while. While he admittedly did prioritize Andre, given the fact that they were, after all, planning a mass shooting together, Andre somehow didn't realize this, and interpreted Cal's continued contact with Rachel as Cal being against him, somehow.
What Andre's rationale for this was, Cal didn't know; what Cal did know, though, was that pushing Andre's buttons was a favorite pastime of his. He felt mean admitting it, but hey. He already knew that, in spite of his angelic looks, he wasn't going to heaven.
Andre crossed his arms, huffing.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cal asked, shrugging. He knew what it meant though.
He huffs again. "You were supposed to be here three frickin' hours ago," Andre says, scowling. "And you're late because you were with- fucking Rachel, of all people."
"She wanted to hang out," Cal murmurs, scratching the back of his neck. That wasn't true, Cal had asked her to go to the cemetery with him; what Andre didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and, besides, it's not like he was going to fact-check- and with Rachel, no less.
Andre shrugs. "Okay. Yeah, let me just, hang out with some random girl, unplanned, meanwhile the person I'm supposed to be shooting up a school with,", he emphasizes, "is just wondering where the fuck I am. That's perfectly reasonable."
"I have to be nice to her," Cal replies, still murmuring. "She's my prom date. If I suddenly drop her, she's gonna get suspicious and-"
"Oh, so now you're going to prom with her?" Andre blurts out. "You, like, know I hate her. Why her of all people?"
Cal doesn't like Rachel. Well, he likes her- as a friend. Not romantically. He's going to prom with her out of convenience. In an ideal world, he'd be going to prom with one of the taller guys on the swim team.
No, wait, in an ideal world, there'd be no prom, there'd be no swim team, none of that would exist. Still, though.
But yeah, surprise, surprise, Cal's gay; he's known since 7th grade. Everyone else around him has known for longer, or at least assumed he was, so he's been facing defamation for it since the 3rd grade, at the very least. Despite the veracity of the accusations, though, he's never given anyone any evidence for those claims to be anything but baseless.
Cal's seen the way Andre looks at other guys- him included-and heard the way he talks about "gays", and he feels sympathy for him. He understands. He gets it.
Still, he's going to exploit an insecurity when he sees one.
"Oh my god," Cal says, smirking. "You're jealous of Rachel!"
"What?" Andre retorts incredulously, face contorting in horror. "No! That's not true. No."
His lie could've been believable if his face hadn't turned just the slighest shade of red.
Cal chuckles, shaking his head. "Look, Andre, if you wanted to go to prom with me, you could've just asked."
Andre looks shocked. Horrified. "I- I don't want to go to prom with you!" he manages, voice cracking some. "I have work that night. And-"
"Then why're you jealous of her?"
Andre shrugs, putting his hands up in the air. "I don't know!" he exclaims. "Maybe because you're constantly spending time with her and shit! Like, we were supposed to hang out, but you friggin' blew me off for Rachel!"
"Andre, I already spend, like, a ton of time with you."
"I don't know if you've forgotten, but we are planning an attack," Andre says, totally serious.
"Mm," Cal hmphs, in thought. "That's fair."
"I like just hanging out with you," Andre offers, awkward tone in his voice.
"Andre, I know you like me."
Andre scoffs. "Of course I like you. We're friends-"
"No, Andre, in the other way."
Andre looks shocked, and Cal wishes he could smirk without offending him.
"I'm not gay," Andre says, visibly uncomfortable.
"I am," Cal says, demeanor breaking, smirk coming through. "And you did call me a pretty boy, a while back, so-"
"That doesn't mean shit!" Andre shouts, clearly on the defensive. "Me saying you're a pretty boy doesn't make me gay. Like, what, I can't acknowledge that you're attractive without being gay?"
"Andre," Cal utters. "You wouldn't be reacting so defensively if you knew I was totally wrong."
Andre manages to stutter some syllables, before shutting up for a good 30 seconds, staring intently at the floor. "Oh, God."
"Sorry I was the one to break it to you," Cal replies.
Andre's quiet for a bit after that.
Just a bit, though.
"You made me gay!" Andre declares with fervor. "I can't believe this, oh God, what the fuck."
"I can honestly swear that I didn't," Cal states, "But, like, I'm guessing you're going through the whole denial and bargaining thing right now. You'll get over it."
"What am I supposed to do now," Andre says more than asks. "What are my parents going to think-"
"You do realize we're going to be dead in a few months, right?"
Andre frowns in confusion. "What's that gotta do with anything?"
"I dunno," Cal says, fidgeting with his hands. "Nothing matters?"
"Huh."
"Yeah. Just, don't worry too much about it." He smirks at Andre again, flashing him his classic stare. "So, what was that you said about me being attractive?"