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It was any normal day in class. Just learning math, a quiet class. Arik Walker, a short yet loud kid sat in the back corner, not paying attention to the lesson at all. Why? He was too focused on his long time crush who sat on the opposite side of the classroom. Isaac Gibson.
Arik would do anything for just a bit of Isaac's attention, yelling across the class, trying to be funny, yet it never seemed to work. At this point, Arik was getting desperate. While the teacher was paying much attention, he would walk over, just hoping Isaac would talk to him. Though they claimed they were "just friends", others seemed to already think the two had something going on. Classmates often shipped them behind their backs and even to their faces. This wasn't a new thing for Isaac as people also constantly shipped him with a girl, Ainsley Frame. Little did anyone know, Isaac had a secret. A secret he had told no one.
Every time Arik was around, practically begging for his attention, Isaac knew. He knew what Arik wanted, he was smart. He had noticed everything Arik had done to get closer to him. While Arik was trying to be subtle about it, Isaac knew better. Now why was Isaac paying so much attention to what Arik was doing anyway? He liked him too. His secret? He’s gay. His whole life he had been too scared to tell anyone, so he kept it to himself. The second he first saw Arik, he knew he was done for. In most of his classes and friends with his friends? He knew it would be tough to hang around him without completely falling deep into this love he was feeling.
Yet it happened. Over the years, Isaac only fell deeper and deeper in love. Every time he thought there was no more things to admire about him, he found another thing to admire. He thought this was what unrequited love was, but little did he know, Arik felt the same.
On this specific day, Arik was in his own world, daydreaming on about how him and Isaac would make the perfect couple if he ever had the guts to confess. But he knew Isaac didn't feel the same. Isaac liked Ainsley, right? That's why people never stopped talking about them. That’s why they hung out a lot. It was the only answer. There was no way the Isaac Gibson was gay.
"Arik! Please come answer this question." The Ms Beecham called out, beckoning him up to the front of the class. He snapped out of his thoughts and was suddenly back in his right mind. Right, I’m in math class.
He awkwardly made his way forward, feeling eyes on him. He struggled to answer the question on the board, most likely due to his constant zoning out. Had he really just embarrassed himself in front of the whole class AND his crush? This couldn't be. Not to mention Isaac was one of the smartest kids in the grade. The teacher sent him back to his seat and he sheepishly sat back down, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught Isaac quickly looking away as if he had been caught looking for too long. "Weird" Arik mumbled and before long, he was back to his fantasy.
On the way out of class, they bumped into each other. Arik’s things fell to the ground and as he bent down to pick them up, so did Isaac. Their heads bumped which made them both pull back, Arik, who flinched harshly, lost his balance and fell onto his butt.
Isaac continued to collect Arik’s belongings and stood, extending his hand out to help Arik up.
Arik hesitated, but finally took his hand. Isaac easily pulled him up to stand and gave a small smile as he handed Arik’s things back.
As he walked off, Arik watched on, starstruck by how nice that was, despite it being the bare minimum. After a minute, he realised he was standing in the hallway like a fool, staring at where Isaac once stood, long gone now.
He snapped back to it and went to pack his bag, one of the only ones left on the rack by now.
That afternoon, they both had band practice. Yeah, they both played instruments in the same ensemble. Their teacher made the lessons insufferable though, getting mad at every little mistake. Today after their practice, while everyone was leaving, the teacher called over some students to help pack away percussion gear. Was it coincidental those students were Arik and Isaac? It's not like the teacher can read minds, right? That stuff isn't real.
Pushing the timpani drums into the percussion room, Arik saw Isaac, already in there. In awkward silence, he pushed the drum into its place. Suddenly, a loud bang was heard. Their heads whipped towards the door to see it shut. Thinking the wind had closed it, Isaac went over to open it again.
"What?..." Isaac mumbled to himself, pushing on the door, yet it didn't budge. he heard another bang outside, presumably the music teacher closing the main doors to P block, locking up for the night. Panic set in as both of them realised they would be stuck if they didn’t do something quick.
"WAIT!!!" Arik called out, banging on the door but it was too late. everyone was gone, the school was empty. No matter how much they screamed and banged, no one came to their rescue. They were truly stuck in the percussion room.
"This can’t be..." Isaac said, looking around for any other kind of escape but there was nothing. Arik took out his brick phone, some old Nokia. No service. He checked the time. 5pm. And time would only keep ticking.
With nothing to do, as expected, it was quite boring. Not to mention the awkward tension between the two and they sat in silence. Arik checked the time again. 11pm. Still 9 hours until they could get out. It was taking too long. He couldn't sleep, feeling too vulnerable around Isaac, and it seemed he thought that too, still awake on the other side of the room. Arik couldn't take the silence anymore, his personality had always shown through being loud and his mind was too full of thoughts through the quiet.
"So..." He started but had nowhere to take the conversation. What are you supposed to talk about in this situation? Even though they were friends, Isaac spent most of his time with Ainsley or is friend group of people from a grade higher than them. They didn't often hang out, their conversations often relied on others having a topic for them to branch off. Arik couldn't remember the last time either of them had started a conversation with the other independently. Now that he thought about it, that wasn't a good thing at all considering how much he did just for a bit of Isaac's attention.
“This is horrible” Isaac muttered, taking a drumstick and hitting a nearby snare with it. “How can Dr Longsdale be so stupid? I swear, how do you even accidentally lock people in here” He continued hitting the xylophone next to him now.
“I know right, it’s like she saw us in here and did it on purpose. I wonder why though”
“Yeah… weird” Isaac mumbles, remembering when Dr Longsdale told him to stay focused after catching him staring at Arik for too long.
Did she know? Impossible, there’s no way she’d know from just that…
Another hour or two ticked by and the two boys had fallen into a deep conversation, talking about things they wouldn’t usually.
“Yeah...” Arik finished, trailing off before finding another topic to talk about “… who’s your crush?”
The question caught Isaac off guard. He could’ve asked anything else. Playing it off, he rolls his eyes and acts nonchalant. “I’m not telling you that”
“Why not?”
“Because!”
“Why though?”
Isaac sighs, not wanting to put up with Arik’s nonsense, especially not when he’s locked inside the school percussion room.
“Come onnnnn, what are you hiding? We’re best friends, right? I promise I won’t tell anyone”
Lies. Arik literally cannot keep his mouth shut. Especially when it comes to peoples’ sexualities. Isaac knew that all too well from when he went telling everyone a girl in his class was lesbian then denied he ever did it. Isaac knew he’d tell basically the entire school if he found out he was gay. “Tell me yours first and I’ll tell you mine” Isaac insisted, flipping the question onto Arik.
“I don’t like anyone”
Again, lies. Once again, because Arik couldn’t keep his mouth shut, everyone knew he still liked his ex, Jaymie. And according to the totally insufficient Elliot Rhodes, he also liked Lexi, Matayah and Aiden.
“You’re lying, just own up. And tell the truth, I don’t want to hear anything stupid” Isaac pushed, now wondering why Arik would bring it up in the first place
“20 bucks and I’ll tell you”
“No, just say it and I’ll say mine”
“10, final offer”
“Fine whatever” Isaac reluctantly agreed “Now hurry up and tell me”
“Okay… so… it’s… uhh...” It was clear Arik was stalling, embarrassed by his answer
“Hurry up, I don’t have all night” Though they really did have all night. With no way out and both of them given up already, they still had to sit there for another long 7 hours before someone would come to their rescue.
“Fine fine, it’s just... a little weird” Arik mumbled, still procrastinating every second he didn’t give a proper answer
“Didn’t you yourself say we’re best friends and we can tell each ither anything? I won’t judge and I won’t tell anyone, I promise”
“Fine…. It’s just that... my crush... is... y-you...” Arik mutters so quietly Isaac can barely hear it
“…w-what?... are you… are you serious?” Isaac gawked to which Arik slowly nodded, cheeks red from embarrassment.
“Well… you… you’re also my crush” Isaac admits back. For a moment, time stops and both boys stare in shock at each other from across the room. It takes Arik a minute to process what just happened before he finally registered it.
“WHAT? YOU- YOU LIKE ME?” Arik practically yells, still unsure of how to handle how he’s feeling. “Why!?”
“I… I actually don’t know, I just kinda… do”
“But why? I’m just a weird short annoying kid, there’s nothing that good about me, how could you like me back”
“Sybau everyone knows that, and I just said I don’t know why, I just do”
Arik thinks about it. All those times he thought he was delusional for thinking Isaac was looking his way, he wasn’t actually delusional? Maybe he should stop second guessing himself.
Too lost in his thoughts, Arik hadn’t seen Isaac stand and make his way over until he was right in front of his face. It made him jump in surprise when he realised and his heartbeat speed up as he realised how close Isaac was…
Isaac reached his hand forward, brushing it against Arik’s jawline ever so lightly, causing Arik to shiver. Isaac slowly inched closer, leaving his hand there on his jawline as his gaze dropped down to his lips. Out of all the times Isaac has looked at Arik’s lips, this is by far the best they’d ever looked. So close. He paused only and inch away from the other, giving him a chance to pull away, to say no, yet he didn’t. Isaac slowly moved in to kiss him softly when he was surprisingly beaten by Arik, who’d jumped forward and smashed their lips together without second thought. Isaac was caught off guard and wasn’t ready for the force, causing him to fall backwards onto the musty carpet. Arik, who seemed to have no other thoughts in his head, followed him right down and didn’t give Isaac a second to recover before his lips were pressed against his again. The kiss quickly deepened, Isaac still on the receiving end and unable to keep up with how desperate Arik was.
Without them even realising, the night had quickly passed and what felt like a short time was actually hours. When Isaac finally managed to pry Arik off him, he grabbed his phone. 6:19 am. Someone would rescue them soon.
But did they really want to be rescued?
They sat in that percussion room, panting from the longest make out session ever when they saw light from under the door and heard voices. They couldn’t exactly tell who was out there – well, that was until Mr Purnell swung the doors of the percussion room open. Busted. Mr Purnell got so jump scared by the sight of the two dishevelled boys he screamed, causing his wife, Mrs Purnell, to come running. It’s safe to say she was a little more than mad. She crashed out at the boys without giving them any chance to explain why they were even in there, giving them a long lecture about how illegal it was. She actually never gave them a chance to explain, sending them to engagement where Mr Wyatt was, not wanting to hear their excuses. When Mr Wyatt finally let them explain, he was very confused. He said he’d “have a chat” with Dr Longsdale and sent them both out to wait for their parents, also telling them to wash up before coming back that day because... Well it might’ve been obvious they were pretty restless that night..
By the end of the week, Dr Longsdale was fired and lowkey everyone was celebrating. No more fried rice would be stolen from innocent students on multicultural day and no more annoying lectures about how she’s “actually not miss, but Dr.”.
As for Arik and Isaac, they thought it was best to keep their relationship a secret, not wanting everyone to know. Who knows what people would say if they found out, especially considering they were already the centre of attention because of this incident.
However, some people seemed to have already caught on..
Arik swore he heard the two girls next to him in math giggling something about “arikandisaac69” but he couldn’t quite make out what he was hearing... must’ve misheard them. Weird though.
From then until present day, they’ve tried to keep their secret and they’ve done pretty well, but let’s not lie, Arisaac is canon and one day, when they finally let go and tell people the truth, people will clap, cheer and say “I knew it all along”.