On the Strawberry Moon - 19. Chapter 19

‘You broke up with Paul?’ Oscar’s mouth dropped. ‘I thought you guys were serious?’

‘Nah,’ Robert shook his head and shrugged. ‘Well, we only went on a few dates anyway. He’s a nice guy, nothing bad about him at all. Just didn’t feel much.’

‘That’s the thing, isn’t it,’ Tom leaned forward. The holidays had finished and the gang were back at school, all sat on the cold field at this lunch time. ‘Best to cut it early before anyone really gets hurt.’

‘I’m sure it still hurts,’ Oscar threw Tom a look.

‘No, you’re both right,’ Robert shrugged again. ‘I’m a bad guy either way so best to just end it.’

‘How badly did he take it?’ Sammy asked, as she leaned back on her elbows, chewing her gum.

‘He wasn’t happy.’

‘Sorry, dude,’ Ronny gave a sad smile.

‘So, was it literally that you just didn’t feel the same for him?’ Billy asked.

Kalum kept his head down, pulling at the grass, yanking hard at the littles pieces of green strands.

‘Bit brutal you did it right after New Year though,’ commented Jasper.

Kalum focused on pulling up the grass hard, wishing he could yank Jasper out the ground too.

Robert shrugged and glanced down, ‘I wasn’t good for him. What lessons you guys got next after lunch?’

‘Maths,’ moaned Sammy, rolling onto her front.

‘Science,’ Jasper announced

‘History,’ Ronny said.

As everyone started to collect themselves off the grass, Kalum finally looked up and caught Robert’s eyes. He couldn’t help the red blush that came on his face, Robert smiled and Kalum smiled right back.

Science class. The one time they could sit together properly and there was nothing Jasper could do about it.

They hadn’t been able to sit or speak to each other properly next to each other since New Year, never mind talk about happened in the bathroom.

The class started and Mr. Arsenal was barking out again about adding numbers on experimenting.

‘Every time the ball drops lower in the water, you and your partner need to work out how long and how far it sinks,’ he ordered.

As papers rustled around the room and soft chatter from other students came about, Robert and Kalum got their experiment ready. As the ball dunked down, Robert grabbed the pencil and scribbled something on their shared notes and slid it to Kalum.

Kalum looked down.

‘You’ve got a great smile.’

Despite himself, Kalum’s natural smile curled up on his face. He gave Robert a sideways glance and they both smiled, trying not to laugh.

Kalum then dunked a ball into the water of their experiment as Robert erased his sentence. As they watched the ball sinking slowly in the thick water, Robert scribbled something else and slid it across to Kalum again.

Kalum glanced down.

‘I really like your face.’

Kalum bit the side of his mouth to not laugh out loud too much.

‘What are you two smirking about?’ Mr. Arsenal appeared.

Kalum immediately snatched the eraser and managed wipe most of the sentence so it was all mushed up when Mr Arsenal picked it up. He raised an eyebrow and put the paper down. Robert and Kalum’s hearts froze.

‘This is all messy now, you’ll smudge up your marks too, if you don’t do this properly, I’ll make you redo it.’ Mr. Arsenal said.

‘We got 5.6 on the first ball,’ defended Robert.

‘Well, write it down then,’ Mr Arsenal snorted, almost as if he was talking to an idiot. Kalum kept quiet. Mr. Arsenal then walked off to observe other students.

Robert and Kalum exchanged looks. As Mr. Arsenal started talking to some of the girls about not filtering their water correctly, Kalum wrote something down on the paper and passed it to Robert. He concentrated on the last balls going into the water.

Robert looked down and smiled at what Kalum wrote.

‘Ditto.’

***

When the class ended and people packed up their bag, Robert piped up, ‘Can I talk to you for two minutes outside?’

Kalum gave a nervous glance over his shoulder to his brother.

Robert threw his backpack over his own shoulder, ‘I asked Tom to show Jasper his new horror themed jacket so Jasper could know where he bought it from, Tom’s only free now, so he’s going to speak to Jasper after class. I said it was Jasper that was interested, not you.’

‘You, um, you think of everything,’ said Kalum softly, with embarrassed redness on his face.

‘I’ll see you in the toilets in two secs?’

Before Kalum could reply, Robert went off. Jasper joined Kalum’s side in an instant.

‘You two did a lot of smirking earlier,’ Jasper said.

‘Just making stupid jokes,’ murmured Kalum shrugging as they walked out the class.

‘Listen,’ said Jasper. ‘Tom wants to show us his jacket.’

‘Oh.’

‘It’s horror themed, he’s only free now to show us and where he got it from.’

‘Right.’

‘So, we’re going now.’

‘I just need to go the bathroom.’

‘No, you don’t.’

‘I’ll be two minutes, I swear.’

‘Then I’ll come with you.’

‘Just catch Tom now, you know what he’s like if we’re late.’

‘Then hold your bladder then.’

Kalum felt that horrible conflicting knot tying his stomach. Before he could think of what to do, their phones buzzed, Jasper looked at his phone.

Billy and Oscar descended on them as they walked in the hallway, ‘I hate maths so much.’

‘Speak for yourself,’ Daz appeared. ‘Maths is the language of the world.’

‘That’s not true,’ snorted Ronny, finally joining them.

‘Do you know where Tom is?’ asked Jasper.

‘He’ll be in the gym, come on,’ Sammy yelled, zooming ahead of everyone. As the gang laughed and rushed forward, Kalum held his breath. He took his chance and dipped out of the gang rushing ahead and immediately emerged with another large crowd of people. He walked in time with people around him, almost camouflaging into the background before walking forward to the bathroom. He was scared to look back, so he had to power forward, his heart beating fast.

He slammed in, and saw no one in the toilets.

Oh.

He sighed and saw a cubical door locked and there was one more person in there at the back. Kalum leaned against the wall and tapped at his phone. He sent a private message to Robert stating he was there.

The other guy washed his hands and left the bathroom.

Kalum cleared his throat and tried to sound chill, ‘Robert?’

No answer. He was about to step backwards and leave when the locked cubical door opened.

Robert appeared.

He looked around before rushing forward, latching onto Kalum’s wrist and rushing them both to the cubical, he locked the door as they stood nose to nose with each other.

They giggled out their nervous energy.

‘Um,’ whispered Kalum ‘Think Jasper going to be mad.’

‘How’s he been?’

‘Okay, in a better mood these days.’

‘I’m going to call the advice line today, just for some advice on what we can do with Jasper, is that okay?’

Kalum shrugged, looking down, ‘I can’t stop you from asking advice.’

‘I’m going to help you Kalum, okay.’

He clicked his tongue and then he murmured, ‘Sorry we haven’t talked since that night.’

‘No, no, it’s fine, I mean,’ Robert smiled. ‘We haven’t had a chance, have we.’

‘We have one now.’

‘Yeah, you’re right.’

It was quiet. There was still no one else in the toilets.

‘I like you so much Kalum,’ said Robert. ‘You like me too. We both like each other.’

Kalum nodded.

‘But I know if I asked you out right now, you’d say no.’

Kalum looked down, ‘It’s complicated.’

‘You want to go out with me?’

‘Yes,’ whispered Kalum. ‘I do want that. You know why I have to say no.’

‘What about just one date?’

‘I,’ Kalum stuttered.

Robert kept his voice down, ‘You went on date with Hannah and Rosey and you don’t even like them.’

‘Yeah, I’m a hypocritic, I get it,’ Kalum said sadly, his head down.

Robert reached out and pulled his head up. Kalum peeked up at Robert’s eyes. They weren’t angry. Kalum stared deeper into his eyes, getting drawn in so quickly. Their noses touched.

Someone slammed into the bathroom. The boys pulled apart a little.

Kalum reached down and took hold of Robert’s hand. Once the door slammed shut again, Kalum pulled Robert to him and kissed him deeply.

‘Are you free on the twenty-eighth?’ whispered Robert.

‘I will be,’ Kalum whispered back.

‘Would you like to go on one hour date with me then? Please can we try?’

Kalum smiled and kissed him again. He nodded, ‘I will try.’