The Boy with No Name - 20. Chapter 20

I woke up to Jesse’s alarm the next morning and realized that I had stayed in his bed all night. It was six o’ clock and time for us to get ready for the first day of school.

I was awake, but Jesse was still snoring away next to me. I lightly shook him and he fluttered his eyes open.

“Hey,” he said with a lazy smile. “What time is it?”

“Six,” I answered. “We have to get ready for school.”

“Okay, I’ll go first. You go back to your room.” said Jesse.

I got out of bed, gathered my clothes, put on my boxers and tip toed down the hall and tried to sneak into my room, but Timmy was already up.

“Someone got laid last night.” said Timmy. “Look at you sneaking in here in your boxers.” Timmy let out a phony weep. “My little Jamie’s all grown up.”

I huffed. “Give it a rest, Timmy. We just fell asleep.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that when you come in here half naked and holding the rest of your clothes?”

“No, I guess not.”

“It’s no big deal. It’s just sex, Jamie.”

Timmy was already almost ready, apparently just out of the shower. I threw my clothes into the hamper and then threw myself onto me bed. Timmy was running a comb through his hair.

“You’d better start getting ready. We have to leave in like forty-five minutes and you know how long you take to get ready.”

“Right, I just have to wait until Jesse is out of the shower.”

“Whatever just make sure that you don’t make us late.” said Timmy. “By the way, are you riding with me or Jesse?”

“I don’t know. I’m not really sure if Jesse is going to want to be out at school yet. I’d better ask him. If he wants to keep it under wraps then I’ll probably ride with you.”

“Are you serious? After everything you guys just went through, he’s going to keep it a secret again?”

“Timmy, being open about a same sex relationship isn’t like showing off a new tattoo or a new car or something. It’s difficult. If you were gay, you would understand.”

“I guess you’re right. I don’t much understand. I don’t understand why anyone would be ashamed to love someone.”

“It’s not that we’re ashamed, Timmy.”

“No, I know that you’re not ashamed. I was talking about Ranch Boy.”

“He has a name.” I said.

“Oh, sorry, I meant Jesse.” Timmy teased.

“Did someone say my name?”

I looked over and saw Jesse standing in the doorway.

“That would be me. I was just wondering if you were going to be honest about your relationship with my brother at school.” said Timmy.

“I’m-I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.” said Jesse.

“Are you ashamed of my brother?” asked Timmy.

“Timmy, stop it.” I said. “I’m not sure if I’m even ready to be out in a new school either.” I paused. “Look, I need to get in the shower. Timmy, can you please lay of the Spanish inquisition. Neither of you need to be under any stress on the first day of school.”

I left the room to get in the shower despite my worries of world war three going on between Jesse and Timmy.

I rode with Timmy to the school even though Jesse still hadn’t answered whether or not he wanted to be out at school yet. And I still wasn’t sure how to answer that question for myself yet either?

I hadn’t expected the school to be as large as it was. I guess it carried the kids of a tri-town county. Timmy parked our car right next to Jesse’s.

Jesse ran into a couple of his friends in the parking lot.

“Wha’s up Jesse?! Long time no see.” said friend 1.

“Where’s Stacy? I thought you two were inseparable.” said friend 2.

“Stacy and I broke up,” said Jesse. At least he was honest about that.

Friend 1 was then introduced as Rex Jensen. Friend 2 was introduced as Ryan Samuels.

“Guys, this is Timmy and Jamie Walker. We live in the same house.” said Jesse.

“Great, listen, so why did you and Stacy break up?” asked Ryan.

“It just wasn’t working out.” said Jesse. “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just go inside.”

“Cool, well, we need to get you a girl so you can forget about Stacy. I mean, she was hot, but not girlfriend material.” said Rex.

“No, I don’t want another girlfriend. I like things the way they are now.” Jesse looked over to me and smiled.

We walked into the school and it was full of laughing, playing, and joking kids. It was a lot like my school back in California only less freakish looking students. They were all normal.

Timmy and I sat at Jesse’s normal table of friends. I think I fell in love with him more seeing him laugh and joke with his friends. Seeing him so happy made me happy and all of his friends were really nice to us; except for Rex and Ryan for some reason.

I mean, they weren’t mean to us or anything. They just seemed a bit rude or standoffish. All in all, the first day of school was going pretty well.

I met a girl in my English 2 class. She was really nice. She said that she would show me around the school. I knew that I had Jesse for that kind of stuff, but I didn’t want to be pretty rude so I agreed. Her name was Rebecca, but she insisted on me calling her Becca.

She was very pretty. She had black, wavy hair and dark, dark eyes. Her skin was a bit on the pale side, but it actually added to her beauty. She was very thin and a little on the short side and she had lots of colorful bracelets that had lots of little charms that were equally colorful. Leave it to me to make friends with the most originally eccentric person at Jackson High School.

She invited me to have lunch with her and her friend and seeing as I could possibly make Jesse a bit uncomfortable, I told her that I would.

I met Becca at the end of the lunch line and followed her to her table. Before I could be introduced to anyone, Timmy found me.

“Hey, can I sit with you?” asked Timmy. “Jesse’s over there with super-jock and jock-man.”

“Who’s this?” asked Becca.

“Sorry, Becca, this is my older brother Timmy. He’s a senior.”

“Cool, a senior’s at our table.” said one of Becca’s friends.

“It’s cool,” said Becca. Timmy sat down. “So Jamie and ah…Timmy, this is Emma and Paige, my best friends.”

Emma and Paige were not quite as eccentric as Becca was, but they seemed to be pretty out there.

“It’s great to meet you guys. We hardly know anyone here.” I said.

“Well, besides us, who do you know?”

“Well, a kid named Jesse Clark lives with us.”

“You live with Jesse Clark?!” exclaimed Paige.

“Oh no, you’ve said the magic work.” said Becca.

“Yeah, that’s Paige’s crush.” said Emma.

“He is so fine.” said Paige

Timmy started to laugh and I elbowed him to shut him up.

“Yeah, but he’s going with Stacy.” said Becca.

“Actually, he broke up with her.” said Timmy.

I elbowed him again.

“Timmy, that’s not our business to tell.” I said

“What do you mean it’s not our business you’re-“

“Timmy! Enough!” I interrupted.

Timmy looked guilty. He almost told all.

“What’s going on?” asked Becca.

“Nothing,” I said. “Timmy just has this habit of butting in where he doesn’t belong.”

“Yeah, it’s a curse.” said Timmy.

“Oh my god!” yelled Paige.

“What?” I asked.

“He’s coming over here.” Paige finished.

I turned around and saw Jesse walking over to our table.

“Hey Jamie.” said Jesse patting his hand on my shoulder. “Aren’t you going to come and eat with us?”

“Who’s us?” I asked.

“Me and my friends” Jesse answered.

I got up and pulled Jesse aside.

“What’s up, Jamie. Don’t you want to eat lunch with me?” asked Jesse.

“I just thought it would be a little awkward.”

“What?”

“I mean, it was nice to see you with your friends today, but I have to admit that it was a little awkward.”

“Why? Because…because we’re not being honest about our relationship?”

“I guess.” I paused. “I guess I just don’t want to do something that I’ll regret.”

“Like what?” asked Jesse.

“I don’t know like, take your hand or…kiss you.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Yes, I am. Until we’re ready to be out, it’s a bad idea for us to even be around each other in public.”

I saw the longing in Jesse’s and instantly knew that this decision was best because I wanted to hold him and kiss him right there.

I turned around and sat down back at the table with my brother and Becca and her friends.

“What was that about?” asked Timmy.

“I just explained to him that I met you guys and I thin you guys are cool and was going to have lunch with you.” I said.

“How did he take it?” asked Timmy.

“He was cool.” I told Timmy.

“I can’t believe he was actually at our table.” said Paige.

“Get over it, Paige. He’s not even that cute.” said Emma.

“Are you going to let her say that about your man?” Timmy whispered in my ear. I wanted to slug him. They could’ve heard. But they didn’t.

“No, I have to say you’re wrong about that, Em.” said Becca. “I don’t know. There’s just something about those green eyes of his.”

“It doesn’t seem like he broke up with Stacy.” said Paige. “He doesn’t seem to be fazed by it at all.”

“That’s ‘cause he just got laid.” whispered Timmy in my ear. Again, I wanted to deck him, but no one heard so I refrained myself.

It was a good thing that lunch was over a few minutes later, because I would have surely punched his lights out.

The last class of the day, World History, I had with Jesse. At the beginning of the day I was looking forward to it, but since our conversation at lunch, I really wasn’t.

The worst part was the hurt that I saw in his eyes as soon as I purposely sit as far away from him as possible.

Class went on like every other class that day. The teacher went through the rules in her classroom and also asked us all to introduce ourselves. And like every other teacher, made a point of mentioning that I was new and from California. We wrote an essay about what we know about world events and that was the last class.

Timmy and I were walking through the parking lot after school. We passed Jesse and his friends. When he saw us he immediately came after us.

“Jamie, wait up!” he called.

“Hey Jesse, what’s with you?” asked one of his friend.

Timmy and I kept walking.

“I’ll see ya tomorrow guys!” Jesse yelled back at them. I could hear Jesse’s bag swishing back and forth as he got closer. “Hey Jamie!” He finally tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned around to face him. “Jamie, didn’t you hear me?”

“Yeah, I heard you. I just didn’t think it was a good idea to talk until we get home.” I said.

“I’ll be waiting at the car.” said Timmy and he left.

“Look, I know it’s a good idea to try and keep our relationship under wraps for now, but I don’t want us to have to ignore each other. You’re supposed to be my boyfriend.”

“Look, it’s just hard for me.”

“It is for me too.” said Jesse.

“No, I mean, it’s hard for me to keep our relationship a secret. It’s harder than I thought.”

“Oh…I…” He shifted weight from foot to foot, looking down.

“That’s what I thought.” I turned around and joined Timmy at the car.

“What was that about?” asked Timmy.

“Can we just go home?” I asked.

“Sure, get in.” said Timmy.

* * *

Once we got home, Timmy and I went straight upstairs to our room.

“So, now are you going to tell me what the thing in the parking lot was all about?” asked Timmy.

“Why can’t you leave it alone?” I asked.

“Because you’re practically in tears.” said Timmy.

I hadn’t noticed until he brought it up, but I was. I wiped them and tried to think of what to tell him.

“I guess, it’s just harder than I thought it would be to hide my feelings for Jesse.”

“See, was that so hard?” asked Timmy. “So what’s the other problem?”

“Well, he’s obviously not ready to come out so…I told him that we should avoid each other at school until he’s ready.”

Timmy was silent for a while. Then he sighed.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but…Jamie…you’re being a douche bag.” said Timmy.

“What?”

“Okay, I’m the first to admit that I’m not Jesse’s biggest fan, but…it’s really shitty of you to suggest that you ignore each other. He obviously doesn’t want that.”

“But don’t you see that I’m doing this for him. If I don’t avoid him as much as possible, one day I might kiss him or do something that he’s not ready for and…I don’t want him to break up with me for it.”

Jesse didn’t show up that night. Anderson was worried out of his mind because Jesse wasn’t answering his cell phone.

“Did something happen at school that he might be upset about?” Anderson asked me.

“We…we kind of had a little disagreement.” I said with guilt that just dripped from my voice.

“About what?” asked Anderson.

“Anderson, that’s between the boys.” said grandma.

“Do you know where he could be, Jamie?” asked Anderson.

“I might, if someone knows the way…”

“I’ll take you.” said grandma.

I could tell that Anderson really wanted to take me, but knew that it would just be way too awkward.

“Okay,” I said.

It was about to be sunset. I had grandma take me to Jackson pond.