Uncool Life of Phillip Cross - 2. Chapter 2: "Confusing Contact"

Harvey looked over his shoulder and noticed Phillip was behind him, with the tanned boy shrugging slightly at his best friend. “Phil or something like that.”

“Phillip.” Phillip blushed.

The soft blue eyes continued to stare at him, as a slight smile crossed the dirty blond’s face. “I’ll keep that in mind, Phillip.”

If he wasn’t in the middle of a school library, Phillip knew that he would have an issue that needed immediate attention, just from the sound of his name escaping Franklyn’s mouth. The soft sweetness that attached to a voice that almost begged for the individual to crave him. With Phillip swearing that even the teachers were under the spell of Franklyn’s voice since he couldn’t think of even one who didn’t love the boy. He must have been staring at Franklyn for a few moments as the boy spoke up.

“So I’m guessing you know Harvey, but I’m Franklyn.” Franklyn grinned. “Franky to my friends.”

“Um, I know. I mean, I know who you are” Phillip whispered. Loud enough for the boy to hear however. With the boy’s mind racing at the possibility of being friends with THE Franklyn Miller.

“Oh?” Franklyn questioned. His eyebrow raising as he looked Phillip directly in the eyes, an almost smug smirk on his face. “You know?”

“Um, yeah.” Phillip replied.

Franklyn didn’t respond verbally but Phillip could see the smug smirk growing and guessed that Franklyn liked him, knowing him. It wasn’t that hard to know who Franklyn was, there wasn’t a week that didn’t go past that Phillip didn’t find a picture of Franklyn in one of the local advertisements. Usually advertising expensive clothes that his family had no chance of ever purchasing even one outfit from. Even if they did look good on Franklyn, both in the shot and in person, since the boy often wore what he got from the shoots to school. Something he confirmed every time he looked in his scrap book of Franklyn pictures that he had cut out from the advertisements that he had hidden from his parents so they wouldn’t throw them away.

The almost cat and mouse game continued between Franklyn and Phillip, with Phillip looking at Franklyn until he was caught before blushing and trying to hide away. Phillip knowing full well that he was the prey in the situation and just hoped Franklyn wouldn’t turn on him. As he looked between them, Harvey found himself not liking the attention that his best friend was giving a “nobody”. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong per say with Phillip in his mind, he just didn’t really register on Harvey’s wave length. With Harvey finding himself wanting the attention of his best friend on him. He hadn’t got the permission to come to the library for Franklyn to spend all of his time with the excuse. He wanted to chill and joke around with his bestie. Deciding that he couldn’t exactly be rude about it, Harvey decided on a more subtle way.

“So dude, what are you working on?”

Phillip watched as Franklyn slid his exercise book, with the boy grinning at Harvey as said boy looked down at the book and smirked. He sighed after a few minutes, with Phillip knowing that he had lost the attention of the school’s most handsome boy to the boy’s best friend and could only listen to their conversations with sheer confusion. It was full of inside jokes and memories that he was never going to be a part of, no matter how much he tried. It was something they shared together and he found himself getting slightly jealous of it. Leaving the pair to it, Phillip went looking for books on the assessment’s subject before heading back to the table. Where he had found the conversation had turned to skating and scooter riding.

Noticing that Phillip had re-joined them, Franklyn turned his head slightly and his blue eyes landed on the third wheel. The boy smiling softly as he added him to the conversation. “So what about you, Phillip. Do you ride?”

“Um, yeah… full throttle outlaw, I love kissing asphalt on my hog” Phillip stuttered. His voice cracking as he attempted to lie his ass off. “Yeah,”

“You have never been on a scooter, have you?” Harvey replied. One eyebrow raised in amusement.

Phillip blushed but turned his attention onto the other boy, whose amusement was evident in his eyes. Franklyn’s eyes lit up slightly, as he defended Phillip.

“Oh leave him alone Harv, you have tried weirder stuff to impress,” Franklyn responded.

The blush on Phillip’s face was only getting worse as Franklyn seemingly stuck up for him. Franklyn flashed Phillip a quick smile, which had Phillip looking down slightly to hide his blush. He wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to get through the rest of this period, being in the company of Franklyn Miller. He wasn’t entirely sure, but Phillip could have sworn that he heard Harvey growling under his breath at Franklyn coming to his rescue. Phillip choose to ignore it though and simply enjoy the feeling of being defended by the world’s most handsome boy. Despite Franklyn returning to whatever he was working on in his exercise book, Phillip couldn’t pull his eyes away from him. A few moments later, Franklyn slowly looked up to meet Phillip’s gaze with an amused grin that was becoming noticeable inside of his beautiful blue-eyes. He released a light giggle when he noticed the stare before asking a question.

“Do I have something on my face?”

“What? I mean N-no. Oh god, I’m sorry.” Phillip blushed. With the boy quickly getting into a position that if Franklyn got mad, he could high-tail it out of there.

“Oh? Why are you sorry that I don’t have anything on my face?” Franklyn questioned. His gentle smile continuing.

“Um. Well uh,” Phillip stuttered. Wondering why he couldn’t act normal around Franklyn, instead he was acting like a stuttering blushing fool. This definitely not the way that he wished to interact with Franklyn for the first time.

Luckily for Phillip, he was saved by the bell.

“Time to go, I um got, you know... class. It’s way, way over there.” Phillip stuttered.

To show how far he meant, Phillip pointed outside much to the amusement of Franklyn who simply watched as the boy bolted out of the room. Before questioning Harvey if Phillip knew that it was actually Lunch Time. Phillip continued running until he was far enough for him to calm down, with his breath slowing down slightly as he returned to distance. Phillip eventually did realise that it was lunch time, when he noticed everyone at their lockers getting their food out. With the boy blushing slightly as he realised that he had once again made an idiot of himself, this time in front of Franklyn Miller. He prayed that Franklyn didn’t think of him as an idiot or a loser after that. Harvey would, he knew, and expected that the boy would be teasing him without mercy when their next shared class came. He spent his lunch period with Buster and their group of friends, before heading off to the next class with Buster.

Phillip groaned when he for the second time today, found himself having to go and work in the library. The source of today’s embarrassment. Luckily for him, neither Harvey nor Franklyn were in the library this time. Which allowed him to relax and have some fun with his best friend, which included bugging one of the boys on the same side of the table as Buster, when he made a mistake with the angle of his kick and kicked the boy rather than Buster. After earning a glare from the boy and muttering an apology, Buster and Phillip shared a light giggle with Buster mouthing for Phillip to suck it. He poked his tongue out, since he couldn’t flip the boy the bird in the middle of the library. With their fun finished, the boys returned to their work and quietly worked away on it, neither of it having any struggles with the content since it was basically a repeat of the last week of lessons. Thus they were some of the first finished with the work. Rather than relaxing with a book quietly or looking over their answers however, Buster and Phillip took it upon themselves to play a small game of Rock Paper Scissors, across the table. While this was normal for the two boys, the librarian was quickly getting frustrated by the pair making a mockery of her library and headed over to their table.

“And just WHAT do you think that you are doing.” She growled. Her voice low enough that she wouldn’t interrupt anyone but loud enough thanks to the quietness of the library that she had caught everyone’s attention.

“Well, I for one am totally beating Philly here, so badly that he should just retire a loser now.” Buster bragged. Everyone in the library knew that this was the wrong response to the librarian’s question, with some later spreading that they could see steam coming from her ears.

“We’re finished with our work, ma’am.” Phillip added. Quickly attempting to change the topic before his best friend found himself in detention, or worse.

“Then you can go and find a book to read, like the REST of your classmates who have finished and stop bothering them with your immature antics.” She demanded. Buster and Phillip grinned and jumped up, ready to go and find somewhere they could pretend to read without the grumpy woman until they heard a voice.

“May I go with them as well?”

Phillip turned and looked for the voice and noticed, Colin talking to his teacher while looking in their direction. Colin blushed a little when he noticed Phillip staring at him and faked a light smile towards him. The three boys waited for a few moments before looking over Colin’s work and giving the boy permission to go with Phillip and Buster. Colin didn’t waste any time in jumping from his table and heading over to the other boys, who grinned at him before leading him off in the direction of the fictional books. Phillip had planned on drawing Colin into a conversation until he was pulled away by Buster who wanted to show him some of the more interesting books that had been pointed out to him by some of the older boys. Which featured a little more mature topics then the normal childish books that filled the shelves. Though, he was a little disappointed when they hadn’t actually been dirty but had enjoyed them nonetheless.

Colin simply watched them walking off before heading to get the latest novel in the Gone from Daylight series before heading over to his favourite area in the library. A small slightly-tucked away set of three chairs that overlooked most of the library but could only be seen from certain seats at the table section. He choose that would make him the most visible, just in case his teacher looked for him before settling in. Colin was joined a few moments later by Phillip and Buster who had finally chosen their books, though he was sure that the pair weren’t going to actually read. He had heard the rumours about the pair and he had a feeling that they weren’t just rumours. Something that was proven right when their pair didn’t even both opening the book and returned to their rock paper scissors game. Colin simply ignored it and started on his book, losing himself in it.

Once he had finally defeated Buster in a game, Phillip noticed something at the work tables out of the corner of his eye. Phillip’s eyes zeroed in on something before smirking when he noticed said something blush and look away from. While he couldn’t be certain, he had a feeling that Colin had an admirer. He knew the boy of course, with Phillip wondering why Alex Ruiz was staring at Colin like that. Was he interested in the other boy in that way or was he looking for something to bully the adorable boy about. He decided to watch the situation for now and make sure that Alex wasn’t out to hurt Colin. Even if it would be adorable for Colin to find a boyfriend, if said boy was even gay, something he definitely believed was a strong possibility. He didn’t get to watch this situation for long as the bell rang, with him and Buster having to head for their next class while Colin got to stay and enjoy his book due to having a double English period.

As his teacher droned on and on in their Maths class about some solution, Phillip found himself watching the school clock as it counted down the moments until he was finally free from this place. A grin came to his face when he noticed that there were mere seconds remaining before school would be over and he would be free. Though he found himself once again wondering why the final few minutes of the school day seemed to go to the longest. Moments later, the bell finally rang and the teen didn’t even bother with staying back. He literally grabbed his books and headed out of the room, only earning an amused shake of the head from his teacher. As he exited the classroom, he joined the crowd of students fighting to get out of school or to their lockers. He went looking for his best friend, even though it had been less than an hour since they had been in the library together.

He grinned, a few corridors later when he spotted his best friend, and quickly walked up to him. “Sup”

“I’m taking over the world; what do you think I’m doing.” Buster snorted. As he continued to fiddle around with the stuff in his belongings.

“Well, if you weren’t bent over then I might believe you were taking over the world.” Phillip smirked.

“You would be shocked at what kind of power you can get, bent over.” Buster teased. With the boy wiggling his eyebrows a little.

Phillip squirmed a little. “Gross.”

Buster couldn’t help but crack up in laughter at the look on his friend’s face. With said boy having learnt early that his chestnut brown haired best friend, was extremely innocent and naive.

This was the stark difference between the two as Buster doesn’t have the liberty of that innocence, which was thanks to having an older sister who mostly hanged out with guys. With the worst being her boyfriend and boyfriend’s older brother, whose mouth was dirtier than their toilet. Instead he only had his older brother, Jamie who was nothing like Phillip’s sister or her friends. His brother radiated coolness, yet still had some innocent qualities to him as he seemed to have no idea what people thought about him despite having girls throwing themselves at his feet, in hopes of getting a date with the popular Jamie Cross. To the point that he would go out of his way to say thank you, to someone who said ‘bless you’. Though, he had gotten a girlfriend as of late, some chick named Johanna. She seemed nice enough but he hadn’t really spent much time around her since Jamie didn’t want much to do with him. He honestly doubted that Jamie even knew anything about him. Especially the fact that he was more interested in guys.

Which was something that he hoped that his older brother would never find out about, he just wouldn’t understand. He had heard rumours of his brother standing up for some gay kid at his school but he doubted it, his brother wouldn’t be supportive. Jamie only had eyes for girls and since he kept pushing for him to get a girlfriend or think about girls, like that. Phillip knew he would prefer it if he was straight, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about all of this this. His relationship would be better with his brother and he wouldn’t have to stress about being hated for what he is, or Franklyn Miller. If he wouldn’t get called a sissy for going deep for a moment, then he would admit out loud that it used to upset him a little to the point he had occasionally been reduced to tears about his brother hating him but he had grown out of that stage. And had simply grown closer to his best friend and relied on Buster more than he did Jamie, even if he couldn’t tell Buster about everything going on in his life even if he didn’t have an issue with him being gay. He best friend would just overreact and it would make things weird for them, and he didn’t want that.

The walk home was the quiet for Phillip, with the boy a little disappointed that he hadn’t run into Colin again. Since he had wanted to question him about Alex and what Colin knew about the boy’s obvious attraction to him. His walk was even slower as he didn’t have his best friend or even the red haired devil Levi to frustrate him on the way home. He hadn’t even seen Levi since they had arrived at school, for anything longer than a few moments. Since he had only seen him in passing along with one in the male bathroom, when Levi had entered while he was washing his hands. Though that had led to Levi teasing him that he was in the wrong bathroom and that the girl’s bathroom was next door. Phillip simply flipped him the bird before leaving. Once he had arrived home, Phillip didn’t waste any time in heading for his bedroom with the teen dropping down onto his bed and planning on not moving for a while until he had recovered from the school day. He laid on his bed for a little while before he was interrupted by his older brother, who knocked on the door before opening the door and ginning at his little brother.

“So did you meet any cute girls, Jo was thinking we could chaperone a little date for you and a girl if you ever get the balls to ask one out.” Jamie grinned.

“Go away.” Phillip groaned.

He didn’t really want this but it wasn’t unusual for his older brother to come in and bug him about girls. It had been happening every day since Jamie had begun noticing girls himself, with the boy thinking that his little brother should take after him. While he knew that his brother was just attempting to look out for him in his own weird way, since people did talk if you didn’t even look interested in girls. But he just wasn’t like that and if he was honest, he didn’t really care if people talked about him. He had faced being called a disgrace to his brother’s popularity before and that didn’t ‘fix’ him.

“Come on bro, most guys YOUR age would love to have a girlfriend by now. Someone to hang out with.” Jamie grinned. “Heck, even our ten year old cousin has a girlfriend by now.”

“I have Buster, and seriously? Jack’s relationships barely last a lunch period” Phillip responded.

“True on both fronts, but you should know that there’s some things you can do when hanging out with girls that you can’t do with your dorky friend.” Jamie smirked.

“Like?” Phillip pushed.

“Come on bro, you know.” Jamie winked. “You remember the chat that we had with dad last year don’t you.”

“Oh god, EW!” Phillip replied.

A little grossed out at the thought of being girls like that along with the memory of said conversation with his father. The last thing he needed was a reminder of his dad stuttering through a conversation about being safe and what was normal for boys. At least his mother wasn’t part of THAT conversation, since it was weird enough that Jamie was there. Since his older brother continued to make inappropriate jokes throughout the entire thing along with sniggering and telling their father that Phillip needed everything explained in detail just to see his brother blush.

“Dude. Most people would be begging for a girlfriend? And you are a CROSS bro, you could have any girl that you like.” Jamie tried.

Phillip simply gave his older brother a weird look, raising his eyebrow as he questioned where his brother sanity had gone.

“Seriously Jam? What about me makes you think that I am most people?”

Jamie’s lips thinned before sighing since he knew that he couldn’t disagree with his brother’s question. Phillip was nothing like most people, instead he reminded Jamie of a kid that went to Jamie’s school. Billy Chase. Who was a decent guy for the most part but definitely has some rumours about him going out with Brandon. He didn’t believe it himself since Billy was cool in his books, but there were these little looks and jokes between Billy and his girlfriend that made him wonder at times. While nothing had gone wrong for Billy yet, he had seen what happened with Stevie and if Phillip WAS like that, it made him worry about his younger brother. Phillip felt a tear form and a lump in his throat when his brother whispered something:

‘It would be much easier if you were.’