My friend Kevin - 5. Chapter 5

The next couple of days went by excruitiatingly slowly. I spent a lot of time asking around, trying to figure out who could have sent the mail, to no avail. It felt like I was grabbing at straws, and my inquiries lacked any real direction. This was getting beyond frustrating.

"Did you hear me?" I snapped out of my world of questions when Philip spoke. We were sitting in the cafeteria, supposedly studying. I was just doodling little silly images in my textbook. Damn it, that's my textbook, not my notebook. While trying to erase the doodles without ripping the pages of the book, I looked at Philip with a confused frown.

"Hear what?" Philip smiled as he leaned back in his seat, weighing back on his chair.

"There's a new guy joining our class today."

"What? How come I haven't heard of it?" I had perked up, now looking at Philip like an alert deer, my green eyes staring intently at him.

"Geez, it's not like it's anything big. Didn't you listen when mr Wither announced it monday?" Philip raised an eyebrow while looking at me. Oh, why couldn't I raise an eyebrow like that. It was so dramatic. I could tell that Nora was jealous of his skill as well, because she instantly tried to raise an eyebrow, and failing horribly.

"I guess I had zoned out.. Who is he?"

"Well I heard he's from the big city, but I dunno." Philip shrugged like he didn't care, but I think he did. If it was a good looking guy, he'd have to protect Nora. Or at least he would think he had to protect her. She did have a tendency to crush on random people. But she stuck by Philip.

"I can't wait!" Kevin chirped happily as he chewed on some fizzy sour candy bottles, making an adorable scrunchy face for a moment before recovering from the sour rush.

"How come you're so excited?" I looked at him with a smirk, nudging him with my elbow.

"Ohohoho, wouldn't you like to know. I have my gaydar tuned up, I'm going to check him out, see if he's worthy for moi." He put his hand to his chest lightly with a snobbish look on his face, and we all laughed. It was nice to have things back to normal, for the most part at least.

Recess ended and we parted with Philip who had his own classes to attend to. Idle chatting took up most of the time as we walked back to gather our literature books. the English course had shifted into serious literature, which meant a lot of reading,and a lot of books. It was quite heavy to carry and Kevin suddenly picked off two of my books to carry himself, seemingly unaffected by the weight.

"Hey, I can carry that myself!" Kevin just grinned at me and picked up his pace to walk ahead of me.

"You were struggling darling, I can handle this!" I rolled my eyes and started jogging lightly to catch up with him.

"Seriously, you're hopeless sometimes." I couldn't help but smile however. If he wasn't helpful, he wouldn't be the Kevin I knew.

Indeed, we did get a new addition to the class. He stood in front of the class for less of a minute while Mr Wither introduced him shortly. Apparently his name was Matthew Stone. He was tall, even taller than Kevin, about 190cm I'd say. He had a rather bored and apathetic look on his face. He had a strong jaw and a bit of stubble, pronounced cheekbones but without looking like some kind of wannabe vampire. I couldn't tell for sure, but his eyes looked to be a steely grey, his hair a stylish mess of black, some of it covering his forehead and reaching just down to his eyes, his pierced ears visible through it. Even with clothes on I could see that he had a bit of muscle, and I had to admit..

He was hot.

I'm not gay. Or well, I am, but, I try not to think about it too much. I prefer to leave sexuality completely out of my life, it makes things so much easier. I glanced over to Kevin. God, he was mesmorized, absolutely enchanted. I don't think he noticed that he was staring, but I nudged him slightly to snap him out of it.

"Stop staring, you're gonna start drooling soon." I whispered with a smirk and I could see the blood rush to his cheeks, and he seriously hid behind me, like he was trying to hide from Matthews looks as he walked by us. I guess the guy noticed Kevin's obvious staring, and I couldn't help but chuckle lowly. This was just too good.

"Kevin's got an eyecandy." My voice was still a whisper but Kevin swatted at me in embarassment, pulling up his red scarf, hiding his blush as much as he could. God, he was just adorable.

I noticed that Kevin had slight issues with concentrating for the rest of the lecture. He was constantly throwing glances back at Matthew, and I think that the other returned his looks like to time, because I heard little 'eep's from my friend. I just wasn't sure why Matthew would look back at Kevin more than once. Unless he was, well, gay.

I didn't know if I wanted Matthew to be gay. I sighed softly and looked down at my notebook, resting my head in one of my hands as I doodled idly, not really paying attention anymore. If Matthew was gay.. It's not like I didn't want Kevin to find someone. But I didn't want to lose him. He was my friend. Sounds selfish, I know. But I didn't have that many friends, and I couldn't afford losing one. Now, I don't think of Kevin as the kind of person who would completely abandon me just because he got a boyfriend, but I didn't know Matthew. I mean, he could be anyone. Any kind of person.

I didn't know if he deserved such a lovely person as Kevin.

I bit my lip and shook my head, two fingers rubbing at my temple. This new guy was upsetting more than I had thought he would. Get it together Timothy, you haven't even talked to him.. I sucked in a deep breath and sighed shakily, tapping my pencil against the paper. This wasn't good, I was starting to dislike the guy just because he might be gay.

Because he might become friends with Kevin.

Because he might take him away from me.

I shook my head again. Why the heck was I thinking about this? It's not like I had dibs on Kevin or anything. He was my best friend, and that was that. He could date anyone he wanted to. Anyone he wanted to...

I glanced off at Matthew with a concerned look. What kind of person was he? He could be a criminal for all we knew. He could be a violent gay-hating rasist, but I think that was just my mind trying to think of reasons of why he wouldn't hang out with me and Kevin. Not that I wanted him to be a violent gay-hating rasist. I just, perhaps wished that he'd find us weird and leave us alone. Either that or straight as the straightest arrow ever.

That I could accept.

I groaned and hid my face in my hands, these thoughts just wouldn't stop. I was suspicious for no reason. I frowned as I heard Kevin's voice, he sounded abit worried.

"Timmy, what's going on? Are you feeling okay?" I raised my head from my hand and looked at him, silent for a few moments, trying to think of an excuse.

"Uh, yeah.. I just have a headache." Kevin pouted lightly.

"Poor thing.. I have just the thing." It didn't take even two seconds for him to fish out a bottle of water and a painkiller from his bag, and I took them both. I didn't have a headache.

Just heartache.

I just couldn't help but feel that something was off about Matthew. Kevin for once wasn't the first to approach him (Kevin usually never took even a second to introduce himself.. And half the school, whenever someone new came around), but while I was quite happy about that, I still knew in the back of my head that is was because of the fact that he was shy. Not his usual personality trait, but when it came to eyecandy, Kevin turned into a giddy and shy schoolgirl.

Kevin had never been comfortable talking to people he really likes. And I don't mean like as friends. It stung, because I knew that I wasn't an option for him. Because he never acted shy around me. It was a tell-tale sign that Kevin liked someone.

He didn't see me that way.

I guess it was alright though, I was perfectly content just having him as my friend. If I couldn't date him, I would at least be the best friend I possibly could, no matter the cost.

I could tell though, that in his mind, Kevin was talking to Matthew. He had that absent look on his face during lunch, the typical daydream expression while his head rested in a hand, his elbow propped up onto the table. His fork was just poking at the food and he had a kind of stupid smile on his face. Kevin always wore his heart on his sleeve, in the most literal way physically possible without, you know, dying.

It wasn't hard to tell whath was thinking. Every two minutes or so he'd throw away a glance at Matthew who was sitting a few tables away from us, talking to Threse and Lisa. And Thomas I suppose, although that guy never said much. He was just a solid rock wall of muscle. Not very bright? Au contraire, he was very bright. Pardon my french, I know it is terrible. But honestly, despite his incredibly muscly, jock-like appearance, Thomas had brain cells to back it up. I'd dare say he's never gotten anything less than an A on any test we've ever had, and he'd gotten a scholarship in football. No fair, being athletic and smart. Although he was truly clever, I think he enjoyed having people believe that he was a dumb as a doorknob. Made him truly shine when he said something intellectual.

Augh, I'm sidetracking.

I turned my attention back to Kevin. He still had that stupid looking smile on his face. Any other time it would be endearing, but I knew who he was thinking about. And I wasn't particularly pleased. I know, I sound like a total jackass, a selfish little prick. Perhaps I am. Now I'm talking to myself again. I need to stop doing this. I shook my head and let out a heavy sigh, which apparently brought Kevin back into what we earthlings would call, 'reality'. A place Kevin hadn't seemed to visit for more than a minute during lunch break, the minute it took to walk down here.

"Ha?"

I rolled my eyes with a smile, okay, I couldn't be angry with him. Can you be angry at a puppy or a kitten? No, I didn't think so.

"Nothing. You've totally spaced out, Kevin."

"Oh, yeah... Sorry darling." He waved a hand in front of his face, pretending that it was a fan.

"Isn't it getting hot in here?"

"In your pants, maybe." Kevin grabbed the nearest item, a napkin, to swat at my head.

"That is absolutely inappropriate! ... But true. Maybe." He smirked and leaned against me, resting his head on my shoulder.

"Don't you ever daydream, Timmy?"

I didn't really want to answer that. I did daydream, a lot, about things I probably had no business daydreaming about, but I couldn't help it. Instead I pretended to be preoccupied with getting a single pea onto my fork.

"Timmy."

"Yeah."

"It's gonna keep rolling off, darling."