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#10 of Alternatives
"So," Jo asks, "What should I do with this? Should I divide throughout by cosine or should I flip the fraction over?"
"Nope, just expand it here," I reply with a smirk, pointing at the trigonometry question, "And here, then you will get this. Then cancel and cancel, simplify, and ta-da! Answer."
I watch Jo as I move my finger to illustrate the step, watching Jo's muzzle change from puzzlement to realisation to annoyance.
"I swore I could have gotten that if I think a little more!" Jo yells in protest and proceeds to slam his head on his desk with a loud thunk. He suddenly turns and looks at me.
"Smart pup, what could I have done without you? Man, I've only missed one day of school and what have my brains become?"
"Don't be ridiculous," I say, "You're the smart one and you know it."
Jo's grades have always been higher than me, even if it's a slight bit. He isn't the best, but still better than me; even gym class where he scored gold.
"Yeah, whatever," says Jo, "Now that I've finished schoolwork, can I rest now? Or we could still talk though. It seems to me that a lot has happened while I was sick."
"Since when did you need my permission to do anything?" I reply.
Once he hears that, he gives a sly smile and crouches down at a sprinting position, tail wagging away.
Whuut?
My eyes widen when my brain registers this simple canine language and position: the basic pounce.
"Jo, don't you dare-"
I couldn't finish the sentence in time. For the second time today, Jo's entire body crashes against mine, and the world around me spins. The next thing I know, I am in a headlock with Jo's knuckles nudging against my forehead. I try to squirm out of his grip, but being me, it's an impossible task.
"Jo! Argh, get off! Are you sure you were sick a few hours ago?!" I bellow at his insane strength for someone who had a flu, letting out a bark of annoyance while my arms flailing, paws swinging at any part of him that I can reach, grabbing on to his soft grey fur.
The guy just laughs at my useless attempts of escaping and says, "That's for keeping secrets from me! Promise me you won't be like that again, and I'll let you off."
"Okay, okay! Let me go now, it hurts!" I yell in desperation.
He loosen his grip all of a sudden which I didn't expect him to. I accidentally knock him in the muzzle and push his chest with my other free paw. Jo yelps in shock and grabs me close by my back in reflex.
Things happened so quickly that within seconds, I end up being on top of him, with our muzzles nearly bumping into each other if it wasn't for my arms to prevent that by supporting myself. I freeze at the moment, not sure of what to do... and Jo doesn't seem to either. I can feel his breath brushing against my muzzle fur, his eyes in astonishment.
When my mind is clearer, I realise that this isn't a good position to be in... or at least with my best friend. I open my muzzle to speak, "Uh... Jo?"
Click.
Both of us turn to the source of the sound, and I quickly leap up from the awkward position. I clear my throat and am halfway brushing my fur straight before Jo's parents burst into the room.
I give my best smile and a small wave to them, "Hi."
His mom comes to me, holds my paws and says, "Oh gosh, thank you so much! I hope he didn't give you much trouble, did he? I'm so sorry to make you take care of him; work can be a hassle at times. We didn't expect both of us to work OT when our pup is sick, this has never happened before. I hate to impose on you, and I can't thank you enough."
Jo let out a "Mom!" at this point, probably to prevent his mom from apologising and explaining on and on. His mom shifts her attention to him and asks about him.
His dad approaches me and gives me a quick hug, "Thank you for taking care of my son."
"No sweat, I had nothing to do anyway," I reply with a shrug.
His dad gives a small chuckle, "Must have been pretty hard to take care of him, isn't it? After all he didn't bathe throughout the weekends, and with the sweat and everything while he was sick, he probably stinks... Did you smell the couch?"
"DAD!" Jo barks out, making his dad jump slightly after being caught talking bad about Jo, while I laugh at the scene.
Jo's family is always like that, fun and funny. Jo and his brother take after his witty dad, and his mom is always trying to control her boys; her two sons and her husband. They can be lively and amusing, but when it comes to serious matters, they will act accordingly.
Jo's parents offered me to stay over, but I decline their offer... and I actually had to take a quarter of an hour to persuade them, which Jo wasn't helping me the entire time. In fact, he wishes that I can stay over for some reason that he didn't mention. In the end, his dad insists on driving me home instead. ("Well, it's the least I could do for you now, don't reject and make me feel bad," he insisted.)
By the time I reach home, it is two hours before midnight. My mom sees me coming through the front door and questions me about where I've been, why aren't I answering her calls, blah blah. I did take some time to explain to her about my day though; I didn't want her to worry anyway, and leaving out the 'coming out' part, of course.
After I account for my absence and she is satisfied with it, I left towards my room to wash up and rest for the day. I was about to enter the room when she come to me and ask, "I was wondering if you keep in contact with all your friends, you know, especially the girl ones?"
Huh? That's got to be really random.
"If I am to be honest, I don't really have friends... other than Jo," I reply, "I'm quite the loner as you always accuse me of anyway."
"But... don't you think that you will feel lonely next time? How about the girl who gave you a sweater for your birthday? The sweater that you always wear even until now?" she asks.
I totally have no idea where she is trying to get at. I really wanted to tell her that I'm gay anyway, and I've already have people in my mind, like Gerrald or the more recent Jo?
"That one you just said, she is attached already, and we aren't in the same school anymore, and yes I do have her number," I reply honestly, "I wear it because I don't have a lot of clothes to choose from, there is really no other reason. She gave it solely as a birthday present and nothing else. Oh, and I'm really ugly anyway, there's no way anyone would fall for me. Anyway, I really tired. Goodnight."
With that, I turn around to do my stuff, like packing for tomorrow's school, while my mom stands there for a few moments before leaving.
I have no idea why she suddenly decides to care more about me. It's so weird. And here I thought Jo was weird enough just now. What's going on?
-
The next day, the first lesson is a math lecture. When I arrive at the lecture hall, I walk to my usual seat and settle down. Jo, for some reason, is actually later than I am because he isn't here yet. I bend down to fish out the lecture notes and stationeries from my bag when I sense that someone heavy have just seated down beside me. I take up my stuff and realise that the one beside me isn't Jo. Jo doesn't have stripes. And there is never once I've sit with anyone other than Jo.
"Heya," Jin says, "Don't mind, do you?"
"Hey," I reply, trying to hide my surprise, but my tail still subtly shifts to the side away from the tiger, "No, of course I won't mind."
Actually I dislike this kind of situation, like when your friend that is close enough such that there is this awkward silence of not knowing what to say.
"You feeling better?" Jin asks.
"Y..yeah, sure," I stutter.
The awkwardness is definitely there. In this kind of situation, I tend to answer questions that are posed to me and nothing else. I grip my paw and try to loosen the nervousness. More students are streaming in to the hall now, and more of Jo's buddies have arrived, giving me a breather as Jin's focus shifted away from me.
"Typh, if you need help you can just tell us, alright? I mean, we're friends anyway, we'll help out if we can," Jin says with a flick of his tail.
Friends, huh? I'm not so sure though. I'm not that close anyway. After all, it has always been Jo's buddies, Jo and I; we were never a single clique.
Jo comes to my rescue by sitting down on the seat directly in front of me, turns back and looks at Jin with almost zero expression, then looks at me before flashing his usual wolfish grin.
Jo's usual buddies swarm around him and are glad to see him back again, especially Jin.
"Hey man, heard from Typh that you were sick, how's it going? Getting old already?" Jin teases.
Jo gives him a light punch at his shoulder, "Oh, screw off, you. Yeah I'm fine. Caught a cold; nothing much. Lucky there isn't much homework to do..."
You know, I think it's kind of lucky for me that Jo, as I hastily came up a random reason, really is sick yesterday, otherwise there would have been more questioning and stuff.
"Okay, now students please settle down, I'm going to start the lecture already," the lecturer says, "Take out your notes and turn to where we stopped last time..."
Throughout the lecture, other than looking at Gerrald at the first row, I also notice that Jin seems to stare at his notes more than he should, and Jo keeps leaning back on his seat after he copied notes. I try not to think about all these much. It must be my usual paranoia.
With Jo back in school, and the fact that our friendship is back again, school has return back to normal.
The following two days are as per normal; school, Jo, jokes and everything. Just that now, there is an additional topic: Gerrald.
"You know, I can totally understand why I can't ever pick out that you were looking at Gerrald," Jo says, "He always sits at the front of the lecture hall! No one will know that you are staring at someone down there instead of the screen."
"I didn't think I'm that subtle though," I reply, "Sometimes I look out of the corridor, look down from above, look out of the window in class too."
"You serious?" Jo answers, "Wow, that's pretty... extreme. You are that into him?"
"Maybe," I say, "It's not all the time anyway, and I kind of figured out his timetable, like where he will appear, ya know."
"That's kinda creepy."
"It is, but after all, I had been looking at him for a considerable period. Not only that, it's dumb as well. Because I never caught his attention nor did he talk to me ever before," I say with a sigh, "This is pathetic... must be due to my ugliness."
"Typh, don't say that. You don't look bad."
"Neither do I look good."
"Does it really matter how one looks?"
"Well, then I suppose my looks isn't good enough for me to get interested parties."
"You have me."
"I meant the other kind of interest."
"You still have me."
"Oh Jo, please, not now."
"You told me to take two days," Jo insists, "I still feel the same way."
"Heya, we're done already, let's get going, Jo!" Jin calls out, then turning to me, "Wanna hang out with us after our workout? We can grab food together."
Jo's right ear twitches slightly, something he usually does when he is slightly displeased. He then turns back to me and says, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. You can finish your work while waiting for us... and you can teach me afterwards."
After hearing from Jo, I shrug and agree, "Okay, I don't mind, less work for the weekends anyway. Hopefully I can finish everything and slack for the weekends, enjoy your workout with the new equipment."
"'Kay, see you later," both of them say.
-
Three hours later, Jo's gym gang and I are eating away at this supposedly healthy fast food store, selling large sandwiches where you can customise your own filling, a complimentary drink and a soft cookie.
Just that the different sides to choose from are mostly vegetables. No wonder this is healthy. But some of Jo's friends stick to a strict diet, which was why we chose this place from the start.
Being my first time here, I didn't know what to choose. Jin tells me that I can try some tuna, tomatoes, onion and lettuces; then Jo somehow emerges between us and recommends me to get turkey ham instead.
As we eat, all of them are exchanging stories and tips about working out. I don't work out, so I can't really join in much... or so I thought. In fact, they bring me into the conversation by telling me about their workout an hour ago, about how one of them tried to use a dumbbell that is too much heavier than he can carry, how Jo and Jin were testing out who can handle more weight in bench press.
Dinner didn't last very long to me, or perhaps it's because I had fun. When we ended it was already 9.
"How was it?" Jo asks, as we walk back home in the same direction, surprisingly no one else is, "I think it's the first time you actually sit down and eat with them."
"No, we do have lunch together in school, we talk in school as well," I reply.
"Well, not after a workout," Jo says, "Not as bad as you thought huh?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I will want to have dinner every Friday after your workout," I say, tilting my head to look up to the night sky, "They will get bored of me, or run out of topic to tell me."
"It's okay, at the very least, you still have me."
I roll my eyes, "Yeah, thanks."
"I mean it, Typh."
Note: Deepest apologies for the delay, to those who had been waiting. I know this chapter is shorter; ain't as exciting or dramatic, it's more like a filler for the next chapter, which I promise I won't take too long to work on.