Flower Boy

4.1 | OF ALL ENDS

                                                            PART IV   |   THE SPLENDOR OF SUMMER

                                                    "What a lovely sight, together under the sunlight."

                                                                                    ( 4.1 ) j u d i t h

EVERYTHING SEEMED NORMAL after that day,  I have to admit I felt kind of relieved. But I still feel really bad for Simon after what he went through those few days.

But right now, he's sitting five seats away from me in the school's gym, listening to our gym teacher talk about safe s*x. I do agree this class is quite essential for us soon-to-be adults, nonetheless, as the whole room is filled with hormonal, deviant, and very much sexually-active teenagers, I'm pretty sure most of the kids here know how a condom works.

The guys next to me were exchanging explicit hand gestures with each other, laughing away immaturely within their group of friends. If they actually had brains, they would just do it instead of shoving their index fingers into circles made with their hands.

Too bad they only have d***s, and I assume they're not as great in size as their cocky personalities.

I look over to Simon, who seems slightly uncomfortable with the entire talk. He was sat next to a bunch of girls, and I doubt that's any help either. He finally catches me looking at him, scrunching his face in disgust towards me. I could tell he wasn't enjoying the lesson at all.

I raise my eyebrows smile back. He smiles too in return, without breaking his gaze towards me.

"Hey Jude." The male voice beside me speaks, and it was no other than the school's star quarterback, Hector Kavanagh. 

I turn to him, half-annoyed and uninterested. I never liked him or his obnoxious friends since the day I had nearly every class with him, especially since the time he was my (lazy, annoying and very much stupid) lab partner in chemistry.

"Don't call me that." Despite me using my most uninterested voice to speak to him, he doesn't seem to catch my drift.

"Right, right, 'Judith'."

He said my name mockingly, and I was trying my very best to keep myself together.

"What do you want, Hector?"

He puts his arm around my shoulder, making me feel like he would just headlock and choke me.

"When are you going to do it with Julie?" He gives me this weird smirk, and damn, I wish I could just rip his mouth off his face to stop this abuse.

Julie. Haven't heard that name in a while. But she was no way forgotten.

"You know I broke up with her last year, right? Besides, we were both not that serious either."

Lies, I loved her a lot.

"Man, you dated her for 2 years and you didn't f**k her?"

God, he pisses me off.

"Relationships are not just about s*x, Hector. Is it wrong to respect her opinion when she said she wasn't ready?"

He chuckles, somehow. I don't remember saying anything funny at all. This is why I'm not close to anyone in the class. 

After Julie, I practically hit rock bottom until Simon came around. Come to think of it, Simon's the most normal one I've met, and yet he was most special too. 

The bell rings loudly when Hector is about to say something, and he just waves me off like it was nothing.

He removes his arm from my shoulder, soon walking out of the gym with his friends. I can finally feel my own neck again.

I turn my head to Simon, who is still seated while everyone leaves the room. He looked like he was waiting, and soon the gym cleared up.

He finally gets up and walks to me.

"Wanna walk home together?" he asks as he sits right next to me.

"Can't, I have baseball practice after this." 

He looks a bit let down, his eyes still met with mine.

"I can wait till you finish."

Does he want to walk home with me that bad? I do appreciate his effort a lot, but I felt like I'm troubling him.

"Are you sure? It's two hours long."

"Yeah, I'll just watch you play as I wait."

He's being so thoughtful and caring, something doesn't seem right. Maybe he's just a bit more sentimental lately.

"Okay, but it's kind of boring to watch. You can leave first if you want."

He nods with a bright smile. It's so hard to believe this was the Simon I saw crying to me that afternoon; the Simon that had lost all hope in that one second. At least, that's just my interpretation. 

We left the gym not long later. 

It was great to see him happy again.

.  .  .

When I finished baseball practice, I was shown a drawing of me on the field, drawn by no other than the ginger-haired boy on the bleachers.

We walked home together later that day, the lemon yellow sunshine illuminates everything around us.

.  .  .

Summer had officially made its arrival.

.  .  .