Chapter 69

Too soon, the holiday break was over, and it was back to school.

We were already half way through the year. Too soon, high school would be over. This had been our last Christmas holiday as high school students.

As the end grew nearer, everything was going to be a new last.

The mood was already different as I walked in the halls, on my way to my locker. People were either stressing about college or excited about it.

Some people who had their shit together and had sent early applications already had their acceptance letters.

I wasn't in those lucky few. And even if I had acceptance letters, I didn't think I would know what I was supposed to do either.

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel.

As I was ruminating these thoughts and taking things out of my locker, arms snaked around my waist. "What's got my Blakie-Shmoopie all gloomy?" Lexi asked, and I felt her kiss my back through my shirt.

I turned around in her embrace, and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Blakie-Shmoopie?"

Lexi grinned up at me, and got on her tip toes, pressing a quick kiss to my lips. "I'm trying out nicknames too."

"Scrap that one immediately," I replied dead-pan, making my Pumpkin chuckle.

"So, why the frowning?" she asked again, pressing her thumb between my eyebrows, like she was trying to smooth out the worry line.

I tilted my head, looking at her. "Was I frowning?"

My girlfriend nodded. "You were frowning."

"You know." I kinda shrugged like that answered it. "College."

"Ah, great." She nodded again. "We can frown together."

"It doesn't stress you out?" I asked her, because of her unusually cheery tone.

She shrugged, her arms still around me, looking up at me. "I decided that as long as I ignore it, it's not going to be a problem."

I chuckled, kissing the top of her head. "That's not how you fix problems."

"I'm not about fixing, I'm ignoring."

"Unfortunately, we can't ignore forever."

She made a grimace. "We're too young to make life long decisions like that. How about we fail all our classes and just retake our senior year? Wouldn't that be much more fun?"

Lexi and I, we didn't like change. It was nice to have things in common. But maybe not that specific thing.

"I don't think that's an option. Even if we failed all our classes now, I think we'd just graduate with really bad marks."

"You really want to make me frown with you, huh?"

"We should share everything," I agreed, chuckling, and then pressed my lips to hers.

"Glad to see you guys are still just as disgustingly in love with each other as you were before," one of the twins said, opening his locker.

"You think our love could diminish over a couple of weeks?" Lexi asked, gasping in fake shock.

"A guy can hope," the twin replied, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

I glared at him, holding my Pumpkin to my side. "Leave my girlfriend alone."

Luckily, with the way my Pumpkin was rolling her eyes and chuckling, I only appeared to be amusing her with my caveman behaviour.

I probably needed to get that one checked. Something to talk about with Doctor Boseman.

The twin grinned at me. I wasn't sure if it was Trevor or Cameron. Probably Trevor. He was more of a nuisance. What had Lexi said about a freckle to set them apart? The only time Lexi was observant was with the twins apparently. Or I guessed, the people she cared about.

"Feeling threatened my dearest Blake," he replied.

"Can someone stuff the twin in his locker?" I called out, as more of our friends had started to gather around to chat before heading to our respective homerooms.

Dwayne came up to me, also with his arm around his girlfriend. "You didn't miss him during the holidays?" he asked teasingly, with a grin on his face.

I rolled my eyes. "Clearly not."

"I missed him," Lexi replied with an evil grin, clearly just to stir shit up.

I gapped at my girlfriend.

"Seeeeee! There's still hope!" the twin cried victoriously, throwing his arms up after closing his locker behind him.

"Please, someone stuff the twin in his locker," I whined throwing my head back.

"Gladly," the other twin replied, shoving his brother's face against the lockers.

"Fight, fight, fight, fight," Peter started to chant and evil laughed, and then the guys joined in, of course.

Before anything else could happen though, the first bell rang, signifying that everyone should start heading to their classrooms.

I took my girlfriend by the hand, and tugged her along, heading to our class.

She smiled at me and followed.

And it was back to our usual schedule.

The morning went by in a blur, with teachers throwing at us a bunch of work.

I was glad when it was finally lunch time.

I got to the cafeteria before Lexi because she'd been chatting with Alex. He was going out to eat lunch with his boyfriend that was in another school.

He seriously deserved a medal. I would be miserable if my girlfriend wasn't going to the same school as me. I would probably be switching school.

So, I sat at the usual table, a few of the guys already there, without my girlfriend.

"Feels kind of weird now, to not have football practice. Even when the season was over before, we'd still do things to prepare for the next year," Trevor said.

I'd figured out which twins was which at this point of the day, and now was able to recognize them by their clothes. They really should start wearing name tags though.

"Imagine if the rest of the guys manage to win the championship next year? How embarrassing would that be?" Dwayne said, making a grimace.

Trevor shuddered. "Horror scenario."

"Don't you guys want our team to win eventually?" Mark asked, being the voice of reason.

"Now that we're gone?" the twin shook his head. "No, absolutely not. I wish them only failure for the foreseeable future."

"Very mature," Jimmy said and snorted.

Trevor grinned. "Thank you. I already feel like a well-balanced adult."

"Hey guys," Clark said, putting his tray down at our table.

Everyone's head snapped in his direction and glared at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mark asked, voicing everyone's opinion.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Clark said, lifting his fork with food on it to his mouth.

"Why are you doing it here?" Peter asked.

"Why shouldn't I?" Clark asked playing dumb.

Or maybe he was just being dumb.

"Have you apologized to Alex?" Cameron asked, glaring at him.

Clark shrugged. "Alex is not here."

"Have you apologized to Alex?" Cameron repeated.

Clark rolled his eyes this time. "Are you guys still sour about that? Who cares?"

"Apparently you did. You cared so much about Alex having a boyfriend that you've needed to make his life hell because of it. So. I once again ask. Have you apologized to Alex yet?" Cameron said again.

"Can we just forget about all of this?" Clark asked, letting out an exhausted sigh.

Fred lifted his head from the table, his nap interrupted. "I've slept two hours last night. If I hear another time have you apologized to Alex, I'm punching the raging homophobe sitting at the table. So. Clark. Unless you've decided to suddenly be a decent human being, could you kindly fuck off?"

"So what? Blake gets to punch him, but I don't get to say a couple of jokes?" Clark asked, like this was some kind of injustice.

Maybe I should punch someone again...

"I have apologized," I told Clark, not that any of this concerned him. "And also I punched him for Lexi."

Clark grinned at me like he had the winning lottery ticket. "You punched him because you were jealous a gay dude managed to hit your girlfriend before you did."

Before I managed to punch him for saying that, Fred slowly got up from his seat, grabbed a full unopened Gatorade bottle from the table and kicked it straight in Clark's face.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Clark shouted, jumping from his seat.

His lip was bleeding. And maybe his nose.

And apparently no one in the cafeteria cared much about that altercation, not enough to even looking our direction.

Everyone at school was basically used to Clark's antics at this point.

Honestly, Clark needed to just be a decent human being, and apologize for us to let him hang around again. But apparently that was too much for him.

"I said, kindly fuck off," Fred replied in a monotonous voice.

Clark was fuming, But also bleeding. So, he grabbed his stuff and left.

I almost clapped. I was glad Alex hadn't been here though. I wouldn't have wanted him to have to deal with this shit again.

A minute later, Lexi sat beside me, putting her tray of food down, pressing a kiss to my cheek. "So, what have I missed?" she asked.

Everyone snorted around the table. 

___________________________________________________

Happy Monday my little Pumpkins! <3

Missed me?

Sorry. I was in a serious slump. And also, like December was hell. So yeah. I apologize for disappearing. It shall not happen again. 

But the waiting is all gonna be worth it. 

Because next week, I'll share with you guys my new uploading schedule. And it should be fun. ;P Aaaand, this week I'll be uploading Life in Paintings chapters. Maybe 2024 is FINALLY gonna be the year I finish it. 

Anyway. I shall keep you guys updated on all of this. My 2024 New Year resolutions is DISCIPLINE. I want a fix uploading schedule. And I want to be more active on my platforms. 

So yeah. I'm very sorry again for disappearing. Thank you for being patient with me. I kinda needed the break. But now Im back and things should be fun again!

Alright. Gotta go now. I'll schedule next chapter to drop at midnight like I used to so things can be back to normal.

Byyyyyyye! Love you guys! <3