Despite the number of times Lucio kept saying that he was doing all right, Pelham still insisted that he go to the school clinic to have a brief medical check on his eye - to which Lucio eventually had no other choice but to accede, simply to stop Pelham from chivvying him further. Even when Lucio had gone inside, Pelham found himself loitering around the hallway, humming to himself whilst observing student-made posters plastered over the walls, the recent ones displaying choir auditions that was going to be held the next couple of weeks. That was when he heard a familiar voice call out his name.

April and a friend of hers had stopped short in their tracks just a few feet away at the sight of Pelham - apparently alone - in the hallway. Her friend - looking relatively out of place, explicitly with her seemingly newly-dyed garnet hair - whispered something to April about meeting her in their next class before proceeding down the hallway. April began to approach Pelham, who was studying her tentatively, as soon as her friend had disappeared around the corner.

"Hey," she said slowly, her eyes darting everywhere but him, as though she was expecting someone else.

"H'llo,"

The silence passed between them in two beats, before April said, "I thought your favourite part about school is eating during lunch hour in the cafeteria,"

"True,"

"So what changed?"

"It'll never change," he said, earning a small laugh from his ex-girlfriend.

"Fine. What has brought you here, may I ask?"

"I met Lucio outside," he began to explain, "and apparently he was hit by a tennis ball."

"We have tennis?"

"I know, right?"

April merely smiled, swinging her hands back and forth in alternate motions by her sides."So what happened after that?"

"Nothing. I just urged him to have his eye checked,"

"Very considerate, aren't you?

"You just noticed?"

April rolled her eyes. "How are you doing, Pel?" she asked earnestly.

The question wasn't something that sounded as though she was referring to the weather. And, judging by the look she was giving him, he knew she was beyond solicitous about his mental well-being.

"I'm ... doing okay," he said, nodding at his own words. "For the moment, at least."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm more worried about Luc's eye,"

April gave a small chuckle. "All right," she said.

"Hey, April?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks," he said, suddenly feeling edgy, "for not turning your back on me. I honestly appreciate that. You're a really great person, you know that?" He sighed. "I spent nights picturing your reactions, and they were never good. But reality turned out to be better. So-"

"Shut up, Pel," said April, closing the distance between them in two strides before embracing him, her face already a shade of crimson. "I'm not bigoted, that's all. You'd be damned if I were. And I'd have to kill myself if I were."

Pelham grinned into her hair, inhaling the familiar vanilla scent. Just then, the door opened and April released Pelham instantly, as though she had been caught doing something unjust. "Oh - hello, Luc!"

Lucio, like April's friend earlier, suddenly looked fairly unsure of where he stood. Not to mention that he seemed oddly out of place, especially since the person that he had never spoken to had just acknowledged him - and with his nickname. He was pressing a square cloth on one eye, while his other eye darted from Pelham to April and back.

"Er ... hi," he said, his voice in a higher pitch than he'd intended. "You're his ... er, girl-"

"Ex," she corrected him.

"Right,"

"Okay,"

"How's your eye?" Pelham asked.

"Okay,"

Silence settled in as each of them tried to think of a word to say. Eventually, April said, "I don't fancy awkward encounters."

"You're right," Pelham agreed.

"I have class," Lucio nodded.

"Me too," April said. "See you around, I guess."

And she disappeared down the hallway, leaving the two boys alone as more students started to trickle in from the cafeteria, about to head to their next classes before the bell rang.

"Sorry for ruining your lunch hour," Lucio told Pelham, who merely laughed.

"Not a problem, really," he assured him. "See you at my place, then?"

"Um-"

"My place it is."

And they parted for their next classes.

Since Roshon was Pelham's lab partner for Chemistry, and seeing as he wasn't around, Pelham had no other choice but to partner up with a girl who was rumoured to have a massive infatuation with him. Not that he was aware of it from the beginning; a handful number of the girls practically giggled when their teacher, Mr Enoch, said that they had to partner up with someone for their thermometric titration practical. It wasn't as though he was nettled by her or anything. As it happened, Roshon was adept at Chemistry, and Pelham was always relying on his best friend when it came to practicals. The girl - whose name was Shannon - wasn't as good as he'd hoped her to be. Worst might just be the fact that they weren't allowed to refer to their textbooks or notes.

In spite of that, they ended up doing some quick and discreet research on the internet under the desk using their phones when the teacher wasn't looking, and thrashed out the possible answers when nothing befitting came up. All in all, Pelham and Shannon made a relatively decent team together. And by the time the class was over, Pelham made a mental note to ask Roshon regarding his studying skills.

*

Apparently, Lucio had memorised Pelham's address by heart, for later that evening, just as Pelham was finishing his essay, his mother called from downstairs, informing him that he had a friend over.

Putting down his pen, Pelham went over to his bedside table where his phone was currently connected to the charger to check whether he'd received any calls or text messages. He had received none.

Downstairs, where his mother had admitted Lucio into the house, Lucio was currently playing with Oris in the sitting room. At the sound of Pelham's footsteps, the raven headed boy looked up. And Pelham felt that indubitable, rather profound flipping sensation in his stomach as soon as their eyes met. As always, he paid no heed to it.

"You could've texted me you were coming by this early," Pelham told Lucio, who merely responded with a sheepish grin as Oris tugged at a strand of his hair. Lucio's schoolbag was lying with its zipper open on the floor where Oris had undoubtedly rummaged through. "I was just finishing my homework."

"Great!" Lucio clapped his hands together. "I mean, well ... because I thought I might need some help."

Now Pelham knew why Lucio had brought along his schoolbag. "With what?"

"Additional Mathematics ...?"

"You're lucky I got an 'A' for the last test," Pelham pointed out.

"Don't you all? Private schools and all ..."

Pelham didn't answer. "We'll play Call of Duty later," he said instead.

"Advanced Warfare?"

"Nah," said Pelham dismissively. "Black Ops."

*

Lucio didn't know what he had been expecting when he asked whether Pelham could help him with his Additional Mathematics homework; a floundering student - just like him - or an utter Mathematics nerd. Pelham, apparently - and not much to his surprise, now that he thought about it - was the latter. To Lucio, Pelham honestly didn't necessarily strike as the type of student who scored straight 'A's in Mathematics, though he was. And Lucio reminded himself to stop judging a book by its cover.

Pelham made the topics that Lucio was always fazed with look so elementary, and Lucio found that he was catching up far better than when he was in class. Perhaps it was the fact that he was studying in a less populous environment, which was much more tranquil that way, unlike in school, where there were a lot of distraction - not to mention the school tyrants.

Besides, Pelham had more patience at teaching - tutoring, as Lucio would very much prefer to call it - than his own teacher, who snapped at the mere click of a pen. Lucio could ask as many questions as he liked without any concern of being regarded as dimwitted, dense or simply vexing.

"... if you notice, sine and cosine are like best friends; you see them together," Pelham was explaining, jotting down some notes on a piece of paper as he did so, "for example: sine over cosine equals to tangent. The other one will be, if you add sine-square theta with cosine-square theta, the answer will be one."

Lucio was gaping at Pelham's messy scribbles on the paper. He understood, all right. The only hindrance at the moment was their proximity; Pelham's shoulder was basically brushing Lucio's as he wrote, and the older boy - apparently - didn't seem to notice the contact he was making. Lucio looked at Pelham, then back on the paper, and repeated.

"All right, just focus on the fact that sine and cosine are best friends," Pelham proceeded when Lucio continued to stare unblinkingly.

"They look more like husband and wife to me," Lucio finally said, drawing his eyebrows together. "When sine tops cosine, they get tangent."

It was Pelham's turn to gape. "That can work too, if it helps you remember them better," he said, earning a laugh from Lucio.

"It does,"

"Husband and wife, then?"

"Husband and wife,"

"I should be paid for this,"

"It's just homework,"

"Of all the people that can help you with your work, you chose me," Pelham said. "I feel honoured."

"Because you've had your GCSE's already. Besides, I know you're excellent at this," Lucio told him. Pelham cocked an eyebrow as if in question. "Mrs Hoodes always mentioned you when she tried to compare our work with the previous batch. 'Why can't you all be more like Mr Nixon?'; 'If you know Pelham Nixon, the lowest he's ever gotten was a B'; 'Pelham Nixon always amazes me with his brains' and blah blah blah ..."

Pelham was suppressing a snigger that was threatening to leave his throat, because Lucio was making a really precise impersonation of their Mathematics teacher, who was quite known for her constant yammering about students in her thick Posh accent as though they were long-gone legends. Though, he couldn't help but feel flattered.

"Didn't know she liked me," Pelham remarked.

"Didn't know you were a Mathlete."

"A what?"

"You know, Maths and athlete. You're basically-"

"I know what you mean. But a Mathlete? You made me sound more like Deshi Liang."

"Who?"

"You don't remember? The exchange student who was here for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the term? Quite popular and got a hundred once. Not that I'm surprised. Don't you remember? Every teacher was talking about him," Pelham told Lucio. When Lucio remained looking at a loss, he said, "The one who accidentally knocked over the bullies till they crashed the food stall in the cafeteria on his last day?"

"Oh, that Asian boy," Lucio nodded, grinning, recalling the frenzy that materialised in the cafeteria back in September with Deshi Liang and the infamous group from the Upper Sixth."Yeah, that lucky bastard did it on his last day. I would've done it on purpose if it were my last day - just for a light vengeance, you know?"

"Vengeance?" Pelham frowned, his smile faltering. "You mean, they ... also harass you at school?"

Lucio immediately regretted ever mentioning that aloud. But there was no going back now. He couldn't take his words back to twist them in order to shroud the truth. That being so, he said, "Sometimes." Which was a lie. "They pushed me off the boat during that camping trip, remember? So don't worry about it."

But a frown had replaced Pelham's carefree expression. Lucio internally sighed, wishing that he could rewind the time so he wouldn't have had mentioned such thing. Not that he was surprised that Pelham wasn't aware about him being domineered by the same people. In fact, people hardly ever were. Apparently, the school tyrants knew just when to go after him at the right time to avoid from being busted. Lucio could name a couple of victims around the school. They were in the same boat; coming late to class, textbooks and notes ripped, hair tousled in every direction and sporting a black eye or two. The least he'd gotten was the black eye and a couple of punches.

He hadn't told anyone, of course - not even his aunt. His parents, on the contrary, wouldn't give a hoot, even if that thought poured a bitter taste into his guts. Besides, he wouldn't risk the same thing repeating in his life. He was done, and he was trying to make a new life there, far from home, even though he knew perfectly well that the plan was already going down the drain. It was as though wherever he went, he wasn't safe.

It was the same. You're a sin! That one sentence never ceased to a stop.

Most of all, he couldn't risk telling Pelham. He simply didn't trust himself for it - not after what happened to him in his hometown. Besides, he liked the friendship between him and Pelham. He didn't want to lose it. Not again.

Pelham seemed to have resolved that Lucio wasn't going to chew over his issues, so he proceeded at helping the boy finish his homework.

The older boy was resting the side of his head on the desk, watching the silvery tip of Lucio's pen roll around the paper, the shiny black ink trailing in its wake as Lucio worked. Pelham wasn't saying anything, and Lucio could feel the blush rising from the nape of his neck. Why did he feel as if Pelham was watching him intently? Feeling self-conscious wouldn't really help, not to him anyway.

"Stop that," Lucio murmured eventually.

"What?"

"Uh ..."

"I'm not doing anything, Luc - apart from existing and breathing and sitting and talking, that is, which are counted as verbs. Technically, I am doing something, but those are from unconscious thoughts. And really, I'm not doing anything, you follow? Like-"

"Stop talking," Lucio cut him off, before fatigue dominated his body that he rested his head on the table, facing Pelham. The older boy grinned at him. Charming bastard, he thought.

"Okay,"

"Thanks,"

"For agreeing to be quiet, or is there something else?"

Lucio made to rub something from his book just to avoid eye contact. "It's ..." he shook his head and sighed. "Nobody's ever, you know, helped me with something - much less invite me over. Not since ... God, this is awkward. I shouldn't be saying this."

"Not since what?" Pelham chuckled.

Lucio took his moment before answering; "I've had a rough past with my old friend, that's all."

Beat.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Pelham asked, his voice softer that it sent chills down Lucio's spine.

Lucio stared, mulling it over his head. The truth was, he really did want to talk about it. But after going over that one occurrence with his best friend - the one whom he thought had been a real friend after all - he swore never to repeat anything, that he was merely moving out just to start a new life.

"Not really, I guess," he said.

"You sure?" Pelham asked.

Lucio really wanted to trust Pelham with it, for Pelham had always been so sincere and nice. Miguel had been nice too, and didn't I trust him enough to tell him everything, only to have the world against me in return? Lucio reminded himself. I'm not going to repeat that.

So Lucio said, "Yes, I'm sure."

"All right,"

Pelham flashed a closed smile, his lips stretched wide that his eyes were practically beaming. Lucio had this sudden urge to close the distance between their mouths. Instead, he said, "How about Black Ops III, then?"

My Twitter is @ iSawJamesFirst if y'all wanna chat!