What A Few Seconds Can Do {Part 3}
Pairing: Warren / Will
Author: beisel76
Rating: Ummm ... PG-14 for this chapter, nothing graphic...
Words: 1,573
Disclaimer: It's called FANFICTION for a reason!
Description: The continuation from the last two chapters, covering 'Save The Citizen' scene, but with a twist.
It had been two weeks since that last day, the day when Warren had said that he and Will were officially together. Needless to say, that after two weeks of Will being perpetually late for the bus (Luckily Ron liked him), Warren being relatively calm unless Lash mentioned how hot Will’s ass looked in gym, and the two being almost inseparable, the gang was getting a little suspicious.
Will had normally sat with them as they moved through schools, but now he sat at the table that he and Warren were the sole inhabitants of, where they would either engage in peculiar and intense staring contests or hold what seemed to be pleasant conversations. And to this day, Will was the only person to hold a conversation with Warren through the entirety of lunch, make him laugh and smile, and not suffer burns that anyone in even the senior class knew of.
At that moment, Layla was hissing under her breath to everyone else that was sitting with her, “Warren‘s giving Will that look again!”
Zack looked over at the two boys, his confusion showing as he asked, “What look?”
Magenta rolled her eyes and smacked Zack upside the head before replying, “It’s only the same look that they always stare at each other with. The same look they’ve been staring at each other with for 2 weeks!”
Ethan pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose before speaking. “I concur. The fact that they appear to be giving each other the same look would indicate that Warren’s feelings, whatever they may be, are reciprocated by Will.”
Layla’s head turned around to face him so fast that the terror of her horrified expression was only emphasized. “What do you mean reciprocated? Warren looks all goo-goo eyed, and Will- Will just isn’t obsessing over Warren like that! He wouldn’t, not to mention the fact that he couldn’t!”
Her outburst raised the eyebrows of everyone else at the table, and Magenta’s quick tongue was certainly not going to let the opportunity to put the overbearing hippie in her place. “Of course not Layla, of course he couldn’t. I mean, he just wouldn’t! But if, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were jealous. Jealous of Warren Peace!”
Layla immediately blushed, huffed, and snapped her mouth shut; refusing to speak to anyone at the table. Then, she looked back over at her boyfriend, and saw him and Warren heatedly discussing something. They would each speak in rapid succession, and then steal glance towards their table.
Warren spoke, and then waited tensely for a reply from Will.
Will nodded his head.
Warren nodded his head.
The two got up with their trays, walked straight to the table where Layla, Ethan, Magenta, and Zack were sitting, and sat their trays down there.
Everyone was more than a little shocked, but Zack, Ethan, and Magenta, made extreme efforts to be polite, especially Magenta.
Will looked as if he was preparing himself for something, and Warren kept looking at him and had his hand on Will’s under the table. Finally, after a very awkward ten minutes, Will began to speak.
“Uh, guys? There’s something I- we - kind of, need to tell you. We’re-“ Will was cut off by the fire alarm at the worst possible moment.
Later, when the drill was over and the students were all going back inside the building, Magenta pulled Ethan and Zack away from Layla and locked the three of them in the janitor’s closet. They both stared at her as if she was crazy (which they were fairly certain she was), as she put the key in her skirt pocket.
“Okay, you two have to have noticed what’s going on between Will and Warren.”
They nodded their heads, still not understanding why she had locked them in the janitor’s closet.
“I take it that you have also noted Layla’s reaction.” Ethan said, looking as if he was about to go into puddle-mode.
“Yeah, so what do we do about it?” she asked him.
“Why are you asking us?” Zack cried from the corner farthest away from Magenta.
“I’m not asking you glow-boy, I’m asking Ethan.” She said matter-of-factly.
“Then why am I here?” He asked hesitantly.
“One, I didn’t want Layla to convert you, two, even you aren’t stupid enough to not notice these things, three, you are Will’s oldest guy-friend, and four, Me pulling only Ethan into a closet would have looked really wierd.”
“Oh.”
They stayed there in silence for a few seconds, Magenta was staring at Zack, Zack was staring at his shoes, and Ethan was the only one thinking about an answer to Magenta’s question.
“Of course, Layla’s having a crush on Will isn’t going to help things at all, but we can be supportive, and hopefully convert her…Or find someone else for her to drool over.” He thought aloud.
“Like who?” Zack asked, slightly horrified at the thought of playing matchmaker for the flower child.
“I don’t know, how about Ethan…”
“No thank you, I’ll have to decline.” Ethan said, quick to clear his name of any potential.
“Okay, what about Speed?”
“Umm…No. Just…No.” Ethan said, shaking his head to get that image out.
They heard the bell for their next class ring, and Magenta promptly unlocked the door. Fearing the wrath of boomer, they rushed to gym class.
“Hot-head, Stronghold, you’re the heroes.”
‘Yeah, no shit Sherlock.’, I thought to myself after putting on the gear for save the citizen.
I saw that chick waving at Will, and him waving back. I got pissed and snapped at him. I shouldn’t have done that, after all, it’s her I want to roast, not Will. He can’t help being a dork.
One minute in, and Lash and Speed had already moved themselves almost to the top of my ‘Cook Well’ list.
I realized a bit too late that I was yelling at him a bit too much. I was so pissed, that even after he saved my from that damn vortex, and we won, I didn’t talk to him. I didn’t even look at him. When I was walking to the bus, I saw Will’s face through the window of Ron Wilson’s bus. He looked like he was on the verge of tears; his eyes were glazed over, staring blankly at the back of the seat in front of him.
‘Way to go Peace,’ I thought, ‘You really fucked that up.’
I went ahead and got on my bus, remained silent all the way home, walked briskly through the front door of the home I shared with my Mom, and locked my bedroom door as soon as I made it through the doorway.
For the first time since I came to grips with who my Dad was, I buried my face in my pillow and bawled. When My Mom got home at 6pm from a ‘situation’ in Wyoming, I was still bawling. At that point, I wasn’t shedding tears anymore; I didn’t have any left.
“Warren, honey, what’s wrong?” she asked through the door.
“Nothing.” I lied.
“You know better than to lie to me Warren! You don’t have to unlock this door, and you don’t have to come downstairs, just tell me what’s wrong.”
I have to hand it to my Mom; she didn’t expect much from me. Good grades, no criminal record, honesty, trust, faith, and love were all she had ever wanted from me. She asked me questions, instead of looking in my mind for the answers. I always appreciated that.
I lifted my head from the pillow and called, “You can unlock the door, if you want.”
I heard a metallic click and her soft footsteps, masked by the soft carpet. She sat down on my bed, in the semicircle my torso created in my fetal position. I heard her take off her gloves and place them beside her, then she starting running her hands down my back.
“Was it something that happened at school?” she asked me.
“Yeah.”
“A girl?”
“No.”
“A boy?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Principal Powers called, and told me about ‘Save the citizen’, does it have something to do with that? By the way, I’m proud of you.” I could tell that she was smiling at me.
“Yeah, it’s the boy I was working with.”
“What happened?”
“You know that.”
“Was it something one of you did?”
“No.”
“Was it something one of you said?”
“Yeah, it was something I said and did.”
“What did you say?”
“I snapped at him, and then I ignored him.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I was mad, but not at him, but it has something to do with him.”
“You were Jealous.” She put it together.
“Who were you Jealous of?” She brought the school yearbook from last year, and I started flipping through the pages. I reached the section for her class, and pointed to her picture. Mom took a few seconds to look at the picture.
“She’s very pretty; she reminds me of someone who was in my class. Let me guess, she stole your man.”
“She’s trying to, and so far, is succeeding.”
“That bitch. I brought pizza and subway home for dinner. What do you say we plan your revenge over dinner?”
I smiled, and followed her down the stairs. I had an awesome Mom. She almost made me forget about the stabbing pain going through my chest.