Destin had one major problem in his life. As a teenager in high school, that was pretty good. That one major problem was Joel, the star quarterback. Destin had fallen completely in love with him well before he gained his athletic "fame."
Now, this major problem led to several minor problems that followed him around constantly. Namely, being gay in fucking Kentucky. This was only a minor problem to Destin, because there was only one way people would find out he was gay: Joel. Interacting with Joel was hard for Destin. He had a habit of saying either too much or too little.
This led to another minor problem, AP Literature. Destin sat a row behind Joel, meaning he was almost constantly aware of the other's presence. Destin was on the verge of failing Ap Lit, because he spent the entire class staring at the back of Joel's head, daydreaming. It amazed him that no one in the class had noticed this strange behavior yet. Well. Almost no one.
"You should really just talk to him. Make a friend!" Amber said for the fiftieth time. "Why are you so terrified to talk to him? I don't think he bites. Unless you want him to..."
"What the fuck, Amber? No, I don't want him to bite..." Destin stopped, thinking about what he was about to say. "Right. I should just walk up to him and say what? You're a really popular jock and I'm a nerdy band geek. We should be best friends. No one would expect it."
"That sounds good enough to me" Amber replied, clapping her hands in excitement.
"You seem very excited for someone about to lose their best friend status." Destin smirked.
"I'm losing it for a greater cause: Your soon-to-be existent love life." Amber said with the most serious look she could muster. Her face immediately broke out in a smile. At that moment, a group of girls walked by the nook in the library we were hiding in. One of them stopped and turned to us.
"I'm sorry. Did you just say that a one Destin Martins is planning on having a love life?" The girl smiled wickedly.
Destin attempted to hide behind Amber while Amber looked the girl in the eyes and said, "Fuck off, Jewelica, Its none of your business."
Within a week, this interaction became another minor problem for Destin. Several of the guys wolfwistled at him, while several of the girls asked him who the lucky lady was, or if he had finally grown a brain and asked out Amber. All of these interactions surprised Destin. He didn't realize just how many people actually paid attention to him or cared. This new realization led back to the first minor problem. With so many eyes on him suddenly, he had to start avoiding Joel so no one would find out just how madly in love with him he was. Avoiding Joel led to the second minor problem. Now AP Lit was the only time Destin saw Joel. Destin completely stopped paying attention. He spent the whole class time memorizing the number of hairs on Joel's head. On top of that, it seemed even Joel had heard the rumors. He never said anything, but at the start of one particular class he looked at Destin with a very weird look. He looked almost constipated, like the possibility of this gross human having a love life was too much for his guts to handle. What a useless lesbian, Destin thought of his best friend. This minor problem wasn't her fault. It was a product of very poor timing. But that look. That look tore the heart out of Destin. What was he going to do now?
It took only a few days after that for the school to realize that the rumors were probably false. Things started going back to normal for Destin. Well. Most things. There was one major difference, though. Joel still looked at him in that weird way at the start of AP Lit. Destin didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to make him stop. So he found himself stuffed in the same nook where this mess all started, whispering to Amber again.
"You know, eventually we're going to have to talk about my relationship problems right?" Amber smirked.
"Except you don't have relationship problems. You have hookups," Destin responded from between his knees.
"Well then eventually we're going to have to talk about my hookups. But that can wait. Now is time to over-analyze the looks you're getting from one specific individual." Amber was being more careful after what happened the last time.
"I just. Everyone else has stopped paying attention to me. Why is he still looking at me like that?" Destin attempted to curl up more in his chair.
"Maybe he doesn't believe the rumors are false? Maybe he thinks we're dating and thinks it's gross."
"Not helping, Amber."
"You're going to fail if you keep letting your crush distract you. Just ignore it." Suddenly there was a giggle from outside.
"You've got to be kidding me. This is definitely on purpose. Where is she?" Destin immediately stood up and walked out of the nook. There stood Jewelica looking overjoyed.
"Who's your crush, Destin? Which class are you failing?" She threw questions at Destin, hoping he would answer with something new to start rumors about.
"None of your business, Jewelica!" Amber said, running out of the nook and dragging Destin away before he could do something rash, like answer the questions.
Surprisingly, nothing came of that conversation for a little while. Everything was quiet for about a week. Then it started. "Destin has a crush on someone in his AP Lit class." "Did you hear? The band geek likes someone in Lit" "Who all is in Destin's AP Lit section?" How the fuck did she figure that out so quick? There was no escaping this one. It was true. He just hoped it would die before people figured it out. The day that rumor started, Joel's look was directed at the rest of the class. Destin was confused by the change the look had taken. It seemed more accusatory look, but there was no clear sign of what Joel was accusing the room of. Destin also noticed that Joel started looking behind him during class. As soon as Destin noticed him doing this, he started looking at the teacher.
It took significantly longer for that rumor to die out. And it only did that with some Amber intervention. She could be truly terrifying when she wanted to be. Destin could tell that, even after it died out, there were people trying to figure out who he had a crush on. One of those people was, unfortunately, Joel. He started class every day by throwing around that accusatory look before sitting down. He constantly swiveled in his chair to look at something behind him. Destin was going insane by the attention he was getting. He was constantly jumpy, ready to bolt at the slightest hint of danger. He was falling into a constant state of Gay Panic.
One day, when Joel was doing his accusatory look-around, his eyes fell on Destin, who was, of course, watching him. It seemed strange that that hadn't happened by this point. Joel looked immediately surpised. It had never occurred to that he had been watched while giving this look. During class, Joel seemed jumpier. He looked behind him more. Destin was doing all he could to not catch Joel's eyes. With five minutes left in class, though, Joel caught him staring. They spent a solid minute gazing into each other's eyes, before Destin broke contact, looking back at the teacher.
At the end of class, Destin bolted to his nook. Amber was just leaving after her free period and immediately asked what was wrong. Before Destin could reply, Joel was standing in the entrance. He seemed out of breath. Amber took one look at him and fled to class. Within seconds Destin got a text from her that said "I want deets."
"It's me, isn't it?" Joel asked, not moving from the entrance.
"What do you... I don't... Wh-what are you talking about?" Destin finally stumbled out.
"I'm your crush. You like me. God, I'm oblivious." Joel took a few steps forward.
"Wha- no. I'm n-not.. " Destin's brain wasn't working fast enough to comprehend what was happening. Joel continued walking toward him.
"You like me. I thought you hated me." Joel was right in front of him now. He was close. Too close. Destin was finding it hard to breathe.
"Wh-why would you think that?" Destin asked, attention focused solely on watching Joel's lips move.
"You avoid all conversation with me. You hardly look at me." All Destin could think about was leaning up and kissing those perfect lips.
"I never stop looking at you." Destin's vocal cords acted on their own, voicing his thoughts. His face got warm as he glanced up at Joel's eyes. Joel smiled down at him and leaned in until his lips were almost touching Dustin's.
"Can I–" Before Joel could finish the question, Destin was smashing his lips forward against the warm ones of the boy in front of him.