Leo rolled his stiff shoulders. Glancing in disinterest at his Geography teacher, who had been talking for the last thirty minutes.

  Why had he taken this fucking subject again? He had tried to focus throughout the entire lesson, but his mind had kept wandering back to that letter. Back to Ivan.

  He had glanced at the door twelve times already, as if Ivan was randomly going to walk into the room. But the blonde-haired boy didn't even take Geography.

  He had decided to write a letter to Ivan telling him to meet him in an old storage closet on the other side of the building. Then he would explain everything. But how would he even give the other boy the letter? They had no mind link because they were from different packs and Leo didn't know his phone number.

  When the bell finally rang, he packed his stuff and then sat back in his chair, watching as the other students filed out of the classroom. He glanced next to him at Amirah, who was still hurriedly packing her own stuff.

  “I'm going as quickly as I can!” She said, giving him an apologetic look.

  Leo put his hands up in defence. “I'm not rushing you.”

  “Then stop looking at me like I'm taking too long.” She snapped, frowning at him for a brief second, then went back to packing her stuff.

  “You are!” Leo gestured to the barren classroom, ”The class is literally empty.”

  She zipped up her backpack and lifted it over her shoulder. “See? Done.”

  They left the room and walked down the hallway to where the rest of their friends were huddled together in a small group, talking loudly.

  When April saw him, she smiled and gave him a friendly wave. “Hey, genius. I heard you got a hundred on the Geo quiz.”

  “Uh… yeah.” Leo smiled back at her.

  How the fuck did she know that? He turned to look at Amirah who just shrugged in response, matching his look of confusion

  She went to hug him and he wrapped his arms around her waist, rolling his eyes at the whistles of encouragement around them.

  “Since you're such a smartass. Do my math homework for ten bucks?” Theo asked, grabbing ten dollars from his back pocket and holding it up. Parker reached out for it but Theo held the paper higher, shaking his head like a disappointed father.

  “No fucking way.”

  Theo shrugged. “Worth a shot. But seriously, no one?” He shook the bill in the air, "There's ten bucks on the line here.”

  “I'll do it for fifty. Non-negotiable.” Amirah piped up, taking the ten dollars from his hand before he could disagree.

  Across the hall, Leo watched Ivan walk up to his locker and grab a few books. He was standing with one of his friends, occasionally nodding along as he talked. Leo couldn't remember his name, Callum? Colton? Carlson?

  He watched Ivan's friend say something to him and Ivan turned around, meeting Leo's gaze. Leo opened his mouth, then closed it, turning to glance at his friends before turning back to Ivan — who was now looking at him with furrowed brows.

  He caught Ivan's gaze and gestured to his closed fist. The letter was in his pocket. Ivan stared at him blankly for a few seconds longer then dragged his eyes back to the conversation he had been having with his friend.

  Leo took that as a ‘Totally knew what you meant, dude’ stare, so he figured Ivan had gotten the message.

  He leaned closer to April “I'll be right back.” He whispered to her and walked towards Ivan's direction, psyching himself up with each slow step forward. He could do this. He just needed to act normally. He grabbed the letter from his pocket and gripped it into a tight fist.

  When he finally reached the duo, he smirked down at Ivan, hiding the unease bubbling in his stomach.

  "Are you going to the party?” Leo placed his hands into his pockets, checking if the letter had miraculously disappeared or not. “I doubt it. Too.... fun for you."

  Ivan shut his locker with a bang and turned around, staring at Leo in annoyance.

  "I have fun," He replied in irritation, glancing down at the battered watch on his wrist.

  "Do you really?" Leo asked, tilting his head as he looked down at him. "Let me guess," He continued.

  "You probably play bingo or… fold clothes, or watch documentaries.” He tilted his head with a mocking smile. “But not the animal ones— those are a bit too much fun for you.”

  Ivan gave him a deadpan look and crossed his arms over his chest. "Is that seriously what you think I do for fun?"

  Leo grinned and shrugged. Of course he didn't, but he knew that each second he stood there was making the other boy even more annoyed, and he loved it. "I wouldn't be surprised."

  Leo tore his gaze away from Ivan and his eyes drifted to his friend, who was standing next to him and staring at Leo with a heated intensity. Leo glanced at the books in his hand, almost smiling when he saw the name tag at the bottom corner of one of his books.

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  "Callum, always a pleasure."

  The other boy scoffed then gave him a bitter smile. "Can't say the same about you."

  Leo smiled mischievously and his hand slipped out of his pocket, the letter tightly clutched between his fist. His stomach tightened in anticipation as he relaxed his fist and loosened his hold on the small slip of paper.

  "Right, of course. Well, see you at the party," Leo said in a sing-song voice. “If you even show up.” He turned away from them, but not before he felt Ivan's hand brush against his palm as he discreetly grabbed the letter from his hand.

  When he walked back down the hall to his friends, he shoved his hands back into his pockets to stop the tingling feeling that now engulfed his entire palm.

  “Hey. What was that about?” Amirah quietly asked him when he finally reached them.

  Leo shrugged and waved a hand dismissively in front of him “Nothing. I —”

  “— I would keep far away from them, man.” Parker interrupted, triggering a few snickers from the rest of the group at his words. Leo's jaw clenched slightly and he glanced back at Amirah, ignoring Parker.

  “Tell you later.”

  — — —

  “See you later man.” Parker shut his locker and nodded to Leo, before walking in the direction of the exit. Leo turned back to his own open locker, then glanced up anxiously at the large wall clock a few lockers down the hallway.

  The letter had said to meet him five minutes after school and it would be five minutes in thirty seconds. Leo had to leave if he didn't want to be late. It probably wouldn't be a great start if he were late to the meeting he had set up.

  He shut his locker and quickly walked to the storage closet, standing in front of the open door. He quietly walked past the room and saw Ivan standing by a shelf of chemicals, glancing down at his phone. His back was turned to the door.

  “What are you doing here!?” Leo asked loudly, doing his best impression of their principal. He expected Ivan to flinch in surprise, but Ivan simply turned around and glanced back at him, a deadpan look plastered across his face.

  “You know you have terrible handwriting.” He immediately said once Leo finally walked inside the room. “It would've taken less effort to blindfold myself and just guess what you wrote.”

  Leo smiled widely and closed the door, at least one of them was acting normally. “No it’s fucking not, you just need to learn how to use your eyes properly. At least it's legible”

  “To who, blind people?”

  Leo gave him a mocking smile “Funny.”

  Leo glanced around the room, avoiding Ivan's irritated gaze. “So how long have you been waiting for?”

  Ivan raised an eyebrow at him. “Are we just here to make small talk?”

  Leo's fingers gripped the edge of his hoodie and he fiddled with the seams. He knew that he was stalling, but he honestly didn’t know how to even start. How do you start a conversation where you're going to tell someone something that could potentially change their life forever?

  He remembered how his parents had started that conversation. We need to tell you something….

  “I need to, uh, tell you something.” The words spilt out on instinct, and Leo cringed.

  Ivan glanced at him in confusion and looked blankly around the small supply closet that they were both currently squished into. “And that needed to be done in a storage room?”

  “You could've just texted me, my number's in my student records. And I know you've looked at them before.”

  Leo's eyebrows shot up briefly and he smirked, shielding the shock that was still present on his face. How did Ivan know about that? “If you wanted my number, you could've just said so.”

  Ivan rolled his eyes. “You are unbelievable.”

  “Unbelievably funny, you mean. Some would even say charming.”

  “Unbelievably stupid more like it.”

  “Takes one to know one.”

  “Is that seriously the best you could do?”

  “I'm just getting started.”

  Ivan glanced at the closed door. “I'm leaving.”

  At his words, Leo could suddenly feel his heart drumming aggressively against his chest. His breathing felt laboured, and he swallowed to calm himself down but the room felt too stuffy, and the collar of his shirt felt too tight against his throat.

  He pulled the collar of his shirt. Breathing suddenly felt impossible.

  What was he thinking? He couldn't do this. Not now. He should just give up. But he needed to do this. He needed to tell Ivan. He needed…. He just had to….

  Ivan glanced at him in genuine curiosity. The other boy could probably tell that something was going on with him. Oh you have no idea.

  Ivan gave him a questioning look and Leo just stared at him blankly, trying to hide his panic. Ivan crossed the small space to the exit and his hand gripped the door handle.

  Leo's gaze snapped to the door.

  Ivan glanced at him expectantly, waiting to see what he would say, but Leo remained silent. Come on, he just needed to say it.

  Say it.

  Say it.

  Say It.

  Ivan pulled the door open.

  “You're my mate!” Leo finally called out and the air in the room filled with a painfully thick silence.

  Ivan didn't move. Didn't breathe.

  All Leo could hear was the drum of his heart, the quick rise and fall of his chest still visible at the edges of his eyes.

  Ivan froze. The hand that had been resting on the door handle fell to his side, filling the room with a bang.

  “What did you just say?”

  Ivan remained frozen for a few more seconds then shut the door and spun around on his heels, focusing his eyes intensely on Leo.

  Leo released a slow breath. He felt like his heart would burst out of his chest if it kept going any faster. He stared straight into Ivan's eyes, determined not to look away. “You heard me.”

  “You're joking.”

  “Wish I was.”

  Ivan said nothing in response. His gaze was fixed intently on Leo, studying his face for the sign of a lie that never came.

  Leo scanned Ivan's own face for any sort of reaction, but his features remained unrevealing.

  He thought the other boy wasn't going to say anything at all, but after a while, his mouth opened and his eyebrows scrunched in thought — then his features softened just slightly, and he turned on his heels, facing the door again.

  “I need to go.”

  He pulled the door open. Leo watched the pale blonde on the back of his head disappear into the busy hallway and he was gone in seconds.

  Leo stared at the closed door, running a hand through his hair. Fuck. He had actually done it. What could Ivan be thinking?