"Jayden, come over here. You'll like this," the librarian lady greeted Jayden as he walked in. "The latest book in the series 'Reinterpreting Pythagoras' just came in this morning."

She looked over the books in the carts, and pulled out the one she was referring to. It was an average sized hardcover with a picture of Pythagoras' statue on the front cover. 

"I've already scanned this for you, just need your ID card here." 

He took it out and passed it to her. Outside, the school was filling up, and Alex got bored of waiting. He peeked in and heard them talking.

"All done. That's four weeks from today, which will be..."

"Hey how come Pajamas get a 4-week loan period?" He shouted as he walked in.

"Mr Watson your ban is still in effect, you aren't even supposed to be in here."

She glared at Alex, defensively protecting her Library.

"You banned me from the library cause of a fight that broke the window from outside. That doesn't even make sense."

"That, and also, we've decided to ban you because we keep finding "gay erotica" sneaked in to our collection."

"Are you fucking serious?" Alex said, scratching his head annoyed. "Cause you've ever seen me read a book hey? Listen to this, Pajamas, I spend hours reading gay books just cause I'm gay hey?"

"You have a bad record, it was reasonable for them to suspect you." Jayden said while flipping through his new book.

"In my defense, it was probably Hannah or something," Alex said.

"Actually, it most likely is Hannah," Jayden said, absent-mindedly. He found a spare desk and began indulging in the book, with whatever time he had left, not noticing the librarian lady shooing Alex out behind him.

***

"A huge thank you to all the Universities who have offered these students opportunities to advance their education before the end of the semester." The principal said on the assembly stage as the student exited with their certificates. All of them was invited to participate in an Early-Start college program. Jayden saw Alex walking down the stairs from the other side of the stage. He wondered how Alex got in, but soon realized that it was probably recommendation via his family, as usual.

"If you're an honors student, please stay back after the assembly to complete a National Mathematics Competition paper. Thank you, you may leave for 2nd period."

Everyone got up and began to exit, uniformly as instructed by their respective class teachers. When they're mostly cleared, there was a light chatter behind the remaining students as the supervisors set up the desks for the exam. The principal saw the opportunity and hurried up to Jayden, "Alright Jayden, you ready?"

"Yeah Mr Chrouges"

"Great, just make sure you talk your little friend, Alex over there, into staying for the exam alright?"

Jayden looked at him. The principal was a sweaty, anxious man who was small in stature. Jayden has always wondered if being lower than most of the post-growth spurt kids in the school has made Mr Chrouges the finicky man that he is.

"No, Alex can do what he wants, it's not really my business."

"Come on Jayden, do me a favor won't you. Who do you think it is that recommended you to Silver Wing College?"

"Stop nagging him Mr Chrouges, I already said I'm staying for the exam." Alex said, apparently having approached the principal from behind without him noticing.

Surprised, the principal turned around. He looked at Alex's expression, checking if he was sincere, before taking him to a special desk at the back. Then he paused and thought for a moment. 

The principal decided to place another desk next to Alex and told Jayden to sit there. 

"There, now you can be buddy-buddy with each other." He said, clasping his hands together. 

Once the tables were set up, he went back up to the mic.

"Remember everyone, this is a digital system so the answers will be uploaded by 7 pm tonight. Results will be released via SMS one hour following the upload."

***

When the exam has finished half the day has already gone by. The rest of the school day was nothing too unusual. And in high school, when things aren't "too unusual" then it can be considered as a good old normal day. 

Jayden walked out of school, thinking what he should do next. He saw as usual Alex's friends waved bye to him before setting off for their relative routes home. The fence that separated the school grounds from its worldly concerns must be made of some special Love-Love material. Every afternoon there'd always be a different pair of teenagers XOXOing against it, with no one to bother them for their out-of-school PDA.

"Come on let's eat out tonight, it's my treat". Alex said, as he tapped Jayden on the shoulder before pointing him to the west. Like usual, he appeared out of nowhere. Jayden often entertained the thought of Alex tiptoeing up behind people as he approached them.

"Your treat for what?" Jayden asked, confused. "And don't you have to go home?"

"Nope, no home for me. You know how I am with my step-mom and my dad. My brother is gonna be busy playing goody two-shoes with the local cops. So I'm completely free this afternoon. Besides, I needa return the favor for everything today." Alex smiled. "That annoying gatekeeper, you made him stop questioning me. At the library, you agreed with my point with regards to the real culprit, and you even stood up to the principal for me."

"You misunderstood. I just don't care about you or your life in general."

"I misunderstood? Huh? The whole school knew you were the principal's pet. And what about Hannah, thought she was your best friend, not to mention you noticed my lighter." He said as he whipped it out from his shirt's pocket. "You could have just told the gatekeeper about it and head inside."

Alex stepped closer, and whispered.

"Stop lying to yourself, you know you love me"

"..."

"Geez man, you should see your face. Your reaction is priceless." Alex stepped back laughing. "Trust me. Even I, am not dirty enough to want to sleep with a childhood friend. But seriously though, I got these half price vouchers and they're expiring tonight so might as well." 

"Well if it's just a might as well." Jayden Shrugged. "Then let's go before it gets dark."

"The point, is to wait till it gets dark." Alex said, smiling, as he led the way.

CHAPTER END

XXX

"I told you when we first met that you shouldn't trust anyone."

Alex called to Jayden, as the unconscious gang member fell to the ground between them. He dragged another one with him, bound by the hands and legs, into the inner storage room of the warehouse, where they kept Jayden. The one Alex dragged in was gagged with a cloth, and was left to crawl around while he went and found a large tool. From the shadows Jayden made it out to be a sledge hammer. He walked up to the guy and untied his gag.

"Now are you gonna-"

He looked around the room, yep, it was sound proof enough. 

"-TELL-"

Jayden turned his eyes away from the scene.

"-me who made you do this or what?"

But the sheer combination of fear and pain knocked the gang member out before Alex could get any info out of him. "We'll have to find out who did this to you in another way," Alex said to Jayden, still puffing from the fight before. Alex dropped the hammer and walked up to Jayden. Who was tied down to a chair and stripped from the waist up. 

"You came after all." Jayden said relieved. Alex stood before him.

"I came? Nope, not yet." Alex said, grinning.

"What?" Then Jayden realised what Alex meant. "Alex you dirty horndog get me out of here first."

"I told you when we first met that you shouldn't trust anyone." Alex said, as he chucked his jacket onto a nearby table.

"Not even me."

XXX