One of the biggest struggles with being a new kid is where to sit in the cafeteria.

This was the exact problem Alex faced Tuesday afternoon (he had missed Monday lunch due to the rock incident). Trying to decide whether he should sit by himself (marking himself as a emo loner) or with someone else (marking him and that person as friends), he had inadvertently blocked the kids coming from the lunch line. Struggling with a decision, Alex almost fell over when someone knocked into him. 

"Sorry!"

"Watch where you're-" Alex stopped. It was the jock from the nurse's office. His blond hair waved in front of his face in little, adorable curls.

Jesus Christ. Why am I thinking about his hair? 

Alex swallowed. "Um. It's okay." 

The jock smiled. "Sorry. My hair gets in my face and then I can't see." He held out his hand. "Silas, by the way. We didn't introduce ourselves in the nurse's office."

"Alex."

They shook hands. Alex, around the color of a ripe tomato, cleared his throat.

"C-can I sit by you?"

Silas grinned. "Sure."

Needless to say, it was a lunch filled with a healthy dose of awkward gay tension. At least, it was to Alex.

Silas introduced Alex to his friend, whose name was Bella.

"Bella's gay," Silas explained proudly. Alex didn't understand why he was proud of this. Maybe it was the dearest wish of most jocks to have a lesbian as your best friend. 

"Hey," Bella said. Alex returned this greeting.

Not much else happened for all of lunch, except for a minor incident that occurred when the bell rang:

Bell ringing away like its life depended on it, Alex was about to sit up, when Silas offered him a hand.

"If you slide out, you can get slivers on your butt," he said.

Alex, red-faced, took his hand and allowed him to pull him out of the bench.

Neither of them could see Bella grinning at the awkward boys.