Tyler was late to school. There were only two weeks until graduation, so it didn't matter, but it wasn't like him to not at least text. Danny called him between classes.
"Dude, where are you?"
Tyler's voice sounded muffled. "Mmhph. Danny? Whassup?"
"Where are you? Were you sleeping?"
Tyler smacked his lips together. "Shit. Yeah, what time is it?"
"Ah, eight thirteen? Two minutes before second period."
Tyler sighed, long and tired. "I was up late. I'm so tired. I'm gonna go back to bed. Call me at lunch."
"Up late? What were you doing?" Danny asked, feeling jilted.
"Hmm? Oh, stuff. Just reading stuff online too late, lost track of time. Call me at lunch." Tyler hung up without waiting for a response.
It annoyed him all of second period. Was Tyler hiding something? They were supposed to share everything, know everything about each other, but in the last week or so Tyler was acting strange.
He got a text ten minutes into third period. 'I'm coming to get you. Go out the door by the gym in 25 min'.
He read it twice, annoyed, but also excited. 'What are we gonna do?'
'My secret!' Tyler texted back. Danny frowned. They weren't supposed to have secrets. Silence drew his attention back and he slid his phone into his lap just as Ms. Nelson cleared her throat, his stomach twisting with guilt. She stood above him, her hand held out expectantly.
"Phone," she said, not even giving him a chance to explain.
"Ms. Nelson!" he exclaimed. "I'm sorry, please don't take my phone. It was... It was my mom, about my... doctor's appointment for my physical. For college."
She wasn't buying it. "Let me see it, then."
"Ms. Nelson, that's a violation of privacy that I would never ask from someone else," he said, the words falling from his lips. Why couldn't he hold his freaking tongue for, like, five minutes? "It sorta feels like a violation of my fifth amendments rights for protection against self-incrimination."
The social studies teacher's lips pursed in annoyance, but he was soooo glad he'd been paying attention during their two week long block of constitutional law. "That sounds very much like you have done something self-incriminating. Such as texting while in school, to friends, and not to your mother. Both are wrong during class, but seeing as how you have obviously retained something from our Constitutional law unit, I will forgive you once. If I see your phone out again, I will take it for the rest of the day."
"Thank you, Ms. Nelson," he said, tucking his phone in his pocket, his fellow classmate's eyes on him feeling like a convicting jury. "It won't happen again."
She turned to the rest of the class. "I will not abide anyone else using the Fifth Amendment against me in this classroom. You have all been warned."
There was a collective moan, then Ms. Nelson returned to the front of the class. "Since you're all so enthusiastic about your constitutional rights, let's have a quick refresher pop quiz."
The quiz took up the rest of the period, and his classmates weren't exactly happy with him as the bell rang and they filed out, but he didn't care. He was graduating, leaving these assholes behind. He loved his parents, but he hated this town and would never come back.
That wasn't true. He'd go wherever Tyler went, even if it was back here. He didn't think it would be, but he'd follow Tyler to the ends of the earth. God, he was as clingy and needy as a girl.
He checked the time, realizing he was late to their rendezvous. "Shit," he exclaimed, running up to his locker to grab his stuff. He was fourteen minutes late by the time he slipped out the door by the gym, only barely dodging both the vice principal and his secretary on his escape. Tyler wasn't there, so he jogged off campus and around the corner, then ducked behind a Subway, looking for Tyler's car with no luck.
He frowned. It'd be just like Tyler to be impatient and leave him. He pulled out his nearly-confiscated phone and saw he had no missed messages, which just irritated him further. Maybe he'd just go buy a sub and head back to school in time for fifth period. He looked around one more time, then sighed, pocketing his phone and walking around the building for his sub.
His phone rang just before he got to the door. It was Tyler, so he answered. "Where are you?"
"You're late," Tyler answered, sounding upbeat.
"I almost got my phone confiscated which turned into a mandatory pop quiz, then I almost got caught by Vice Principal Englehardt and his demoness secretary. Sorry I didn't sleep in like someone I know..."
Tyler laughed. "Ms. Adams would totally eat you up," he agreed about the demoness secretary. "Walk over to the CVS parking lot. I didn't wanna get spotted by school fuzz."
"You're ridiculous, you know that? What are they gonna do, keep you from graduating?" Despite his complaints, he turned away from the door and turned to talk to the CVS, two blocks from school. The sun was hiding behind angry looking clouds, threatening to burst on him at any second. He picked up speed, hoping to avoid getting completely soaked in the threatening downpour.
He spotted Tyler when he was still a block from his car, and Tyler waved at him the whole time it took him to get there. "You're an idiot, you know that?" Danny asked as he climbed into the passenger seat, throwing his backpack into the backseat.
"Takes one to know one," Tyler mocked. "You hungry?"
"I could eat," he said. "What's the big secret?"
Tyler smiled at him, playful and sexy, and goddammit, he couldn't even be irritated at his friend's mischievous nature.
"Lunch first?"
He sighed. "Fine. Something quick."
They rolled through a Chick Fil A and grabbed some sandwiches. Tyler drove straight to his house as they ate.
"My house?" he asked, confused. "How do you have a secret at my house?"
"Secret's in my bag," Tyler corrected. "No one's home at your house, and no one would potentially stop home, either. Unlike my house." Tyler sighed, wrinkling his nose. "Yours is better."
"Fine," he agreed, because what else would he do? "What are we doing?"
Tyler laughed, sounding nervous as he grabbed the said bag, a black backpack from younger student days. "Be patient."
"I don't get why this is such a big secret," he complained, leading his friend into his house. He locked the door behind them, then turned to confront his friend. "Spill it."
"It's a secret because... it's more fun this way," Tyler said, his smile not as confident as it had been.
"What's wrong, you seem upset?" he said, turning around then putting a hand on Tyler's chest to stop him. "You're all nervous."
Tyler's expression was amusing. "Yeah, I am," he agreed after a breath, probably thinking about whether to lie to him or not. "I'm just so excited."
"What kept you up all night?" he asked, sounding more surly than he wanted it to sound, but he was worried it was a girl. Even though they said they'd share, he still wasn't sure enough about the dynamics of their relationship to be comfortable.
