“We’re the ones who flirt with disaster! On your ass we’ll pounce like a panther! Cut the bullshit out with a dagger, with a dagger, with a dagger!”

                “Ethan! Shut up!”

                I laughed and slapped my hand over Ethan’s mouth. He pouted and licked my hand like his life depended on it.

                “Lovely,” I grumbled, pulling my hand away from his mouth and wiping it on his shirt.

                “Hey! Keep my spit to yourself!” he said, jumping away from me.

                “That doesn’t even make sense,” I pointed out.

                “It doesn’t need to make sense. I’m Ethan. When do I ever make sense?” He rolled his eyes at my apparent stupidity.

                “Seriously, do you even have a last name?” I asked with a sigh.

                “Nope. I’m just Ethan,” he said, grinning.

                I opened my mouth to say something, but my eyes widened a little and I gripped Ethan’s hand. I pulled him around the corner into a more crowded area of the hallway.

                “What?” he asked in confusion.

                “Nate and Landon were over there,” I said, pulling him along towards Gideon’s locker out of habit.

                Realizing what I was doing, I tried to stop and turn around. But it was too late, and Gideon had already spotted us. He motioned us over and I sighed but walked the rest of the way to him.

                “You two left so suddenly,” he said with a frown. “Sonnet said you both had something to do. But you never even texted me, Greyson. That’s not like you. Are you okay?”

                “Perfectly fine,” I said. I mean, it’s not like my heart shattered in my chest and cut up my internal organs or anything.

                “Oh, and here comes the walking misery,” Ethan said with a frown.

                “Ethan. Benji,” Jude greeted as he stepped in front of Gideon.

                He turned and pulled Gideon into his arms, kissing him lovingly. I winced and dropped my gaze as my heart ached at the sight.

                Ethan gripped my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. He offered me a cute, crooked smile. I managed to return a small smile of my own.

                “Oh, so are you two dating?” Jude asked once he had pulled away from Gideon and noticed us.

                “I hope you two are. You’re perfect together,” Gideon said eagerly.

                Damn Jude. Damn him to the darkest pits of hell for putting the idea of me and Ethan into Gideon’s head.

                “No,” I said, pulling my hand away from Ethan’s. “We’re not dating.”

                “Greyson, we’re hanging out at Jude’s afterschool and he said you guys can come if you want,” Gideon said.

                “You and Ethan,” Jude said with a smirk.

                “What about Sonnet?” I asked.

                “Sadly, my parents said I can only have three people over tonight,” Jude said with a sigh.

                But the glint in his eyes told me he was a filthy liar. He just didn’t want Sonnet there because he knew she was the brains of our group, and she wasn’t afraid to expose him to Gideon if she got the chance. I was surprised she hadn’t showed Gideon the video yet, to be honest.

                “Sure,” I said. I wasn’t sure why I was agreeing to this since Jude clearly had something up his sleeve, but I guess curiosity killed the cat.

                “If Benji’s going, I’m going. Someone has to make sure Jude doesn’t murder him,” Ethan said with a sigh.

                The bell rang before Jude or Gideon got the chance to reply to that. Jude sighed and turned to Gideon, kissing him.

                “I’ll see you at lunch Gideon,” he said before walking away.

                “Are you going to start sitting with him in lunch?” I asked suspiciously as we started walking towards class together.

                “Don’t get so worked up Greyson,” Gideon said with a frown.

                “I’m not getting worked up. Sorry I’m a little annoyed that I’ve loved you for years, and you still ended up picking Jude over me,” I said in irritation.

                “Benjamin Greyson Bryant. I can’t believe you. You honestly think that I would pick anyone over you? Yes, I’m dating Jude. But I would never pick anyone over you. I love you too, Grey. You’re my best friend,” Gideon said seriously.

                “The friend zone: Abandon all hope ye who enter here,” Ethan said as I miserably face-palmed myself.

                “Oh, I see Ethan was here to make a sarcastic remark about the friend zone,” Sonnet said, coming up next to me.

                “Someone had to cover for you, Sonnet. You were slacking,” Ethan said.

                “Hey, some of us enjoy our beauty sleep. You think I actually want to get out of bed in the morning?” Sonnet rolled her eyes.

                “I’m so confused,” Gideon said, frowning. “What did I say?”

                “Oh, nothing,” Sonnet said with a bright smile.

                “Just ignore her,” I said with a sigh.

                “Well, my class is right there. So I’m going to leave this uncomfortable situation. Bye guys!” Ethan gave a little wave and disappeared into his classroom.

                “I was going to show him that video. But I decided I’m leaving it up to you for now,” Sonnet said, quiet so that only I could hear her. “But he deserves to see it. Jude could hurt him eventually, and I won’t forgive myself if I know I could’ve stopped it.”

                “I hate when you’re a good friend,” I groaned.

                “Someone has to be since you’re a pussy,” she said with a shrug, walking ahead of me into class.

                “What was that about?” Gideon asked.

                “Nothing. Let’s just go to class,” I said with a sigh.

                I suffered through the day until it was time for lunch. I think my life got even more miserable when Jude came over and sat down with us.

                “I invited Jude to sit with us,” Gideon explained as Jude sat down next to him.

                “Where’s Ethan?” Jude asked curiously, his eyes shooting to my face.

                I paled and stood up. “I’ll go find him,” I said and hurried out of the room.

                I went to the boys’ bathroom, but paled even more when I realized Ethan wasn’t in there. I left and racked my brain for any place they could hurt him without getting caught.

                “The locker room!” I said, my eyes going wide.

                I turned and took off down the senior hallway to the locker room. I pushed the door open and ran in, looking around wildly for Ethan.

                “Shit! Benji, get out of here!” Ethan said, spotting me. Landon was restraining his arms.

                I heard a clicking sound and glanced over my shoulder. Nate grinned at me, moving away from the now-locked door and shoving me into the center of the room.

                “Heard you two were still giving Jude some problems,” he said, shoving me again.

                “Hey Benji, remember how you called us bitches? Well, I think it’s time for a little payback for that comment,” Landon said.

                “Let’s start with Benji, shall we? He was the one who said it after all,” Nate said.

                “Once we’re done kicking his ass, we can move on to pathetic little Ethan,” Landon said, slamming Ethan against the wall and advancing at me.

                “Oh fuck,” I groaned as they circled me like hungry sharks.

                “My mom is going to be so mad at me for dying,” Ethan said with a sigh before jumping on Landon and tackling him to the ground.

                “Hey! Get off him you little shit!” Nate snapped, trying to pry Ethan off of Landon.

                “This is the part where you run and get Gideon, dumbass!” Ethan snapped at me.

                “Right!” I said, spinning around and trying to get to the door.

                I was yanked back by Nate, who had abandoned his attempts at prying off Ethan. Ethan let out an annoyed sigh and punched Landon in the back of the head, standing up and slamming against Nate.

                Nate released me in surprise and I pulled the door open, rushing out into the hallway and sprinting back down to my lunch table. They looked up at me in surprise as I reached them.

                “Gideon! They’re attacking Ethan in the locker room!” I said urgently.

                Without a word, Gideon jumped up and followed after me. We burst into the locker room, and Ethan looked up at us, his eye turning nasty colors and his lip split.

                “You’re not good at the whole hero thing,” Ethan informed me, wincing at his split lip.

                “Who hurt you?” Gideon demanded as we went over and helped Ethan stand up.

                “Nate and Landon. Your dick of a boyfriend sent them after both of us,” Ethan said, gesturing at me. “They ran off when they realized that Benji was going to come back with you.”

                “Jude wouldn’t send them after you,” Gideon said automatically. “He would never hurt anyone. Nate and Landon are cruel, but Jude isn’t.”

                “Oh no, you’re right. Jude is a perfect little angel,” Ethan grumbled.

                I grabbed Ethan a paper towel and handed it to him. He held it to his lip. He gently touched his eye and winced.

                “At least Nate punched me in the eye and not Landon,” he said with a sigh, his fingers dropping down to the scar under his eye.

                “Come on. Let’s get you back to the lunch table,” I said.

                He followed me out of the locker room, Gideon trailing behind us and keeping an eye out. We reached the table and sat down as Sonnet and Jude stared at us in surprise.

                “What happened?” Sonnet asked.

                “It starts with J and ends with udeikas,” Ethan said.

                “Me?” Jude asked in shock. “I was here the whole time! I didn’t do anything to you!”

                “No, but you sent Nate and Landon after me and Benji,” Ethan said with a shrug.

                “Jude, can I talk to you for a second?” Gideon asked, his face carefully neutral.

                “Do you seriously think I would tell Nate and Landon to hurt him?” Jude asked, actual hurt in his eyes as he looked at Gideon.

                “No. I didn’t say that. I just want to talk to you,” Gideon said, his expression softening a little as he looked at his boyfriend.

                Jude got up and followed Gideon out of the cafeteria. I turned to Ethan, feeling absolutely awful as I looked at his injured self.

                “Thank you Ethan. They would have beaten the shit out of me if you hadn’t saved me,” I said.

                “I may not be able to fight, but I sure can clumsily knock people over,” he said with a confident nod.

                “Jude is going to keep doing this. You need to show Gideon the video,” Sonnet said angrily.

                “No. It’ll hurt Gideon,” I said quietly. “I can’t hurt him, Sonnet.”

                “Then I will,” she said, clenching her fists. “You’re being a selfish baby, Benji. He needs to see what Jude does. It’s not fair to keep it a secret from him. It’s also not fair to keep letting Ethan get beat up!”

                “Oh god she dragged me into this,” Ethan moaned.

                “Just let Gideon be happy,” I said, unable to meet her eyes. She was right, and I knew it. But I just couldn’t stand to see Gideon upset. Seeing what Jude was really like would absolutely crush Gideon.

                Gideon and Jude came back into the cafeteria a few minutes later holding hands. They sat down together and Gideon sighed.

                “We just talked about it. We’ll talk to you two afterschool,” he said.

                So we went about the rest of the day in awkward silence. When the day was finally over, Ethan followed me down to my car and I drove us to Jude’s house. We got out and went over to Gideon and Jude, who were waiting for us in the driveway.

                “Come on. We have some things to talk about,” Gideon said, leading us up the driveway.

                Jude unlocked the door and let us inside. We followed him out into his living room, where two people were standing and arguing. I could instantly tell they were Jude’s parents.

                “Well, hang it over there,” his dad was saying impatiently.

                “Sydney, I can’t just hang it over there. The painting won’t fit there,” his mom snapped.

                She turned and seemed to notice all of us. She had Jude’s dark black hair and tanned skin, but her eyes were a light green color. Annoyance entered those eyes as they trained on Jude.

                “Judeikas, take your friends upstairs. Your father and I are talking,” she said.

                “We want to talk in the living room,” Jude said, sounding as impatient as his dad. “Go talk about your paintings somewhere else. We don’t care to hear it.”

                “If Jude and his friends want the living room to talk, they can have it. We can figure this out later,” his dad said. His dad had dark hair, tanned skin, and the same impossibly black eyes as Jude. He seemed to notice Gideon for the first time. “Hello, Gideon.”

                “Hi Mr. Tibbits,” Gideon greeted with a polite smile.

                “Okay, you’ve said hi to my boyfriend. Now can you get out of here? The four of us need to talk,” Jude said, grabbing Gideon’s hand.

                “We’ll be upstairs, Judeikas,” his mom said and left the room without another word. Mr. Tibbits glanced at Jude and shrugged before following his wife.

                “God, does your mom always call you Judeikas?” Ethan asked.

                “Well it’s my name,” Jude said, sitting on one of the couches with Gideon.

                “If you weren’t such an asshole, I might feel bad for you,” Ethan said, pulling me down next to him on the other couch.

                “That’s what we need to talk about,” Gideon said. “Jude had nothing to do with what happened today. I talked to him about it, and I even talked to Nate and Landon. They told me that Ethan flirted with Landon, and that’s why they started going after him. They said it had nothing to do with Jude.”

                “Gee, did you ever think that they could, oh I don’t know, lie?” Ethan asked cheerfully.

                “I wouldn’t lie to Gideon,” Jude said, wrapping his arm around Gideon’s waist.

                “Jude has no reason to hurt either of you. And he’s not a bad person,” Gideon said.

                Ethan turned to me and raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t even know it was possible for someone to be that damn oblivious.”

                “Ethan!” I whacked his arm. I turned to Gideon and sighed. “Yea, sure. We believe you.”

                “I would never hut you Benji,” Jude said. He turned and kissed Gideon, flipping me off as he did so. I clenched my fists tightly, wishing Gideon would open his eyes.

                They broke apart and Gideon opened his eyes, smiling at Jude. Jude returned the smile, his hand back at his side.

                “Let me know if anyone else tries to give either of you trouble,” Gideon said to us.

                I nodded, not really paying attention anymore. Jude had brought me here to hurt me. He was going to keep kissing Gideon and being cute with him, because he knew how much seeing it would hurt me.

                “I just remembered that I have an appointment in an hour. Benji, can you take me home?” Ethan asked, jumping up.

                “Uh…Yea, sure Ethan,” I said, getting up as well.

                “Bye Gideon. Bye douchebag,” Ethan said, giving them a short wave and pulling me out of the room.

                We left the house and I stared at Ethan in confusion. “What do you have an appointment for?” I asked.

                “I don’t. I could just tell that seeing them together was hurting you,” he said, moving over to the passenger seat of the car and getting in.

                I copied him, getting in the driver seat and starting up the car. “Well, thank you,” I said sincerely. “Seeing them together would kill me.”

                “I just can’t believe how freaking oblivious Gideon is. If you told me you were in love with me, hell, I would deflower you right away,” he said.

                “Deflower?” I raised an eyebrow.

                “It’s the polite way to say I’d fuck your brains out,” he explained.

                “Ethan! I know what it means!” I said, rolling my eyes and pulling out of the driveway.

                “I’m just putting the offer out there!” he said.

                I sighed and turned up my music to shut him up. I pulled into his driveway a few minutes later and put the car in park.

                “Thanks for getting me out of there Ethan,” I said gratefully.

                “Anything for you Benji,” he said with a small, cute smile.

                My stomach tightened a little, surprising me. It had done that a lot when I first discovered my feelings for Gideon. But there was just no way I could have feelings for someone like Ethan.

                “Just…think about moving on from Gideon. It would be good for you,” he said and got out of the car without another word.

                I watched Ethan disappear inside and ran a hand through my hair. Did I have feelings for Ethan? Should I really try to move on from Gideon? Or should I show him the video and see what happened then?

                “God, being in love freaking sucks,” I said miserably, banging my head against the steering wheel. I needed to figure out what to do, and I needed to figure it out soon.

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A.N,- Those of you who read my story "Coming Out" know that sometimes I let the readers pick who the main character ends up with c; So, just in case I decide to do that with this story, let's see who you guys want Benji with! Let me know if you want him with Gideon, Ethan, or (for you scandalous readers out there) Jude ;D