"I know everything about you."

☆

It was the look which had started it. That look was all Archie could see before his eyes. Mark's smug face. He clenches his fist along with the feeling of annoyance building up inside of him as he sees Bay finally enters the canteen, where he heads over to where Archie is sitting. “Where's Lena?” He asks as he takes a seat. 

“She's busy with Jojo.” Archie says, feeling that on this occasion that he was glad it was just them. If he could see Mark right now, maybe he would pull a smug face too. Show him that he was also important to Bay, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. “Doesn't it bother you that Mark doesn't want to be seen with you around school?” Archie finds himself saying, without thinking. Maybe with his own selfish thoughts presiding. 

“You know why.“  Bay looks up at Archie, his mouth full of chips. “I'm ok with it. I don't want anyone to give him grief for hanging around with me, or give me grief for that matter.” 

“Is that the only reason?” Archie leans across the table, catching Bay's attention. “Are you sure there isn't a little more to it?” 

Bay swallows down his chip, the potato feeling stuck in his throat for a split second. “Yes. That's the only reason.” He utters, not being able to maintain eye contact. 

 “I know, Bay.” Archie glances around to see if anyone is looking. He looks back at Bay. “ I know about you and him, I've known for a while now.”

The colour instantly drains from Bay's face, with the realisation that Archie possibly knows about his secret. Not only that, but what was happening between him and Mark. It causes him to come over a little nauseous. He says nothing as he stands up, grabs his bag. He turns and heads back through the door from when he had just entered. His feet get faster as he approaches the door. 

Archie stays where he is, just for a moment. Unsure of whether to follow or not. Already cursing himself inside for not thinking this through. Knowing that in a selfish moment, he had put his own feelings before his friend's. He needed to get up. He needed to find Bay. He gets up, leaving the canteen. His intention is to find Bay to apologise, explain, do something but instead, as the door opens, he is faced with none other than Mark. 

“Get out of my way.” Archie tries to get past Mark, but he is too good at anticipating his move and blocking his path. 

“What's the hurry?” Mark replies. He knew full well that Archie had to get somewhere, whereas he had all the time in the world. 

“Just get out of my way!” Archie pushes Mark, causing him to take a step back and drawing the attention of a few watchful eyes. 

As a reflex, Mark pushes Archie back, causing him to hit the door behind him. “Don't push me. Do you know who I am?” 

Archie smirks at the comment. He stares into Mark's eyes, he takes a step forwards getting right up into his face. “I know everything about you.” 

The pleasure Archie felt when he saw that smug face drop was satisfaction enough that he knew the fist hitting his jaw was inevitable. “Shut your fucking mouth.” Mark grabs Archie's blazer and shirt so tightly that his knuckles turn white. 

“Archie!” 

Mark looks over his shoulder to see Bay stood a little further behind the pair. Mark instantly lets go of his hold on Archie.

“I was just coming to look for you.” Archie pushes past Mark, determined to get to Bay. “Can we go talk somewhere?” 

Bay looks over at Mark, looking a little lost and making Bay feel like he was being pulled in two directions. Should he at least dare to approach him in such a public space?

“What's going on?” Gus approaches Mark, seeing the fall out of something. 

Mark reluctantly pulls his eyes from Bay as he focuses on the boy by his side. It was the first time that he felt his heart want to take the lead. At that moment, not care about who he spoke to or what he felt inside, but then he remembered his mind once again, overriding his feelings  “Nothing. I'm hungry. Let's go.” He heads back into the canteen, with Gus looking at Bay and Archie for a moment longer before following Mark inside. 

Bay tries his best to feel unaffected by the shun.  It was what he had signed up for after all. He looks up at Archie's reddened jaw. “What did you say to him?” 

“I said nothing I swear!” He puts a hand to his face, feeling the pain begin to magnify. “I just wanted to come and find you….” He looks around him. The space was beginning to fill with people. “Can we go somewhere and talk?” 

Bay sighs heavily as he pulls Archie by the arm out into the open air. Archie slumps against the wall, taking a seat on the cold ground. He again takes a hand to his jaw. “Let me get something for that.” Before Archie can protest, Bay is gone, only to return a few moments later with a chilled carton of juice. He offers it to Archie, who holds it against his jaw. Bay takes a seat next to his friend, both looking out at the school grounds as people communed during the lunch break. 

“Why are you being nice to me?” Archie utters. “I was being a brat.”

“I wasn't going to come back but….” He looks at Archie's profile. “I'm not the one who should be running. 

“I know…. I didn't mean to confront you like that. It's just. ..” Archie lowers the juice carton as he faces Bay. “I'm pissed off. Not about who you date, well maybe a bit, but not because he has a dick… he is a dick though...”

“Hey!” 

… “Why didn't you tell me?” 

Bay looks down at the ground between his raised knees. “I was scared. You hear about friends falling apart when this kind of thing happens. I didn't want that to happen to us.” He looks at Archie. “Do you remember a few years ago, all that stuff with Dexter Chan and Jack Doherty? They were friends. Dexter made Jack's life a living hell…”

“Are you saying I'm like Dexter Chan?” Archie cannot help but laugh. “He had a screw loose.”

“No, but.”

“I'm not angry because you're gay or bi or whatever you say you are. I'm annoyed that you didn't feel like you could tell me.” 

“I'm sorry.” 

“Shut up, I'm sorry.” Archie pushes Bay sideways. He raises the carton back to his face. The tension between them eases. “Mark's a dick though.”

“No he isn't. He has a soft side….” Bay looks at the carton pressed against Archie's face, just detecting the eye roll. “What did you say to him exactly?”

“Nothing, I swear! He just wouldn't let me pass.. He was winding me up, like he knows something I don't” Bay feels the adrenaline spike in his chest. Mark did know something he didn't and he wanted it to stay that way. Archie looks at Bay. “You said just now that you shouldn't be the one to run and you're right. But it's not right that he makes you hide.” 

“Try to understand, it's different for him. He has a reputation in school, he has friends but they're not like you and me. 

“We are more than that.” Archie utters as he and Bay lock eyes. A moment where for some reason neither could pull away from the gaze…. Until a football misses Bay's head by a margin as it bounces off the wall. “Hey. Watch it!” Archie shouts at the careless kid in one of the lower years.

A/N. In case you didn't know, Dexter Chan and Jack Doherty had their own book. ‘Peepers chapter 1’ but sadly wattpad deleted it…. But their Chapter 2 book of the same name is still here and tells the story of them when they cross paths as adults. :)