By the time he made it downstairs with his messenger bag, he heard a car pulling up outside. Adam was early.
“I’m just going to make breakfast,” Jared said, answering his phone on the first ring. “Do you want anything?”
“I ate already,” Adam said. He sounded tense.
“Piece of toast? I’ll put peanut butter on it for you….”
“Bitch, please,” Adam muttered and hung up. Jared laughed as he quickly shoved three slices of bread into the toaster and checked over the contents of his bag to make sure he had everything for the day.
He ignored the “hurry up” message from Adam and slathered peanut butter over all three pieces of bread and shoved one in his mouth, shouldered his bag, and lightly jogged to the door.
Adam looked pissed off. A few months ago, it would have worried Jared to see him with the perma-scowl on his face. Now he was fairly sure it was nothing to do with him and certainly nothing personal. From his small fleet of cars, Adam had picked the sleek black Audi to drive this morning, and despite Jared’s desire to psychoanalyze his boyfriend’s choice of vehicle, he couldn’t be bothered. It was too early.
He slid into the car and shoved the satchel between his knees, passed Adam one of the pieces of toast and leaned over to press a quick, sticky kiss to his cheek.
“Thanks,” Adam said drily.
“You’re welcome, darling.”
Jared munched in contented silence as they made the short journey to school, the familiar sights of the island whizzing past them. Adam ate while he drove, then reached over and put his hand on Jared’s knee. That was the only way Jared knew he’d been bouncing it, full of nervous energy. He wiped his hands on his pants and laced their fingers together.
Adam didn’t say anything at all, seemingly concentrating on pulling into the huge school gates and into his unofficial parking space.
“You ready for this?” Jared asked, reaching for his bag.
Adam quirked an eyebrow. “We’ll soon find out.”
They got out of the car smoothly, and Jared leaned against the hood as Adam walked around. Plenty of kids were milling around waiting for the bell, and pretty much every one of them looked over at the two men who had shared a ride.
“I need to go to the office to check about my college application,” Adam said quietly, words only Jared could hear.
“Okay. I’ll see you in a bit.”
Adam nodded tensely and took half a step away. Jared stopped him by leaning in and pressing a quick, chaste kiss to his lips.
There.
Done.
The hard mask on Adam’s face melted into a warm smile, and he licked his top lip almost unconsciously when Jared pulled away. He nodded, then his eyes hardened again, and he strode off in the direction of the office.
Jared pocketed his phone and headed for the main steps of the school, aware that if people hadn’t been watching before, they certainly were now.
A general air of expectation followed Jared around most of the morning. Younger students watched him in the hallways, as if expecting him to drop his immaculately pressed trousers and bend over right outside the French lab and be thoroughly fucked by his boyfriend. The fact that his boyfriend wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity didn’t seem to matter all that much.
Jared took a leaf out of Adam’s book and held his head high, ignoring everyone else as if they were beneath him. Since he didn’t actually believe that, Jared thought he probably didn’t carry it off with the same pizazz Adam did, but it was worth the effort. Kids moved out of his way, probably sensing he wasn’t about to step around them.
All their morning classes were apart anyway, and it was only when they got to the period before lunch—gym—that they were reunited.
For some reason Ms. Allison had let them out of French a few minutes before the bell, so Jared arrived to an empty locker room and had the chance to change quickly and be out on the field for soccer practice before anyone else wandered in. That was good. He used the extra time to run a few laps on the field, warming up since it was fucking freezing outside.
“This is not a winter sport,” Lewis yelled at Coach as the rest of the class piled out of the locker room.
“Looks like Rawell disagrees with you,” Coach said smugly.
Jared crossed the soccer pitch and came to a stop with his hands on his hips, breathing slightly heavier than usual.
“Don’t use me as an example,” he said, any emotion stolen from his voice due to breathlessness.
“In Europe they play when there’s snow on the ground,” Coach said. “Warm up. Go!”
The fact that Jared was already warm didn’t seem to mean anything. They ran drills for a half hour or so, then split off into a match, Jared in goal, as usual. It was too late now for him to convince the school to get their shit together and put a school team out, but he was considering which colleges had an intramural soccer team he might be able to join in the fall.
College applications were firmly on his mind as he rocked from foot to foot on the frozen solid ground, waiting for the ball to come back down this end of the pitch and attempting to stay warm while he did. Dylan had helped him put it all together, and his grades were strong now and predicted to continue rising. Ivy League was a possibility, although a slim one. Jared hadn’t given up hope yet and was praying that having New Harbor Academy next to his name would be enough to swing any decisions his way.
A freezing, drizzling rain had started to fall by the time Coach blew his whistle again and sent them to the showers. The fact that he’d been put on the same team as Adam, and Adam’s skills as a forward were coming
