Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 19:55:51 +0000 (UTC)
From: Andy Brown <andybrown3000@yahoo.com>
Subject: Opposites attract, chapter 4

Opposites Attract - Chapter 4


Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction which features romance and
sexual activity between teenage boys.  If you do not want to read such a
story, or it is illegal for you to do so because of your age or where you
live, then I recommend you go read something else instead.

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**********


By the time Gethin was ten minutes late for their tutoring session, Alex
had already decided he wasn't going to look at the clock again.  By the
time he was fifteen minutes late, Alex actually switched seats, putting his
back to the clock so he could keep that promise to himself.  And by the
time he was twenty-two minutes late, his stomach had twisted itself into a
painful knot and he'd given up on understanding anything in the maths
textbook he had open in front of him.  He knew Gethin was twenty-two
minutes late because he'd broken his promise and turned around to look a
few times after switching seats.

Sucking in a breath, he pushed the book away from him.  It was dumb to keep
sitting in the library when he could probably study better on his own at
home, he told himself.

Because it was official; Gethin had stood him up.  Er, no-showed.  Which
was fine.  No big deal, really, no matter how magical it had felt when
Gethin had run into Alex on Friday.  Well, Gethin and Cerys Murray.
Literally, in her case.

Alex reached up to touch the still tender lump on his head.  Regardless of
his predicted grades, he was definitely the world's biggest idiot for the
way he'd sort of felt happy about the injury over the last few days.  Okay,
not happy about getting hurt, of course.  But every time Alex thought about
the way Gethin had touched his face that day?  The way Gethin had looked at
Alex?  Definite butterflies.

Alex put his hand on his stomach, the memory bringing them back to life all
over again.  He blinked, refocusing on the empty seat across from him.  As
he did so, the butterflies were crushed under the twisting disappointment.
He'd been trying to brace himself for it since Friday; ever since Gethin
had run off after that brief moment of magic in the corridor.  But bracing
himself didn't make the feelings any less painful.

Had Alex scared him off?  Had he let himself see something that wasn't
there just because he wanted it so much?  Because of his own delusion, had
he slipped and let Gethin see how he really felt, spiralling the straight
boy into a panic?

Alex sighed, pushing his chair back with an embarrassingly loud screech.
Shoving his maths book into his rucksack, he stood up.  It was probably
better all round that Gethin hadn't shown up today.  Alex had started to
break his own rules about just keeping to himself for however long his
stint at Pontardawe Academy lasted.

He held onto that reasoning with a mental death grip, determined to spin
Gethin's absence as a positive.  He was not about to let himself be
disappointed by it.  And he wasn't going to allow himself to be hurt.
After all, wasn't that why he'd learnt to avoid trying to make friends in
the first place?

He threw his rucksack over his shoulder and headed out of the library.  As
he went, he refused to let himself look at the clock again, or at anything
else for that matter.  That was probably why he slammed right into someone
before he'd managed more than a dozen steps towards the door.

"Oh my God," Alex gasped, arms flailing for balance.  The impact forced him
to take his eyes off the floor and onto --

He froze mid-breath, finding himself gazing into Gethin's beautiful, blue
eyes.  Every single drop of disappointment inside him evaporated in an
instant.  Gethin had come!

Alex was smiling before he had time to think about it.  Freezing while
flailing turned out to be a less than great combination, though.  He had no
doubt at all that he would have hit the floor hard, and landed flat on his
arse.  But Gethin had quicker reflexes than he did, the rugby player
reaching out to catch him the moment their eyes met.

"Gethin?" Alex squealed.

For some reason, Gethin's eyes had drifted down to rest on Alex's mouth.
The sound of Alex saying his name had him jerking them up again.  He
flushed bright red, letting go of his tutor as he stepped back.

"Uh, you okay, Al?" Gethin asked.  He shoved his hand through his hair,
looking anywhere and everywhere but at Alex.  Awkwardness radiated off
Gethin like rays from the sun.  He cleared his throat and looked down.
"Didn't mean to knock into you like that," he mumbled.

"I'm fine," Alex said, as his heart tried to pound right out of his chest.

Gethin finally looked at him again, and Alex wiped the smile off his face.
Well, tried to, anyway.  Tried and utterly failed.  Gethin had shown up!

Gethin cleared his throat again.  Was he sick?  "Good," he said.  "Yeah.
That's good.  Glad you're okay.  And sorry I was..."

"Late," Alex finished for him, still grinning much, much too widely as he
looked over at the clock again.  "You're really, really late, Gethin."

37 minutes late, a.k.a. a lifetime of heartache and misery.  Not that it
felt like that mattered now, of course.  Now, Alex sort of felt like all
those butterflies inside him has given his heart wings, too.

"Sorry," Gethin mumbled again, looking decidedly nervous.  And apologetic.
And gorgeous, as always.

But also something more, too.  Something that made the butterflies in
Alex's stomach go into overdrive.

Gethin seemed at a loss for anything else to say, though.  Nor did he seem
inclined to head over to their regular table.  So, doing his best not to
sound as ridiculously happy as he felt, Alex prompted him.  "I figured you
weren't coming, so I was about to leave...?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Gethin said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Training ran over and I didn't have your number to let you know, so..."

He trailed off with a sheepish shrug.  Alex wondered for a second if Gethin
was fishing to get his number.  Which was dumb.

Alex flushed.  Clearly, his outstanding predicted grades meant nothing when
it came to real life.

"You don't have your maths book with you," he blurted.  Gethin was
empty-handed, his rucksack nowhere in sight.  As soon as the words were out
of his mouth, Alex had a horrifying thought.  Maybe Gethin wasn't late at
all.  Maybe he had meant to stand Alex up, and was only here at the library
because he'd figured Alex would already have left.  Maybe Gethin was here
to meet someone else.  Maybe he was...

"Oh, shit," Gethin said, cutting off Alex's panic attack.  Gethin's face
went bright red.  "I rushed out of the... uh, changing room and must've
forgotten it.  Sorry, Al.  You must think I'm an idiot."

"No," Alex said.  Seeing Gethin so flustered had Alex's panic disappearing
as quickly as it had appeared.  Before he knew it, his face was stretching
with a Gethin-inspired irrepressible smile again.  The butterflies were
back, too.  Alex shut them down ruthlessly.  He was determined to get them
back on track before he totally lost sight of what they were supposed to be
doing together.  Studying.  That's why Gethin had come.

"We can share my book," Alex said.

Gethin nodded, biting his lip.  Then he shook his head.  "Um,
actually... you hungry, Al?" he asked.

Alex blinked.  What?

Gethin's face started to colour up again.  "I mean, training was kind of
intense, so I'm hungry, and you know it's kinda late now, so I just thought
maybe you might be hungry, too?  And if you are, well... maybe we should go
get something to eat instead of studying today?"

Alex stared at him, trying to make sense of that.  Gethin wanted to go get
something to eat?  With him?

"We could still study after we eat if you want," Gethin said quickly.
"Unless you've got other plans tonight, of course.  Or we could eat now and
study another day.  Or just... just eat another day, I guess.  Or we could
not eat.  I mean, not eat together, because you've got to eat, right?  But
it doesn't have to be with me.  And you probably want to study right now
since that was the plan, so I guess eating was a dumb idea, huh?  Okay,
right.  Let's just stay here then.  We can share your book and... snd
study."  Gethin shrugged one shoulder, looking away.  "That's cool."

Alex blinked again.  It sort of sounded like Gethin had just had an entire
conversation with himself, but out loud.  It also sort of sounded like
Gethin had been asking Alex out.  Well, out to eat.  Like he wanted to go
get something to eat with Alex.  The two of them.  Together.  Obviously not
in a date like way, but still... together.

Alex's heart started thundering in his chest.  He pressed his lips together
as tightly as he could.  He began breathing in and out through his nose
until he could be sure that he wouldn't start up with his over the top
smiling action again.  He was trying to wait until he had it under control
before answering.  Gethin started fidgeting, though, and Alex broke.

"Um, yeah," he blurted, the smile he'd been trying to tame bursting out
along with the words.  "I'm hungry, Gethin.  Totally hungry.  I could eat.
If that's what you want to do."

"Yeah?" Gethin said, grinning so big that his eyes crinkled at the corners.
"Cool.  You could ride on the back of my bike, if you want.  Or, I mean, we
could go separately and just meet somewhere."

Alex could feel his face heating up.  "I don't have a bike," he admitted.

"Okay," Gethin said, rocking back on his heels as he smiled even wider.  It
was almost like Alex's lack of a bike was somehow a good thing.  "Like I
said, you can ride on the back of mine," he added, reaching out a hand and
making a little beckoning gesture as he spoke.  "Do you want me to take
that for you?"

It took Alex a minute to realise Gethin meant his rucksack.  Which
was... weird?  Good weird, though.  Maybe even nice weird.  Actually,
probably, don't-overthink-it weird.  Because really, Alex could come up
with only one reason that Gethin would want to carry his rucksack for him.
That was an over romanticised, never going to happen in real life idea.
Some sort of sweet, slightly cheesy `boy likes boy and carries his books
for him' thing.  Which, obviously, it couldn't be, right?

"Sure," Alex said anyway, handing the rucksack over.  As he did so, the
butterflies in his stomach burst back to life in full force.  And this
time, he almost managed to tame the smile as he added, "Thanks, Gethin."

Okay, that was a lie.  He totally didn't manage to tame the smile at all.
And sure, there obviously had to be some other reason that the straight,
hot rugby star he'd been crushing on ever since enrolling at Pontardawe
Academy was asking him out on a not-date.  It was probably something as
straightforward as Gethin being hungry.  And Gethin also being polite,
meaning he hadn't felt good about leaving his tutor hanging with no word.

Gethin smiled at Alex and directed him towards the bike sheds.  A hand
pressed against the small of Alex's back.  The butterflies didn't seem to
care that it couldn't mean what it sort of felt like it did.  And just for
this one, single afternoon, maybe Alex wouldn't care, either.

Given his mother's track record, he probably wouldn't be at Pontardawe for
very long anyway.  There really wasn't any harm in enjoying himself a
little while he was here, right?  Especially if he made sure not to start
hoping that being asked out to get a simple bite to eat meant anything
more.  Because it didn't.  It was, no doubt, a one-time thing.

It was just Gethin being Gethin -- friendly, polite, nice; just like he
always was.  As long as Alex kept reminding himself of that fact, he should
be safe from accidentally wanting anything else.  He was too smart to do
that.  He was.  Really.

The butterflies in Alex's stomach, though?  Whenever Gethin smiled at him,
they didn't seem very smart at all.


**********


Links to my other stories

Short stories:
Looking After Jake - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/looking-after-jake
Meeting With a Trucker - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/meeting-with-a-trucker
Thank God It's Friday - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/young-friends/thank-god-its-friday
My Stepfather's Secret - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/my-stepfathers-secret
The Hotel Room - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/the-hotel-room
The Sketch Pad - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/young-friends/the-sketch-pad
Builder Boy - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/builder-boy

Multi-chapter stories:
Tutoring Dylan - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/tutoring-dylan/
The Hunters - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/the-hunters/
Everything's Different In The Country - https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/young-friends/everythings-different-in-the-country/