Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2023 20:59:38 +0000 (UTC) From: Andy Brown Subject: Opposites attract - chapter 6 Opposites Attract - Chapter Six 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. It's always great to hear from readers, and I do make sure I write back. If you want to get in touch, please email me on andybrown3000@yahoo.com If you can, please support Nifty with a financial donation - whatever you can afford - so that this archive of stories can remain free and available. Just go to http://donate.nifty.org/ ********** A week ago, if anyone had asked Alex what he'd be doing with his Saturday, the last thing he'd have expected to say would have been volunteering to make decorations for Pontardawe Academy's Year Eleven prom. And okay, technically he hadn't actually volunteered; Gethin had sort of roped him into it. Alex had been alternating between giddy excitement and feeling like he might throw up from anxiety ever since Gethin and his dad had pulled up. He'd been waiting at the kitchen window of the crappy little house Alex's mum was currently renting. Despite that, it was already the best weekend he'd had in approximately forever. At the moment, he and Gethin and a few other volunteers from Year Eleven were standing in front of Cerys Murray while she rattled off instructions like a drill sergeant. She had a colour-coded flowchart in her hand and a determined to look in her eyes that might have scared him if he had actually been able to concentrate on what she was saying. Which, it should be noted, he could not... a fact that he blamed entirely on Gethin. Alex bit back a smile. Gethin was standing right next to him. That alone would have been distracting enough. But the way Gethin kept sort of shifting his weight in Alex's direction... standing just a hair closer to Alex than he actually needed to... letting his hand angle at his side, right next to Alex's so that they were almost touching... Seriously, how on earth could Alex be expected to concentrate on anything else? It probably looked perfectly innocent to everyone else. It was just like all the other perfectly innocent moments Gethin had carved out to be with him over the last five days: eating lunch together, extra tutoring, Gethin talking Alex into attending the rugby game the previous afternoon. Yet Alex could tell that it meant something. It was on purpose. Gethin wanted to be with him. That knowledge made it feel like now, even though they were standing there separately, they were together, too. Sharing something that no one else could see. Connected by an invisible force. It had been approximately forever since Alex had felt connected to anybody. Could he really be blamed for being a little less than focused on Cerys' decorating plan? Alex's fingers twitched toward Gethin's hand before he could stop them, just as Cerys said something important sounding that he completely failed to hear. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gethin's lips raise up in a secret little smile. Even though Alex's fingers hadn't made any contact, somehow he knew that Gethin had sensed the twitch. Just like he also knew that Gethin's sexy little almost-a-smile had been for him. Cerys finally wound down her speech. Gethin turned towards Alex, just enough so that the tips of his fingers brushed against Alex's for a fleeting moment. "You don't mind helping with the paper chains, do you, Al?" Gethin asked, the feather-light, electric touch flitting up to Alex's wrist like a wordless secret between the two of them. Alex honestly had no clue what Gethin had just asked him. Those tiny, discrete points of contact had sent a flurry of electrons racing over his skin, making his whole body feel electrically charged. Gethin bit his lip, grinning down at him. "Al?" "Yeah?" Alex asked over the thundering sound formerly known as his heartbeat. His brain finally caught up with him. "Oh, paper chains? Sure. I, um, I can do that. Or... or whatever you want." Anything. Everything. Always. Alex pressed his lips together tightly to avoid accidentally saying any of that, even if it did feel sort of true. But that only lasted for the millisecond before Gethin smiled at him. Because then of course, Alex had to smile back. "Cool," Gethin said, his eyes tracing Alex's smile like a touch. "Mmhmm," Alex agreed, even though he had completely forgotten what they were talking about. "You coming, Gethin?" one of the rugby players called out from the middle of the large, school hall. "I need a hand working out how we're going to put these strobe lights up." "Yeah," Gethin called back. "I'm coming, Callum." Gethin still didn't move away, though. Or look away. God, how could eyes actually be that blue? Alex was pretty sure it was his new favourite colour. A laugh sounded. "Not to interrupt, but you coming sometime today, Smith?" Gethin's smile widened, his eyes straying down to Alex's mouth again. "Guess I gotta go hang the disco ball." "Strobe Lights," Alex corrected him, just to prove that he had been paying attention. Well, okay, no. He'd actually only said it so that Gethin wouldn't walk away yet, which was dumb. After all, they were here to sort out the decorations, not just stand there staring at each other. Gethin's blue eyes sparkled, like he'd seen right through Alex's two-syllable attempt to hold onto him for another second and liked it. Clearly, Gethin wouldn't mind the standing and staring plan any more than Alex would. That fact was unbelievable enough that Alex almost gave in and pinched himself when Gethin finally walked away a moment later. So far, he'd held off. No matter how crazy, unlikely, or dream-come-true-like the last five days might have felt, Alex kind of didn't want to risk it. Because if he was just having some sort of super-high-definition, extended-play, best dream ever... and then actually pinched himself awake? He would hate himself forever. Against all odds, Gethin Smith liked him. Like--liked him. Gethin was gay... and he liked Alex. Alex grinned. Those three facts combined, doing unheard of things inside him. Well, it was technically only two facts. Or maybe one fact plus another, and then a conclusion. Two facts, joined by one common thread, that -- "Can you pick up the other end of this table and help me move it over by those ones?" Cerys asked him. Her voice startled him out of his current `staring at Gethin's arse across the room and daydreaming' reverie. "Sure," he said, putting down the string of fairy lights that had ended up in his hand somehow. He jerked his eyes off his... er, well, his Gethin. Okay, maybe not officially his Gethin, but definitely his crush. "Are you excited for prom, Alex?" Cerys asked as they started walking the lightweight, but awkwardly long, table over towards the wall. "Sure," Alex lied to be polite. The question only served to remind him that Gethin may have been Alex's crush, but - from what Alex had heard around school -- he was also Cerys' date to prom. Not that Gethin had ever brought the subject up himself. And not that Alex was ever going to ask. In fact, Alex wasn't going to even think about it. Because really, there was no point. Cerys was super sweet and he knew that she and Gethin were good friends, so it was really fine. Totally fine. Gethin had spent most of his non-school, non-rugby hours with Alex over the last few days. He'd sent the butterflies that lived in Alex's stomach into a near constant and apparently never-ending state of flutteration with his acknowledgement that Gethin was actually interested in him. But despite all of that, it didn't mean Gethin was suddenly going to tell the rest of the world about them. Alex didn't expect him to. After all, Alex knew better than anyone how disastrously coming out to the wrong people at the wrong time could be. "I'm sure this place is going to look really good, Cerys," Alex said, hoping to shift the conversation away from his feelings about the prom that she was putting so much hard work into. "You're doing a great job." "Thanks," Cerys said, followed by some other things that Alex missed completely when Gethin looked over at him and winked. Alex tripped. "Are you okay?" Cerys asked, pausing with her end of the table. "Yeah," Alex said, figuring he probably shouldn't look at Gethin any more if he actually wanted to get anything done without hurting himself or anyone else. "Sorry, Cerys." Gethin was halfway up some makeshift scaffolding now, holding one end of something heavy looking. Another guy hooked the other end of it to the ceiling. As he did so, Gethin's Welsh rugby top hitched up to show a couple of inches of his abs. Alex flushed, trying and failing to avoid getting a little turned on by the sight. He definitely wasn't thinking about how intriguing the little happy trail that disappeared under the waistband of Gethin's jogging bottoms was. "Earth to Alex," Cerys said, waving a hand in front of his face. "Um, what?" Alex asked, jerking his eyes away from Gethin's... joggers. Fuck, he'd already broken his own `not looking at Gethin' rule, hadn't he? And now Gethin was looking back at him, a sexy smile on his face. It was doing all sorts of things to Alex that he'd never actually thought happened outside of the soppy movies his mum liked to cry over. Was it healthy to be this happy? Were there like actual health risks? Elevated heart rate. Premature wrinkles from overuse of the smile muscles. Butterfly wing abrasion to the inner lining of the stomach. As someone who planned on being a doctor someday, Alex should probably look into it. Cerys laughed. The sound broke Alex out of the smile-off he had gotten caught up in with Gethin. "Honestly," Cerys said as she set down her end of the table. "You two are so cute." "We... what?" Alex asked, a frisson of nerves moving through him. "I d-d-don't know what you... uh, what you're talking about." This time, he did manage to keep his eyes off Gethin. Instead, he focused on lining up his end of the table the way Cerys wanted. Then he set it down carefully while his mind raced to find an alternative explanation for her comment. He and Gethin hadn't actually talked about it directly, but it was obvious that Gethin wasn't out. And sure, Alex knew that Gethin and Cerys were friends. But he wasn't going to assume Gethin would be okay with Alex confirming or denying or in any way acknowledging anything that might out Gethin to her. Not to mention that Alex had no intention of coming out during high school himself. Unfortunately, Alex wasn't great at playing dumb. He attempted a clueless look. Cerys rolled her eyes. "I'm talking about you and Gethin," she said, her lips twitching like she was trying not to smile. Folding her arms over her chest, she annunciated the next three words: "You're cute together." Alex's stomach cramped with anxiety, his face going hot, his hands ice cold. "Um, Cerys." She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to go on. The friendly, teasing light in her eyes did absolutely nothing to quell his panic. He cleared his throat, hoping it would buy him enough time for inspiration to hit. Nope. Nothing. "Actually," he said, still not really sure where he was going to go with that. In fact, that wasn't entirely true. He knew where he had to go. Denial. He just had to suck it up and do exactly that, even if a stubborn part of him secretly didn't want to deny it. "Um, Cerys, Gethin and I, we're not - " "You both get all gooey-eyed every time you look at each other," Cerys said, talking right over him. She grinned. "It's sweet. I'm glad Gethin's finally found someone he likes. He's a good guy." "Yeah," Alex agreed, because Gethin was. And... oh, God. He felt faint. That had been the opposite of denial. What if he actually fainted? That would be mortifying. But maybe it would distract Cerys? Alex glanced around, suddenly struck by the terrifying thought that maybe they were surrounded by half their year group. As distractible as Alex had been so far, maybe he just hadn't noticed? Had Cerys just outed them to everyone? He looked around. No. The only person near them was Gethin. Maybe he had some kind of magical `save--Alex' sixth sense or something. Even though Alex could've sworn Gethin had just been halfway across the room, now he was right by Alex's side. "You okay, Al?" Gethin asked, pushing his hands into his pockets as his brow furrowed with concern. For a moment, it almost looked like he was about to reach out and take Alex in his arms. Alex nodded, suddenly very okay. He was okay because Gethin was near. As that thought made him smile, Gethin smiled, too. And then he did reach for Alex, putting one hand on the small of Alex's back in something between a comforting pat and a slightly possessive hold. Regardless of how it might look to Cerys, Alex's grin widened, a little thrill shooting through him at the touch. "You looked a little freaked out for a second," Gethin said, not quite whispering but definitely pitching his voice just for the two of them. Oh, right. The awkwardness with Cerys. Alex reluctantly took a step back, making Gethin's hand drop away. "Yeah," he said, his eyes darting in Cerys's direction for a second. "Um, I guess I could use a break, if that's okay?" Cerys was watching the two of them like a hawk. Gethin glanced away for a second too before shoving his hands back in his pockets and rocking back on his heels. "Sure," he said, biting his lip for a moment as he looked around the huge, bustling hall and then back at Alex. "Want to go outside for a sec? I've actually got something I want to give you." Alex blinked. "You do?" Gethin's cheeks turned pink as he nodded. "Uh, it's kind of a present. I mean, just er... a thing. For you. That I wanted to, you know, give you." He cleared his throat. "I made it," he mumbled. Alex's butterflies swarmed back with a vengeance. Their fluttering wings cleared out every bit of his anxiety for a moment and replaced it with excitement. "Oh," Cerys said, patting Gethin's arm as she grinned at Alex. "See? Too cute." Her comment probably should have scared him, or at the least, reminded him to tone down his earsplitting grin. But instead, when Cerys finally walked away and Alex followed Gethin outside, all he could think about was how dumb it would be to fall head over heels for the first boy he'd ever properly crushed on. Suddenly, Alex didn't feel very smart at all. But being smart? Definitely overrated. ********** 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/