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Chapter Text

Will You Ever Be Mine?

Chapter 1 - He's Perfect

"Lay, are you even listening to me?"

Belle's words cut through my musings and I snapped my head around to look at my best friend, wondering silently to myself what she had been talking about but also slightly miffed that Belle had interrupted my gazing.

"Err... yeah.. you were talking about the girl in the red hood and the wolf" I tried my hardest to remember the last words I had heard coming from Belle's mouth but judging by her deep frown in the next second, I had a feeling I'd been out a little longer than I had originally intended.

"Lay. I stopped talking about Red Riding Hood twenty two pages ago and we're onto Hansel and Gretel, for god's sake's Lay if you're hoping to pass your English final, you need to start listening to me and not staring over into the distance at Captain Fancy Pants."

"Gazing"

"Wait, what?"

"I wasn't staring Belle, I was simply gazing over in his general direction maybe silently hoping that he might turn around this time and acknowledge me" I smiled at my best friend, watching how her lips moved so quickly between uncertainty and annoyance before landing on amusement and she rolled her eyes.

"Oh Lay, it's so sweet that you think what you're doing when you are staring at Gaston is gazing at him. I've seen gazing and that is not it. It's staring and it's kind of stalker-like."

I chuckled as well in return, rolling my own eyes at Belle, she was always bringing her own view to every argument no matter what and showing it in every light and making the accused realise that they really had been staring like me right now.

And I knew it very well, I had been sitting in my very uncomfortable seat in the library for the last forty-five minutes, using thirty of those minutes to stare - as I had now admitted defeat to it - at the other man who was currently sitting at a table on the other side of the library, blue earphones lobbed into his ears and twiddling his pen in one hand whilst he used the other to drum his fingers on the table in-front of him, thinking hard.

You might be wondering to yourselves, who is this man that I am talking about? Well his name is Gaston Young, he's a senior - unfortunately compared to my own sophomore year - captain of the football team, complete and utter sex on legs and oh yeah, I'm totally in love with him and he has no idea I exist.

Ever since my Freshmen year when Gaston had unknowingly saved a football from flying straight into my face, I had been in love with the man, silently stalking him on social media and in person, making sure not to alert the other man that I was following as such.

And all had been going for the first year, I had watched Gaston from a distance, eyeing up each and every one of his Instagram posts - especially the shirtless ones - and glaring with jealously each time I logged onto Facebook where his relationship status was set as It's Complicated - what did that even mean - it's either you're together with someone or you're not.

So I guess that was how my anger got the better of me one time as I was surfacing through Gaston's Facebook again before switching to Instagram and my phone stuck for a second so I pressed the screen again, really hating my old slow phone when suddenly I realised that the follow button next to Gaston's name on his Instagram had changed from a bright blue colour to a pale white implying that I was following him.

Looking at the white bar itself, I had burned bright red as I saw that this was right I was now following Gaston on his Instagram.

Trying to decide what to do, I had had no longer than a second to think before I got a little heart notification and I swallowed down a big lump in my throat hoping that someone had just liked my photo.

And someone had...

GASTONMYOUNG liked your post. 2 secs ago.

I had immediately burned bright red again seeing that the picture he liked was one of me and Belle celebrating my birthday last week.

Thinking it was probably time to put my phone away and focus on my homework for the day, I was surprised when I got another notification through.

GASTONMYOUNG started following you. 1 sec ago.

I had stared at my phone screen in disbelief, my eyes wide and unblinking, this wasn't really happening was it? No I was dreaming and I was going to open my eyes soon and I would be back in my little room wishing that I had the ability to push the follow button but after closing my eyes and opening them again, I realised that this wasn't a dream and this really was happening, Gaston was following me. I was following Gaston.

I had screamed for a good long while afterwards, loving the fact that the love of my life was following me, how could this be happening?

Was this some sort of a joke.

I had logged off Instagram after that and not logged back in till the next day when I saw that I had a notification in the top right hand corner of my screen, I had a message.

Clicking onto my messages, I screamed with both delight and sheer nervousness.

GASTONMYOUNG sent you a message.

Mon 08/05 10.59pm
luvng ur profile pic. Do u go 2 my skl?

I had stared at the message in disbelief and awe for a good few minutes, still not too sure if this was a joke or not, how could someone as hot as Gaston be messaging me?

But then I remembered that I didn't use my own picture in my profile on Instagram, instead I used one of whatever book we were currently reading in class and it was currently To Kill A Mockingbird did that mean? Had Gaston read it?

Taking a deep breath to calm my erratic heart, I started to reply with shaky hands.

LAYME2SLEEP
Maybe, what makes you think that?

I waited a few moments, my hands still shaking and my face burning bright red, I refused to allow people to see my real name on Instagram and used my username even on facebook too, I didn't want anyone besides Belle or even Adam, Belle's boyfriend to know that I was on Social Media, oh the Social blunders that would be sure to happen.

My phone pinged and I jumped, raising my phone up and seeing that Gaston had replied to my message. Oh good golly.

GASTONMYOUNG
ur profile pic. im prty sure sum1 readng this in ma skl. r u a grl?

LAYME2SLEEP
Definitely not :-P x

I sent back the next message and then stared in horror at my phone screen, oh my good god I had just not only sent a sticking tongue out face to Gaston but I had also included a kiss, oh my, what was he going to think of that?

Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh.. He replied.

GASTONMYOUNG
ok i bilve u. so a guy. u on ftbl? :-)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that he hadn't seemed to mind the emoticon, I just wasn't sure about the...

GASTONMYOUNG
wait. u read. defntly not on ftbl. bt i will find out thou. u might b a challenge ;-) x

I screamed again and had to put my phone down onto my desk as I let my hands shake more, oh my god, Gaston, captain of the football team Gaston was flirting with me. Oh my...

LAYME2SLEEP
I look forward to being a challenge to you. And yes I do go to school with you :-) x

GASTONMYOUNG
kay. share class? x

LAYME2SLEEP
Nope, somehow you are a senior :-P x

GASTONMYOUNG
wht tht mnt 2 mean? :-( :'( x

LAYME2SLEEP
Well your spelling is atrocious :-D x

We had continued to talk back and forth for a good couple of hours after that, he only logging off at the back of two telling me he needed to go to bed and he couldn't wait to talk to me tomorrow and I had sent a quick reply just telling him the same and I had logged off.

Safe to say I had yet to tell Belle any of this though, if she found out she would skin me alive and demand that I tell Gaston who I am right away and not lie to him like that despite Belle and Gaston not getting on.

Well not getting on was to put it mildly.

Belle hated Gaston.

With a passion.

Ever since the first day of school when he had knocked all of her books out of her hand and told her she didn't need them when he was around, she had developed an instant dislike for the older man and then when he had started trying to ask her out constantly despite her not wanting anything to do with him, it had just continued on, the hatred growing stronger and stronger.

Then when Adam had asked Belle out and she had accepted, Gaston had demanded to know why she would go out with Adam but not him and she had ignored him.

But that had been a year ago.

And yet Belle still hated Gaston's guts so yeah I definitely wasn't going to tell Belle that I was secretly talking to the love of my life.

"Lay" Belle elbowed me in the ribs and I choked a little bit, turning my eyes reluctantly away from Gaston again and turned to my best friend.

"Yes Belle?"

"We still need to finish going over this book before tomorrow. You need to know this stuff, it's not like you can just wing it as Adam says, it needs to be planned out carefully."

I rolled my eyes inwardly this time, I loved Belle, I really did but sometimes she was just so annoying when she got stressed out around exam time.

"Belle, calm down or you're going to explode. I have until next week before my exam and besides it's an amazing day we should be out shopping or gossiping about boys, I really need a shopping spree Belle" I turned my best puppy dog look on her, even jutting out my bottom lip and battling my eyelids extra lovingly to which Belle finally admitted defeat and I cheered inwardly.

Yes, this was turning out to be the best day ever I thought, turning my eyes back around to where I had last seen Gaston and stopping short, he was gone. His books and bags were all packed up, no longer visible and his chair was back under the desk. He was simply gone.

Oh well, I thought to myself as I started to pack up my own stuff too.

I could always speak to him tonight.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2 - He's Gaston

"Nurgh" My head leaned back of it's own accord as he attacked my neck with bites and kisses, I had been waiting so long for this and it was finally happening, my hand came up to curl into his hair, pulling at the ponytail and he bit down on my neck, my hands clenching tighter and I moaned louder.

"Don't stop" The words were soft on my lips as he continued to assault my neck, sliding his hands down my shirt and I let out a shiver as his hands ghosted lightly over my belly, his hands warming me through my shirt.

He began to unbutton my shirt, taking one button at a time and kissing down with every button he popped open whilst my hands finally let his hair go and clenched heavily into the thin sheets beneath me.

"Near, far, wherever you are..."

I jolted awake in my bed, my eyes snapping open of their own accord and I groaned, it had all been a dream, a greatly amazing and beyond pleasurable dream that I wished could have continued but unfortunately that wasn't going to be the case.

Grumbling, I leaned across to my still blaring alarm and smacked the top of it to switch the sound off and sat up in my bed, yawning and rubbing at my eyes whilst a thought began to occur in my head, I had a little bit of a problem and I couldn't exactly go down to breakfast with my parents with so called problem.

I closed my eyes, feeling my dick begin to harden more as I imagined Gaston's hands running their way all over my body as they had been doing in my dream and very slowly I let my hand travel down, stopping softly at the edge of my underwear before I ran my hand under them, grasping my dick in my hand lightly before moving my hand slightly down to the tip of my dick, moaning softly as I ran a finger over the tip and felt some pre-cum leaking into my hand.

I closed my eyes tighter, imaging again that it was Gaston's hand instead of my own as I ran my fingers back up my length, grasping my dick in my hand again and beginning to jerk myself off, moaning softly each time as I pulled and twisted until only few minutes I came into my underwear, riding out my last low moan with a sigh and letting my eyes open again as I pulled my hand back out from my underwear and stared up at my ceiling as I came down from my high.

I knew it was no good to imagine that it was Gaston doing these things to me when he would never even look at me like that but I could dream and had been doing so since my Freshmen year of high.

Lifting my cover off my waist, I slipped out of bed, changing out of my dirty bed clothes into a clean t-shirt and jeans, deciding that since today was a Saturday and all the plans I had were hanging out with Belle until she had her date with Adam that this outfit would suit me perfectly.

Smiling at my reflection in the window, I set to work fixing my hair, letting it curl around my shoulders and leaving it down today, I only usually wore it back for school so the jocks wouldn't try and hang me from my hair by a flagpole and that hurt, they had tried it before.

Once I was satisfied enough, I made quick work of making my bed and tidying up my room before I checked my very silent phone for any word from Gaston but the other teen had been unresponsive all week, ever since he had left the library on Monday afternoon, I hadn't heard from the older man and I had only seen him in passing in the hallway, always surrounded by his jock friends not that that would have made any difference to him noticing little LeFou.

I left my room not long after, closing the door behind me and walking downstairs into the small kitchen that also acted as a tiny dining room for my family where my mother and father already sat at the table, my mother drinking a cup of tea and eating a slice of toast with bacon whilst my father had his head stuck in his morning newspaper, neglecting his quickly cooling breakfast.

"Morning Mama, Morning Papa" I called out, receiving a grunt of approval from my father from behind his newspaper whilst my mother immediately stood and walked over, giving me a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Good morning my little lamb chop, don't you look handsome this morning. You got yourself a date?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes inwardly, it was kind of sad that my mother hadn't received much romantic attention from my father in so many years that she was now constantly trying to dig her way into my non-existent love life.

"No Mama, I am simply meeting Belle for a bit of TLC and then coming home, Belle has a date with Adam later on so I won't be out too late."

I didn't expect my mother to hear all that I had to say and I was proved correctly as she kissed my cheek again and passed me a plate full of assorted breakfast items.

"Of course honey, don't be too late now honey you're father and I need to be up early tomorrow we have a conference in New York starting on Monday so they are flying us out first class tomorrow and we'll be gone a couple of days so we'll leave you some money for food and gas and you could always invite Belle over to stay but no funny business LeFou" My mother shot me a look that seemed to just read to agree with her and I nodded my head.

There was simply no use in trying to argue with her anymore, I had tried in the past to inform her that Belle was simply just my friend and plus she had a boyfriend but the big one that neither one of my parents would listen to or even acknowledge was my constant reminders of my sexuality.

Since I had come out to them two years ago, they had acted as if it had never happened, constantly asking when I was going to get a girlfriend as pretty as Belle or if Belle was my girlfriend and ever time I tried to tell them otherwise they would act as if they couldn't hear me until I would change the subject or leave the room and even then when I did do or say something else, I knew they were watching me closely as if waiting for me to break out into a gay parade or something like that so yeah trying to explain my current predicament to my parents was a big no no.

Sitting down at the old wobbly kitchen table, I placed my plate onto the table top and began to eat as fast as I could really just wanting to get out of the house before I could be asked anymore questions.

"Oh Lay honey, would you like anything back from New York?"

That was another thing with my parents, they loved me deep down and enjoyed spending time with me but they also liked to buy my affections with each and every conference they had attended, so far I had two Eiffel Towers from Paris, a Sydney Harbour Sign from Sydney, a Duke of Wellington t-shirt, a Edinburgh Castle picture, a Hollywood walk of fame keyring, and some nick knacks from many other places they had been to so it wasn't out of the ordinary for them to ask what I wanted from other places.

"Erm Liberty Island statue or something?" I replied offhand, watching how my mothers face immediately turned down into thinking and the next thing I knew she was over at her bag pulling her purse and some chequebooks out before coming to her notebook and flipping it open to the second last page and beginning to scribble something into it.

I knew she was probably writing down my request and I sighed softly again as I finished off my plate and stood, grabbing up my plate again and washing off the worst of the grease before sticking it in the dishwasher.

"I'm going to head out to meet Belle now" I turned to my mother who gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before stuffing forty euros into my hand despite my tired excuse that I already had enough money.

Knowing that my father wasn't about to give me a hearty farewell, I walked out of the kitchen with determination checking that my phone was safely in my pocket as I grabbed my jacket and car keys, hurrying out to my car in the next second, an old classic blue ford car that had see better days but it got me easily from point a to point b so I didn't care as much about the way it looked.

Getting into my car, I shoved my keys into the ignition and started her up, rather surprised when I felt a sudden soft one vibration come from my pocket, turning off my ignition again to save battery and pulled my phone out of my pocket and unlocking it to see I had another Instagram notification.

Clicking onto the app, I went into my messages where the red one notification was glaring at me and was rather surprised by the outcome.

GASTONMYOUNG
hey u, lng tme no tlk. hw r u :) x

I squealed slightly to myself, Gaston hadn't forgotten about me after-all, true it was only my Instagram profile and had no actual pictures of me apart from a slight glimpse of my hair or my sleeve in some pictures so it was nice to know that someone was talking to me without knowing me.

LAYME2SLEEP
Hey, I thought you had forgotten about me, I'm good just heading out to meet a friend for some shopping. How's your dad? :-) x

In the small time we had been talking, Gaston had told me all about how his dad had been involved in a car crash a couple of years previous and had been left paralysed from the waist down but due to the technology in medicine and his accident not being as life threatening as originally thought, Gaston's dad was now beginning to receive Physical Therapy sessions once a week to work on re-gaining the use of his ligaments again. I had been very surprised by Gaston opening up to me like that when we knew very little about each other but maybe that was just how Gaston was, I hadn't really ever gotten the chance to get to know him in school so he was still a mystery to me.

GASTONMYOUNG
gd, docs say he mght b rdy 2 go on2 nxt stge of treatmnt. i hpe he is. snds fun, im lying in ma bed thinking bout u.

Gaston really knew how to make me smile and it worked as a wide smile spread across my face at the thought that he was thinking about me, well he was thinking about my username pseudos since I still hadn't told him who I really was but I could imagine he was thinking about me.

GASTONMYOUNG
where u gong shopng? x

LAYME2SLEEP
Just going to the local shopping mall, I saw a great sale there last week and I need a good few more outfits :-) x

GASTONMYOUNG
lol. keep forgtng u r nt a grl. u like 2 tlk like 1. wud u do me 1 favur? x

My breath catches in my throat as I read the next reply and I am instantly floored, what would he want to ask of me, was he going to ask me to tell him who I was or worse yet had he already figured it out and was stalling whilst trying to get me to admit it.

LAYME2SLEEP
Okay? What's that? :-) x

I sent the reply and waited.

Checking the time on my phone I silently swore to myself as I saw that I had only ten minutes until I was due to meet Belle so I threw my phone onto the seat beside me, starting up the car and beginning the five minute drive to the mall, glad that it was still rather early and the car park was still relatively empty so I pulled into a space near the front of the car park and switched off the ignition, picking up my phone as I got ready to leave the car.

GASTONMYOUNG
snd me a pic of u. my dad wnts 2 knw who is mkng me smile so much :-)
hello?
u there? x
was i 2 frwrd?

I looked at my phone a few more minutes, biting my lip, I thought it was very sweet of Gaston's dad to want to know who I was but I wasn't ready for Gaston to fully know the real me yet but I still had to reply to him in the meantime.

LAYME2SLEEP
Hi, sorry was driving there and as for the picture, I'll send it over soon :-) x

I hit the send button and my stomach immediately begin to flip flop like a roller-coaster, had I seriously just told Gaston that I was going to send him a picture of myself when I wasn't ready for him to know who I was. What I was turning into?

GASTONMYOUNG
hpe u didnt gt in2 accidnt. cnt wait... 2 shw ma pa & c u :-) x

I sighed again and whacked my head softly against the steering wheel, this was turning out to be a lot harder than I had originally thought.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3 - He's Unreal

"Okay so there's this outfit which I think will look good with my skin tone and it won't make me look incredibly pale in-front of Adam but this one makes me look cute and I know Adam likes that... Lay, are you seriously on cloud nine right now?"

I snapped my head up to look at Belle, having only heard my own name and cloud nine being mentioned, since we had met up over two hours ago, I had been zoning out, biting my bottom lip and making funny faces into my camera lens, wondering what I was going to do about Gaston and the picture.

I knew it was stupid to over-think such a thing but on the two sides, one, I sent him the photo and he found out who I was exactly and either a) he hated me and didn't want anything else to do with me, telling me that everything he told me was a lie or b) he fell hopelessly in love with me and we got married and had kids, yeah even I didn't believe that but then there was side two, I could send him the photo of me and have him still not have any idea who I was and either a) he laughed at me and said he didn't want to know someone so ugly or b) he laughed at me and said he didn't want know someone so ugly, there was only two options to that, I knew it.

"Sorry Belle."

I put my phone back into my pocket for the fifth time in the last few seconds, giving me best friend my undivided attention.

"Sparkle me with your choices for Adam again."

"Okay well..."

Another couple of hours later and we were finally finished shopping, Belle ended up buying both of the outfits she had tried on me whilst I had been in my daze but once I assured her they were perfect, she had agreed and we were able to move on.

Despite my over-active brain, I managed to find myself a couple of cute t-shirts and a couple of pairs of jeans, Belle laughing at me when I tried on a pair of bright pink ones that sparkled and I had immediately shoved them off again, they made me look like a five year old girl.

"I'm starved" Belle complained as we sat down on a bench by the water fountain, my aching feet glad for the seat too and I let my head fall backwards slightly, stretching my feet out.

"I'm rather peckish too" I replied, feeling my stomach beginning to rumble and I let my eyes dart around to the food court, wondering what exactly I was in the mood for; McDonalds, Burger King, Cafe Rogue or Chinese?

I looked around at Belle and her smile just seemed to say it all; Cafe Rogue of course.

We laughed slightly at our mind reading and after a few more minutes of sitting comfortably, we stood up again, heading over to stand in the line for Cafe Rogue and deciding between ourselves what we were going to go for this time.

We decided to stick to our usual: Two sandwiches, one with coronation chicken, peppers and a light sprinkling of salad for Belle and the other with roast beef, mayo and lettuce for me, a large sugar doughnut for us to share and two glasses of ice cold lemonade.

Ten minutes later we had our food and had paid and were sitting down at a table near the back of the food court, my eyes hovering over some people from our school, trying to determine if they recognised me or not and if so whether they were going to be a threat or not.

Eventually coming to the decision that they meant me no harm, I turned to my lunch at hand but before I could dig in, Belle placed a hand on my own and cleared her throat softly.

"Lay, I know something's going on with you. Why don't you just tell me?"

I looked up into Belle's chocolate brown eyes, knowing that she was right but at the same time, I couldn't tell her everything without her thinking that I was muchos crazy.

"Okay Belle, there is something going on" I grabbed her hand in my own, feeling butterflies flap hard in my stomach and wondering how I could possibly make this all sound okay without sounding like a crazed lunatic.

"Hey honey" The masculine voice sounded from behind and no more than two seconds later I was glad as Adam sat down next to her, giving Belle a kiss on the cheek to which she blushed and hugged him.

"Adam, hey. I didn't think I was meeting you till later."

"You weren't but I saw you over here eating with Lay and I thought I'd come over and annoy my girl" Adam tickled Belle's side lightly with his fingertips causing Belle to squeal slightly, batting his hand away.

"Adam..."

I laughed, remembering back to Freshmen year only about a year ago when Belle and Adam used to not be able to stand each other, everyone used to call Adam the beast as he would always sit in the back, dark corner of a room, headphones in and sporting a very scruffy face - that had thankfully since been shaved off - and only would only answer questions when asked with a bark of an answer.

Belle and Adam had met properly by accident, Belle had been hurrying to her class, books in her bag and arms - which I had told her many times was a big hazard - when she had tripped and almost fell down the stairs were it not for Adam catching her before she could fall and saving her books too.

It had been love at first sight and the two had gotten together not long after, always inviting me along to Adam's parties and I had grown close to Adam too, he was a nice and sweet guy at heart once you got to know him but most people still just saw the beast like guy who got annoyed at everything and everyone.

"Hey Lay" Adam held his fist out to mine which I returned, laughing slightly to myself, before Adam I never actually ever been given a fist bump before, just had the fist usually used on me to either punch me in the shoulder or have it turn into a hand and push me out of the way so it was nice to have a friend like Adam for sure.

"Hi Adam, still keeping Mr Scruffy away?"

Since I had first met Adam - when he used to be Mr Beast - I had taken to call his scruffy beard, Mr Scruffy, Belle eventually telling Adam this after he had shaved it off and it had just stayed, Adam didn't even seem to mind the name anymore.

"Of course Lay, what about you? Any guys caught your eye lately?"

I blushed again and ducked my head, Adam knew all about my crush, sorry adoration of Gaston and he had always managed to make sure and embarrass the hell out of me about it every time he saw me.

"You know I only have one guy on my mind Adam" I chortled in return, stuffing the last of my sandwich into my mouth and noticing how Adam laughed along, his shoulders shaking slightly with the movement.

"I don't get why you don't just tell the guy" Adam replied off-hand, grabbing up some of the salad that had escaped from Belle's sandwich and popping it into his mouth.

"You know why Adam" I returned, giving him a look and he did, everyone did, myself included, Gaston was a popular jock whilst I was the nerdy loser who no-one cared about, this wasn't High School Musical.

Adam shrugged and started to finish off the rest of the salad on Belle's plate whilst I focused on my sandwich, my eyes downcast and my brain swirling all around like a washing machine on spin once again.

"Adam..." I wasn't too sure what made me decide to ask but I just had to know.

"There's this guy.. not Gaston" I added hastily at Belle's warning look, hating myself for lying.

"I've been talking to him online and he wants to see an actual picture of me but I'm not too sure if I'm ready for him to see me. What do you think I should do?"

If anyone would know what to do in this sort of situation, it would be Adam, before he had became the beast, he had been adored by everyone because of his charming good looks and his wealthy fortune, mostly the fortune and he had started to treat people differently before a sharp slap in the face had awoken him to the fact that money wasn't everything and he had dulled every single one of his profiles down, people beginning to forget who he was just because he had stopped throwing his money around and looking the school hunk.

"Well, it's really up to you Lay but if you don't think you're ready then you need to tell this guy or send the picture and hope that he still likes you for you and not just an invisible face behind a keyboard."

Adam was right, I had to make a stand and be my very own person, I had to either tell Gaston that I wasn't ready to exchange pictures just yet or that I was definitely going to do it and hope he still wanted to talk to me.

I just had to pick the right time to do it.

After Belle and Adam had left to go off on their date to the movies, I had wandered around a mall a little bit, eyeing up a few brightly coloured odd socks but deciding not to go for them in the end and left a couple of hours later, beginning to drive home and wondering what I was going to do about the picture.

When I arrived home a few minutes later, I still hadn't made up my mind as I got out of my car, picking up my bags with all my purchases, quickly and quietly letting myself into the house and running up to my room, stashing my purchases away into a corner, hating that I needed to do this but it was the only way that my parents wouldn't nag on at me about what I wore.

Throwing myself onto my bed with a small thump, I dug my phone out of my pocket again, switching my WIFI on and being pleasantly surprised when the first thing to pop up was a message from Gaston.

GASTONMYOUNG
still waitng on tht pic ;-) x

I picked at my duvet cover, I knew it meant a lot to Gaston to find out who I was and it meant a lot to me too but I was still incredibly scared, what if he didn't like the real me and stopped talking to me because of the way I looked, well then he's not worth it, a nagging little voice in the back of my head that sounded a lot like Belle uttered in my ear but the other little part of my brain was afraid to let go of him.

To let him go, even a fantasy of that life would be enough to destroy me completely but at the same time, did I even know that by showing him the real me it would make a whole lot of a difference, what if he saw it and liked it but still ignored me in school constantly, what if he was too afraid to speak to me in school for fear his social reputation would be ruined, the little nagging voice in the sound of Belle uttered the same words as before to me but I pushed them aside, biting at my lip instead.

Clicking onto my gallery, I ran my finger over the few pictures I had allowed to be taken of me, chuckling slightly at how I was always squished in between Adam and Belle, my two best friends and confidants but yet here I was even lying to them about who I was talking to online.

And yet the feeling of guilt swirling in my gut, I kind of liked it, it made me feel special, like I was included in something that was mine and mine alone and I know it was stupid but it kind of made me feel slightly superior.

Sighing, I clicked off of my gallery and back onto Instagram, staring at the message from Gaston, my eyes beginning to moisten with tears I knew I would never let fall.

I had to do something and I had to do it now or else I was going to regret it forever, I just had to reply in some shape or form.

Starting to type some words into the message box, I felt my breath quicken as I read the words over and over again, it was now or never, there was no going back.

Stuttering over a breath that I hadn't realised I had been holding onto, I quickly added an attachment and hit send, my stomach beginning to flip flop all over again.

After all, a picture was worth a thousand words.

Chapter Text

Previously on Will You Ever Be Mine?:

Starting to type some words into the message box, I felt my breath quicken as I read the words over and over again, it was now or never, there was no going back.

Stuttering over a breath that I hadn't realised I had been holding onto, I quickly added an attachment and hit send, my stomach beginning to flip flop all over again.

After all, a picture was worth a thousand words.

Chapter 4 - He's Life

I had lain awake for the rest of the weekend after I had sent the picture to Gaston, wondering all the time what his reply would be and what he would think of it.

After hours of unable to sleep on Sunday morning, I had crept out of bed at around ten am once I knew my parents would be away for sure and not trying to come home for some last minute things and so I had spent most of Sunday morning glued to the tv and watching whatever programme caught my eye for a few minutes.

In-between, I kept on checking my Instagram for any signs that Gaston had seen my message but upon seeing none, I had turned back to the tv once again.

By around three pm, I was a nervous wreck, Gaston still hadn't even seen my message and he hadn't been online in a while either, his last update from Friday had been a picture of him with his arm around one of the other guys on the football team, Tom, I was sure that was his name with the caption:

GASTONMYOUNG wn our 1st game of session. Thumbs Up. prud of this guy @tommytommytommy

I had stared at the picture a few times since I had first seen it, my eyes taking in all of Gaston's features from his blue-green eyes and how they seemed to shine in the light and his long black hair hanging loose around his shoulders, his uniform sticking to him very well most likely because of how sweaty he was.

At around five pm, I started to make my dinner, just deciding to go with something quick and easy and stuck a frozen pizza in the oven with some french fries and a small portion of garlic bread.

Biting slightly at my thumb as I waited on the dinner being ready, I checked through Instagram again but still to no avail, even his Facebook was very quiet, the last thing just being a status update on the Friday of the game.

Gaston Young was feeling excited.

19th May at 19.10

Wn game! go US. Tom Francis Dick Miller Stanley Ferguson prty this weknd. 4 - 0. nthing more 2 say.

This was very strange for Gaston, the guy whom I had begun to know only via Social Media, he updated everything usually like every hour or so, so unless something had happened to him or he was sleeping then I had no idea why he hadn't yet seen my message or why he hadn't updated anything.

Once my dinner was ready, I plated it all out, taking my phone with me back into the living room and snapping a quick shot of it along with my lovely movie of the night The Notebook, captioning the images.

LAYME2SLEEP Quiet night in with some Pizza and The Notebook. Needing this.

I posted the photo and set down my phone to start eating and watching the movie for like the fifth time this week, I kind of had a weird kind of obsession over Ryan Gosling.

After finishing dinner and cleaning up my plate and sticking the dishwasher on, I turned back to my phone, clicking through the comments on my Instagram.

JELLYBELLE Oh Lay, the perfect night. Why didn't you invite me? :-( @LAYME2SLEEP

JELLYBELLE @LAYME2SLEEP @LONDONBABY We have to have a girls night.

LONDONBABY You guys can if you want. I'll just wait in my lonely room. Missing my girl @JELLYBELLE

GASTONMYOUNG so this b wht u do on sundys? snds lonly. u lke notebook? :-O @LAYME2SLEEP

I couldn't really see any of the other comments after my eyes grew accustomed to the one from Gaston himself, how was it possible that he could possibly comment on one of my pictures but not...

I clicked onto my messages and froze, my whole insides swirling to mush around me.

He had replied.

Oh good god.

Clicking onto the message, I held my breath and looked down at my phone, eyes taking in the words on the screen.

GASTONMYOUNG
my pa lkd the pic. he especlly lkd the mask. olaf, relly? x

I laughed out loud a little bit and bit down onto my lip, I was really very glad that I had finally found a picture of myself from Halloween a few years ago with a mask covering my face, Gaston and his father could see me but not my face. I wasn't really ready for that yet.

LAYME2SLEEP
It was a dare lol :-P What did you think? :-) x

I hit send on the message and went back to biting down on my lip, feeling almost like my teeth were about to break through the skin, how was it possible that this guy always seemed to make me smile no matter what and always knew what to say.

GASTONMYOUNG
luv it. u r a hot snowman. 2 kl 4 skl ;-) & 4 spndng sundys alne :-( i want 2 meet u. :-) xx

I froze again, reading the words carefully over and over in my head, was really happening or was I just going insane, Gaston didn't want to meet me, this couldn't be what I was reading, it had to be a mistake of some sort right?

Right?

Chapter Text

Chapter 5 - He's Healthy

"Lay Lee Palmer, how exactly do you explain this?"

I had known it was coming, had been preparing for it since Gaston had commented on my post the previous night but I still tried to shush Belle slightly as she came hurrying towards me, her phone in one hand and her other in a soft fist on her hip whilst Adam hurried along behind her, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but here.

"Look Belle, you wouldn't understand..."

"Bullshit" And that kind of hurt, it wasn't just the fact of Belle swearing at me like that but she wasn't even going to give me a chance to explain myself at all "You looked me square in the eyes and told me there was a guy who wasn't Gaston you liked and next thing Gaston himself is commenting on your photo. What do you have to say for yourself?"

I looked Belle in the eyes finally, placing the last of my books into my bag and shutting my locker shut as I continued to stand beside it, taking some soft, deep breaths and closing and opening my eyes a few times before I finally found my voice again.

"Okay fine. I'm sorry I lied to you about who I was talking to but you don't understand, he's different when it's just us, he talks to me like I'm just anyone else and he doesn't care about who I am" I continued to stare Belle full on, unable to stop my mouth from opening and spewing everything that I had been feeling for the past few months since we had been speaking online.

"You mean he talks to you because he has no idea who you are. You are such a hypocrite Lay. You start telling people you want them to be more open and then you go ahead and hide in a corner, pretending to be someone else to get approval."

Belle seemed like she knew she had said something wrong two seconds after the words left her mouth but I didn't care anymore, those last words had hurt me even more than I was aware and Belle knew what was going on in my life and why I hid like I did, it wasn't my fault that I wasn't as able to be open and honest like her.

"Belle" Adam gave her a slight warning tone but I'd had more than enough by now.

"You know what Belle?" I yelled, slamming a hand against my locker and ignoring the pain that echoed throughout my entire palm, "Fuck you."

And I walked away.

I didn't even bother to turn back to look at either her or Adam as I continued to walk down the hall, heading to my first class of the day and trying to stop the wave of tears wanting to escape from me, I wasn't going to cry like a little baby and be made fun of.

Sighing and shaking my head, I walked into my English I class and took my usual seat front and centre, pulling out my books and pens and notebook, thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't in this class with Belle.

Professor Cogsworth entered the classroom with the last of the late-comers and shut the door behind him, walking up to the black board and coughing a few times into his little handkerchief he always kept on hand before turning back to the class.

"Class, on Friday, we were discussing the attributes of what defines a hero and how they always in Literature start from down at the bottom as usually a nothing, nobody then go up against their big villain and..." Professor Cogsworth stopped short in the middle of his sentence to stare at the door and I wondered what was going on in his mind, if it was me, I would have said it looked like he had seen a ghost but no, he was probably just annoyed by the appearance of the lunch lady who had a massive crush on him.

"Anyway, so they go up against the villain and come back a hero to all in the world who suddenly know his name and what he is" Professor Cogsworth continued, stopping every couple of seconds to write a couple of key words onto the blackboard with a large shriek as the chalk bent against the board itself.

"So what do you think makes..." Professor Cogsworth was interrupted this time by a small knock on the door and even I was surprised, who apart from Belle even knocked on the door and I know she was upstairs right now in French so I had no idea...

My questions were answered that second as Professor Cogsworth nodded at the door and the handle turned down next second before all six foot glory of Gaston Young entered the room and I felt my heart skip a beat.

He was gorgeous, even up close, it seemed almost like since the weekend I had forgotten what he looked like so seeing him now was like seeing him for the first time all over again.

His hair was pulled back into it's usual ponytail, lowly hanging on his shoulders and he was wearing a tight fitting blue shirt with jeans and holy molly, I thought to myself as he turned, he had a little bit of stubble adoring his face, he looked amazing, too amazing that I still couldn't believe this man was real and oh no, was he, was he?

I squealed in my head as Gaston turned my way, looking about the classroom for a few seconds and it wasn't until minutes after he had sat down that I realised the only open seat was right next to me.

The one place where people usually moved away from so as to not catch the geek or the gay or whatever else they wanted to come up with in this small classroom.

"Anyway, class Mr Young will be joining us, he has just moved down to our class to work better at our speed so as I was saying, what do you think makes a hero a hero without his villian, Mr Palmer?"

I froze as I realised all eyes were on me in that one moment in time, I took a deep breath, gulping in some air and chancing a quick look at Gaston who was too busy scribbling into his notebook.

"Well..." I cleared my throat slightly as my voice cracked slightly under the pressure "Without a villian, the hero would have something else to do to make himself known widely by everyone else. Be it having him or her be popular among other people and do something incredible that has never be done before or whether they just simply become a hero by becoming one in the eyes of their family."

Professor Cogsworth nodded at me, a slight glint in his eye that I hadn't seen in a long time and he clicked his teeth a couple of times before walking back over to the blackboard and writing down some more information, the chalk shrieking against the board again but this time I was ready and turned my head back to look over at Gaston who was still scribbling away in his notebook and ignoring everything and everyone else.

Professor Cogsworth turned back around at last and clapped his hands together softly.

"Now class, now that we have decided what makes people heros and villains, I want you guys to work together in pairs on a project outside of class that will act as 25% of your grade I might add and I want you all to write a letter to your biggest hero but I want you guys to write it as your partner and have them do the same. Make it seem like they and you are writing to the other persons hero and see how true to you they are."

I smiled inside, this should be easy enough, hopefully I would get someone really easy that I already knew and...

"Now for the pairs, I have already paired you with the person sitting next to you so LeFou, would you mind pairing up with Gaston as he is new to this class?"

I nodded my head softly, whilst on the inside my whole body felt like it was on fire, I was working with Gaston, oh god this was excellent, maybe I could actually talk to this guy and him me and we could talk about stuff and fall in love and get married and woah, hold your horses there Lay, I thought to myself, I first still had to introduce myself to the guy.

Smiling softly, I tapped softly on Gaston's shoulder and watched as the other man stopped scribbling and looked around at me with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah? Oh crap, did I space out again, sorry. Are we partners in this thing?"

Isn't it great how different a person's voice can be from talking to people around you and talking to you specifically, when he was talking directly to me, it was like there was no-one else there at all, almost like the whole world had disappeared and we were the only ones left who understood each other.

"Yeah" I replied, my cheeks flushing at how soft my voice sounded and I cleared my throat again, watching Gaston's head tilt slightly at me.

"Okay? So if we're working together we should probably make a schedule. When are you free?"

Gaston turned a page in his notebook and started writing down some things whilst I stared straight back at him, when was I free? What did he mean, didn't he even know me? Well probably not, I thought to myself but still a guy could dream.

"I'm free like every day after school and even on the weekends."

Wow, even that sounded pretty pathetic to me, I thought, rubbing the back of my head slightly and looking at Gaston who only nodded and wrote some more things down in his notebook.

"Okay, well I have football on Monday's and Friday's, Wednesday's I have something on so Thursday and Sunday?" He looked up at me and I felt like my heart had just skipped a beat again so I did the only thing I knew how and nodded again, hating how I always managed to go so dumb around him.

"Cool" He placed his pen lid in his mouth and wrote a few more things in his notebook before ripping a bit out and folding it up, handing it to me.

"That's my number, give me a text on Thursday and we'll decide where to meet for the project."

I nodded again just as the bell rang and Gaston gave me a quick smile and a wink before he had capped his pen again, grabbed up his books and bag and he was gone two seconds later, leaving me to wonder if what had just happened was even real.

Gaston had told me in a message that he wanted to meet me, well he just had but he didn't realise it.

Would he ever?

Chapter Text

Chapter 6 - He's Sharing

My parents returned rather late on Tuesday night and told me all about their trip to New York and how some crazy homeless man had breathed on my mother and my father had read a paper all day, every day - apart from when he was at the conference - - and yes it was my mother who told me about this, my father retired to his bed as soon as they got home - and I had gotten my statue of liberty figurine which I had quickly thanked my mother for and then retreated to my room.

I had spent some of the rest of the night speaking to Gaston on Instagram and even sent him a picture of the figurine to which he had said it looked very cool and kind of a shame that that was all I got from my parents coming back from a conference but I had told him before about how my parents were with this sort of thing, they were kind of only interested in something if it had to do with me excelling in school or getting a girlfriend.

Gaston had then informed me that his dad was going through some more treatments and they were thinking about getting him started on Physical Therapy this week and then would go from there, I had been very happy about that and had expressed my happiness at this new bit of information.

Wednesday had been a kind of weird day, I still wasn't really talking to Belle and we had been paired together on a small classroom project in French that had ended with the point of both of us swearing at each other in French and Belle even calling me a traitor and a liar, in English though I was happy as I got to talk to Gaston a little bit more about the project and what we might do on Thursday.

We had eventually came to the decision that since my parents are crazy psycho intruding people who don't like to take no for an answer and don't know when to butt out, we were going to go over his house, something that sent a little spark of excited emotion through my system, I was going over to Gaston's house, for over a year now I had dreamed about this moment, the time where I would be invited over to Gaston's house but it had been under different circumstances.

This one was different as not only was I going over as a friend, I was going over without any exceptions and so if I wanted to stare at a couple of things, I could.

Thursday came and went, me and Gaston texting a couple of times back and forth about where to meet him after the end of classes, he had two free periods after lunch whilst I was stuck in Maths with Adam who wasn't on as much of my bad list as Belle was but it was still annoying to hear him constantly try to get me to apologise to Belle every five minutes in class.

By the end of maths that day though, I was incredibly happy, not only was it the end of the day and tomorrow was a day off for some teacher conference thing - which meant no school and no Belle shooting me a few looks throughout the day - but also I was going over to Gaston's now.

I sent a quick text off to my parents letting them know that I wouldn't be home for dinner and as expected, my father didn't reply whilst my mother just replied with her usual little message of okay, be safe with a little kiss added onto the end.

I headed out to the parking lot, placing my phone back into my pocket and sitting down on the stairs facing out to parking lot, looking out for any signs of a car that might belong to Gaston, I had always wondered ever since I had first met the guy what kind of car he would drive and from what I had seen of him, my thoughts had varied from a small, fast built Ferrari all in red and a lovely sounding engine that revered every time he put his foot down all the way to a black jeep used to carry many people and always came in handy.

After sitting still for only a few moments, I was surprised suddenly when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jumped slightly, ready to move out of the offenders way, turning my head around and stopping as I saw Gaston standing there, one hand holding his backpack on his shoulder and the other half raised away from my shoulder.

"Hey, you ready to go?" Gaston asked me, his voice sounding weirdly kind of concerned at my previous reaction to him touching my shoulder and I chuckled softly instead, nodding my head.

"Yeah, where's your car parked?"

I started to look around the parking lot again, trying to figure out where Gaston might have parked when Gaston chuckled and patted me on the shoulder.

"I got a lift from my teammates..."

I paled slightly and he must have noticed it as two seconds later, he was standing directly in-front of me, holding his hands on my shoulder again.

"You okay? It's only my teammates that I'm closest to like Tom, Dick and Stanley."

The colour flooded back into my cheeks and I stood up from help from Gaston who grabbed my hand, my face burning as our hands touched and I felt a sharp tingle of electricity flood up my arm and into my chest.

"Come on" Gaston threw an arm around my shoulders and I had to fight the big massive smirk about to appear on my face, I didn't want to seem too eager but at the same time who else could say that they had Gaston's arm around their shoulders right now walking them to a car they got a lift in and didn't seem to be minding the closeness to another guy.

Oh yeah, that's right, no-one could.

We got to the car a few minutes later and I stopped in my tracks, floored by the sheer look of the car in-front of me.

It was a beautiful and elegant black six seater Mercedes-Benz V Class, two seats at the front of the car for the driver and passenger which were already filled by two of Gaston's teammates, Stanley Ferguson and Tom Francis.

Stanley, was a young looking guy despite being a senior like Gaston himself with a head full of long black hair and always looked overly happy to see anyone at anytime.

Tom was a slightly shorter dumpy guy with short brown hair and soft brown eyes, Tom was a junior which meant soon he would be going into senior year and he should be happy about that but he didn't look very happy right now.

At the back of the car, there was a set of six seats, three at the left side of the car and three at the right, facing in towards each other and I could see that one of the seats on the left hand side of the car was filled too by a taller guy, even sitting down he looked like the taller of the three with slightly long brown hair, a couple of gaps in his teeth - probably due to football injuries - and a creepy smile.

This had to be Richard or as most people preferred to call him and as even he liked to be called too, Dick. Dick Miller.

Gaston took his arm away from my shoulder and I immediately missed the warmth as Gaston pulled the door open and gestured for me to jump in.

I took a quick look at Gaston, smiled and blushed slightly before clambering inside and sitting on the right hand side of the three chairs, opposite Dick.

Gaston climbed into the car two seconds after me with all the elegance one man could muster and sat down gracefully, putting his arm around the back of my seat and pulling his seat belt down and clicking it into place.

"Hey, is this where you were Gaston? Chatting up the younger kids?" Stanley's voice from the front of the car had me stop in my tracks of starting to pull on my belt and I looked around to Gaston, wondering how he would reply.

"Shut up Stan, no LeFou here is my partner for my new English project so we're going to my house to work on it" Gaston replied, yawning slightly and I couldn't help but notice how his muscles stretched through his shirt and his head tilted back, exposing some fresh patches of skin.

"Okay then Gaston" Stanley let out a laugh again, something I was beginning to notice he did a lot even in school, whenever I had seen him walking past with Gaston and the others.

Stanley started up the car, starting to drive away from the school and I leaned back against the plush leather interior seats, already feeling so much better.

But after a few moments of quietness, I leaned forwards again, wondering what had gotten the car so quiet and I looked up at Gaston who had his phone out and was typing something on it whilst across from me, Dick was flicking through the pages of some book and muttering some things to him, I only caught words like 'bastard', 'stealer' and 'idiot' before Gaston put his phone away again and sat up, whacking Dick on the leg.

"Dick, please stop with that. It was one foul shot and plus we got it back in the end, we won the game, isn't that good enough?"

I looked between Gaston and Dick for a few minutes, wondering what they could be talking about but mere moments later, it hit me it must be something to do with football, and I was best to just listen in since I had no idea what exactly happened during football.

"It is but still Tom could have actually caught the ball when I threw it and not let it drop like he did because of his butter fingers."

"Are you seriously going back there, I've apologised enough for that the past few days, stop being such an uptight douche-bag Dick" Tom shot back that second from the front of the car and I had a strange feeling that this was what he was upset about, he and Dick must have been arguing about this thing since before me and Gaston had entered the car.

The small argument continued on between Tom and Dick for a few moments longer before Gaston got in the middle again, literally this time as he unbuckled himself, grabbed Dick's arm pulling him out of the chair slightly and placing him at the back of Stanley's seat whilst Gaston sat behind Tom, keeping his eyes on Tom and Dick.

"I told you that if you kept fighting like that, I was going to separate the both of you so that's what I'm doing" Gaston crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in the chair and I had to stop another smile from crossing my face, seeing him get angry like that and tell of Tom and Dick for fighting was actually quite hot, I had only seen him angry once before and that had been some sight.

It had been just under a year ago after the football team had won their game and one of the rival teammates had pushed one of Gaston's teammates into a locker and called him a name, Gaston had heard it and turned around, beating the utter crap out of the guy and telling him to apologise.

I had seen only the last part of the fight where Gaston had punched the guy and I had been transfixed on the sight before me, it was rather strange to watch, this guy whom I had thought always so put together and cool-headed turning round and punching a guy, it was oddly comforting.

"But he..." Dick's words brought out of my revive and I looked up in time to see Gaston just shoot him a look as if telling him to shut up and he looked upset for a few minutes but thankfully shut up and leaned back against the car seat again.

A mere ten minutes later, the car came to a stop outside a tall house and I looked around at the house in awe, wondering why we had stopped here, this house was elegant, four stories tall, dark wooden panelling and the roof itself even pointed slightly upwards in a strange slant making it look more like an odd mansion from the seventy's than someone's house.

"You coming LeFou?" I turned my attention back to Gaston whom I could see had jumped out of the car and was standing on the pavement outside this magnificent house now.

"Er yeah... yep... I.. yeah."

Closing my mouth and unbuckling my seat-belt, I said a quick goodbye to Dick, Tom and Stanley, thanking Stanley for the lift and grabbing up my bag, taking a step out of the car and next thing I knew I was in Gaston's arms, his hands on the small of my back and my own wrapped around his waist, gripped slightly onto his leather jacket.

"Careful there" Gaston smirked and set me back on my feet, my whole body feeling flush as I coughed slightly and patted down my arms, I couldn't believe I had just managed to fall out of the car and straight into Gaston, he must think I was some sort of stupid, uncoordinated thing with like no sex appeal at all.

Gaston closed the car door over as I continued to fix my clothes and place my bag over my shoulder again, trying to arrange back to it's normal colour as Gaston leaned into the car window to talk to Tom and Stanley a few seconds before he laughed and patted the door softly and Stanley was driving away again, leaving me and Gaston alone once again.

"You sure you're okay?" Gaston turned back around to look at me as he picked up his bag, giving me a quick once over as if he were sure I might faint. "I nearly did the same thing my first time getting of Stanley's new car, the step is rather tricky so just be careful."

I nodded back, half telling him that I was okay and that I understood completely whilst inside my head, I had the strangest situation that he had just said that to make me feel better. There was no way a guy like Gaston had fallen out of a car before, he was perfect.

"Okay, let's go inside then."

Gaston gave me another quick smile before starting up the pathway towards his house and I followed quickly behind, staring around at his front yard, at the tall black fencing that protected the front of the house, the grass that had been perfectly cut quite recently if my itching nose had any say on the matter and on my other side a long driveway with two cars parked perfectly and so neatly side by side, both brilliant looking Ferrari's, one a brilliant brand new white in colour and the other a rather bright black in colour.

As we reached the top of the driveway and started up the four steps to the house, Gaston stopped suddenly on the top step, leaning down and untying his shoes, leaving them outside and informing me to do the same thing which I quickly did, placing them next to Gaston's own before Gaston pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his door quickly, opening the door and letting me go in first.

I took a deep breath as I walked inside, immediately hit by a cool breeze of fresh air, a rather welcome alternative to the rather hot humid air outside and the next thing I noticed was how clean the house was, where I was standing which I could guess was the main hall there was a coat hook to my left with three jackets hanging up on hooks already and I pulled my own coat off, hanging it up too as Gaston came in behind me, quickly pulling off his coat too and hanging it up beside my own.

Gaston closed the door behind us, dropping his keys into a glass bowl beside the door that I had only just seen and taking his bag off, placing it on the floor underneath his jacket so I did the same thing, waiting for further instructions from Gaston or for him to invite me to make myself at home or something.

"Do you want something to drink?" Gaston asked me and I nodded, my throat was beginning very parched and I could feel my face beginning to heat up again from the closeness of Gaston and his scent was beginning to make my head spin.

Nodding, Gaston began to walk forwards, taking a sharp right and I followed on again into a brightly lit kitchen that looked bigger than my kitchen/dining room and my living room combined, there was a long counter on the left hand side of the kitchen, all spick and span with no trace of anything having been cooked on it lately, a large refrigerator sat next to the counter, black in colour with a handle for ice and next to that was a separate freezer, the type that you had to pull up the way to open and even an ice-cream machine on the wall beside that.

On my other side, there was a black oven with separate gasses to cook pots and pans on and above them was what looked like a detachable grill that sat above a heat.

In the middle of the kitchen was a breakfast bar with four black stools all surrounding the bar that itself looked like it had never been eaten off of.

"What would you like to drink? I've got coke, orange juice, lemonade, milk or water."

Without me even realising it, Gaston had walked straight past my staring eyes and was now standing at the fridge, the door open and letting out some more cold blasts of air.

"Erm orange jucie" I replied, watching carefully as he lifted out a yellow container filled with orange juice and closed the fridge door with a bump of his hip before walking over to the counter and leaning up, my eyes finally taking in the counters that were attached to the wall as Gaston took down two glasses, filling them both with the orange juice, handing me one glass before he went to return to the container to the fridge, I accepted the glass and took a deep gulp, loving the cold liquid as it ran down my throat.

I grasped the glass in my hand again as Gaston walked back up to me, his own glass in hand and gestured me back out again to which I quickly hurried out, following Gaston as he picked up his bag again and walked upstairs, leading me up two flights of stairs before we finally reached a door directly in front of us, dark brown in colour and a large plaque with the words 'Gaston's Room' written on it in gold lettering.

Gaston pushed the door open, letting me go in first, my legs moving forward of their own accord as I took in all the surroundings around me within Gaston's room.

Directly in-front of me was a large double bed, blue covers neatly folded down and fixed correctly and I blushed slightly as I remembered how Gaston had informed me of how he had lain their on his bed, thinking about me.

Looking away from the bed, my eyes took in a rather large desk table with a computer and laptop sitting atop the table and two desk chairs seated in-front of the table.

But the thing that caught most of my attention was on the wall directly in-front of me, a wooden board hung there, with pins holding up a few pictures, stepping forward, I took in quite a few pictures of Gaston with Tom, Dick and Stanley and Gaston with another guy I had never seen before but one that had my stomach begin to erupt with butterflies was one of Gaston standing next to an older man with long hair hanging loose and curly around his shoulders and eyes the same colour of Gaston's, this must be Gaston's dad.

"That was me and my dad on my first day of high school, it was taken a few hours before he got into a very bad car crash."

I turned round quickly at Gaston's voice, feeling bad for having been caught staring and blushed slightly before Gaston's words really entered my brain and I opened my mouth, ready to reply when I realised that Gaston still didn't know that me and Lay were the same person.

"What happened to him?" I asked instead, taking a seat on one of the desk chairs, really hating myself for lying again but knowing that until I was sure I knew Gaston well enough, I couldn't tell him.

"He survived thankfully, the doctors weren't sure for a few hours if he would make it but in the end, he ended up paralysed from the waist down, however over the past few weeks he's been having some sessions with doctors to help him walk again, I go with him on Wednesday's after school and just help him out slightly."

I smiled at Gaston as he sat softly on his bed, taking a sip of his orange juice before placing it down onto the end table beside him and turning around to me once again.

"So, you know something about me, tell me something about you."

I looked back at Gaston, thinking hard.

What could I tell him without revealing who I was, what could I tell him without making me sound like a boring teenager with no apparent social life and if I did tell Gaston some things, what would he think of it all.

"Gaston?" A door slammed from downstairs "You home?"

"Yeah dad, I'm in my room, got a friend over for homework."

I heard the sound of crutches whacking against stairs for a couple of seconds and then the same voice came from downstairs.

"Okay, is he staying for dinner?"

Gaston turned to me, giving a look as if silently asking me the same question his father had just asked him and I nodded, remembering that I had told my parents I wouldn't be home for dinner.

"Yeah Papa, he's staying for dinner."

I heard a grunt of approval and then a series of footfalls and two seconds later, Gaston's door opened and the man whose face I had seen in the picture with Gaston popped his head in the door, leaning heavily on a stick and I could see two metal plates jutting out from the back of his legs probably for extra support as he got used to being on his legs.

"Hello Gaston and..." Gaston's dad turned to look at me and I swallowed slightly, wondering if he would remember me from the picture, it had been strange that Gaston hadn't since me and the Olaf masked man were the same person but maybe the mask had hidden me more than I thought.

"Dad, this is LeFou, we've been partnered together in English to write an essay about each others heroes writing it as if we are the other person."

Gaston's dad nodded his head and leaned more on the walking stick, giving me a smile.

"Nice to meet you LeFou, it's not very often that Gaston actually brings friends anymore apart from the guys on the football team.

"Nice to meet you too Mr Young" I replied, watching how Gaston's dad immediately began to laugh after I had said the words and even Gaston smirked a little bit.

"I like you young man, very good manners but call me Kenneth, the other boys do. Anyway, was just wanting to know if you boys wanted chicken for dinner tonight, Maria bought a lovely one earlier and it would be a shame to let it waste."

Gaston nodded right away and I returned it, Gaston's dad, I mean Mr Young, I mean Kenneth seemed like a cool guy and he was nice enough to ask me what I would like to eat, very different from my parents who just left me to make my own and would only on occasion make some comment or other stating that I should be having more greens or that the portion size was either too big or too small.

Gaston's dad smiled again at us both before leaving carefully, closing the door behind him and Gaston turned back to me again.

"So a piece of information about you then LeFou?"

Oh what had I gotten myself into.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7 - He's Close

The next few hours consisted of me and Gaston throwing pieces of information about each other back and forth, myself making sure not to give too much away that might lead Gaston to figuring out who I really was but I seemed to be doing a good job of it all.

Dinner had been a very strange affair, well strange for me as at six o'clock, Gaston's farther - I still wasn't used to calling him Kenneth in my head just yet - had arrived at the door, leaning on his stick again, informing us that dinner was ready and we should come down.

We had stopped in the middle of writing up some information, Gaston had allowed me to use his computer whilst he worked on his laptop, still sitting on his bed, now cross-legged whilst I sat comfortably on the desk chair at the computer before we had left our positions and headed downstairs.

Before the meal, Gaston's father asked us to quickly wash our hands, something that Gaston was already starting to do as I arrived in the kitchen so I joined him, trying not to blush when I felt the heat from his side brush up against my own side, focusing instead on washing and drying my hands.

We had then went into the very large dinning room across the hall from the kitchen and once again I had been transfixed by the size of the room at hand.

It must have been about the size of a football stadium with a long wooden brown table in the middle of the room, chairs gathered all around it with place settings already all laid out, baskets of bread in between wine glasses that sat empty but I could see that there was bottles of wine in metal buckets ready to be poured.

Gaston had invited me to sit at the table and I sat near the top, being joined two seconds later by Gaston and his father who sat next to me and across from me respectively.

Dinner had been served to us on silver plated platters and we had dug in, no sounds apart from the chewing of food and the occasional sip as I gulped down some water and tried not to squeal with excitement every time Gaston's elbow brushed against my arm.

As our plates had started to diminish, Gaston's father had finally looked up and started conversation with both of us about school and how we felt things were going right now, I had replied in kind, feeling Gaston's eyes on me.

We had finished off our dinner of chicken, potatoes and mixed vegetables with chocolate cake, ice cream and lots of whipped cream that I hadn't been able to finish, too full from the beautiful dinner itself and instead drank down some more water, content to watch Gaston and his father interact.

After dinner we headed back upstairs, Gaston's father staying downstairs to watch some television whilst myself and Gaston retreated to his room once more, continuing our lists of things.

After a couple more hours I felt my hands beginning to stiffen so I shook them off, turning around in the desk chair to look around at Gaston who was watching me with a strange look in his eyes and it looked like he had been watching me for a good long while.

"Is everything okay?" I asked watching how Gaston immediately cleared his throat and blinked his eyes a few times, nodding his head thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I was just trying to figure you out. Your hero is your friends Adam and Belle but yet when I asked you about them earlier, you kind of clammed up and refused to mention anything more about it."

So Gaston had noticed that, I thought to myself, remembering how Gaston had asked me how Belle and Adam were my heroes and I had retreated back into my shell slightly as I remembered how we were in a fight, well I wasn't talking to Belle on nice terms whereas Adam was talking to both of us but always trying to get me to apologise to Belle.

"Sorry about that, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't notice but I'm in a kind of fight with Belle and Adam, more so Belle. She found out that there is this guy I like and she doesn't think it's wise for me to waste my time with him as she puts it."

I noticed immediately after I spoke how Gaston's eyebrows rose quickly and efficiently, he looked like he wanted to know more about this but at the same time, he didn't want to pry too much and have me retreat further back in on myself.

"She thinks" I continued and I saw how Gaston began to stare at me again, as if watching me carefully for the moment that I might break "that I have no chance with him as he has no idea I exist."

Gaston became thoughtful and leaned back on his bed, arms coming up to cross over his chest and he even closed over his laptop, looking back up at me after a few moments.

"Well I can understand how your friend might think that but have you ever tried to speak to the guy yourself? Maybe he's just shy and likes you too but is afraid to show it."

I bit down on my lip, so badly wanting to tell Gaston that I was currently talking to the man I was afraid to speak to but not wanting to creep him out, for one I had no idea if he was actually into guys or if he even currently me as more than just a guy to speak to whilst doing a project then he would go back to ignoring me again like before.

"I'm kind of scared to speak to him, he's older than me so I'm kind of left in the way of what if I do talk to him and find out he likes me only for him to leave once school is over with."

I looked back at Gaston watching as he put his laptop down onto the bed beside him and moved forwards, placing his feet onto the edge of his bed whilst still looking at me.

"Well as my father always says, you won't know until you try, sometimes it's not good to just things pass us by" Gaston leaned across and grabbed his glass of nearly empty orange juice and I watched carefully as he raised the glass to his lips, tilting his head back and gulping down the last dregs before his head came back down and he placed the empty glass onto the bedside cabinet beside him.

Was it bad that I really wanted to be that glass in that moment in time?

"Yeah I guess you're right. It's just so many things going through my mind and I've never actually even kissed someone or had someone kiss me."

I slammed a hand over my mouth after I had said that, hating my mouth for thinking ahead of my brain, I was a right idiot, that was not the sort of conversation you had with someone whom you just met and especially not said someone who was very hot and tall and magnificent who was sitting right there, head tilted slightly to one side and look of curiosity on his face.

"You've never kissed someone? Why not?"

I shrugged my shoulders slightly, I knew exactly why I had never kissed someone, no-one wanted to kiss the freak when I had been growing up and I had been a big mamma's boy so most people made fun of me and laughed at me rather than giving me kisses.

Then as I had gotten older, the thought of kissing a girl had sounded revolting so everytime one looked at me like they wanted me to, I would turn and run the other way or just ignore them and walk past them as if they didn't exist.

Then after I had met Gaston, he had been the only one I had dreamed about kissing, wondering how his lips would feel against mine, if they would be chapped and rough or soft and smooth, if his would taste of something or if they would send butterflies through my whole system, if I would feel fireworks when our lips touched or if I would feel nothing but his laughter afterwards as he kissed me for a dare.

But I wasn't going to tell Gaston any of this, no way, no how.

Sighing, I looked back up and nearly jumped back in fright, almost screaming as I noticed that Gaston had somehow moved without me noticing and was now standing in-front of me, watching my face carefully.

"It's not such a big deal having your first kiss" Gaston spoke as he sat back onto the desk chair next to mine and rolled it forwards softly so he was directly in-front of me once again.

"For some people it feels magical and for some others it's much more. It depends on the person I think but you don't want to have to go through life never having your first kiss and not knowing what to do when someone does kiss you so how about this? I'll be your first kiss."

I stared into his eyes when he finished speaking, trying to gather all my thoughts together, had Gaston really said what I thought he just had? No, I was just imagining it all, this was just all a joke.

"I... er, I..."

I didn't have much time to put together a perfect response before Gaston was leaning in towards me and at the last second I tilted my head slightly, closing my eyes as our lips met.

It was so unlike what I had expected, Gaston's lips were soft yes but they were also rough in a strange way and they tasted strangely of mint and coffee and some strange smell that just seemed to come from Gaston himself.

And oh yes, there was fireworks.

Gaston pulled away after a few seconds and looked at me, smiling slightly.

"There you go, now you've had your first kiss."

I nodded my head, no knowing if I was agreeing with his statement or trying simply to understand my swimming mind and all the thoughts inside but I nodded, cleared my throat slightly and looked up into his eyes.

"Thank you" I whispered into the air between us, watching how Gaston's eyes seemed to widen slightly after I spoke before he seemed to brush it off and instead patted me carefully on the leg before standing up and walking back over to his laptop, almost like nothing had just happened.

I continued to sit still for a couple of seconds before I turned back to the computer, shaking the mouse to awaken the screen again and typing a couple more little bullet points about Gaston that I had just learned.

1) He was a good friend and cared deeply about other people; and

2) He was really an amazing kisser.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8 - He's Well?..

Me and Gaston eventually stopped working around ten that night, exchanging the small pieces of information we had gathered about the other and if said person agreed with each statement - I had kept the kissing part to myself - and how exactly we would start our essays and when.

Eventually, we came to the decision that we would be best to start writing up the main bullet points of what we would be including in our essays first and how we could include the stuff that we had learned about the other person for use about that single person's hero.

Gaston's, I hadn't been surprised to hear was his dad.

The guy was literally a saint, he had been through such a rough time and been through the shredder and back but he hadn't let it stop him and had carried on like he was just the same guy and he didn't have a slight disability to him.

At around midnight, Gaston borrowed the black Ferrari from his dad and drove me home, letting the music from the radio play peacefully between us and I watched as the large house disappeared from view before remembering where I was going back to.

Gaston dropped me off outside my house and I grabbed my bag out, thanking him for the lift before shutting the door over and he gave me a smile before he drove off whilst I stood outside on the cold pavement for a couple of minutes before taking a deep breath, placing my bag over my shoulder and walking up the pathway and up the stairs to my own pitiful house.

Using my keys to unlock the front door, I slipped carefully inside the house, dumping my keys onto the coat rack by the door and placing my now warm jacket over the top of them before turning back around to the small, tiny living room and staring at how cold and lifeless it was, my parents had obviously already went to bed, not caring to wait up for their only son to return to make sure he was safe.

I shook my head, wondering why I even bothered to think they might be different this time around and quickly walked up the stairs to my own room, flicking the light switch up and flooding my room with poor, dull light.

My bed was neatly made as it always was, my clothes folded carefully away into their respective spaces, my computer-less desk sat as bare and empty as ever though on second looks, I could see that there was a piece of lined paper sitting on-top of the table with my name written on it.

Walking over but not really caring, I picked up the note and opened it to see a small note written in handwriting that I couldn't not recognise right away even if she hadn't signed her name, which she had.

Lay,

I'm so sorry for how I acted the other day. Your mother let me in here earlier to leave this and I just want you to know that I kind of over-reacted but I do still kind of stand by what I said before.
Now Lay before you go right ahead and bin this note, just listen to me, I know you have feelings for Gaston but he will never be able to return those feelings, he's not gay Lay, not even half.
He likes girls Lay and I'm sorry to say it but you are just not one.

I'm sorry again,

Belle. xx

Staring at the note for a couple more seconds as I read the words over and over in my head a few times, I realised that instead of making me feel better, Belle had just managed to make me angrier at her, I really had thought from the start of her note that she was going to apologise and tell me that all was going to be okay.

But no, she just wanted to pull me down and make me feel worthless and useless again.

I folded the note up and immediately began to rip it up, first into two then three then four pieces and so on and so forth till the paper became too heavy and I just let the leftover pieces float down into my little wastepaper bin.

I flopped down onto my bed at last after I had removed the note from my life at last and pulled my phone out of my pocket, checking it for the first time since I had arrived at Gaston's.

I had a few texts from Belle, some of them saying sorry and some others telling me about the note she had left, I even had one from Adam who went on a long rant telling me that I was being silly for being in this fight with Belle and I should just stop being a child and apologise.

I quickly deleted those texts, not really needing any more negativity of that sort in my mind and switched my WiFi on, waiting as my phone connected to it and started buzzing in with notifications but the main one that always made me smile was sitting in my Instagram as if it were waiting on me.

GASTONMYOUNG
hey. hw r u doing? im wrkng wit this guy 2day on prject. i thnk u wud like him :) x

Gaston had sent me that message about six hours ago, around about the same time I had seen him typing up something on his phone, he had been messaging me on his phone even when he was with me but yet didn't know that the two things were intertwined.

LAYME2SLEEP
Hi, I'm good thanks. Sorry it took me so long to reply was doing some homework :( xx

I sent the message off and lay back in my bed, the thoughts from tonight swirling round and round in my brain, I had enjoyed a car ride with Gaston, Tom, Dick and Stanley, nearly falling out of a car and been caught by Gaston, shared a perfectly cooked meal with Gaston and his father, done some homework with Gaston and told him some things about myself and Gaston had kissed me.

DID I MENTION THAT GASTON KISSED ME?

I squealed into my pillow at the thought, remembering how perfect his lips had felt against mine, how much electricity had emitted from the kiss, on my side at least and how I could still smell the scent of him on me, on my lips and all over me.

My phone buzzed and I looked back at the screen again, my lips curling up into what I was sure was the strangest smile I had ever produced in my life.

GASTONMYOUNG
sme here. nt long droped guy off @ his house. he seems nice bt i like tlkng 2 u more ;) x

LAYME2SLEEP
Oh do you now? I'm glad I can be better to talk to than a person face to face :P xx

I put my phone back down onto the bed beside me again and thought back over what Gaston had said about me to me, this was just going to get confusing and I was sure of it.

He thought I seemed nice? If I was just only nice then why had he offered to kiss me apart from to obviously to boast to his friends that he had kissed a major virgin since up until only a few hours ago, I hadn't even been kissed by anyone romantically much less done anything below the equator.

I didn't receive anything back from Gaston straight away and I had a strange feeling that he possibly had fallen asleep.

So I went to sleep too.

But then Friday came and went, I spent some time reading over some books that I might need for my annoying English final in a few weeks - it had been pushed back because of this assignment - and fed myself whilst my parents did their usual, only spoke to me slightly at meals and all the rest of the time ignored me.

But the one thing that hurt was that I still hadn't heard anything from Gaston, it was like he had just forgotten about me again, like I had said something wrong in our conversations last night, not that I could think of anything I had said that might upset him.

But then again, maybe I had been too flirty, maybe that was my problem and I didn't know when to stop.

Saturday and Sunday passed in pretty much the same way, except this time my parents weren't in the house over the weekend to annoy me, instead they were out at family friends for some sort of party, I wasn't invited, not that I expected to be anyway as they would be drinking and partying and having fun.

The main things that apparently I sucked majorly at, well it wasn't exactly my fault that I wasn't of the legal age to drink and didn't like the idea of breaking the law.

By Sunday night though, I was feeling pretty down in the dumps, Gaston still hadn't even looked at my message and my little game of paper basketball had outgrown its fun within the first five seconds so to say I was bored was a major understatement, I had even cleaned the house from top to bottom - not that my parents would notice anyway -, made some meals for myself for the next week and watched some television.

But all the while, my mind was running around in circles whilst my stomach churned uncomfortably, every time I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, I would pull it out to check to see if Gaston had messaged me back yet but no such luck, it would mostly be a Facebook notification telling me someone had commented on something I had posted or it would be Twitter with someone tweeting the first thing that came to their mind.

I knew exactly what I would have probably written myself if I was that sort of person.

Lay Palmer @LAYME2SLEEP really want Gaston to message me back on Instagram, missing him so much and feeling empty without his words.

Thankfully, I wasn't that sort of person and so I would just keep my thoughts lodged in my brain, only thinking myself more and more stupid when I got so excited from every buzz of my phone.

It wasn't like I had really thought that the messages from Gaston would continue on forever, I knew he would eventually grow tired of me though I hadn't expected it to happen so fast but still the thought that he had given up on me now was kind of sore.

I went to bed on Sunday night thinking that if Gaston hadn't replied to me by Monday morning at the latest, I would at least get to see him Monday afternoon in English when I heard a noise from outside that I had never heard before.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

It was almost like the sound of someone throwing stones at my bedroom window but who would be stupid enough to do that on a Sunday night when most people should be sleeping.

I sighed, rolling over in my bed and trying to ignore the sounds of the stones hitting my window which only continued on for a few seconds before they seemed to stop.

I curled up into a little ball, holding my hand phone carefully in my hand, staring at the dark screen and wishing that someone might call me or text me or message, do something to distract me from the current ache of my heart.

My phone lit up that second as if I had conjured it and I stared down at my screen, seeing that I had a message. On Instagram... It was from Gaston.

GASTONMYOUNG
sry bout no reply. so ill over the weeknd. jst stoped thrwng up :( & yes i do. thugh guy i wrkng w/th kind of cute 2.

I smiled wide, it had just been my over active imagination playing tricks on me again, Gaston had been ill over the weekend, poor little thing.

The thought of it tugged at my heart strings and I pulled my phone up, ready to reply to Gaston's message when I realised something.

If the person at my window hadn't been what I had been originally imagining, Gaston with stones and a boombox, singing me a soft lullaby then who was outside in my backyard, throwing stones up to my window.

I carefully climbed off of my bed, keeping my phone firmly grasped in my hand just in-case I had to call the police or even Gaston - even though the poor thing had just finished being sick - I knew that usually this sort of thing was most commonly seen in horror movies but I had never been one to stick to the conventional role of damsel in distress so I would stick up for myself.

Creeping towards my long wide window, I grabbed one side of my curtain as I approached and gently pulled on it, revealing...

Chapter Text

Previously on Will You Ever Be Mine?:

If the person at my window hadn't been what I had been originally imagining, Gaston with stones and a boombox, singing me a soft lullaby then who was outside in my backyard, throwing stones up to my window.

I carefully climbed off of my bed, keeping my phone firmly grasped in my hand just in-case I had to call the police or even Gaston - even though the poor thing had just finished being sick - I knew that usually this sort of thing was most commonly seen in horror movies but I had never been one to stick to the conventional role of damsel in distress so I would stick up for myself.

Creeping towards my long wide window, I grabbed one side of my curtain as I approached and gently pulled on it, revealing...

Chapter 9 - He's Heroic

"Adam?..." I screamed as with a last pull my curtain finally opened and I saw my other kind of friend but also the boyfriend to said one of my friends whom I currently wasn't talking to, standing in my garden with a fistful of stones in his hand.

Opening my long window and stepping out onto the veranda, I looked down at Adam with my arms crossed across my chest, phone still held tightly in my hand and a confused look on my face as I tried to wonder why Adam could be here right now.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Well that was definitely one way to ask the words that had been running through my mind in the last few seconds and Adam still didn't look very likely to come up with something to say on his own.

"Would you believe me if I said that I'm here to apologise?" Adam held up two hands, as if he was trying to say he meant no harm and two seconds later, he had let the stones drop to the floor beneath him, as if remembering he was still holding them.

I scoffed and and tightened my arms together, giving him the best 'I don't believe you' look I could muster at this time of night.

"No. I wouldn't Adam, you and Belle made it very clear about what you felt because of my thing with Gaston, if anyone has to apologise properly though it's Belle."

Adam stared up at me for a few more minutes and I saw him almost trying to think very carefully about what he was going to say next that wouldn't set me off but at the same time wouldn't put him in a bad position on either side.

"Lay, we don't need to apologise. Belle was right in what she said, the only reason Gaston is talking to you is because he doesn't really know who you actually are. The second he actually finds out who you are, he'll leave. That's who Gaston is."

I saw red after Adam closed his mouth and stared straight at the other man, wondering how he could say such a thing to me, it wasn't true, Gaston knew me right now and he was talking to me, he had been talking to and a little bit more to me the other day so how could Adam say that he would ignore me after finding out who I really was.

Oh, this was about Instagram again, I had a strange feeling that this would be coming up again soon, just because Adam and Belle didn't understand, it didn't mean I was lying to Gaston, I was just not telling him everything about me, not until I was ready.

"Lay you know it as well as Belle and myself, Gaston is an asshole and he cares about no-one but himself. He always will."

Turning away from the veranda, I only looked at Adam for a couple more seconds with complete and utter disgust on my face before I stepped fully away from the window and back into my room, slamming and locking it behind me, not even caring if Adam was going to start up his stone throwing again, he could light himself on fire for all that I cared.

Slumping back down onto my bed once again, I let my arms un-cross at last, unlocking my phone and smiling as I saw three new messages on Instagram from Gaston and I even had a new text message from him.

GASTONMYOUNG
u still there?
hullo?
r u md @ me?

From Gaston
Hi LeFou.. I wanted to apologise if my dad completely embarrassed you. Or if I did, anyway, still on for this Thursday since I was kind of ill today?

I stared at the text message for a few moments afterwards, trying to understand what had happened, Gaston was apologising to me, but why?

He hadn't done anything wrong as far as I was aware and he was actually not speaking in a fashion that I couldn't understand for once, that was really weird.

To Gaston
It's okay I enjoyed myself and yeah I'm good for Thursday :) same place? :)

I smiled to myself and switched over to my Instagram page, biting my lip softly as I tried to think of what to say to Gaston that wouldn't strike him as suspicious but at the same time would make sense for why he hadn't heard from me in the last fifteen minutes or so.

LAYME2SLEEP
Hey, I'm not mad at you, I promise. I was just dealing with some unimportant things x

Sending the message off and thinking it was best just to kind of supply him with the half truth of current events, I smiled, plugging my phone in to charge and looking at the small alarm clock sitting on my bedside cabinet.

It was currently twenty to eleven at night.

Curling up under my covers, I watched as the seconds hand on my clock ticked away, around and around the clock face, all the while wondering what exactly I was still doing awake at this time of night when I had school in the morning.

Placing my head softly down onto my pillow, I started to think back over the small things that had been keeping me awake for longer over the last few days.

There was of course the big one of Gaston and how he knew nothing about who I actually truly was, truly being the real me behind the phone screen and everything, that me and it were connected to the same source and we were the same person but I couldn't tell Gaston this.

Then there was my big fight with Belle and Adam but more specifically Belle, the one friend who I thought I could trust with just about anything who turned on me when she found out who I was speaking to online and just because she didn't like him, she had to tell me that he would never look at me in the way that I wanted and he most certainly wasn't into boys or so said Belle.

The third thing was something I hadn't really thought much about before and it kind of scared me as I thought about it, did my parents actually love me in some sort of weird, mixed up way of their own or were they just as cruel and evil as I thought they were always.

That one wasn't keeping me as awake as the other two but it still had me shook slightly for some reason that I wasn't too sure on.

Closing my eyes finally, I listened to the soft sounds of the crickets outside - glad to hear that Adam had apparently left now and was leaving me well enough alone - letting their soft noises lull me to sleep until I was under and sleeping soundlessly for over seven hours.

The next morning, I awoke as I always did with a smile already in place and staring at my phone to see who had text or messaged me over the night.

But this time just like since I had started talking to Gaston, there was a message waiting on Instagram for me from the other man and even a text message.

GASTONMYOUNG
gd. u ok nw? x

From Gaston
Good morning LeFou.. I don't have football practice today after school so do you want to catch up today after school since we missed yesterday?

I smiled to myself as I read over the two forms of text from Gaston, how could the guy be so clueless and not very good at spelling one second and the next he was able to write full sentences and ask proper questions, I wasn't complaining much but I just didn't understand it.

LAYME2SLEEP
yeah, all good now :) x

To Gaston
Morning and yeah that sounds good, where do you want to go?

I put my phone back down onto my bedside cabinet and jumped out of bed, quickly pulling together a most amazing and school appropriate - not that I had any outfits that weren't school appropriate - outfit, getting dressed and fixing my hair back in my nice ponytail for the school day.

Once finished, I checked myself over slightly in the mirror to make sure there weren't any splotches of dirt or anything on my clothes, quickly brushed my teeth and sprayed on a little bit of aftershave, checking my phone once I was finished to see that Gaston had replied to my text but not my message on Instagram.

From Gaston
Denny's? Say five o'clock?

I stared at the text for a few minutes, trying to remember where the place Denny's was but it came back to me a few minutes later, Denny's was a restaurant only ten minutes from our school that most of the seniors went to for lunch and was usually always rather quiet, I had been in once with Belle and Adam and had spent most of the visit watch Gaston sitting with his friends, talking and laughing about some girl who had been wearing a white t-shirt to school, spilled water on her t-shirt and shown off her bright red bra.

To Gaston
Yeah, that sounds great

From Gaston
it's a date :)

I paused and stared at the screen a few more minutes after receiving the latest text from Gaston, had Gaston just said what I thought he had said, yeah I think he had but there was no way that he meant it in the way that I wanted him to was there? I mean just because we kissed at his house didn't mean he suddenly wanted to take me on a date and show me off to his friends, take me to prom and make love to me on his massive bed whilst some really romantic music played away in the background, did it?

I shoved the thought away out of my brain, laughing slightly to myself and trying not to get hard as I thought about how Gaston might look sweating and naked, kissing me to an inch of myself and making me come with that beautiful sultry voice of his, how he would kiss down my thigh and... no Lay stop it, I chastised myself and focused instead on making sure I had all my books for today.

English, Maths, French, Family and Consumer Science and History.

Glad I had them all, I put all my books into my bag, picking up my phone and texting Gaston back.

To Gaston
Okay :) See you in English.

I locked my phone and took it off charge, placing the phone into my pocket whilst grabbing my jacket quickly and walking downstairs to grab some breakfast.

I arrived in the kitchen, rather surprised but also happy that my parents were not awake yet, they must be taking the day off and sleeping off their hangovers, either that or they had already risen and were at work, grumbling about the poor way the traffic was behaving lately and leaving me to do everything again.

Judging by the state of the sink in-front of me, I could tell that this was pretty much the case, little LeFou left to do everything whilst my parents carried on like they didn't even have a son and if they needed something, they would text, not call, calling indicated a personal relationship level - wasn't that what children and parents were meant to have though - too dramatic for some kids so they text me and ask me to do something and then not reply when I said I would do it.

Carefully and quickly clearing up the dishes, I put the worst ones into the dish washer to wash off fully whilst hand-washing the other bigger dishes and rolling my eyes at the mess left behind on the counter top too, if I had been at Gaston's house right now, there would be no way that his kitchen would be in this state, even when I had had dinner, everyone took part afterwards and cleaned their dishes and put them away.

Finishing up my work, I chanced a quick look at my phone to see that I had ten minutes to leave the house and grab the bus to school.

Grabbing a banana and a bottle of Pepsi, I put my phone back into my pocket, starting for the door when my phone suddenly started ringing.

Looking very confused and unsure of what was going on, I placed my banana and bottle onto the table in the living room, digging my phone out of my pocket and nearly dropping it as I saw Gaston's name scrolled across the top of the screen.

I hit the answer button and waited for a reply.

"Hello?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 10 - He's Paying...

It turned out that the reason for Gaston's call was him asking if I wanted a lift to school, he had finally gotten his car back on Saturday - it had been getting repairs so he had been getting lifts from his teammates - and he would be stopping by my house soon.

I had agreed to the lift and spent the next fifteen minutes in Gaston's beautiful black four door Mercedes-Benz, listening to the radio and chatting with Gaston about our little after-school trip to Denny's, Gaston saying he would just take me there when my classes let out and we could discuss the homework, grab some dinner and then he would drop me off.

It was sounding a lot more and more like a date and even when Gaston was talking to me, I couldn't help but notice how my eyes travelled slightly downwards towards his lips and remembering how they had felt against mine, I had even 'accidentally' touched his arm at one point of the trip to feel the warmth emitting from him like the other day when I had been in his arms.

We had arrived at school a few minutes before the bell and I had to quickly run to reach my homeroom in time, thanking Gaston quickly for the lift and stating I would see him later on, which I knew I would seeing as how we were in English together but my mind still couldn't help but keep going back to the thought of sitting across from him in a restaurant with candlelight's and maybe sharing some spaghetti and meatballs, wow I really had to stop watching Lady and the Tramp.

Unfortunately before I got to the best part of my day, I had to go through the torture of seven hours of classes, some of them stuck in the same room as Belle or Adam and having to act like I didn't hate their guts.

Take right now for example, I was currently stuck in History class, writing down the notes written on the blackboard whilst beside me Belle was making a good deal of making sure I didn't exist - I'm pretty sure if she could have, she would have put up a barrier wall or something so that I couldn't touch her by accident - she had her whole body more or less turned away from me, her elbows were pretty much glued to her sides and every time she turned round to the blackboard, she would look straight through me.

Now I know what you're thinking, why am I complaining about this? Well not really complaining, just annoyed because I thought Belle was bigger than that but apparently not as she continued to ignore me, even when the History teacher, a really sweet old lady by the name of Professor Potts paired us together to discuss the events leading up to the Great American War.

• Well there was Belle being a complete and utter bitch to me and not talking to me just because I was following my heart and her acting like I had ran over her cat or something when I told Adam off, something I'm pretty sure he must have told her.
  
  
• There was also my little level of anxiety in how things were going with Gaston, I was so very happy currently but at the same time, I was scared of how and when he might find out about the real me behind the internet page.
  
  
• And then there was the fact that I had no idea what had happened to lead up the war, I loathed History and always had, the only sort of History I liked was in the form of fashion history - something I would always usually talk to Belle about - like how the most famous fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent had been born on the first of August nineteen-thirty six and how he had known he wanted to be a designer from a very young age and lived out his dream until the unfortunate day of the first of June two thousand eight when he died of brain cancer.

That was the sort of things I could remember, I could also remember when famous actors had been born, including and not limited to, my most favourite actor in the form of one, John Christopher Depp II, now more commonly known as Johnny Depp who was born on the ninth of June, nineteen sixty three and had become most famous for his role as notorious and rather clumsy pirate, Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, I had watched the series more than six hundred times now and loved it more and more with each viewing.

So yeah, History itself wasn't as high on my things to remember so instead I took the time for the partnership to jot down a few questions in my old spiral notebook that I could ask Gaston when I saw him in English.

I finished my questions and heard Belle clear her throat slightly, shooting out what could only be an 'moron' under her breath as she did so but I had endured my fair share of name calling in my life so far so much that it was second nature to me and Belle should have remembered that if she didn't have her nose so far up her backside that she could probably see Switzerland.

Thankfully the class came to an end not too long after that and I was free to pack up my bag as slowly as I wanted and pack it away whilst Belle quickly gathered her stuff together and left in a flash.

I put all my books away and was just putting my bag onto my shoulder when a sudden clearing of the throat from the front of the classroom had me looking up into the sweet and caring green of Professor Potts and I walked up to her desk, wondering what I could have done wrong.

"Yes Professor?" I asked as I reached the desk, my fingers grabbing slightly at my bag to keep it steady but also trying to stop the all too common fidgety feeling currently whirling through my body.

"I just wanted to check up on you little Lay" Professor Potts or as I was allowed to call her outside of class, Beatrice, was a family friend through my father's uncle and had known me since I was young so little check-in's like this one were not uncommon.

"I'm good you know, life goes on."

I was trying my best not to give too much away to Professor Potts but at the same time, exchange as much information as I could, it was rather annoying and difficult but it meant a lot less awkward questions that I wasn't too sure how to answer.

"Are you sure honey, you and Belle are rather..."

"I need to run Professor Potts, I'm running late for English and my class is on the other side of the school" I breathed out and before she could open her mouth to retort, I had sped out of the classroom, hurrying along to the end of the hallway and sitting down on the steps, taking a few deep breaths, glad I had gotten away when I had.

And I hadn't exactly lied either, my English classroom was on the complete other end of the school but I didn't have English until after lunch, right now I was supposed to be in Family and Consumer Science even though that meant another hour spent in Belle's presence with her ignoring me and making me feel like I had been a really bad friend.

Deciding to forego my current class, I sat down carefully on the stairs, thinking over what happened over the past few days and weeks, how Belle and Adam hated me and even how I was lying to Gaston, the one man whom I was beginning to consider a real and true friend.

I must have been sitting on the stairs for quite a while for the next thing I knew, the bell was ringing for lunch and two seconds later, Tom and Dick were walking out of a classroom not too far from where I currently sat, talking between themselves but stopping upon seeing me sitting on the stairs.

"Hey, LeFou right?" Tom asked as he sat down on the step in-front of me, looking up at me, "Are you okay?"

I shrugged in response, wanting to just come out and tell Tom everything that was going through my mind currently but at the same time afraid to say something for fear that it might get back to Gaston and he would hate me, it felt like I was on a two-way street but I couldn't go both ways for some reason.

Tom must not have taken my lack of response for a reply as two seconds later, he had stood up, grabbing my hand and pulling me up from the stairs, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and starting to walk a little bit whilst I felt a little bit of a teasing in my stomach as I remembered how Gaston had done the very same thing to me only days ago and I pulled tightly onto Tom's jacket, stopping him in his tracks.

Burrowing my face into his chest, I finally let the tears fall, hating how I was crying at school and into someone that I hardly knew, it was like being in the middle of one of my worst dreams.

"What did you do?" Over my shoulder, I could hear Dick asking questions and even feel the occasional finger prod.

"Nothing, he just grabbed onto me.. Dick, go get..."

"Tom, Dick, what's going on here?"

Relief. That was what I currently felt, relief as I heard the voice behind me and turned, wiping at my eyes and looking up at Gaston who was standing there, his arms crossed over his chest and looking at Tom and Dick like they should be on trial.

"Gaston" I whispered, grabbing at Gaston's arm noticing immediately how the other man turned his attention from his friends to me, a look of concern and fear on his face before it turned to determination as he put his other hand onto my shoulder and started steering me away from the crowd gathered at the stairway, down a few hallways before we ended up one of the less used hallways and Gaston stopped, turning to me.

"LeFou, what's going on? Did Tom and Dick say something? I'm going to kill them, I swear."

"NO! No Gaston, they didn't do anything wrong. It's me, I just.. I have something to tell you."

I could feel the tears start up in my eyes again as I fought hard to get the words out without my voice breaking whilst Gaston continued to watch me but his expression relaxed and he squeezed my shoulder slightly.

"No, what you need is food and a lot of it if your breakfast in my car this morning was anything to go by."

I blushed as I remembered eating my not very nutritious breakfast in Gaston's car and how Gaston had been watching me very carefully.

"Come on. I'll buy you lunch. I'm paying."

He was leaving no room for arguments as I finally took my hand off his arm whilst he put his arm around my shoulders again and pulled me close, giving me a awkward but yet strangely relaxing one armed hug.

He pulled away after a few seconds, still keeping his arm around my shoulder and leading me out the side door to the car park despite my argument that I had something really important to tell him.

Gaston eventually stopped two cars away from his home car, his keys halfway out of his pocket and he turned again, letting his arm drop away from my shoulder and I immediately missed the warmth but looked up into his eyes all the same.

"Fine" Gaston spoke up, giving me a look that seemed to indicate no more arguments "You can tell me this very important information at lunch, okay?"

I nodded at Gaston who nodded in return two seconds later before turning back to head to his car whilst I followed on behind, my stomach gurgling and my heart thumping away in my chest, was I really about to Gaston the truth about who I really was?

Chapter Text

Chapter 11 - He's ...

The car ride on the way to the restaurant had been strangely quiet, the only sound between the both of us that of some singer on the radio and the occasional click as Gaston would turn his indicator left or right.

We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes later and I got out of the car, surprised to see we had came to Denny's, the place I was supposed to go to with Gaston later on and I looked up at the main entrance, remembering the last time I had been here with Adam and Belle.

It looked the same as before, the outside of the restaurant had a soft red carpet leading up to two double doors - they liked to treat their customers like celebrities for some reason - both of which were shaped like butterfly wings and had a small handle on the front to pull them open.

Gaston had walked me up the carpet, keeping a hand around my shoulder and we had quickly gotten inside, been assigned a table and were now just looking at our menu's, trying to decide what to have.

Well Gaston was, I could tell that by how his forehead was screwed up in concentration whilst I played about with my cutlery, chancing a quick look at my menu and taking a few deep breaths inside of my head as I tried to think about the past time to tell Gaston the truth.

I had decided that it was time to tell him after my strange hug and crying session with Tom, who had been sweet enough to just let me hug him and cry on his shoulder despite us not knowing each other really well, I felt bad for unloading on him like that but I hadn't known what else to do.

Especially not when I realised that this could be the last time I could ever speak to Gaston, I bit down on my quivering lip, trying to stop a fresh onslaught of tears and looked back down at my menu, not really seeing any appetising but deciding I should just order anything and eat it so I had the strength to speak to Gaston.

Gaston put his menu down that second, closing it over and leaning back in his chair, his legs stretching out and accidentally lightly kicking me, I turned my head away, blushing softly and trying to make it look like I was making a final decision on what to eat before I closed my menu over too and looked up at Gaston.

"..."

I had my mouth open, ready to start telling him when a young and beautiful blonde waitress with her hair pinned back high on the top of her head and what looked like five packets of make-up adoring her face.

"Hi there and welcome to Denny's, my name is Laurette and I'll be your waitress today" The waitress, Laurette batted her eyelashes at Gaston, leaning over slightly so that her small and very skimpy skirt rode up her backside whilst the top of her shirt showed a little more skin than was needed.

I wasn't very surprised to note that she completely ignored me, almost like I was a stain on the bottom of her shoe, what I was surprised about though was how Gaston seemed to just ignore her and looked straight at me, indicating for me to order first.

Laurette turned away from Gaston with a slight pout and looking very fed up whilst I smirked to myself, one point to LeFou for not trying too hard.

"Erm can I get the Chicken Bacon Classic please with fries and a large Pepsi please."

Laurette quickly wrote down my order, so fast that I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a scribble on the page before turning back to Gaston again and batting her eyelashes once again.

"What can I get you hot stuff?"

This girl was unbelievable, sure Gaston was hot, no drop dead gorgeous but she didn't exactly have to full flat out flirt with him in the middle of the restaurant, for all she could know he might be on a date with me, I knew he wasn't but that didn't mean she could just drop in and try to take him.

"Yes, I'll have the Slamburger please with fries and a side of onion rings with a large Pepsi."

Laurette took more time with Gaston's order and stayed still for a few seconds after, almost like she expected him to continue on with the order but upon seeing that wasn't about to happen, Laurette grabbed up our menu's with a little bit of a huff and walked away, telling Gaston that it wouldn't be too long on our food.

Gaston waited till the waitress was well out of ear and eye shot before he started to chuckle and imitate her, batting his eyes heavily at me and shooting me a seductive smile.

"Wow talk about desperate, I bet she probably hits on every guy who comes in here."

I blushed, not finding it fit to remind Gaston that our waitress had ignored me in favour of him but that might make Gaston think I was jealous of him which I wasn't, jealous of him, I was jealous because I couldn't currently be with him and okay I was slightly jealous of he looked all the time and managed to pull anything off.

Like right now, he was wearing a slightly baggy red t-shirt, dark black jeans, his hair was pulled back into it's normal ponytail and he even had the beginning's of a five o'clock shadow and he still looked perfect.

Me on the other hand, I had my hair tied back in a ponytail yes but it was already starting to come loose, I had bags under my eyes, partly from a little bit of lack of sleep and partly from crying, I was wearing a pair of blue jeans with holes in the knees and I was wearing a ratty old t-shirt with a few holes at the front and a picture of the Tardis from Doctor Who on the front.

Laurette came back over with our drinks that second, mine full of ice and with two straws in the glass whilst Gaston's was served to him in a Glass Tankard complete with a perfect Pepsi to ice combination.

Laurette placed the glasses onto the table, my glass making the table shake slightly whilst she made sure to take as much time with Gaston's as possible and even caressed his arm slightly before walking away making sure that her ass swung back and forth as she did.

Gaston just laughed again, taking a sip of his Pepsi and placing the glass down onto the table again before leaning back in his chair, crossing his arms softly over his chest and eyeing me with a look that almost seemed to read that he was trying to understand me.

"What? What is it?" I asked after a few moments of Gaston continuing to stare at me, beginning to silently wonder if I had something on my face or in my teeth or if worse the word 'Faker' was currently tattooed across my forehead.

"Nothing" Gaston shook his head and leaned forward again, arms dropping away from his chest and instead he leaned his elbows slightly on the table, facing me, "So you said you had some sort of important information to tell me?"

Gaston cracked a smile, wide and full of laughter that had me pick at the bottom of my t-shirt slightly, oh god, if Gaston was asking me with this look on his face then that meant he obviously thought it was going to be something about our project for school, not what I was actually going to tell him.

"Erm..." I pulled my freezing cold glass up from the table, taking a long pull from the straw, still watching Gaston and not paying too much attention as I swallowed down the juice, coughing and spluttering a few seconds later.

"I'm fine, I'm fine" I coughed, putting a hand up to Gaston to stop him from reaching forward to clap my back and smiling back at him once I had gotten rid of the cough, "It just went down the wrong pipe."

Gaston laughed slightly, taking another drink of his Pepsi whilst I put my glass down onto the table again, wondering what exactly the best way to start this was.

"Gaston..." I took a deep breath, my face devoid of emotions and I noticed how the change in my emotional range had Gaston stop laughing suddenly and look at me with interest.

"I've been wanting to tell you this for about a year now... Well more like the last couple of weeks but I think I'd be best just to tell you this now." I took another deep breath, trying my hardest not to let my voice crack or my eyes to fill with tears again.

"I've been talking to you online for the last year now, it was actually kind of funny how it happened you see my phone sucks majorly and I was on Instagram when I clicked onto your profile and I kind of accidentally started following you but then you followed me back and sent me a message telling me you liked my profile picture."

I took a deep breath, noticing how Gaston was still staring at me but looked kind of confused and I sighed slightly, he hadn't figured it out yet but that would make the next part of this sentence a lot harder.

"Gaston... I'm LayMe2Sleep, you know with the to as the number two instead of the grammatically correct version of it."

I stopped talking, my eyes now on the very bare and bright table, too scared to look up for fear of what I might see but also wanting to take it all back or have luck on my side and make sure that Gaston hadn't heard me.

I looked up a couple of minutes later, staring at Gaston who's face was as pale white as a ghost and one of his hands were tightened into a fist on the table beside him.

"You... Your... You..."

"Yes I know it's a lot to take in but I'm still the same person Gaston, I'm still LeFou and..."

"You lied to me" It seemed that Gaston had finally found his voice as he leaned forward at last, his expression growing dark and his lips pulling up into a snarl, "All this time you've been constantly lying to me about everything, about the guy, about you really are."

"Gaston..."

"No. You don't get to fucking speak right now. Your just as bad as the other fakers, you befriend me and I let my guard down and tell you things I don't share with everyone, just people I trust and then you pull the rug out from under me and fuck me over. No, you know what LeFou or Lay or whatever the hell your name is, you're worse because I started falling in love with you. How dumb of me."

And with that Gaston stood up, pulling his wallet out of his pocket throwing forty euros onto the table top with no second glance or smile at me before he turned around and headed for the door, walking out of the restaurant and out of my life.

Forever.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12 - I'm Falling

I arrived home around an hour later, my eyes wet and my cheeks bright red.

I had had to wait fifteen minutes for taxi after just leaving the restaurant, trying my best to run out after Gaston but he was faster than me and by the time I had reached the car park, Gaston's car had been reversing out of the spot and away, leaving me with a broken heart and twenty euros on my person to get home.

I had finally gotten a taxi service that would take longer than an hour to show up at this busy rush hour and fifteen minutes later, I was sat in the back of the taxi softly telling the driver where I was going before leaning my head back against the seat and letting the tears flow, not caring if the driver saw me or not.

The driver finally got to my house after taking a few wrong turns and stopped, telling me that my fare was fifteen euros and I had handed over the money, receiving the change and quickly getting out of the taxi and walking up the stairs into my house, not caring that my parents might be home.

Stepping into the living room, I closed the front door behind me, dropping my bag into a pile by the front door, letting my jacket flop down next to it and throwing my keyes heavily into the bowl, looking back around to the living room to see that my mother and father were home, I had been right about that and as usual my father had his head stuck in his paper whilst my mother was watching the television, neither of them had even looked around at me. Bloody brilliant.

"Oh hello there. I just got home and I'm early. Aren't you going to ask why?"

My sarcastic tone had my mother jump slightly on the couch, clapping a hand to her chest and looking around to me, breathing heavily.

"LeFou, I didn't hear you come in. Have a good day with your girlfriend?"

I wasn't sure whether it was my anger at myself or how I was feeling so empty and down with myself for what I had done but in that moment, I decided I had had enough as I stormed towards my mother, pointing a finger at her.

"Okay listen here mother. My name is Lay! And Belle is not my girlfriend, I am gay you stupid bitch!"

My mother stared at me, her hand still on her heart and without a trace of hurt on her face, the only thing I could hear in the rather quiet room apart from the television was my father rustling the paper as he turned the page.

"LeFou please keep it down. I am trying to read the paper..."

I growled deep down in my throat and stormed towards him instead, grabbing the paper out of his hands, shutting it over and ripping it right down the middle and into much smaller parts before throwing the confetti like bits straight into his face.

"There's your paper father."

I stared a the both of them for a few minutes afterwards, expecting some sort of reaction to my blow-out but there was nothing, not even a batting of eyes or even my father shouting at me for ruining his paper like most normal fathers would do.

"Seriously? Are you being fucking serious right now? Fuck this shit."

And before I could even let my mother or father do or say anything - ha, what a funny thought - I stormed back over, grabbing my bag and jacket before walking upstairs to my room and slamming the door behind me, slamming my bag onto my desk whilst I dropped my jacket by the door, forcefully yanking my old ratty t-shirt off my body and throwing it into a corner, my jeans following it and I changed into a pair of oversized sweatpants and a thin tank top, pulling my phone out of my pocket and lying on my bed, the tears starting to fall fresh again.

I switched on my WiFi, clicking onto my Instagram profile and typing Gaston's name into the search bar, rather surprised that there was nothing there at all, not even a hint of Gaston, nothing to even say he had existed on the page before.

Had Gaston blocked me? Sure I had kind of lied to him and not told him who I really was then blurted it out over a lunch that I hadn't even eaten and still didn't feel hungry for.

Clicking off of Instagram, I logged onto Facebook instead, typing in Gaston's name and coming up empty, had he figured out my name on Facebook and blocked me on this too?

Deciding to go with my last option, I looked on Twitter and once again I saw that Gaston had blocked me on that platform too.

I sighed, pulling slightly at my hair and went onto my text messages, typing in what I had been wanting to say for a long while.

To Gaston
Gaston please talk to me. I'm so sorry for what I did, it was childish and stupid and I know that but please don't ignore me. I just want to apologise. I'm so sorry I hurt you, I was just scared of what you might think of the real me.. Please text me back... I love you x

I sent the text off and sat back, my head hitting back against the pillow and locking my phone, the tears continuing to flow as I waited on Gaston's reply.

A few minutes later I couldn't start the waiting anymore and unlocked my phone again, clicking onto my contacts and onto Gaston's name, sliding the icon over to the right and waiting on the phone to start ringing.

But it didn't, the screen just went straight back onto the contacts and I tried a few more times, sliding it to the right but to no avail, each time it kept on going straight back to the first screen and a little pop-up message appeared at the top of my screen.

Can't Contact This Person.

I threw my room across the room, hearing it slam hard against the wall and swore at it, hoping that it 'fucking died' before sliding under the covers of my bed, the tears still flowing and my body shaking as I convulsed with the sobs.

I switched off my light, bathing my room in a slight darkness accompanied by the last dregs of sunlight shining in my window but I had no strength to get back up and close them so instead I turned away, curling tighter into my bed and letting the tears fall louder now and drawing in shaky and half breaths, closing my eyes against the onslaught of everything.

I didn't want to remember anything that had happened, I just wanted to go to sleep and forget that this day even happened.

Maybe it would be better in the morning.

Yeah or maybe, Gaston would tell me he had been taken over by an alien.

Yeah.

Cats were more likely to learn how to juggle.

It was safe to say, I was not looking forward to school tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13 - I'm Alone

I awoke the next morning with the sound of my alarm, blaring some crap remix song at me and for a second I was ready to jump out of bed and continue on with my day when thoughts of the previous day began to invade my subconscious again.

"Gaston... I'm LayMe2Sleep, you know with the to as the number two instead of the grammatically correct version of it."

I looked up a couple of minutes later, staring at Gaston who's face was as pale white as a ghost and one of his hands were tightened into a fist on the table beside him.

"You... Your... You..."

"You lied to me"

"...Your just as bad as the other fakers, you befriend me and I let my guard down and tell you things I don't share with everyone, just people I trust and then you pull the rug out from under me and fuck me over. No, you know what LeFou or Lay or whatever the hell your name is, you're worse because I started falling in love with you. How dumb of me."

...my father had his head stuck in his paper whilst my mother was watching the television, neither of them had even looked around at me. Bloody brilliant.

"Oh hello there. I just got home and I'm early. Aren't you going to ask why?"

"LeFou, I didn't hear you come in. Have a good day with your girlfriend?"

"Okay listen here mother. My name is Lay! And Belle is not my girlfriend, I am gay you stupid bitch!"

"LeFou please keep it down. I am trying to read the paper..."

I growled deep down in my throat and stormed towards him instead, grabbing the paper out of his hands, shutting it over and ripping it right down the middle and into much smaller parts before throwing the confetti like bits straight into his face.

"There's your paper father."

I groaned and pulled my covers back over my head, trying to drown out all the bad memories and my slight outburst yesterday towards my parents, I wasn't sure where it had come from, my mother had just opened her mouth and I had immediately seen red, I had had to act and then my father with his paper had been the final straw, if he ever cared about anything apart from that damn paper then maybe my mother wouldn't be as annoyingly on my case as she always was.

Maybe I might have someone to talk to about all of this crap.

About half an hour later, I was sitting in the kitchen, across the table from my father who somehow once again had his head stuck in the paper whilst my mother bustled around the room, plating breakfast items up and making coffee all at the same time, they were acting like nothing had happened.

Had I just dreamed it? No I was pretty sure I could remember myself shouting and ripping plus I still had a little bit of ink from the paper on my hands still that hadn't yet washed off.

My mother placed my full plate in-front of me, sausages, egg, bacon, tomato and mushrooms but I felt sick to my stomach and with every moment I stared at my plate, it felt like they were all watching me and sending me condescending looks, like they too knew what I had done but wouldn't say anything about it.

"I'm not hungry, I'll just grab something on my way to school" I pushed the plate away from me, standing up and pulling my bag over my shoulder, not really wanting to make any efforts in heading towards school but knowing I couldn't sit anymore.

I didn't receive any reply, not that I had really expected any but it still kind of hurt as I walked away out of the kitchen and into the living room, grabbing at both my house and car keys on my way out before I got outside and walked down the main stairs of my house, heading straight for my car.

I unlocked the blasted thing, having to actually put my keys into the lock and turn it before hearing the click, opening the squeaky door and carefully getting inside, throwing my bag down onto the passenger seat beside me and placing my hands onto the sterling wheel.

It was only then that I noticed that I was shaking, my hands the worst even as they clenched onto the sterling wheel they shook and I could feel a build up of tears burning away at the back of my eyes.

Running a shaky hand through my hair, I blinked a few times trying my hardest to will away the tears whilst inside my mind I was telling myself that it was all going to be okay, I got up the courage to put my keys into the ignition, turning it softly and hearing the purr as the engine started up.

I put the car into reverse carefully backing out of my driveway before switching back to drive and watching the road ahead as I started my drive towards hell.

Upon arriving at school, I quickly parked in one of the closest parking spots to the doors, seeing that only a few other cars were already here as it was still rather early - it was currently only quarter past eight - and we didn't start nine.

Braking and switching the engine off, I sat idly in my car for a few minutes, trying to keep my breathing even as I thought about the best way to make sure I got through with this day and didn't break down in the middle of hallway into a million sobs, looking like a real loner, that would be just like the thing, the school freak with no friends breaking down and having no-one stand up for him or even help him out.

Eventually after a good five of ten minutes, I grabbed my bag, getting out of the car and locking the door behind me before I swung my bag over my shoulder, immediately feeling my fingers come up to fidget with the strap as I ascended the steps, passing by a group of girls all giggling together and pointing at pictures on an I-Pad, all looking very happy and content.

I finally got inside the school after what felt like hours but had only been a few minutes and immediately started heading for my locker, keeping my head down and refusing to look anyone in the face for fear mostly that one of those faces might be Gaston.

I got to my locker within record time and spun the combination in before opening it and resting my shoulder on the open door, looking inside at all my books I hadn't needed yesterday still pilled up neatly, my now empty bottle of water sitting atop them and my old jacket that was just too small for me hanging on one of the hooks.

Turning my head the other way, I caught myself staring fondly at a picture of me and Belle that had been taken in Freshmen year on our first day of school, we had been so close back then, she was dressed down in a simple t-shirt and jeans, her arm around my shoulder whilst I wore a pair of black jeans and a tan t-shirt with a picture of a raccoon on it and I had my arm wrapped around her waist. We had both been laughing at the camera, something her mum had said that was just too funny but I couldn't remember what that was now.

Shaking my head, I opened my bag, cursing when two seconds after I realised my bag was upside down and all the contents came flying out, slapping down onto the hard marble floor one after the other first my heavy text books then my calculator and notepads.

Muttering softly to myself, I bent down, grabbing up my books and calculator again, stuffing the whole lot harshly into my locker before remembering what classes I had first and I had pull the books back out, sorting through them and shoving the unwanted ones back into my locker, putting my English and Maths textbooks into my bag and shutting my locker over, finally turning around as I started to close my bag.

Only then did I look up and I wish I hadn't. For standing rather far away but still close enough away that he could have been looking at me or or some sign on a wall behind me was Gaston.

And he looked, well he looked kind of how I felt, his hair was pulled back into it's usual ponytail but it seemed like it was with less of the confidence he used to use on it, there was a lot of stubble adoring his face, almost like he had just rolled out of bed and hadn't been bothered to make himself look presentable.

The only thing that looked kind of put together was his outfit, he was wearing blue jeans pulled low on his hips with a pair of black Calvin Klein poking up slowly, I could make out a little bit of the label under his white t-shirt that hugged him snugly in all the right places.

I looked away from Gaston, wondering what he was staring at as I pretended to fix a few of the items in my bag and when I looked up again, he had his back to me and was looking through his locker.

Laurette, the waitress from our dinner the other night and also unfortunately one of my schoolmates walked past Gaston that second, running a hand over his waist, Gaston two seconds later turning around, noticing me again and before I could even move he had grabbed a hold of Laurette by the hand and pulled her back to him, pulling them close and kissing her.

I stood there, frozen in both fear and time, wondering just what was going on.

It was like my worst nightmare was currently playing out in-front of me and I was having to stand there, rooted to the spot and wondering what I had done to deserve this.

Then I remembered this wasn't a nightmare, this was really happening and I was watching it now as Laurette threw her arms around Gaston's neck, Gaston's coming around to land on her waist as they continued to kiss.

Feeling the tears building up at the back of my eyes again, I turned on the spot, pushing past the gathered crowd, keeping my head lowered and running towards the one place that I knew was always safe at this time of morning.

Five minutes later, I was standing safely inside the men's toilets, locked in one of the cubicles and sitting on the cold and dirty floor - but I didn't care - my knees pulled up to my chest as I hid my head in between them and cried, hating how Gaston could make me feel so special one second and the second he was acting like I didn't exist anymore and all because he knew who I really was.

Sobbing harder, I softly punched the ground beneath me, hearing the door of the men's room open again.

I pulled my head up, slowly taking my hands away from my knees and listening as a pair of feet entered the room, padding over to the sink and standing there for a few seconds, I heard the water running and some muttering.

It was only two seconds that I recognised the voice and started to make out what they were saying.

It was Adam and he was muttering about how someone had a strong face and he hoped that his fist didn't bruise.

Softly and carefully I stood up, making sure to stay on my feet for a few minutes before I carefully unlocked the door, pulling the latch along and opening the door, walking out to where Adam stood, looking down at his hands that he was still running under the water and closing his eyes as water splashed onto some red bits that I could see were already beginning to bruise.

"Adam" I breathed out, the other man jumping slightly and he pulled his hand away from under the water but it was too late, the damage was already done and I had seen everything.

"I'm so sorry. You were right. Both you and Belle were. Can you forgive an idiot?"

I stood there for a few seconds watching how Adam's eyebrows actually rose slightly, his surprise evident on his face but a second look at my face seemed to tell him everything and he simply nodded and smiled.

I couldn't help it.

I smiled back.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14 - I'm Afraid

The next hour or so seemed to pass in a slight frenzy, like the rest of the school moved around me whilst I was stuck in the one spot neither going one way or the other yet I still had that strange feeling that my feet had been moving to get me to class.

I had suffered through a horrible Maths class, not really taking in anything the teacher was saying and I think I must have dozed off for a few seconds as the next thing I could remember was Professor Lumiere slamming a pile of textbooks on my desk, me jerking awake and looking up into his kind but slightly pissed eyes.

"Sorry Professor" I had muttered to my desk, trying not to pay too much attention to the sniggers and chuckles around me but my face still managed to burn bright red as I turned my attention back to my notes and trying to ignore the eyes staring right at the back of my head which I was aware belonged to Belle.

The rest of the class, I had tried to pay as much attention as possible, taking notes and even pinching my finger every time I felt myself nodding off until the bell finally rang for the end of class and my stomach dropped, my face erupting into goosebumps and the tears from earlier starting to make an appearance.

I waited a few minutes until the rest of the class had left before I picked up my notes, shoving them into my bag as slowly as I possibly could, trying my hardest not to think about what lay ahead of me, a full hour with Gaston sitting right next to me and ignoring me despite us working on the project together or had he already deleted my work like he had on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

I finally got all my papers into my bag and stood up, turning around to grab up my jacket and I nearly jumped as I saw Belle still standing there, one hand on her bag strap and the other stretched out, fingertips rather close as if she meant to touch my shoulder.

"Lay." The name was like a whisper in the air between us, sending a shiver of something down my spine and I saw how even Belle's hand seemed to quiver as if she were unsure of how to respond but wanted to cry at the same time.

"Belle..."

"No Lay, please let me speak. I was a horrible friend. No more than that. I was a bitch and I said terrible things to you because of how I feel about Gaston.."

Even the sound of his name had me wince, noticing how Belle finally put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a small squeeze.

"Sorry Lay, I know it's not easy to hear the name. Can you ever forgive a massive bitch of a friend for what she has done?"

I stared into Belle's brown eyes, awash with tears now and her lip quivering in a way that told me that she was about to unleash the flood-works if I didn't respond soon but I had no idea at the same time how I felt about Belle's confession, I mean yeah I did like that she had apologised to me but she had been the worst of the two between her and Adam for what they had said about me and my strange obsession with Gaston.

"Lay... I'll do anything to gain your forgiveness. I know you won't forgive it right away so how about we start off small? I'll buy you lunch today?"

My eyes narrowed slightly, staring at Belle, she had offered to buy me lunch since we had had our stupid fight back in Freshmen year where she had told me that I couldn't wear a pink bow in my hair because it didn't match my outfit, I had been reduced to tears and Belle had bought me lunch to stop the tears, stating that she was sorry and if she ever did anything that stupid again, she would make up for it with lunch.

And that was when I done something else I hadn't done in a long while or at least since Gaston had left me alone in that car park outside Denny's, I smiled and started to laugh.

"I'd like that very much Belle."

Even Belle managed a smile at that, bigger than one I had seen in weeks and two seconds later she had wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me close in a bone crushing hug, softly kissed my cheek and then hurried out of the room, shouting over her shoulder that she would see me at lunch.

Oh yeah, my thoughts were brought back to an abrupt halt as I remembered the big thing I still had to fight through before I could enjoy lunch.

English.

With Gaston.

I hurried into the English classroom fifteen minutes late, panting out a quick excuse to Professor Cogsworth who just told me to take a seat and continue on with my project.

Turning around to face my desk, I was rather surprised to see Gaston sitting in his seat next to my own, his hand on the table, drumming out a beat onto the table whilst his laptop sat open on the desk in-front of him.

I slid over and down into my own seat, noticing how unlike before he didn't even turn round or acknowledge my presence, it was like I was just a part of the wall or some creepy loner who everyone just ignored.

I sighed softly and softly placed my bag up onto the table, digging through it's contents for a few minutes as I dug out my pencil's, notepads and highlighters, silently thinking to myself that just because Gaston was ignoring me still, it didn't mean that I couldn't continue on with the project, writing out a few more factors and then type it up when I got home - on what, I reminded myself - or I could just write it out nice and neat on a new large piece of paper.

Running a hand through my hair, I leaned my elbow up onto the desk, trying to get as comfy as I could whilst keeping as much distance between myself and Gaston as possible and still be able to stare at him if I wanted to.

Putting pencil to paper, my hand stalled at the top of the page, bottom lip coming to rest in between my teeth as I tried to think of what to write and where exactly to start.

I sat there for what like ten whole hours but it was no more than ten minutes when Gaston finally turned his head, our eyes meeting for the first time since that awful day in Denny's and I felt right away how my heart started to beat erratically against my chest and I could hear my blood pounding in my ears, he hadn't looked at me in so long and I was afraid of what might happen next.

For a few moments, both of us sat on either side of our desks, staring at one another too afraid to look away incase the moment would break and we went tumbling back into a time of nothing and lost souls looks when Gaston opened his mouth, slightly looking like he was about to say something.

"Everything okay here boys?" The sound of Professor Cogsworth's voice from right beside my ear had me jump as high as could whilst still staying seated, tearing my gaze away from that of Gaston's own as I looked around to the teacher.

"Yeah fine Professor" I swallowed down my fears as Professor Cogsworth nodded at us, giving the both of us a once over before moving away to the next table and I turned back to Gaston, noticing how he had already looked away, the moment broken between us and his head back in the laptop, his eyes scanning left and right as he seemed to read one line over and over again.

I sighed again and put my pencil back to the paper, my brain already in haywire as I started to write out what I was sure what about to be the best English essay ever written even if I did say so myself.

But first I had to think of a catchy title.

I tapped my pencil against the table in wonder and thought, a thought popping into my mind every few seconds and I would rise the pencil, aching to write the words down but then my brain would shoot it down and I would be right back where I had originally started.

Who Are You Really?

I shook my head, putting a line through that title, it was stupid and I could do much better than that.

In This Strange life.

I put a line through that one too and sighed, bringing my head into my hands as my brain worked overtime, there had to be a title of some sort that I could use, something that would make sense in this current day and age.

Will I Be You?

No, stupid.

His Name

Worse.

Gaston, the douche-bag.

Better but no.

Will this be us?

No, arghhh. I thumped my hand softly against the top hating how much of a loser I was appearing even to myself, I couldn't even come up with an amazing title about Gaston for this stupid essay, could this title just be mine and then leave me alone and let me continue to wonder will you ever be...

And then it hit me.

Not literally, it was more like a sort of moment of explosion within my brain as it finally came to me.

Will Ever You Be Mine?

Nope, not exactly.

Mine Ever Will You Be.

Nope, that doesn't even make sense in the English language or at least not something Belle would say so that one was out, come on there to had to be some form of the word that I hadn't used yet, a way that could easily describe me and Gaston to a tee and like I was talking about him and his father but at the same time trying to write it like an outsiders point of view as I'm sure Gaston would probably be trying to do now so there had to be something there, something that would both make sense and have the desired effect, something just on the tip of my tongue, something...

Will You Ever Be Mine?

That was it.

I was so happy I could have cheered but doing that might have gotten Gaston's attention and that was not something I currently wanted right now.

Putting pencil to paper again, I stared at the sheet of paper for a few moments before the pulling the first page out of the notepad, wadding it up into a ball so small that it would take at least half an hour to unfold and smiled with glee as I wrote the title down again and started to write. I had a lot to say and not much longer to say it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 15 - I'm LeFou

The rest of the day seemed to pass by just in a sort of blur of colours and words, I spent my first lunch with Belle and Adam in about a week just sitting eating the lunch Belle had bought me and listening to the conversation Belle and Adam were having about Prom which was to be held at the end of the year for the seniors - which Adam was currently - and how they were going to dress for the theme.

I had tuned out halfway through the conversation as Gaston came walking into the cafeteria looking absolutely amazing as always even though I had just last seen him five minutes ago.

Now though he looked more put-together and he was even laughing with his friends, Tom, Dick and Stanley all of whom didn't even look over my way.

I had continued to watch Gaston as he got food, paid for it and then went over to sit in a smaller table on the other side of the cafeteria, further away from me, Belle and Adam to what he usually did but at the same time, near enough that I could still see him and pick up parts of the conversation he was having as Tom, Dick and Stanley joined him.

"...He whacked him one and now we are one player short. This game is going to suck majorly."

I nodded my head at my plate of food, of course those guys were talking about football again, it was almost like they didn't have anything else to say or didn't know another subject.

"Yeah, I guess" Gaston's voice, I couldn't help but notice sounded very strange, it was filled with the same sort of enthusiasm as he usually used but at the same time, there was an almost strange break to it almost like he didn't want to say too much.

"Dude, you do realise that this game is our last before the championships right? If we loose this one we'll graduate being losers" Dick slammed his hand on the table as he said his peace and I noticed how Gaston just seemed to stare at him for a couple of minutes, almost unsure of what he was staring at then he shrugged and started poking at his food.

"Gaston, what's up? You've been removed since the other day there when you got back from your talk with LeFou. Did..."

"Everything's fine Stanley, I told you once, I've told you a thousand times, I'm fine just a little tired now back off" Gaston snapped back and I felt myself flinch slightly in return even though I knew that the words weren't aimed at me but it definitely brought back that feeling of being on the other side of Gaston's anger.

"Gast..."

Gaston's hand slammed down onto the table that second, every head in the cafeteria snapping to look around as they let their own conversations fall silent, eager for the words from their captain.

"I'm fine... Now leave me alone.. What are you all staring at?"

Gaston addressed the nosy crowd at last who immediately turned back to their own conversations, almost like they hadn't been staring two seconds earlier whilst I couldn't tear my eyes away from him, there was a small hint of red tint starting to flush along his cheeks which meant he wasn't too far away from losing it completely if someone else said something to him and the hand he still had on the table-top was shaking slightly.

"Gaston..."

Gaston finally lost it, slamming his hands down onto the table once more, shoving his tray forward in the next second and before I could even blink or move, Gaston was up and out of his chair, letting it slam down onto the ground beneath him as he stormed out of the cafeteria.

The cafeteria turned quiet once again as Gaston stood up before eager heads turned back to their tables, whispered tales of gossip obviously about to spread about how Gaston, captain of the football team had just lost his shit at his fellow players and stormed off, acting like a little girl.

I turned my attention back to Belle and Adam who didn't seem affected by what had just happened and were still talking about prom like it was almost an end of the world conversation.

I pushed my tray away from my being, grabbing up my bag and jacket and left the table, not even saying a word of goodbye to my two friends as I walked out into the hall, gripping my bag tightly in my hand as I looked left and right down the hall, wondering what direction Gaston might have headed in.

A sudden slam of lockers from my right had me jump slightly, turning my whole body in the same direction and noticing right away how only about twenty feet away from me stood Gaston, his fists slammed down into a locker, his head resting on the cool metal and his back shaking slightly.

I worried my bottom lip between my teeth, wondering what I should do, how I should react, if there really was anything I could do when Gaston suddenly looked up and around at me, his expression turning from open and hurt to fierce and pissed off within a matter of seconds as he saw me standing there, watching him.

Deciding it was time to leave, I turned on my heel, walking the other way down the hallway, watching each room I passed by and listening out for any following footsteps but there wasn't any, I hadn't really expected there to be but I could still hope.

After a few more minutes, I finally slowed to a stop outside my English classroom and from where I stood, I could see that the door was open, Professor Cogsworth had probably forgot to lock it again so I let myself in, shutting the door over behind me before turning to the room at large.

It looked much like it had mere minutes before I had left apart from the absence of all of my classmates and Gaston sitting at his desk next to my own.

Running a hand through my hair, I quickly and easily walked over to my little desk, sitting down on the chair and pulling my essay out of my bag, lying the four pages I had written so far out fully on the desk whilst I dug more paper out, thinking about probably just spending the rest of my lunch hour to just write and ignore everything else when a sudden bright flash of light caught my attention and I jumped two seconds later realising it as Gaston's laptop screen came to life and I saw that his document he had been working on in class was still up.

Looking back around towards the door to make sure that no-one was about to come in the door and bust me, I pulled Gaston's laptop towards me, turning the screen slightly so I could read it yet keep it plugged in at the same time and slowly and carefully scrolled back up to the top of the page to read what Gaston had written so far.

His Name Is LeFou, Nothing Else

In the short amount of time that I had gotten to know LeFou, I have come to find out several things about the other man, for starters he is such an amazing man, the things that he would do for his friends start from jumping into the middle of a fight between them just so that they don't do something they might regret to lying to someone he loves just so that they might not feel the pain of the truth.

The first day I met LeFou, I wondered a lot about him, if LeFou was really and truly his real name and then why someone would call their own son something that indicate the fool or the idiot, it didn't make much sense to me and in a way I guess that was when I started to notice some other strange things about LeFou too, the way in which he bites his lip when he is nervous, the way in which he plays with his hair when he thinks no-one else is looking and the way in which he stole my heart and ripped it up into a million tiny little pieces all in the course of only two weeks.

I asked LeFou rather early on in the discussion who his hero was as our essay was us to write about our heroes and why they are who we say they are, my own being my dad as he has done so much for me whilst LeFou answered back in a strange way. He told me that the people he thought were his heroes were his best friends, one, a girl by the name of Belle Little and the other a boy by the name of Adam Stephenson but when I quizzed LeFou further on his friends, he dug himself into a little hole and refused to emerge again until I changed the subject.

That was when I first started to suspect that LeFou did not have a hero, or at least not one in the sense of what you and I might have a hero, he had people that he looked up to and he even had friends but there was no-one who he could love who he wanted to save him.

I asked him a little bit about his parents also but LeFou only answered by...

I jumped again nearly five feet in the air as the laptop screen firmly came down the item being snatched out from under my nose that second and I looked up into the blue-grey eyes of Gaston who was standing there, breathing rather heavily and a snarl on his face.

"Having fun reading my essay were you liar?"

It was the first words that Gaston had spoken to me in days but it was better than nothing as I tried to shake my head, scared to tell him the truth but also at the same time not fully knowing how to respond to such a question.

I instead stayed quiet, watching Gaston carefully out of the corner of my eye as he huffed, yanking the cable out of the plug and shoving his laptop back into bag, no longer speaking to me and his back tensed, ready for anything I might have to say.

Gaston turned back around that second, throwing his bag over his back and fixing me with a narrow glare.

"Not going to speak to me this time then? What, would you rather send me an Instagram message?"

I winced at that one, my hands shaking slightly on the table which Gaston seemed to notice as he smirked wider, watching me for a whole two minutes before simply shrugging and walking off.

"Not worth my time..."

Gaston called out after himself as he walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him and I jumped again, prepared but not so at the same time for the loud noise whilst inside me my stomach was spinning round and round like a washing machine, was this was it felt like to be on Gaston's bad-side?

If so, I knew one thing for sure, I wasn't going to enjoy this.

Chapter Text

Chapter 16 - Gaston Is Confused

Three Weeks Earlier

Gaston's P.O.V.

Gaston Meredith - don't laugh, it was his parents who had decided on the middle name as they had been expecting a daughter but decided to just stay with that name to probably cramp his style - Young was one of the most beloved guys in the whole of his high school, he was currently a senior which meant that he was free to do what he wanted, still to a rule and limit and he could look down on the younger kids.

But just last year before he had entered his final year of high school, he had started to notice a little bit of a change in himself, he was still popular that was for sure but there was just a little nagging feeling in his brain telling him he was missing something, he had been dating Paulette, one of a group of three girls who called themselves the bimbettes and had been completely infatuated with Gaston from the first moment they had laid their darling little eyes on him, and he had thought he had been happy.

He and Paulette had been together for just about two months when Paulette started showing more and more signs that she wished to sleep with him, blowing flirtatious kisses at him across the table-top or playing footsie with him under the table and sliding her foot up his leg so much so that Gaston was aware when it landed on his thigh.

A few weeks later, he and Paulette had had Paulette's house to themselves - her parents had been away on some business thing - and they had started to kiss, Gaston feeling nothing, no butterflies, no sparks, nothing but the kiss had become more heated rather quickly on Paulette's side and before Gaston knew what had been happening they were lying on Paulette's bed, their clothes on the floor and Gaston kissing up the inside of Paulette's leg not even feeling himself get hard at the sound of her moans and gasps as she grabbed at his shoulders and hair.

They had had sex that night, Gaston eventually having to think of just about anything else in order to get himself hard but afterwards when he was heaving in heavy breaths and wiping at the sweat on his forehead, he began to wonder why he had done it, he didn't love Paulette, even the feeling of her touching him had done nothing to him so why had he slept with someone who didn't even mean anything to him.

He and Paulette stayed together for a further two weeks, the relationship becoming more sex based until Gaston had finally had enough and told Paulette he didn't want to be with her anymore.

Paulette had cried, her mascara running down her cheeks and even a few whimpers escaping her but by the next week she already had a new man in her life and Gaston was free to start enjoying his life again and spend more time with his friends again.

On his first night-out with his friends, he, Tom, Dick and Stanley had decided to go to the movies, going to see a brand new horror movie, Rings and mid-way through the movie, Stanley - one of the younger looking group of his friends despite him being in the same year as Gaston himself - had ended up grabbing his hand and they had stayed there throughout the movie, Gaston feeling comfortable holding the other's hand.

That was when Gaston first started to think that he might be more interested in guys, at least more than he had originally thought and he spent a little bit more time checking out some of the guys in his school, noticing how he like the way in which they held themselves or laughed at something someone else said.

It was also around this time that he started speaking to someone online, someone who went only by the screen-name of LayMe2Sleep.

Gaston as soon as he had seen the username pop up on his notifications bar on Instagram to say said person was following him had been very dumbfounded, he had never even heard of someone with such a strange username and the person hadn't even given their real name or picture, it was just of what looked like a novel he had heard of a few times, even the uploaded pictures had the person caught just out of sight of the camera or just a little glimpse of hair or t-shirt.

From there, Gaston had started talking to the mysterious figure more and more, noticing how every time the other messaged back, his heart rate would increase and his palms would become rather sweaty until eventually it just become a regular occurrence to spend time talking to the online pseudo.

Gaston continue to keep up talking to the online mystery person through the next year and entered senior year still with no idea of who they were, if they were a boy or girl or just what exactly he felt for them.

But that all changed when he met someone in his fourth period English class a good few weeks into the school year, a man by the name of LeFou (Lay) Lee Palmer.

Gaston had seen LeFou around school a few times, usually following on with one of the brightest girls in school, Belle Little and her boyfriend, Adam Stephenson, the three were inseparable and Gaston could even admit that at one time, he had followed Belle trying to ask her out but she had turned him down so many times until he finally gave up and started chasing someone else, so it was safe to say he knew what the other man looked like but he just had no idea what sort of person he was.

Gaston had just been moved English classes due to his own English teacher, a nightmare of a man by the name of Professor D'Arque had informed him that he was currently not testing rather well in the current class and he would be better in a lower English class, Gaston had agreed and that was how he found himself in Professor Cogsworth's class, sitting in a wooden chair next to LeFou.

Gaston had tuned out most of the conversation, instead scribbling some little doodles into his notebooks until LeFou had tapped him on the shoulder, him turning up to look at the other man whilst wondering just how much of the conversation he had actually missed.

Soon enough he realised he had been paired up with LeFou on a project that was worth 25% of their grade - which hadn't sounded like much at first to Gaston but after sitting down to think about, he thought that it might be good to actually make it work in his favour - so he and LeFou had exchanged numbers and decided to meet up to work on the project.

Two Weeks Earlier

Gaston had noticed rather early on during the project that he and LeFou actually had a little bit in common, very little but the both of them seemed to get on quite well.

He and LeFou had rode to his house in the back of Stanley's car and when getting out of the car, Gaston had found himself in close proximity to the other man when LeFou tripped slightly on getting out the car and Gaston had quickly grabbed him around the small of his back whilst LeFou's hand clung to his waist and Gaston had found his heart start to beat heavily in his chest again, his face flushing slightly and that small feeling of wanting to just lean in towards the other man and place a soft kiss on his lips.

In the end, Gaston had to fight to control his urges, thanked Stanley for the lift before he and LeFou had retreated inside Gaston's house, Gaston just finding himself feeling at home as he poured two glasses of orange juice in the kitchen, handing one to LeFou and gesturing for them to head upstairs.

LeFou had quickly settled into his room and even been introduced to his dad, whom Gaston loved more than anything else, his dad was just amazing especially after being involved in a crash that had rendered him paralysed, his father had fought back against everything and started physical therapy lessons slowly starting to get used to being on his legs again.

He and LeFou had spent a good few hours in his room together, typing up some notes about each other as they threw information back and forth for a while until they had went down to have dinner, something that Gaston enjoyed majorly and even 'accidentally' made his elbow brush against LeFou's own, smiling slightly when the other man blushed.

After dinner the two men retreated upstairs again, Gaston questioning LeFou about his friendship with Belle and Adam as he had noticed lately that LeFou hadn't been hanging about with them as much and he had wondered what was going on.

The conversation had quickly turned strange when LeFou had admitted that he was in a fight with his two best friends because of a guy that he liked and Gaston felt like the bottom had just dropped out of his stomach.

He wasn't sure exactly what it was or why but the thought of LeFou liking someone made him slightly jealous and he wanted more than anything to punch said person and make them leave LeFou alone so he, Gaston could be the only one for LeFou.

LeFou also told Gaston that he had never kissed someone before and Gaston took it as his chance, telling LeFou through a lie in his teeth that your first kiss didn't mean much but he would need to know how to kiss for future times and offered to be LeFou's first kiss.

The other man had stared at him in disbelief so Gaston had quickly took that as good news and leaned in to kiss him, having to stop himself from gasping when he immediately felt sparks upon their lips meeting and at the same it felt right, like they were meant to be here.

Gaston had remained kissing the other man for only a few seconds before pulling away before things got too far and he did something he might regret.

He had spent most of the rest of the night with LeFou just glad to be in his presence before parting ways around midnight, Gaston driving the other man home in his dad's car, having to stop himself from leaning over to kiss the other man again when he arrived at the house.

Instead he had driven home after dropping the other man off and took a cold shower, groaning loudly into his shower head before wrapping a towel around his waist and that was when he first started to notice another change in himself.

Only minutes later, he was hanging over the porcelain bowl of the toilet as he threw up the entire contents of his stomach.

Safe to say, he had spent the rest of the weekend running back and forth to the toilet, drinking down lots of fluids and having his dad take his temperature a few times until finally on Sunday evening, he finally found himself able to sit up and have a proper meal and drink, messaging and texting his new found friends.

One Week Earlier

Gaston found himself falling deeper and deeper for both the strange figure knowing only as LayMe2Sleep and his new English partner, LeFou with each passing day, spending as much time with the other man as possible and even at one point shyly asking him out on a non-date, date, date.

LeFou had agreed to said outing and the two of them had rode to school together that morning, Gaston not wanting the drive to end but it had to and he watched as LeFou got out of his car, walking away from him until he finally moved his backside, running to his homeroom just in the nick of time and fist bumping with Stanley.

The rest of that day had passed by in a sort of blur for Gaston, he had attended classes but hadn't payed too much attention, his thoughts had kept wandering to the kiss he had shared with LeFou over a week ago and their date at a small restaurant named Denny's that was to take place after school.

Gaston had continued on with his day until lunch when he reached the cafeteria, Stanley telling him that Tom and Dick were looking after a crying LeFou, Gaston not hearing anything else as he ran from the room, making his way through the halls until he came upon the three men.

He had taken LeFou aside who had finally stopped crying but started trying to tell him something, Gaston not wanting to hear about it and told LeFou he would take him to lunch and the other man could tell him what he needed to there.

They had left the school, driving to Denny's and ordering quickly, Gaston having to inwardly roll his eyes as Laurette flirted heavily with him and kept on batting her eyelashes at him, Gaston just wanted to tell her to bugger off and leave him alone to speak to LeFou but she didn't seem to get the message.

In the end though he and LeFou had been left alone and Gaston had asked LeFou once again what he had to tell him, LeFou had paused a little bit before the words had finally came tumbling out, Gaston not being able to do much more than stare on at LeFou for a few minutes before his anger took over.

LeFou or as he was also known Lay and LayMe2Sleep were the same person and LeFou had been lying to him for well over a year, well more like the last few weeks that they had actually known one another but he had still lied to him.

Gaston had left the restaurant rather quickly after that, getting into his car and driving as fast as he could, not really knowing where he was going or why before he eventually pulled up at the side of a curb beside an old abandoned playground and stopped the car, fists punching heavily against the steering wheel and tears starting to build up in his eyes at how stupid he had been.

He had been so silly to think that someone like LeFou could ever like him for him, of course it had all been a part of some sort of sick plan, make Gaston think that LeFou was fighting with his friends and use an advantage point there for LeFou to try and move closer to Gaston and find out more information about him and even set up a fake Instagram profile to trick him into opening his heart and trust to the figure when it was probably being used by one of LeFou's friends.

Gaston finally got his composure back and without thinking much else, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, opened up Instagram clicking onto LeFou's profile and before he could have second thoughts, he blocked the account and made sure to even block both Twitter and even Facebook for the other man too before setting the last of his phone settings to include blocking any and all texts and phone calls from LeFou.

Now

By the morning after Gaston had found out the truth about LeFou, he had not slept a wink and his hair was a complete and utter mess from how often he had turned around in his bed, trying to get comfy.

Eventually he had rolled out of bed, grabbing a thin ribbon from his desk and using it to tie his hair back, not even caring if it wasn't sitting properly or what it looked like before pulling together a rather good outfit, leaving his face unshaven and leaving for school, his father telling him to have a good day.

Gaston was pretty sure that that wasn't going to be likely as he climbed into his car, pulling his bag up from the floor and yanking his seat-belt down two or three times until finally it clicked into place and he started up his car, starting to slowly drive towards school, not really wanting to be there but knowing in a small annoying dark part in his mind that he had to show that he wasn't going to let LeFou affect him.

He had arrived at school about twenty minutes later and grabbed his bag up, getting out of the car, locking the door behind him and heading into the school, keeping an eye out for his friends but also wondering if he would see LeFou before the first bell rang.

Gaston arrived at his locker a few minutes later and stopped, dumbfounded once again as he saw LeFou standing at his own locker, well standing was a strong word, more like he was kneeling on the floor and picking up a pile of stuff, Gaston continued to stare at the other man until LeFou looked up, their eyes catching before Gaston turned away.

Laurette walked past him that minute, reminding Gaston of how she had flirted with him the day before at the restaurant, Gaston acting before thinking as he grabbed Laurette by the hand and pulled her in to kiss him, pulling their faces close together and trying his hardest to ignore the small gasp of breath from LeFou.

Gaston finally pulled away from Laurette, patting the slightly dizzy looking girl on the top of the head and planting a fake smile on his face just as Adam came storming up to him.

Gaston groaned slightly, remembering how Adam didn't really like him very much though two seconds later he was even more aware of that as Adam suddenly pulled a fist back and let it fly straight into Gaston's face, Gaston feeling his nose crack slightly and his head flying back slightly as his hand came up to cradle the tip of his nose.

"What the fuck?" Gaston roared through his nose, the words sounding all jumbled up and less convincing with her cupped hand as Adam turned on his heel, walking away from him.

Gaston spent the rest of the day, checking on his nose every so often but glad to notice it wasn't broken and wasn't going to start bleeding, Adam had obviously not punched him hard enough so he had started settling back into himself.

By English though, Gaston was a wreck, he knew that he would have to see LeFou during the class but he really didn't want to speak to the other man so he was glad he had packed his laptop that morning.

Gaston made it to English just as the last bell rang, rather surprised that LeFou wasn't already in his seat before he shrugged, walking over to his desk and sat down, taking his laptop out of his bag and booting it up to continue writing the essay.

Fifteen minutes into the class, LeFou finally arrived panting out an apology to Professor Cogsworth who just nodded and told him to take his seat, Gaston keeping his eyes on his laptop as he drummed a slight beat onto the table with his hand.

A good ten minutes or so later, Gaston turned his head away from his laptop noticing that LeFou was watching him too and their eyes met again, Gaston starting to open his mouth to ask the other guy if he was okay when Professor Cogsworth and Gaston turned his attention back to his laptop, losing his nerve.

Once the bell rang for the end of class, Gaston was up and out of his seat first, leaving his laptop behind so he could write some more during his free period if he wanted to and heading to the cafeteria with Tom, Dick and Stanley.

Inside the cafeteria, he could feel LeFou's eyes on his own but he fought hard to ignore it all, concentrating instead on the conversation his friends were having about football.

Gaston sat down at one of the tables closest to the door, not realising until after he had sat down how close it was to LeFou's own table but he ignored that as he got dragged into a conversation about the upcoming game, replying back with less vigour than he usually would and Stanley seemed to notice as he immediately asked him if he was okay.

Gaston replied with a slight snap, telling the other man he was fine and that he should just drop it but in the end Gaston lost his temper when they wouldn't drop it all and walked outside, starting to slam his fists against a locker directly in-front of him a couple of times, really wanting to just find someone and beat the crap out of them but at the same time, he wanted to burst into very unmanly tears.

Gaston looked up and around in the next second, seeing LeFou standing at the doors to the cafeteria staring at him as he had been doing before and Gaston put on his best annoyed face, glad that it worked as LeFou turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Gaston to take a few deep breaths just to enjoy his alone time before he decided to start slowly walking towards his English classroom.

Arriving at the classroom a good ten minutes later, he stopped, dead in the doorway as he saw that LeFou was in the classroom also, door opened as Gaston re-opened it and his nose was in Gaston's laptop.

Gritting his teeth, Gaston stormed over to LeFou, slamming the laptop closed and smirking to himself at the way that LeFou jumped slightly at the loud noise before he yanked his laptop out of the socket, yanking it back into his bag and walking off again, wandering around until he came to the old abandoned corridor he had taken LeFou to only about a day before and sat on the floor, pulling his laptop back out of his bag and starting to type up some more of his essay, his anger taking over as he slammed heavily on the keys, glad that no-one else was around him.

Gaston continued to type away for a good half an hour, his anger eventually turning to sadness and then to regret as shut his laptop over and put his head into his hands, his body starting to shake slightly as he fought to calm his breathing.

"There you are Gaston. I thought I might find you here."

Gaston's head snapped back up that second to see Mr. Potts, Mrs. Potts husband and the guidance counsellor who liked to deal with things in small, repetitive points, standing in-front of him, a smile on his old face and a young boy no older than four curled around his leg.

"I don't need guidance or a counsellor" Gaston snapped, stuffing his laptop back into his bag just as Mr Potts grabbed at his arm slightly and Gaston stopped in his tracks, wondering what the old, crazy man was about to say to him.

"I know you don't. You do however need to forgive yourself in order to forgive him. It's the only way."

Gaston sighed, shutting his eyes slightly and leaning his head back against the wall for support, wondering what sort of drugs Mr Potts was taking before he opened his eyes again, ready to ask him if he thought Gaston was stupid.

But he was nowhere to been seen.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17 - Gaston Knows Something

Two Weeks Later

Gaston's P.O.V.

The past two weeks had been what Gaston in time would come to call the worst two weeks of his life, not only was it becoming harder and harder to be in the same building if not the same vicinity as LeFou without either kissing or strangling the other man, he was also finding it harder to pay attention in his classes and because of this, he was starting to fall behind on his schoolwork.

Another thing that Gaston was more than aware of was his temper and his anger in the recent few weeks since his fight with LeFou and everything blowing up even more with LeFou reading his essay and him snapping at the man and walking off, he was finding it harder and harder to keep his temper down and he had even snapped at a small Freshmen a few days earlier because she had been taking too long at the water fountain.

Tom, Dick and Stanley as luck had it, had tried to get him to open up and tell them what was going on with him but he just hadn't been able to divulge his feelings partly because well a) he was a guy and guy's didn't share those sorts of feelings with each other and b) he wasn't too sure exactly what he was feeling, part of him was angry and sad and another part of him just wanted to tell LeFou he was sorry and just kiss the living daylights out of him, his mind was well and truly messed up.

Over time, Gaston began to pull away from the other guys, even missing a lot of football practices and instead finding himself lurking about the nearby shopping mall after school most days really hoping in a strange way that he might catch a glimpse of LeFou or Belle or even - and he was shocked to admit it to himself - Adam.

But luck it would seem was most definitely not on his side and he would usually slouch home after five hours of waiting around until the mall closed and arrive home to his dad asking if he wanted some dinner or if he wanted to watch a movie but Gaston would refuse both and retreat to his room, throwing himself down onto his bed and spend the rest of the night there, either sleeping for a few hours or not at all before waking up and doing exactly the same thing all over again the next day.

The only thing that was really keeping him going whilst he pushed everyone else away was the essay that LeFou had caught sight of half-finished and Gaston once had gotten home had deleted the whole essay, deciding to start again from scratch on something new that the other man hadn't seen before and just let LeFou or Lay know exactly what he thought of him, but the horrible words that he was thinking couldn't come to him on his fingertips and he couldn't even write them down by hand either.

When Gaston awoke though on a bright and warm Monday, two weeks after feeling himself sink deeper and deeper into a sort of hole of destruction and despair - with his essay fully finished and written in the way that he wanted to explain everything - he actually felt good about himself for once.

When he opened his eyes as his alarm blared out a Taylor Swift song that he couldn't stand, he actually felt rather happy within himself, like someone had flipped a switch on his mind and made him jump from sad to happy, even slightly chipper and even five minutes later as he jumped in for a shower, he sang along with one of the songs on the radio, not understanding it but not wanting to question the sudden change in his attitude.

At breakfast, Gaston filled up on pastry rolls and even about five helpings of toast, not really paying attention as his father stared at him, his arm raised halfway to his mouth, hand clutching a metal spoon with mushy cornflakes dropping back into the bowl and a look of utter shock but also relief on his face.

Ten minutes later, Gaston was ready to leave and he quick ran back upstairs, grabbing his bag, laptop, keys and jacket, slipping the thin jacket on over his arms as he surveyed his outfit for the day, a red t-shirt displaying the words 'The $ecret of success is to know something nobody else knows.' which actually felt pretty ironic to him but he wasn't going to complain about it and finished it off with a nice pair of dark jeans to clung to his hips rather well.

Smiling at himself in the mirror, Gaston nodded at his reflection before turning around and making his way downstairs, calling out a cheery goodbye to his dad on the way and jumping into his car before starting to drive towards school.

When Gaston arrived at school around fifteen minutes later after stopping a couple of times for some coffee for Tom, Dick and Stanley, he quickly got out of his car, grabbing his backpack, throwing it over one shoulder and grabbing the cup holder with his other hand, locking his car and heading inside where he spotted Tom, Dick and Stanley straight away all standing around Stanley's locker and looking very unsure of themselves.

Gaston smiled wider and increased his speed, reaching the other three guys within a few seconds and tapping Dick on the shoulder who jumped about five feet in the air before turning around in mid-air and staring at him.

"Gaston?..."

Tom and Stanley's heads both snapped around at the same time as Dick spoke and Gaston had to stop a chuckle from escaping him.

"Hey guys, you look like you've seen a ghost or something" Gaston finally couldn't hold it in any longer and let a soft chuckle escape him, staring between his three friends, wondering who might speak first.

"I got coffee.."

Gaston held up the drinks holder, noticing how all three guys looked more interested and even smiled slightly as Gaston started to hand the drinks out.

A long caffe macchaiato for Tom, a venti flat white for Dick, and a small cafe au lait for Stanley. The three guys thanked Gaston for their drinks whilst Gaston took his own drink, a large mocha with whipped cream and smiled as the guys began to drink down their coffee's.

After a long beat of silence and drinking, Gaston finally leaned against the lockers behind Stanley's own, noticing right away how Stanley's arms seemed to shake and move a little bit for a few seconds before he finally shook his head and threw his arms around Gaston's neck, pulling him in for a tight hug.

"Glad to see your feeling better Gaston" Stanley finally uttered as he let go of the other man and even Gaston had to nod his head in agreement, this was turning out to be a great day.

LeFou's P.O.V.

This was so not my day, not only had I had the worst sleep in the world possible because I had been up half the night finishing my essay by hand I might add - after my computer had crashed on me - and only slept for about an hour or two, I was now not having a great time of things as I slipped in the shower on a bar of soap and went down with a thump, bringing the shower curtain down with me and leaving me with a bruise on my knees, arms and the bottom of my chin and my nose bleeding slightly from where it had whacked off the metal pole.

Once I was finally dressed in my third pair of jeans after my other two decided to split right down the middle each time I tried to yank them on and my favourite t-shirt had holes all around it so I had to choose one that I was less fond of, a white thin t-shirt with a large picture of a kitten on it that 'Are you kitten me right now?', my mother had picked it out when I was about twelve and it still fit me so I guess I was stuck with this one.

In the kitchen, I had a little bit of a mishap and burned through not one, not two but three waffles so badly they were more like charcoal and less than pleasant to try and crunch through so I had just decided on a yogurt, swallowed down with a handful of strawberries and a bottle of water that decided to splash all over me when I tried to chug it down, leaving me wet with my hair coming loose from it's ribbon and my last good t-shirt clinging to me like I had just been washing my car.

Once I finally got outside after nearly burning myself on the hot water and nearly choking myself with my jacket sleeve, I finally got into my car, glad to notice that I had my bag, papers and phone with me as I tried to start up my car, tried being the operative word as it spluttered each time I tried to turn the key and then died again.

Fifteen minutes later just as I was about to give up and call Belle or Adam, my engine finally sprung to life and I sighed in relief, starting the drive to school, all too aware that I had ten minutes to get there before I was late and my first class of the day was English where everyone would be reading out their essays and I would have to listen to a certain someone *cough* Gaston *cough* blabber on probably about how much he hated my guts and how I was a nosy, good for nothing asshole who lied about who he was and all that crap.

Five minutes into my journey, I could have screamed as I hit a traffic jam nearly two miles long and slammed my head instead onto the steering wheel, wondering if this could get any worse.

The sound of two things in one second at both the same time seemed to answer my question as at once I heard the distant thunder of rain and my car spluttered to a halt, engine dying again as the jam continued and this time I really did scream, kicking the car a little bit too, knowing that it wasn't really going to do anything but it might make me feel a little bit.

Maybe and might being the choice words here as I sat cradling my foot in the next second and wondering why the world hated me so much, couldn't I just have a good day for once, was that just too much to ask for?

Was it?