Locks and Keys

Chapter 5

"Is that so, if that's true, what do you call what happened at Melanie Right's party last-"

"Don't say another word, Ducky, you know not to go any further, if you don't want me to castrate you." Brook shouted, blushing. I had to know what this was about. Danny began to open his mouth. "I said not another word." She interrupted fiercely.

Danny wiggled his eyebrows at her and she blushed even further. Brook was definitely getting a questioning later.

"Lock and Key, they are strange names. Your parents hippies of something?" Kent, the one with glasses, asked.

"Nah, Lock is short for Locki and my actual name is Vanessa. I can't be bothered to tell you the story, too much effort and lots of food to be eaten and all that."

There was quiet talking around the table between people after that, but I just kept my head down and carried on eating.

"Is this seat free?" A voice asked to my right. I looked up to see that it was just some random guy I had never met before, with plain, straight brown hair and grey eyes. In my opinion he was pretty hot, but nothing like Oliver's level of hot; now he left me speechless. The whole table went silent as everyone looked at the stranger.

"Uh, sure." I said hesitantly, looking at Brook; she just shrugged as the stranger sat down. I looked round everyone else to see if there was any recognition for this guy with them. Everyone seemed to have blank faces apart from Josh, who was scowling at the new arrival; wander what was up, there.

"I'm Trent, by the way, I'm in your maths class."

"Really? I didn't see you," I frowned, as he broke my trance.

"I was sitting behind you, you probably didn't notice me because of that," he replied.

"So what made you want to sit here? Don't you have friends of your own?"

"Yes, but I decided to chose a pretty girl over them. Anyway, they are douches and the girls will cope." He answered, looking at a table a couple of metres away that was crowded with both guys and girls, who were mostly looking over at our table with perplexed expressions, well, on the guys at least, the girls were being typical and glaring at us, or me in particular. Oh, such petty things like a hottie. They should just get over it, it's not like I'm purposely stealing this guy from them, it was his decision; if there was some to blame, it would be him, for not socializing with them.

"Doesn't look like they're coping." I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," I blurted out and he looked at me with that disbelieving, critical look.

"So, anyway, I just wanted to ask if you'd like to go out with me this weekend?"

"Like on a date?"

"Yeah, a date." Trent replied, looking hopeful. Lock on the other hand, stiffened next to me, which told me his opinion on this guy already.

"Uh, no, thank you for asking though, I'm busy this weekend, we are, uh, going on a family camping trip to explore our new home and all that." I made up, not wanting to start dating right away anyway, especially if Lock didn't like the guy; I would always take his opinion into account before I started dating a person.

"Oh, ok, uh, maybe another time then?" He asked sadly, but hopefully.

"Uh, maybe." I stated awkwardly.

"Ok then, see you around." He smiled, got up and walked over to the table with all his friends.

"Well that was totally awkward." Amanda offered, smiling at me.

"Thanks for the moral support, asshole, you could have jumped in at anytime with the over-protective, older brother thing, at any point then." I growled, elbowing Lock in the side.

"Hey, I'm only older by five minutes! You need to learn to fight your own battles." Lock chuckled.

"But you're supposed to be my brother and best friend-"

"Uh, no, that's me now Key, that's my job," Brook interrupted.

"But, that was such a weird situation, and I declined his offer for you. I could tell you didn't like this guy."

"You're right, I don't like him. He was in the library when I was during my free period first thing, talking to his friend about his latest conquest."

"Ah, so he's a player, good thing I turned him down then."

"You have no idea, how good your decision was, Key. Don't ever go out with that creep, bad things have happened to girls who have dated him, then have been used and discarded, like a tissue, trust me, I know someone who has witnessed it first hand and he got away with it." Josh said bitterly, I had a feeling it was a girl he was close with.

It wasn't long before the bell rang for the end of break and the beginning of third period. Everyone grabbed their bags, before heading off to their classes, leaving me to find my way around the maze of corridors to the DT department.

"You ok there? You look a little lost. Need some help finding your next class?" A voice sid from behind me. I turned to see who it was and found a guy standing behind me with geek glasses and fluffy blond hair that spurted in all directions. He wore a brightly coloured checker shirt and tight jeans. Something about him just screamed that he was gay, maybe it was the bright colours, or the sassy way he was standing.

"Yeah, do you happen to know the way to the DT department?" I asked, getting anxious as the halls were beginning to empty.

"Sure do! That's where I'm heading now, and us DT folk need to stick together, we are a minority ya know! Just follow me. I'm Connor by the way, you are Key, and you're in my form class."

"Cool, so you been at the school long?"

"Yeah, been here since year seven, I'm one of the originals, it's been a long five years and there's only one left; luckily the bullying stopped after year ten, so I'm all good."

"Bullying?" I questioned.

"Yes, bullying. Kids don't understand when when another kid comes out the closet. I expected people to be accepting, especially in this day and age, but no matter what, there will be homophobes." He tutted, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

"That must have been awful. If you don't mind, may I ask what the worst thing they did was?"

"I did get a few beatings, mainly by the jerks on the football team and some of the girls who think they are strong for attacking a gay guy, but apart from that, it was really just insults against gays, so not to bad as it could have been."

"Wow, you're really positive for someone who's been beaten for liking guys. But at least we have something in common."

"What, you've been beaten up by jerks, too?"

"No, we both like guys, duh!"

"Oh, ha ha, so funny, look at this people, looks like we have a jokester on our hands," He rolled his eyes again and smiled, just as we came to a stop outside a workshop for DT, others were waiting for the teacher to arrive and we both headed to the back of the line. As we did, I noticed who else was in our class; someone who was definitely be distracting in classes that I had with him.

You've probably guessed who it is:

Oliver.

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Hey guys, if you've carried on reading, thank you! Please keep reading and I will try to update more regularly, especially now it's summer. Vote, comment, follow and all that jazz! Thanks again.