Something Else

[jillmariej]

 

Jared smiled to himself; today was a good day.

This morning, while he walked Mrs. Johnson’s dog, Jensen Ackles jogged past him. For the rest of the block, Jared enjoyed the view.

Now, Jared had timed the trip to his locker perfectly. Last week there were three days he arrived at his locker in time to subtly check out his crush. Today, his timing allowed him to admire the way Jensen Ackles’ joggers accentuated his perfect ass. The boy’s hair also looked exceptionally soft today. Not that Jared would ever have the chance to touch it. He would simply add ‘running his fingers through Jensen’s hair’ to the list of things he wanted to do.

That list included saying more than “hi”, but Jared felt lucky when he managed that.

Jared rummaged in his locker for the supplies for his last classes of the day, surreptitiously following Jensen’s every move.  

Katie Cassidy jolted him from his daydream by bouncing into the locker next to his and greeting him with the overly giddy "Hi Jared!" that only cheerleaders can manage.

Jared bit the inside of his cheek in annoyance. "Katie."

She tilted her head and twirled a long blond strand of her ponytail around her finger as she studied him.

"What do you want?" he asked finally annoyed at her presence.

"When are you going to ask me to homecoming?" she asked innocently. "It's only two weeks away."

"Homecoming? I'm not going to homecoming," he replied and went back to gathering his books.

"Jared, don't be silly. Everyone goes to homecoming." Her voice remained cheerful but she spoke a little louder, like she wanted attention.

Jared glanced around and noticed a few people watching them. Unfortunately, one of those people was Jensen Ackles.

"Well I'm not going, and if I were, I wouldn't ask you." He shut his locker a little too loudly and took a step away from her.

As if working on a system known only to cheerleaders, Jared found himself blocked by Sandy McCoy."Hi, Jared," she grinned up at him, her ponytail bouncing with her. "Would you go to homecoming with me?"

"No," he scoffed and tried to walk away but she caught his arm.

"Please Jared. We'd be so cute together,” she said through fluttering eyelashes.

He stepped around her and curtly replied, “No.”

Lauren Cohen came skipping up next to him. “Hey, Jared, will you take me to homecoming?”

Alarm bells sounded in Jared's mind. He heard a few students snickering.

What the fuck was going on? Three cheerleaders asked him to homecoming in the span of two minutes?

"Not interested."

Jared stopped and looked around. Katie and Sandy rejoined him and a crowd gathered to watch the cheerleaders surround Jared. “What is going on?”

“We just want to make sure you're going to homecoming.” This brought more laughter from the kids around them.

As he looked for a way to escape, Jared caught Jensen glaring at the crowd around him.

He probably wishes they were asking him

, Jared thought. Then he wondered,

why aren’t they asking him?

Jensen glanced at him, still scowling, slammed his locker and walked away.

“Leave me alone,” Jared growled, tore his arm away from the girl holding it and practically ran to class.

 

 

Jared was drained when he got home from school. He grabbed a bottle of water and headed to his room to sulk in privacy. This day couldn't get worse.  No sooner had the thought formed then the doorbell rang. Not wanting to deal with anyone, Jared turned to walk the other way. Unfortunately, by turning so quickly, he tripped over some shoes and dropped his water bottle. "Shit."  No way the person on the other side of the door didn't hear that.

He kicked the shoes out of the way and opened the door. “Yeah?”

Jensen Ackles was standing there holding a potted mum in full bloom. “Uh, hi. Your mom ordered this from the booster club. It’s twenty dollars.”

Jared looked from the flowers to the boy and back again. “Okay, my mom’s not here right now.  Do you want to leave it or come back later?”

Jensen said nothing but he looked uncertain and scratched the back of his neck. Jared sighed. “I guess you could wait for her. She should be home in like twenty minutes.”

“Okay,” Jensen replied nearly before Jared stopped speaking.

Jared turned and said, “Why don’t you come in. You can set that down in the kitchen I guess.”  

Jensen shut the door behind him and toed off his shoes. He followed Jared to the kitchen and looked around for a place to put the plant. “Can I?” he began, indicating that he wanted to set the flowers on the table.

“Yeah, that’s a good place for them, I guess.”  Jared’s heart was racing. Jensen Ackles was in his house! He was alone, in his house with Jensen Ackles, who smelled really good and looked like a fucking model and had starred in Jared’s wet dreams for the past month. “So, uh, do you want something to drink or something?” Jared winced as his voice cracked with nerves.

Jensen cleared his throat. “Sure. What have you got?”

“Well,  water.” Jared held up his bottle as an example and turned to open the refrigerator. “And, let’s see…” he bent over to look inside. “Coke, root beer, lemonade, and milk if you want it.”

He turned to Jensen to catch his eyes shoot up to his and a blush start to crawl up his skin. “I’ll have whatever you’re having, I guess.”

“All right.” Jared handed him a bottle of water and then was at a loss as to what to do next.

Jensen, would you mind if I ran my fingers through your hair?

Seemed like a far fetched suggestion.

But it was Jensen that broke the awkward silence when he blurted, “Will you go to homecoming with me?”

Jared froze. He needed to bite back his embarrassment and anger. He should have known this was too good to be true.

"The joke is to ask me at school, it's not funny without the audience,” he answered through gritted teeth.

Jensen paled, he looked like Jared had punched him. “I'm not.. I wasn't trying to be funny," he stammered in response.  "I think what happened at school was my fault."

"How was it your fault?"

Jensen ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Last Friday Jimmy had a party. People starting pairing up and Katie kinda cornered me and she wouldn’t take no for an answer."  He shifted his weight from one foot to the other.  "I finally told her the truth and she didn’t believe me. She wanted to know who I liked and I told her you.”

Jared huffed in disbelief. “Me?”

“Yeah. Then she said I better do something about it or she would.”

Jared studied him for a minute but couldn’t wrap his head around Jensen’s words. "So you're suddenly gay, and out, and ready to take a boy to homecoming?" Jared brushed past him. He didn’t know if this was a cruel joke or if he had hit his head when he fell and this was a dream.

"No, not suddenly. But I am gay. My family and best friends know I am.” Jensen paused as Jared faced him again. “And honestly? I don’t know if I’m ready to go to homecoming with a guy. But if it’s the only way I get a date with you I am.”

This can’t be real

. “You want a date with me?” Jared asked, distrust coloring his tone.

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“But you laughed at me when I came out.” Jared countered.

“Because it was funny,” Jensen pleaded. “We were in ninth grade. Mr. Morgan was going on about Democrats and Republicans and out of nowhere you shout out ‘I’m gay.’ like that was a party we could choose from.”  He took Jared’s arm. “I’m sorry for laughing. I was just a dumb kid.”

Jared remembered the moment clearly. Katie wouldn't leave him alone. She spent most of the class flirting with him and Jared did the only thing he could think of to get her to stop. He told her the truth. Only he said it much louder than he intended and the whole class heard him and laughed at him.

Jared couldn’t meet Jensen’s eyes. “Why me?”

Jensen’s face broke into a blinding smile. “Because you’re perfect. You’re smart and you’re nice and you’re funny…” Seeing Jared’s blank stare Jensen sighed resignedly. “You want nothing to do with me.” He set his unopened water bottle on the countertop. “Sorry about -- everything, I guess. I’ll see myself out.”

“I’m not going to homecoming with you,” Jared said.

“Yeah, got it.” Jensen nodded and kept walking to the door.

“We can do something else if you want,” Jared added, taking a step to follow Jensen.

Jensen turned around slowly. “Something else?”

“Yeah, I mean Oktoberfest is happening that weekend and there’s really good haunted houses up in Mayfield.” Jared offered cautiously optimistic. “Dancing just isn’t my thing.”

“But you still want to go out with me sometime?” Jensen asked sounding just as nervous as Jared felt.

Jared nodded, “Yeah. In fact, I’m free right now if you want to do something.”

A smile bloomed on Jensen’s face. “Yeah?” His eyes briefly fell to Jared’s mouth and he dragged his teeth over lower lip. He blinked and met Jared’s eyes. Reaching out, he took Jared’s hand and twined their fingers together. “There's one thing I want to do,” he whispered. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to Jared’s lips.