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Connor Murphy was sitting on the floor of the gym. He thought prom was going to be one of the few things he'd enjoy about his senior year. But he had no one. Everyone else had a boyfriend or girlfriend but Connor didn't even have a friend. The verdict? Prom is totally overhyped.
Jared Kleinman hung around with his fake friends, laughing at jokes he didn't actually find funny. He was drinking punch and fake spat all over his suit at some stupid joke as an excuse to escape.
He walked the way out of the gym, to get to the bathroom to clean himself off but he got distracted. Connor Murphy was sitting on the ground and looked as if he was ready to cry.
Jared decided a detour wouldn't harm anyone, so he made his way over to Connor, who was sitting in the corner.
“Hey.”
Connor didn't even look up. In fact, he made a point out of looking away from Jared.
Rude.
But Jared kept trying.
He sat down next to Connor. The other boy shuffled away, still silent.
“Are you okay?”
There were a few minutes of silence before Connor actually spoke.
“You want the honest answer? No.”
Jared tried to get closer to Connor, hoping he wouldn't notice as he was looking away.
“What happened?” Jared, despite not being good at comforting people, still tried.
“Prom happened. I thought it was gonna be fun but now I just want to run away.”
“We could run away together.”
Well, that slipped out.
Connor looked at Jared, smiling for maybe the first time that night.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. Did you hear something? Probably just the wind.”
“That was not the wind,” Connor laughed.
Jared couldn't help but laugh too.
“What happened to your shirt?” Connor pointed to the red splash on Jared's once completely white button up shirt.
“I forgot about that. I spilt punch as an excuse to get away from my… ‘friends’.”
“Understandable. You want to go clean it up?”
“That's what I was going to do before I saw you sitting on the floor all miserable.”
Jared left the room to get to the bathrooms. He had to clean the shirt or his parents would kill him. Either that or they wouldn't care at all. It was an old shirt that his dad had worn for his prom so it wasn't really all too important.
Jared grabbed a paper towel, dampened it with the water from the faucet and started wiping his shirt. Luckily, some of the red was starting to come off.
Jared looked up when he heard the door.
“You still in here?”
It was Connor.
“Yeah!”
Jared turned off the faucet.
Connor walked into the room and leaned back on the sink next to Jared.
“We’ve not really talked much, have we?” Connor said.
He was right. Connor and Jared had never talked unless it was for a group project or tonight.
“Yeah. We haven't.”
Jared had always thought Connor seemed cool but had always been too scared to have a proper conversation with him. Sure, he made comments about Connor sometimes but they were never light-hearted. They were only made to cover up how he really felt.
“What you said earlier? About running away together? I'd do it. Sounds fun.”
Jared laughed. It was a joke right? There's no way someone like Connor Murphy would do that. Not really. He had to be kidding.
“That's… that's funny. Good one, Murphy!”
“I'm not joking. It'd be great to ditch this dumb town.”
He was actually serious. Jared didn't expect that.
Jared laughed in that nervous way Evan always did. “Oh, my god. Kiss me.”
And Connor listened. Jared meant it as a joke. Half-joke, actually.
Connor was actually much softer than Jared had expected. He guessed he'd just let all those stories he'd heard determine what he thought about Connor.
Kissing in a bathroom. While everyone else was having fun at prom. Strange but somehow wonderful.
Connor pulled away, smiling.
Jared was still trying to deal with the shock.
“I… was kidding. I was kidding! Oh, my god.”
“I'm not.”
“You're high, aren't you?”
“A little. How else was I gonna get through prom?” Connor rested his arms on Jared's shoulders, nuzzling into the crook of Jared's neck.
Was agreeing to running away Connor's way of confessing?
“So… you like me?” Jared said after a couple moments.
“Yeah, doofus.”
“Why couldn't you just say that?”
Connor paused to think. “I'm just difficult sometimes.”
The two stood like that for another minute, before Jared tried to lift Connor's arms.
“Now, get off of me. You're hurting me.”
“You're being a drama queen.”
Connor kissed Jared again. Short but it still gave enough time for Evan to walk in.
Jared pushed Connor off, staring at Evan who was standing behind Connor.
“Hi…”
“You were kissing Connor Murphy, right?” Evan didn't sound angry. Just surprised
“Uh… yeah. You aren't hallucinating or anything.”
Evan paused, smiled and said “good for you. Both of you. Really.”
Evan left. Jared hoped he wouldn't say anything to anyone.
Jared turned to Connor. “Tomorrow. That's when we'll leave this place. Promise.”
He didn't know what they exactly were just yet. Boyfriends? Who knows. Jared was happy though. That's all that mattered.