37. Phase

"So what do you say... Will you forgive me, Blake, for being an idiot."

Everyone was holding their breaths, and I could see the wheels turning in Blake's head. He stood up from his chair before walking towards the stage, and I had to wonder what he's doing. Once he ascended the steps, he pulled the microphone towards him, and I could see in his eye that whatever he was about to do would cause pandemonium to descend upon the cafeteria. "Fuck you." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, said mouth was put onto Gabe's.

The entire cafeteria erupted, and I could feel the anger from where we sat near the door. I heard Gabe shout, "Exhilarating!" Over the crowd before the pair ran by our table to escape the angry mass of teenagers.

"Did you instigate that?"

"I just told him to win Blake over with something big, I didn't know what he was going to do. Listen, Jack, I know you hate him, but... I kind of told him that if he came out, I would convince you to let him into the group."

"I only dislike him because he out you in the hospital. He was actually one of the more tame people in our little group, so if you're good with him, I'm good with him."

"Does the same speak for Dan?"

The boy in question looked up at us, and he looked shocked. "You forgive me?"

"Of course. I know you weren't yourself, and you didn't want to hurt us."

"Thank you thank you thank you!" I hugged him tightly, and I could see Jack roll his eyes before nodding his head slightly. He won't like it, but he'll learn to accept Dan again too.

The bell rang out, and we were all forced to go to our final class. When I tried to limp in, there was a huge blockade of people. I decided to play crutch skewers, so I made quick work of getting through the group. As I got to the front, I realized that they were just staring at Blake who was helping Gabe with a problem. I rolled my eyes before going over to join them, and I saw Blake's eyes brighten when he saw me. Gabe gave me a sly wink and a thumbs up, and I smiled. They're so good for each other!

"Hey, the group of misfits is getting back together!"

"Yeah, do you think Devon still sells weed?"

"I'm hoping so, I need to light it up this weekend."

I sighed before spinning around on my chair. I used to just take it, but I'm a grown person. "If you want weed, I'll steal the school's grass and shove it up your ass, okay! Ooh, that rhymed!"

Everyone stared at me, but it was so worth it. Gabe was sniggering quietly, and I smirked at the people who were now bashing me for standing up to myself. "Alright, alright, class! Settle down! We have some things to talk about. The behavior today at lunch was unacceptable from all of you! Every single one of you participated in making a gigantic mess for our poor janitors. That aside, would Blake Serine, Gabriel Alexander, and Devon Evans please go to the front office."

We all three got up, and I was glad that they didn't leave me behind just for my inability to walk faster. When we got to the office, Jack and Daniel were already there, and I had to wonder what this is all about. "You five, the principal would like to see you in the conference room. If you could just leave the crutches out here, that would be amazing."

"You expect me to leave them out here. Ma'am I can't walk without them."

"Oh sure you can. We all know you're taking it for attention; you don't even have a doctor's note."

I still tried to take the things keeping me from collapsing into the conference room, but they were taken right from my arm. Because of the unexpected change, my weight went onto my right leg, and I screamed from the pain. Jack quickly got an arm underneath me to support, and he commanded, "Give back his crutches, he needs them to walk."

"No. The principal made it clear that he was to drop his facade before he came into her office."

"You just saw what happened, he put weight on it, and it hurt him dearly. Give. Us. The. Crutches."

"No. Go in."

Jack tried to take the needed material our from her arms, but the woman jerked it away. Frustrated, he just pulled me into the conference room, and the principal was smiling at them. "Good to see the boy dropped the facade; it was quite annoying."

Jack sat me down in a chair before moving to his own, so I awaited for the stupid principal to start talking. "As you all know, you're here for starting a cafeteria fight–"

"What did I do!?" Jack and Dan shouted at the same time.

"You're all friends, you were clearly involved. All of your parents are on their way; you get to explain to them what happened."

When the adults entered, I could see Jamie look around for my crutches, and she made a strange face to see their absence. "Thank all of you for being here upon such short notice. As you know, your children started a lunch room fight today."

"Momma, let me explain," Gabe looked kind of scared as he faced have a parents. "You two always told me to stand up for what I believe in."

"That doesn't include starting brawls."

"That wasn't intentional. My goal... I had to get back the person I loved, and it had to be big enough for them to realize how sorry I was for being an idiot."

"So who is this mystery girl."

"That's the thing, Momma. He isn't a girl... I'm gay, mom."

The words sank in, and his mom smiled. "I know. We both do."

"What?"

"You got drunk at 14, and you came back home with some guy saying he was your date... We heard some noises from your room. Ever since then we've been waiting for you to tell us. Now who's this mystery boy."

"This is Blake. He's my boyfriend." Based on the little reaction from Blake's parents, they also already knew. "We weren't trying to start a fight; I was just coming out of the closet and getting my boy back."

"With all due respect, ma'am, what do the other three have to do with this?"

"We didn't do anything," Jack defended.

"Dev?"

"Okay, so maybe I told him to get Blake's heart back in a big way, but I didn't intentionally start a fight."

"Intentional, involved, or not, you're all suspended for a day. Get out."

Jack came back over to me, but he was commanded by jackass principal not to help me. I braced myself against the desk side until my biological black haired father came over to help me.

Jack made sure to grab my crutches back from the front desk lady, and we all piled into the back of Linc's SUV. Blake and Gabe had convinced their parents to let them spend the night with us, so we were all going to go back to the mansion. Time to wreak havock... All night!