Spy Stuff by Matthew J. Metzger

Author:Matthew J. Metzger [Metzger, Matthew J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, transgender
Published: 2016-05-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Things were…normal, after that.

They’d stayed out the rest of the day, just sort of meandering around Central London, and then the next day at school, Jude was just…Jude. He didn’t mention it at all, even in private, like he was giving Anton space…and yet he kind of wasn’t either, because he kept doing that arm-over-shoulders hug thing and giving Anton rather obvious glances in their shared classes.

Anton loved it.

Mum and Ellen would say he was supposed to talk about it more, but…he liked the not talking about it, too. He liked that Jude had kind of…not shrugged and ignored it, exactly, but he didn’t seem to feel this urge to ask a million questions and probe into the way Anton felt. Anton knew how he felt. He didn’t need Jude to psychoanalyse him, too, because people always did that, they’d have opinions on something they didn’t have the first clue about, but Jude…

Jude didn’t.

Things just…carried on, like nothing had ever happened, and Anton’s anxiety that Jude would see him different, touch him different, was blown out of the water on the Sunday kick-about when Anton opted to make a save by kicking the striker in the shins, and Jude whooped, beaming, and kissed him in front of the entire park.

Just like everything was fine.

* * * *

There was another gift in his locker on Monday morning.

Anton stared blankly at it for a long minute, until Emma twigged he wasn’t listening to her plans for a fundraising event, and complained. So he took it out of the locker and showed her.

“Aw, that’s sweet!” she enthused, taking the tiny box and turning it over. It was wrapped in blue paper this time, with little white snowflakes. “I didn’t know Jude could do sweet.”

“They’re not from Jude,” Anton said awkwardly, taking the little box back. If it was Bee, he was going to have to say something—especially now Jude knew about him, and hadn’t run a mile. He was proper taken now, not in that weird sort-of-maybe-until-he-figures-it-out-and-dumps-me territory.

“What, you have an admirer?” Emma asked as Anton carefully unwrapped the box. It was the smallest one so far, and when he opened it, there was a keyring inside, two tiny red football boots on a silver chain. They were painted in perfect detail, and even had tiny shoelaces and studs. “Oh, that’s neat,” Emma said.

“Yeah, but…I’m going out with Jude now. I shouldn’t be taking gifts.”

“Well, d’you know who’s sending them?”

“No,” Anton said honestly. He didn’t, he only had the other boys’ teasing to go on. Bee had never said two words to him.

“Then take it, you can give them back when whoever it is comes forward if you feel weird about it,” Emma said pragmatically. She gave a little squeak then, and Anton turned from the locker to see that Jude had appeared, face now buried in Emma’s shoulder and wound around her back like a trap.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Emma crooned, petting Jude’s vivid hair, and Anton swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.

“This isn’t morning, this is Monday, and it’s immoral,” Jude grumbled, then unstuck his face from her blazer.

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