Take My Heart Out There are two minutes left before the bell rings, which indicates that the class has started. It’s only the first class since the first day of school began and Justin’s already bored, listening to preppy girls talking on their cell phones in the seats up front. Justin’s playing with his pencil making tck-tck-tck-tck on the wooden desk. He’s sitting alone in the back of the classroom. On the blackboard he can read the word, SILENCE!, written in big bold letters with white chalk on black. The teacher walks from one side of the classroom to the other, with his hands behind his back and white chalk stains that he hadn’t seem to notice on his black cargos. When a tall brunet comes through the door seconds before the bell rings, makes Justin’s deep blue eyes stares up from his pencil. The bell rings, which makes the teacher startle and try to get the attention from the talking students. Brian looks straight at Justin in the back and approaches him, sitting in the empty seat beside him. “Hey.” Brian whispers with his usual charm and smirks. Justin leans closer in Brian’s direction smiling as Brian leans over too. “Brian Kinney! I thought I taught you how to read.” The teacher what’s-his-name yells as he points to the big bold letters on the blackboard. Brian sinks back into his seat and smirks at Justin. “Okay, boys and girls. Take your seats,” The teacher says, “I’m Mr. Matthews.” He scribbles his name on the blackboard. “You’re in my English class, so I’ll expect you all to talk in English…” They both got bored rather quickly, their chins against their palms. Brian looks at Justin for a while too long. He looks into his messy pencil case for a piece of paper and a pen. He scrawls on it and folds it in two. Brian checks to see if his teacher’s facing the black board and nudges Justin’s thigh to pass him the little piece of paper. Justin takes it and reads; he smiles and writes on the back of it, passing it back to Brian. Brian reads and laughs. “What’s so funny about English grammar Mr. Kinney and Mr. Taylor?” The teacher says grumpy. “Nothing, sir.” Brian answers. Brian takes out another piece of paper. Justin writes his own telephone number and gives it to Brian. The teacher shots an angry look at them, so they decide to stay quite for the rest of the period and listen. Justin draws doodles and cartoons while glancing a little too much towards Brian. “Hey, what are you doing?” Brian whispers when the teacher finally sits down at his desk. “Just doodling.” Justin whispers sweetly and pulls his sketchpad towards his chest so Brian doesn’t see his drawing. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The last bell rings. Justin kicks his locker shut with his knee and pulls his messenger bag over his head. He walks towards the exit door, grateful that school’s over for the day, Daphne had missed school, he didn’t know why, and the hours seemed to go so slow. Brian emerges from God-knows-where and hugs Justin from behind, wrapping his arms around Justin’s chest and shoulder. Justin sweetly smirks and holds onto Brian’s forearms. “Missed me?” Brian says as he puts his cheek against Justin’s neck. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The sand’s wetness is starting to dry around the playground’s structure. Brian’s sitting on the structure’s second floor with his legs crossed together. Justin’s on the ground, sitting on one of the swings. They’re standing far but close enough to hear each other talk. It’s calm and the sun is shining dimly behind the heavy clouds after the rain. They’ve been talking for hours; it felt easy to talk for both of them. “Don’t you have to head back home?” “No, Debbie won’t mind.” Justin says while slightly swinging on the swing with the balls of his feet. “My parents don’t care whether I eat or not.” Brian says but Justin doesn’t hear. “Who’s this Debbie?” Brian asks. Justin had been mentioning her many times in the past hour. “She’s my adoptive mother.” Justin says. “She was my real mother’s best friend while she was pregnant with me. But Debbie lost her baby from miscarrying.” He pauses. “After first gr-“He stops as he says grade. Avoiding that sensible subject. “When my mother had my little sister, I was too much to handle so Debbie took me in. Then my parents were having problems with their marriage and that’s when Debbie adopted me.”