chapter 1

"Wade, nice shoes." Sarcasm alert. Seriously, he could not have been any more sarcastic. Kenneth Myers would have never told me I had nice shoes. He would never say anything nice to me, especially about my rainbow sneakers. I saw them at the mall a few weeks ago and I spent most of the money I had saved up on them. They were beautiful.

They were just something little I felt I could wear to express myself, my sexuality. I wasn't in your face gay, but I did feel a sense of, for lack of a better word, pride. Yeah, pride. I was proud of who I was, even if other people weren't, like Kenneth Myers. So yeah, totally gay, but I was totally gay, like I said.

So I was wearing my rainbow sneakers and a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt. First period was going to start in about twenty minutes and I was at my locker. Freshmen were abundant and I noticed a lost looking guy, who must've failed three times, or was a new senior.

He had a schedule and a bunch of books. He was totally in book check mode. Anyone could have walked up to him and just knocked his books to the ground, but I guess he was too intimidating. He was tall and beefy. He had five o'clock shadow for crying out loud. He was really handsome too.

He was really tall, or I was just short, or both. He was big too. He must've worked out or something. He had brown hair. It was kind of short looking. His eyes were hazel colored, with strong hints of green and blue. I was really attracted to him, but my gaydar wasn't picking up anything. I was like the welcoming committee, I swear to god.

"Need some help?" I asked. He looked up from the schedule and smiled at me. "I mean, I...I can help if you need it." I was blushing so I stopped talking.

"If you wouldn't mind," he said. "I'm new." Obviously he was new, it was totally, well, obvious. "My name is Cazimir, you can call me Caz." Cool name, it was different. It was sexy.

"My name is Wade," I told him. "You're in the same first period as me." I said, looking over his schedule so I could officially stalk him. I convinced myself that I was only kidding "I'll show you." He smiled at me and I could tell I was probably the first person to talk to him so far.

"Thank you," he said in a deep voice, which was also kind of raspy. Our first period was AP Physics. I noticed he was in all AP classes. I was glad I was so smart, because Kenneth Myers was an idiot, meaning we only had Fitness together.

I sat down and he sat down next to me. Class started and Mr. Washington was just talking about the course. You know, typical first day of school gibberish. Big guy didn't say much after that.

We just walked to our classes together. I told him I'd see him tomorrow and he told me I had nice shoes. Not a hint of sarcasm. I sighed to myself, hoping my gaydar was just busted.

The next day I didn't wear my rainbow shoes, but Caz was officially my new best friend, not really, but he was nice to me so it had to count for something. He and I had the same lunch period too.

He was home-schooled before he came here. For eleven whole years of school he was...he was at home. That was just so weird. I would hate being taught at home, it would be like prison.

My mom was in charge of a shoe company and my dad was in charge of his own auto shop. They so wouldn't have the time to teach me and my sister. "What do you do for fun?" he asked. He took a bite out of an apple, the juice making his lips look incredibly kissable.

Fun? I didn't do very much of anything. I hoped he didn't think my life was like some TV drama about high school. Well, if that drama was about being a loner and outcast, then I guess my life was like a high school TV drama.