Foul Play

A/N: Bwahaha. I totally did one of those spaced-out-author things, and found a hole in my story. A tiny, insignificant, one... but a hole all the same. Now it is fixed, and you'll never know what it is. ;)

Sorry for the wait on this one. School's kind of killing me slowly. Agonizingly slowly.

Also, I don't yet have Microsoft Word on my new laptop, so if there are horrible mistakes, I'm really sorry.

And... Please rec. me something to read! Whether you wrote it - that would be fun - or just like someone else's work. I'm having a hard time finding something that I can really sink into, that I haven't already read!

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Chapter Five: Trial and Error

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I caught him just before he slammed shut the navy blue door to his Honda. My cheeks were flushed with the pathetic glow of fatigue and perhaps a bit of spastic fury as I leaned heavily against the vehicle. Running across the school's parking lot at a new record speed was bound to tire you out a little.

"Er... Quin?" I could see him blink though his chestnut eyes were covered by narrow sunglasses, due to my close proximity, and I nodded. "What's up?"

Ryan and I weren't really great friends. In fact, calling us acquaintances was probably pushing it, but I needed answers and he was the only one that could give them to me.

"Umm, you know Alec, right?" A stupid question. If I weren't Alec's best friend, I would've thought Ryan was. They got along easily, because they were both that carefree type. Although Ryan was a typical jock, who volley-balled his way to popularity, he and Alec seemed to have a lot in common. At the furrowed eyebrows that was my response, I smiled sheepishly. "Well, I'm wondering if you're gonna be seeing him tonight?"

My breathing paused as I waited for Ryan's answer, studying the coarse blonde hairs that curled at the nape of his neck due to the sweat that gathered there. I wondered distractedly to myself if it was a requirement for athletes to sweat ALL the time.

"Yeah, man. We're going over to Cook's later tonight... You gonna come?"

Who the Hell was Cook? My face screwed up into pure puzzlement as I tried to place the name, but ultimately, I decided it didn't matter. What did matter, however, was Alec blowing me off... again.

"Yeah, I was thinking about it..." I feigned, so my asking him wouldn't come off as suspicious. (And weird). "Thanks for the info." I smiled as he nodded in reply, before finally shutting his car door and backing up.

Instead of trudging back uselessly to the school and occupying a permanent seat in the library, I zipped up my sweater and watched Ryan's car flee down the street and turn a corner. It was a strange sensation, feeling my footsteps crunch the gravel beneath me, and not hearing the echo of Alec's sneakers one step behind.

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My pencil endured another row of bite marks as I stared blankly at my chemistry report. There were a few sentences scrawled about atoms in the margin, placed there days ago when my mind wasn't hindered by the stress of idiotic teenage problems. I reread them over and over, trying to resurrect the part of me that cared about scholarships, and grades, and everything else I was prone to obsessing about.

Instead, I was met with the bitter taste of lead as my eyes scanned the report futilely.

"Quin, honey. Phone!"

I looked toward my cell phone, realising it was dead and probably had been for a few days now, before picking up the land-line. Immediately, a dozen noises sprang out from the other end, one of them shallow breathing that I could barely place.

"Alec?"

A few seconds of loud music and, otherwise, silence, before Alec's voice came through. "Hey. Hey." He slowly became audible and I arched a brow as I listened. "Sorry to bug you while you're studying."

I glanced wearily at the blank pages in front of me, before shrugging. He sensed it though, and continued.

"Hey, so. Did you tell Ryan you were coming tonight?"

Alec sounded worried, and for the first time during our long, durable friendship, I was hit with the astonishing realisation that he was embarrassed of me. I wondered vaguely if that was why he had suddenly stopped hanging around, and my breathing became slightly laboured.

"Maybe," I stonily replied. There was a long silence between us then, before I quelled his fears. "But I'm not."

As expected, although I wished it wasn't true, Alec let out something akin to a relieved sigh. His spirits were suddenly high as he addressed me next. "Oh, we'll have to meet up another time then." He paused, as I grit my teeth. "I miss you --" He caught himself, and laughing a little, he added, "I mean, you know. We haven't hung out for a while."

I knew that much. Of course I knew it. I thought about it constantly for the past week. Eating lunch next to his random circle of friends, because he suddenly thought eating lunch alone wasn't really all that fun anymore; never meeting up after school, only communicating through a few forced texts.

But he missed me. My eyes fell to my chemistry again as I stubbornly began the assignment. "Yeah, we haven't."

And during the rest of our conversation, I wondered vaguely how one was supposed to seduce someone who was bent on avoiding them.

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Like this.

I swallowed uneasily, looking straight into moss-coloured eyes though not really seeing them.

You did it like this.

"Quin?" I looked away quickly, deciding that he did notice the slight curl of my leg as it slid against his. It was easy to pass off as an accident, my couch was really too tiny for the both of us to lay comfortably, but it had caught his attention.

I sent him a side-long glance, pretending to focus on the sitcom in front of us. "Huh. Yeah?"

Alec's eyes took on a sheen of confusion, before he turned back to the T.V. "Nothing."

My legs stayed securely on my side of the couch for the remainder of the evening.

"Nothing." Alec said again, leaning back and apparently going to sleep. He mumbled a goodnight before turning away, and after turning off the screen, I trudged sleepily to my bed.

My thoughts immediately entertained images of he and Ryan, and I worried to myself that before I could finish my experiment, he would get in the way.

That was irrational though, I forced myself to believe. They were just football buddies.

Or not.

I remembered Mark from algebra snorting at my embarrassment when he informed me there was, indeed, no football game that Ryan and Alec could have gone to. Somewhere along the way, my experiment had lost its objective --

I wasn't just trying to figure out if he was gay -- I was trying to successfully seduce him as well.

And I had no idea why.

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I knew it was a bad idea the minute I stepped in his room for the first time in a week. His couch was still there. Painfully small.

I wish Ryan had been there to provide a distraction. To keep me away from him. But instead, I was given the opportunity to study him more than I should.

Unlike any other guy I've known, Quin's feet seem to lack callouses. I could tell that much when it slipped down my knee and...

Shit.

Don't even go there. The last thing you want is to get morning wood on Quin's couch.

Again.

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A/N: The tinyness of the chapter disgruntles me, but you all know that by now!

Thank you for reading and reviewing. :)

2Bexy31: YES! Seduction! I'm going to try and pull it off - the last thing I want is it to end up corny! haha. I'm also excited to see how it turns out, to be honest. :P

2aki: Oh man, dinosaurs? I haven't seen anything dinosaur-y in all my days living here!! I mostly see a lot of cows, and a lot of cold weather, haha. I agree, totally. Uni is a pain. A huge, huge pain. :( Eep! I love that you're excited -- it makes me excited too. :) Thanks for the good luck, and the review!

2Rachel: Alec is kind of an idiot... this is true. But for all his scholarship glory, Quin's not the brightest either! :P HAHA @ hidden germs. I'm sick right now, and I def. blame hidden germs. /cry

2Carmen: hahah, to put seduction in a procedure. Quin is such a nerd. Unfortunately, I can't read minds :( But, just for you, I'll pretend I can. :P I'm sorry you were having a bad day last time, and as happy as I am that the story cheered you up, it'll be even better if it catches you in a good mood. :) As for crust -- oh, MAN. Me too! I love the stuff. Mmm, carbs.

2Illyric: Midterms were terrible. Passing seems to get harder and harder with every day. Oh well! At least I have fics to distract me. :) Quin is kind of cute, in how simple he seems process things, hahah. What a guy.

2Young Sage: "personal cheese" sounds disgusting, haha. What I meant was a personal sized pizza -- you know, the tiny ones that you can get for just yourself, with the usual four slices? Perhaps I should explain certain things better, so no one starts to question Quin's hygeine. :P Females are totally antagonistic. It seems that the addition of a few female characters has the audience spitting out death threats. Even if she's totally wholesome! Go figure! And yes, I agree with the whole bisexual thing. A very neglected aspect in media and culture. I was just being grammatically correct :P And, no thank-you to the male pregnancy. I'll likely bring in a couple of UFOs before I go there!

2ariesgirl: Quin is in waaay over his head, I'd say. For someone so smart, he really does have quite a few bad ideas. :P Thanks for reading (and laughing!) and reviewing. :) I hope this chapter was up to standards.

2julianYES: Yeah, life can be totally unwelcomed at times. But, I finally had some time for another chapter. :) They are both trying to mend things, aren't they? Hopefully things get sorted out soon (which means, hopefully I can update somewhat soon, too!) Thank you so much for the loyal reviewing. :)

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