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Gabe Saporta walked across the cafeteria, clutching his tray to his chest with his long, slender arms. From his table, William Beckett studied him, feeling his heart race a little faster. He was completely unsure of the status of whatever was going on between them. They’d talked, sure, and Gabe had asked him out on a date, and William had accepted. But that date was this weekend. So what were they in the meantime? Was William allowed to talk to him? Would they just live their separate lives and just hang out on the weekends? As it turned out, they would not. Gabe Saporta took his tray and his slender arms and sat right smack down next to William, grinning over at him. “William!” he exclaimed. “Holy fuck, am I glad to see you. This day has been totally shitty and I need emotional support.” William looked warily at him. “Who taught you about emotional support?” “Patrick,” Gabe said, leaning his head on William’s shoulder, and okay, maybe William was freaking out a little bit, because it was kind of a lot of physical contact for a couple who hadn’t even been on a single date. He didn’t want to move, though. Having Gabe’s warmth so close to him was even more enjoyable than he’d imagined. The physical contact with Gabe wasn’t the bad part, though. The bad part was that practically everyone in the whole fucking school had noticed that Gabe was sitting at William’s table with the school ‘losers’ (who were mostly just nerds or quiet kids) and they were staring at them pretty intensely, and now they were seeing Gabe be physically affectionate with William, which would put ideas in their heads. Most of which were true, but still. William wasn’t sure he was ready to be so public about their… whatever it was. Gabe clearly was. Oh, and his friends were also staring Gabe down so heatedly Gabe might just melt away. William felt his cheeks heating up, and the blush didn’t go away as Sisky asked, “Are you lost?” “Me?” Gabe responded, as if Sisky would be talking to the other members of his table that sat there literally every day. “Uh, no, I wanted to sit with William.” “Funny. I didn’t realize people like you even knew our little group existed,” Sisky said in a tone that was far too sweet for his venomous words. Gabe either didn’t recognize Sisky’s anger or didn’t respond to it, because he simply responded, “Oh, no, I knew you guys existed. I always thought William was, like, inhumanly gorgeous or some shit. But we just ran in different crowds and I was too chicken to ever approach you guys because you’re so damn smart and I’m a grown ass teenager that still acts like an idiot. So. Yeah.” “You were intimidated by us?” William asked, glancing over at his - whatever Gabe was, unable to help the smile from creeping onto his face. “Who wouldn’t be intimidated by you?” Gabe answered, grinning back. “You’re hot, smart, and sassy. I thought you’d kick my ass if I ever talked to you, to be honest.” “I’m still debating it,” William said, but he laughed. He and Gabe maintained extended eye contact for a few moments. Sisky practically spat the yogurt he was eating onto the table. “God,” he said, coughing dramatically, “that’s just disgusting. Gabe, you can sit here because I get the feeling that William will kill us if we ban you from the table, but you and William need to get a room if you’re gonna do shit like that.” “Agreed,” Mike voiced, kicking William under the table. William rolled his eyes. “Some supportive friends you all are.” Gabe’s eyes glanced over each member of the table, from Mike to Sisky to Butcher to Chiz and then back. “Wait,” he said suddenly, as if something had occurred to him, and William was half-afraid that Gabe had realized how big a loser he really was and decided to leave. Gabe said nothing of the sort, though. Instead, he said, “Michael, you’re from Australia, right? How hard was it for you to learn English when you moved here?” Groaning, William tried to sink into the floor. Sisky and Butcher burst out laughing, and Chiz shot him a bemused smile that William pointedly ignored. “What?” Gabe asked, sounding innocently confused. Mike made some remark about improving basketball players’ educations, which made Gabe look over to William in confusion. William just smiled back at Gabe and ran his hand through Gabe’s short curls. Fuck social norms, he thought determinedly. . William was not used to having people’s eyes on him. Since the gossip about Josh and Tyler and the musical had died down now that it was well-established that Josh and Tyler were the leads in the musical and it was going to happen, people were pretty desperate for something new to gossip about. And it seemed they’d found their gossip in the form of William and Gabe and whatever the hell was going on between them. Everyone was looking at him while he walked down the halls. Their eyes followed him when he was in class, when he was walking down the halls, even when he was in the bathrooms sometimes. It was like they were picking him apart, trying to find what exactly Gabe liked about him. William himself didn’t even know, so the entire experience was kind of horrifying. He didn’t want to bring it up to Gabe, though, because Gabe thrived on the attention. Gaining social capital was probably one of the main reasons Gabe joined the basketball team. Gabe thought it was hilarious that people talked about them and constantly said shit like “Let’s give ‘em something to talk about” which sounded like something out of an ‘80s movie and certainly not something that should be said by a high school junior. The last straw, though, was when Brendon Urie decided to talk to him. “Look, William,” Brendon said. “I don’t usually do this.” William wasn’t sure what this was, but he guessed it meant taking to people of a lowly social status like William. “So let’s not make this harder than it has to be. Your precious Gabriel is a playboy.” “Like in the magazines?” William retorted. He didn’t want to have this conversation, much less with Brendon Urie of all people. “No.” Brendon rolled his eyes like William was the stupid one. “He dates a lot of people. Like, a whole fucking lot, a fuckton, I don’t know. He dated 5 people last year that I’m aware of. So be careful. That’s all I’m trying to say.” “Thanks, Brendon,” William drawled. “Now maybe you should get back to learning your five lines for the musical.”Brendon huffed, but thankfully left William alone. Although being alone certainly didn’t help his thought process. All he could think about was the fact that Gabe did have a track record of dating a ton of people and leaving them heartbroken, and he’d known about Gabe’s history so why hadn’t he thought of this before, and Gabe had seemed so fucking genuine that he hadn’t even questioned it but should he? His head was spinning. “Why did I ever start dating?” William muttered to himself. “I should’ve just waited till college. Or after college. Graduate school. Or maybe when I’m thirty-four. Maybe it’ll all be less confusing then.” By the time Gabe picked William up Saturday night, William’s thought process really hadn’t improved. “Where do you want to go?” Gabe said brightly. “I heard there was a badass movie playing at the theater downtown, or we could get ice cream, or the arcade…” “Doesn’t matter,” William replied, buckling himself into Gabe’s car and pointedly avoiding eye contact with the other boy. “Uh, okay,” Gabe said, seeming a little unnerved. “What about dinner first? Are you hungry?” “I guess,” William said. He still didn’t look over at Gabe. The minute he did, he knew he’d break and weep in Gabe’s arms or something, and he definitely wasn’t willing to do that. Gabe paused, taking his hand off of the ignition and turning his whole body around to look at William. Don’t cave, don’t cave, William repeated in his head, as Gabe said, “Did… did I do something wrong? We haven’t even started the date yet. I don’t see…” William caved. “I talked to Brendon.” “And…?” Gabe questioned, seeming even more puzzled than before. “Because no offense to him, but God, does that boy spew more bullshit than anyone I’ve ever met. I don’t see how you put up with him, even for musical purposes.” “He had a good point,” William argued, though he was starting to think Gabe had a good point as well. “He said that you dated a lot of people last year. Five, to be exact.” “Well, yeah, he’s right about that much,” Gabe said, and William’s heart dropped a little bit. But it rose again as Gabe said, “But he’s wrong in thinking that has anything to do with you, Guillermo.” “What do you mean?” William said, turning around to face Gabe for the first time and seeing the absolute sincerity in his eyes. “I mean that all that shit was just me fucking around,” he explained. “Like, I wasn’t looking for anything serious. I didn’t think there was anything serious for me. And then I met you.” He smiled in a way that looked pretty damn sincere. “I know we just started talking and I’m probably freaking you the fuck out. But I’ve never felt anything for anyone that even compares to the way I feel about you. So there’s that. Take it or leave it.” For a second, William was silent, pretty much stunned into silence. But then he realized that’d damage his reputation as the sassiest loser at East Academy and he said, “Who knew you knew how to smooth talk?” Gabe laughed, punching him lightly in the arm, but his eyes were bright as he leaned in and pressed a light kiss to William’s lips. As he leaned away, he said, “This makes us boyfriends, by the way, so you can stop freaking the fuck out about that too. And if you’re uncomfortable with being public about it, let me know. I’ll go as slow or as fast as you want to. I just want you to be happy, querido.” “Who told you?” William demanded, but his heart was fluttering a little too fast for there to be any real anger behind it. “…I may or may not have found Sisky after class and demanded information,” Gabe said innocently. “But, I mean, you were acting kind of weird, and I didn’t know if you even liked me that much because you’re so sarcastic and fucking weird and so I needed - “ William cut him off by kissing him again. After he leaned back, he muttered, “Dumbass,” under his breath. “Well, you’re the dumbass that didn’t realize how damn smitten I am with you,” Gabe said, huffing in faux annoyance and starting up the car at last. “Now come on, dumbass, let’s go on a real motherfucking date.”