The next day at school, as I was walking down the hallway alone, Aspen grabbed my shoulders out of nowhere, stopping me in my tracks. Her face told me something was very wrong. "Orion, they're still chanting. Frankie is talking about you — all about you."

I grabbed her wrists to move her hands off of my shoulders, raising my eyebrows at her comment. "What do you mean? The kid barely knows me."

Aspen visibly gulped and narrowed her eyes to the ground. "They're calling me queer too."

That wasn't going to fly. Nobody is calling Aspen queer, especially when she's already timid and unable to stand up for herself.

"The sad part is, that it's true," she gulped again and I saw panic in her eyes, her lips quivering once.

"You're not queer, Frankie is just stupid. Don't listen to him and keep being you," I said quietly while trying to make her feel better about the situation. At least I could take his jabs, I just wished I could take them for the both of us.

"Where is he?" I demanded, scouting the hallway we were standing in. I couldn't see anyone but a few familiar faces that weren't Frankie.

"Over in the English hallway," Aspen croaked out, her eyes puffy from tears that were bound to fall at some point.

"Stay here, I'm going. Just go to class, I'll take care of him," I told Aspen as she tricked slowly to her next class.

I started down the hallway, walking eagerly to find out what the hell Frankie Moore had to say. I passed my brother on the way, and he did a double take when he saw my face.

"Man on a mission?" He asked me while slowing down to talk.

"Gotta find Frankie Moore," I quickly responded, walking past Devian to the spot Frankie allegedly was.

I rounded the final hallway and crept up the wall until I could peek around the corner to the English hallway. There Frankie was, with his dumb little blond crush. I could see the confidence oozing off of him, his words causing my teeth to clench.

"So now that the fag was forced to quit the baseball team by his dad, all of his scholarships are going to me!" Frankie said in his normal, arrogant tone. His blond girlfriend batted her eyelashes and flipped her hair over her shoulder. She said something back to him, but my blood was boiling so rapidly I didn't even pick up on it.

How dare he call me a fag? After he called my sister and I queer, I needed to do more than just punch him. I dropped my bookbag on the floor and cracked my knuckles with the opposite hands. Frankie was getting more than one punch this time.

I rounded the corner, my arm winding back to throw my first punch, the attempt failed as Axel grabbed my wrist to bring my arm back down.

"What the hell, stop it!" Axel cried as he pulled me back, away from Frankie.

"That's my cousin!" Axel exclaimed, his fingers tangled in his short hair.

I didn't care who Frankie was to Axel, his homophobic words cut more than just my feelings.

"Your cousin is a homophobe!" I retorted to Axel, my arms spraying into the air at his response.

Axel shifted his eyes to Frankie. "And if you do one more fucking thing to Orion or his family, I'm gonna get you the next time I see you at home. Hell, I'd get you right now if we weren't in school!"

I swallowed a lump at Axel's comments, his face red and veiny. Nobody has ever, ever stood up for me before. Definitely not like this. I almost felt proud... I did feel proud.

The blond who was standing with Frankie just left, walking away with her eyes shielded from us. I guess she didn't want her ego bruised.

"Alright, damn. I get it now, I'll shut up," Frankie confessed as he raised both of his non-innocent hands, backing away from Axel and me.

Frankie eventually disappeared down the hallway, my bottom lip pulled back by my teeth.

"Why didn't you tell me he was your cousin?"

Axel sighed and blinked a few times, looking around the hallway before mumbling.

"I should have told you, but we wanted to keep it lowkey. We don't get along real well, with an attitude like his I guess you can tell why."
His eyes never met mine and I could sense his regret on the matter.

"It's not that big of a deal, okay? I never liked him."

Axel shrugged and playfully pushed my shoulder back, shaking his head like he had no words to say.

"Why didn't he attack you, too?" I suddenly asked, swaying a bit from his light push.

"He's intimidated by me. He'll never admit it, but I know he is," Axel smirked, "just look at the way he backed off when I said something. He thinks you're weak, you're prey to him. We're family, and that's a different circumstance than being teammates."

I thought about what Axel said, and he was right. I was weak to Frankie because I am gay. He's only known me for a few years, not a lifetime.

"Thank you for that, I don't think I ever had somebody stick up for me," I honestly told Axel. He smiled and shrugged like it was the least he could have done.

"Woah, you know it's five minutes into eighth period and we're not in class?" Axel suddenly whispered, pointing to the clock, "let's go, quick."

With one short tug on my wrist, I was whisked away into the boy's bathroom. "We can just hang out here, and then you can go to your detention."

I laughed at the word, rolling my eyes slowly and dramatically as we stood inside the bathroom, "You actually think I'm going to detention?"

The comment seemed to puzzle Axel, his eyebrows nuzzling closer together in confusion. He shrugged now, like he didn't know all along I was going to skip. "Orion, instead of detention, do you want to head down to the lake?"

I watched Axel's lips curve into a smile, his skin glistening under the dim bathroom lighting.

His suggestion was more than perfect, because I was never planning on spending 45 minutes with the principal.