Chapter Text
Chemistry.
Griffin was good in chemistry. The best even if he said so himself, at least better than these idiots in his class.
What he wasn’t good at was working with people.
God, he hated working with other people. Not only didn’t they understand half of the assignment they were supposed to be doing and mess it all up, they also didn’t do a single thing which made Griffin do all the work.
And really, Griffin thought he was on a roll here, no working with people, the other boys had left him mostly alone this week and his mom hasn’t been home for a few days to yell at him. All in all, it had been a good few days for him, Griffin should have expected that the universe is always out to get him.
Griffin knew it was going to be that kind of day when he saw his chemistry teacher, Mrs. Heart, pull out the hat with their names in it to make pairs out of her desk drawer. That damned hat. Griffin knew he should have burned that thing a long time ago, all it did was bring him misery.
Quickly making his way to the workbench all the way at the back of the classroom and closest to the window, he let his bag fall down at his feet before taking a seat. He took a look around the classroom, taking in all the other kids.
He saw Donna walk into the classroom, busy talking with one of her friends. Griffin liked Donna, he would almost go as far as to call her a friend. She always sits next to him in this class and on the rare occasions that the universe was on his side, he got to work with Donna. She was smart and could keep up with Griffin.
She was also the only person who knew about his hatred for Billy. Whenever she lets him rant about the other boy, she gets this knowing look on her face. Griffin hasn’t figured out yet what that look means.
His eyes drifted away from her to instead look at Robin Arellano. Griffin didn’t know much about him, only that he’s Finney’s boyfriend, a fighter and that he’s friends with Bruce Yamada, Vance Hopper and Billy Showalter.
Griffin’s lips immediately curled up in distaste.
Right. Billy Showalter.
Golden boy, second to Bruce Yamada of course, a writer of the school newspaper, star soccer player and paperboy of this godforsaken town.
You know those people you just don’t like, the people who probably did nothing or everything at all you hate for no reason?
Billy Showalter is one of those people. He didn’t even do anything specific. Griffin just didn’t like him. Maybe because he was popular. Maybe because he was seen . Maybe because he was just like the other popular kids, shallow and mean. Or maybe it just all fell back to that neon orange jacket Billy had worn in middle school.
That sounds about right to Griffin, his hatred had started years ago so why not blame it all on the jacket. It had hurt his eyes just by looking at it, anyway.
And just to let you know, his hatred has nothing to do with the fluttery feeling in his stomach whenever he sees the other boy. No, no of course not, no ma’am.
Griffin was brought back out of his thoughts by Donna’s words when she plopped down into the seat next to him. “Griffin, fix your face.”
Griffin immediately scowled at her but the girl didn’t let it deter her as she went right back to talking while getting her stuff out of her bag.
“Did you see how Robin looked at me? Lovesick idiot has his boy already but still thinks I’m going to steal him away,” Donna rolled her eyes in exasperation.
Griffin’s lips quirked up in a small, amused smile at that. Donna and Griffin have listened to Finney rant about his massive crush on Arellano for weeks on end and now that Arellano finally made a move, Griffin thought it woud be over. He thought wrong.
He’s incredibly happy for Finney, of course, but now instead of hearing about how ‘Robin is so fucking pretty’ and ‘Do you think the look he gave me meant anything?’ it has been replaced with how Robin ‘gave me my favorite flowers’ and ‘he lent me his jacket last night when I was cold, it was so romantic!’.
It’s nauseating in Griffin’s opinion.
And not to mention the thing with Donna and Robin’s beef, yeah, Griffin doesn’t know about that either. Just that there’s some history there or something. Whatever, Griffin doesn’t want to know and doesn’t care to either.
But it’s always funny to watch because Donna has no intention of stealing Finney away because one, Finney is a boy and two, Donna’s actually been aiming for Finney’s sister, Gwen. Donna had told him one late, fall afternoon when they were walking home from school. He still remembers her face when she told him, a cool look on her face but Griffin could see the fear for his reaction right through her carefully crafted mask.
He still remembers how he soothed her expression away when he offered her his own secret.
So yeah, Donna is his friend. A very good friend.
His attention was pulled back to Mrs. Heart when she greeted them all before she began to explain a new assignment. Griffin let his eyes drift towards the window. He only looked back when Donna elbowed him in the ribs to get him to look at their teacher.
The first sign that Griffin should have noticed that it was going to be that kind of day was when Mrs. Heart called out Donna’s name that was followed by Arellano’s. The second one was when she called Billy’s name followed up by his own name.
He groaned silently and let his head fall on his folded arms on the table, Donna patting his shoulder a second later, Griffin could hear her laughing softly.
And then she was gone, Griffin could hear her call some remark at Arellano, the other boy responding in kind.
“Don’t be a stranger, Arellano!”
“Fuck off, Clarke!”
Griffin wondered how that would go down.
He felt someone take Donna’s place next to him and then an all too familiar voice sounded next to him.
“Uhm, hi? I’m Billy Sho-“
“I know who you are, Showalter,” Griffin interrupted. Griffin lifted his head to fix Showalter with an irritated look. The boy didn’t look too bothered to be paired up with him. He probably thought that Griffin was going to do all the work.
Okay, Griffin had already prepared himself to do all the work but that’s beside the point. He’s at the top of his class and he’s not about to throw that away because of some popular kid who throws newspapers at people every morning.
“Here’s how this is going to work, yeah? You stay put, don’t touch anything and don’t talk to me, got it?”
Griffin didn’t wait for an answer before he promptly walked away to get their stuff. He didn’t need much, the stuff that they needed was already laid out on their table but they needed lab coats and safety glasses.
When Griffin returned, his own lab coat on and the other one on his arm, he walked back to their workbench while putting on his safety glasses. As he approached their workbench, he watched Showalter put some chemicals together.
“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Griffin rushed forwards as he shoved the jacket towards Showalter, the boy making a surprised noise when the jacket made contact with his face.
Griffin gripped the vial that was just in the other boy’s hand and inspected it. Nothing major happened, nothing exploded or something. Yet.
Griffin narrowed his eyes at it before he pushed his safety glasses onto his head. He turned his gaze towards Showalter after he gently set down the vial.
“Which chemicals did you put in here?” Griffin asked sharply.
The other boy just smiled widely at him as he shrugged on his own lab coat. “The right ones.”
Griffin scoffed and he took a look at the paper where the assignment was written. ‘The idiot was right,’ Griffin thought.
Griffin looked at the other boy again. He noticed how the coat was too short for the boy, the sleeves not even reaching his wrists while Griffin’s almost reached to his fingertips. The school really couldn’t be bothered to buy better safety equipment for them.
“I was right, wasn’t I?” Showalter’s voice brought him back out of his thoughts and Griffin watched as he put his safety glasses on his face.
“Wow,” Griffin deadpanned. “You can read instructions, so what? Do you want a sticker?” With that he turned away from the other boy to read the assignment.
To his utter surprise, Showalter laughed. He fucking laughed as if it was a joke and not like Griffin hadn’t just insulted his intelligence.
Griffin watched blankly as the other boy regained his bearings. “Are you done?” Griffin asked.
“Yeah, I’m done,” Showalter just grinned stupidly before he settled down in his seat, his chin in his hand as he watched Griffin with those green eyes that seemed to analyse him.
Griffin narrowed his eyes, a frown on his face before he looked away to look at the assignment.
They worked in silence after that. Well, Griffin worked while Showalter did nothing besides watching him, Griffin had told him to, after all. Griffin could feel the other boy’s eyes following his movements, could feel his eyes burning into his head but he wouldn’t let it bother him.
Griffin was looking at a chemical in his hands with a frown on his face, his eyes studying the vial. He wasn’t sure if this was the right one to use and so he looked at the assignment again before he looked at the other vials that were laid out on the table, letting his eyes wander over them.
“It’s that one,” a voice said and Griffin was pulled out of his thoughts.
Griffin looked up, “What?” He said sharply to the other boy.
Showalter just smiled knowingly and pointed at one of the vials with chemicals. “That’s the one you’ll need.”
Griffin blinked at the vial the other boy was pointing at, then at the one in his hand and lastly at the assignment.
Griffin avoided looking at the other boy as he reached for the correct vial. “I knew that,” he mumbled.
“Of course,” Showalter agreed easily. Griffin could hear the smile in his voice and he shot a glare at the other boy.
“I don’t need your help, Showalter,” Griffin countered as he busied himself with pouring the right amount of the chemical in the beaker in front of him.
“Billy,” Showalter said. Griffin stopped what he was doing to instead look at the other boy in confusion and a hint of irritation.
“What?” Griffin questioned.
Showalter just smiled, quite annoyingly so in Griffin’s opinion. “Call me Billy,” the boy requested softly.
Griffin regarded him for a moment, just studying him. From his kind smile to his sincere, green eyes. Griffin tilted his head a little to the side, the first thing he noticed was that Billy didn’t seem to mind very much that Griffin was watching him by the way his smile broadened, just happy with having the shorter boy’s eyes on him. The second thing was that Billy seemed to watch him in return, Griffin couldn’t understand why because the other boy has been watching him for the past twenty minutes so he’d think that he’s seen it all. ‘Guess not,’ Griffin thought as he watched Showalter’s eyes roam over his face.
The boy had green eyes. Green eyes with the tiniest hint of light brown and gold tinging his eyes. Practically unnoticeable, not if you looked very closely.
Griffin looked away from the boy, not saying a word. In fact, he didn’t speak again for the rest of the lesson, neither did Showalter, although Griffin could still feel his eyes on him, content with just watching him.
When Mrs. Heart told them all to finish up, Griffin began to tidy up their workspace, putting vials back in their place and writing the last words on their worksheet to show their progress.
Griffin removed his safety glasses and shrugged his lab coat off before he slung it over his arm. He caught sight of Showalter, still in his too short lab coat and safety glasses perched on his head, talking to Arellano, Donna’s and his workspace already cleared up.
Griffin immediately scowled at the sight and he trudged over to practically tear the safety glasses of Showalter’s head, effectively interrupting him and making him turn towards him.
Griffin tugged harshly at the sleeve of Showalter’s coat. “Off,” he demanded impatiently.
He ignored Donna laughing quietly behind her hand and Arellano’s amused smirking when Showalter immediately stood up to shrug off his own coat.
“I can do it too, you know,” Showalter said as he tried to reach for Griffin’s coat and glasses to clean it up.
“Clearly not,” Griffin returned as he leaned out of reach from Showalter to instead slide past him and snatch the coat and glasses out of the boy’s unsuspecting hands. “Since you’re over here talking and not giving Mrs. Heart our worksheet.”
“Oh, right,” Griffin heard Showalter say behind him, followed by Arellano’s cackle and Donna’s giggling that made Griffin roll his eyes.
It went on like this for another four weeks.
Griffin telling Showalter not to touch things, Showalter not listening to him, Griffin trying to work, Showalter staring holes into the side of Griffin’s head, Showalter trying to do things, Griffin shoving him away.
It was a shame that this was a project that took up half of their grade, otherwise Griffin would mess it up on purpose to get out of working with the other boy. It’s been a long four weeks honestly. More so even when the other boy kept trying to talk to him. Griffin ignored him every time, of course, but it frustrated him that Showalter didn’t take that as sign to stop talking.
Donna always shot him amused glances, her trademark smirk on her face. It made Griffin grit his teeth.
Also the fact that Arellano shot secret looks at Showalter, Arellano would smirk knowingly and Showalter would get red in the face and quickly look away.
Griffin would always look at him weirdly before scooting a bit away from him, thinking Showalter was coming down with something.
But eventually they’d found a rhythm. Although Griffin didn’t like the boy, he couldn’t deny that he was helpful during their project.
Showalter would say small comments that actually helped Griffin to apprehend it better. He’d make notes on the experiments Griffin did, noted the important parts and handed Griffin the things he needed before he even knew he needed it. Griffin could appreciatie it that Showalter let him take the lead in the project, as long as he didn’t do the whole thing.
So it was helpful to have him around sometimes. What isn’t helpful is the way Showalter tried to make conversation about anything that came to his mind.
Griffin would deflect or throw a sarcastic comment at the other boy but that only seemed to spur Showalter on as he would only grin and lean his chin on his hand before he would answer his own questions with his own answers.
In the four weeks they’d worked together, Griffin has learned more about Showalter than he has in the years since middle school.
Showalter liked the colour green, he liked to listen to music as he did his paper rounds in the early mornings, he liked his English class the most and liked to write in his free time.
One time Griffin had asked him a question back. “What do you write about?” He’d asked. It was said absentmindedly, it slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it.
Showalter had shot him a smile as bright as the sun. “Anything and everything,” the boy had answered back.
Griffin had looked up at that, his eyes moving from the paper he was writing on to Showalter’s open face. “Anything and everything?”
Showalter’s smile shifted into something softer and Griffin tried not to think very hard about that. The boy had only hummed in response.
Griffin hadn’t pushed further and Showalter hadn’t told him.
Showalter liked to hang out with his friends, he liked to play football with Robin and liked to read in silence with Finney. He liked to climb into his old childhood treehouse that his father build for him in the backyard whenever he wanted a quiet moment. He liked to keep his curtains open at night to see the moon and the stars. He liked to go to the movies with his dad and he liked to help his mom with cooking dinner. He’d like to pursue a career in writing.
Griffin tried his hardest to not find it endearing even though the parts about Showalter’s parents made something in him ache painfully.
It didn’t matter anyway. This wouldn’t matter because after this project Griffin could cut his losses with Showalter.
But yes, Griffin couldn’t deny that Showalter was an adequate person to work with.
But there were days where Showalter could be the most insufferable person on earth. Every class he would end it with a goodbye that made Griffin’s hackles rise and made his face twist into a scowl. Like now.
“I’ll see you later, pretty boy,” Showalter said with a teasing smile and Griffin’s jaw dropped in disbelief. ‘Oh the nerve of this guy,’ Griffin thought angrily as he watched Showalter turn around and head towards the door, Arellano right behind him, who immediately started whispering to his friend.
Griffin felt the urge to throw something at Showalter’s back and reached for the closest thing in his reach, which was Donna’s chemistry book. Griffin quickly drew his arm back to throw it but was stopped by a hand grabbing his arm.
Griffin turned his head to shot a glare at Donna, the girl ignored it in favor of laughing loudly. “You’ll damage it,” with that, the girl swiped the book out of his grip and replaced it with a balled up piece of paper.
“Knock yourself out,” Donna laughed.
Griffin knew she was making fun of him but he threw the paper anyway. It hit the doorway and bounced to the ground.
~ ~ ~
His day truly could not get any worse.
After serving detention, he’d had arrived late at school that morning, Griffin was found lazily skating through the empty hallways to the exit doors.
Griffin pushed open the doors and rolled out onto the street. He fished his wired earphones out of his pocket, frowning as they were all tangled and he tried to untangle it as he skated around the corner of the school building.
But just as he went around the corner, his skateboard halted with an unexpected jerk and Griffin felt himself fly forwards before he hit the concrete with a silent thud.
“Oh, fuck, shit! Griffin, are you okay?!” Showalter called frantically a second later.
Griffin just groaned in response as he turned over onto his back. He leaned back on his elbows and levelled the other boy with a pained glare.
“Get my board.”
“Gotcha.”
When Showalter returned with Griffin’s skateboard tucked under his arm, Griffin had sat up on the ground, inspecting the tear in his pants from where his knee had scraped the ground, red tinged the edges of it.
“Ah, fuck, did I do that? I’m-“ Showalter began.
“Don’t waste your breath,” Griffin interrupted snidely and he pushed himself off the ground, dusting his hands off to get rid of the dirt and the small rocks that clung to his palms. “What do you want, Showalter?”
The taller boy just sighed. “Would it kill you to just call me ‘Billy’ ?” He asked, handing over Griffin’s skateboard when the boy reached for it.
“It would,” Griffin nodded as he crouched in front of his backpack to strap his skateboard to the front of it.
When Griffin stood back up, his backpack secured on his shoulders, he was surprised to find an amused smile on Showalter’s lips.
“What?” Griffin sneered.
“Sorry, nothing,” Showalter laughed and he looked down at his shoes for a moment as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something,” the boy looked up at him again.
Griffin narrowed his eyes in suspicion, one hand going up to grip one of the straps of his backpack. “About what?”
“Look,” Showalter began. “I feel like we started off on the wrong foot, so-“
Griffin scoffed, effectively interrupting the other boy. “You think?”
“So why don’t we start over,” Showalter continued as if Griffin hadn’t just interrupted him.
A look of confusion washed away the irritation on Griffin’s face. “Start over?” He repeated.
Showalter just smiled in that stupid way of his where his eyes crinkled and his dimples appeared. “Hi,” the boy started. “I’m Billy Showalter.” He held his hand out for Griffin to shake.
Griffin’s eyes bounced from the outstretched hand to Showalter’s face and back. Hesitantly, Griffin laid his hand in Showalter’s hand, the other boy gripped his hand gently and shook it.
“Griffin Stagg,” Griffin introduced himself, still unsure but despite himself, a small smile slipped onto his face at the absurdness of this moment.
“Nice to meet you, Griffin Stagg,” Billy grinned.
“Nice to meet you too, Billy Showalter.”