Another Thin Line

Sam spent most of the night trying to think of reasons for Dean to not tell John. The cuts on his arm throbbed blissfully every time he thought of them. He racked his brain for hours, and every time his mind landed on what would happen to him if something didn’t come to him, and soon, fear seized him, and he forced his mind to work faster. He fell asleep around three, trying not to think of what would happen to him when he woke up.

At six a.m., Sam’s alarm clock went off and he grunted in pain as he reached over and pounded the snooze button; his muscles ached like crazy from all the pacing he’d done. He opened his eyes and the sunlight burned them like fire would burn dry wood. He clambored out of bed, took a deep breath, steadied himself for what was to come, and opened his door only to find Dean, his hand raised as though he were about to knock.

“Dean…”

“Sammy…Sammy, listen: I don’t want to tell him, but I don’t know what else to do.”

“Just let it work itself out.”

“And what if this guy hurts you?” Dean looked as though the idea of Seth hurting Sam was really dancing through his mind. Anger flitted across his face.

“He’s a jock. Odds are: he’ll get hurt before he can hurt me.” Sam looked at Dean’s face and quickly added, “I really don’t think he’ll hurt me, though.”

Sam could see the cogs working behind Dean’s forehead, and he could see them still going when Dean spoke again. “He has one time. If I find out that he even looked at you wrong, I’m telling dad, and I’ll let him deal with it.”

Sam’s eyes expressed more gratitude than his words ever could, so before the younger Winchester could start getting mushy with the thanks, the older one turned and went back to his own room. Sam showered and dressed and went to school.

School passed slowly up until lunch; and that’s when Sam saw him. He smiled and walked forward, only to find his way blocked by Joshua, a rather tall, black haired jock who hadn’t liked Sam since the moment he’d first set foot in the school.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Joshua asked. Sam could see Seth standing behind Josh, watching the proceedings.

“I need to talk to¾” He saw Seth’s head move once to the left and once to the right. “¾to someone over there,” he said, not wanting to show the defeat on his face, so he looked down and pointed just past the congregation of Jocks.

“Then go the other way. You’re not allowed to walk through us, loser.”

“But they’re right over¾”

“I said go the other way.”

Sam didn’t move.

“How about this: you go now, and I let you keep your face.”

“How about this,” Sam said, anger surged through him. “You get out of my way, and I let you keep your dick.” Sam looked up in time to see Josh’s fist flying at his face. He dodged and Joshua, off-balance, fell to the floor. The surrounding crowd burst into fits of laughter and Sam walked forward. His eyes fell on Seth’s face for only a moment, but that moment was long enough for Sam to see Seth mouth something that looked like run. He turned around and saw Josh getting to his feet, a look of enraged indignity on his scarlet face. Sam turned back to run, but found his way blocked by the other Jocks.

This time, Joshua’s punch connected. The last thing that Sam saw before unconsciousness took him was Seth walking away with the rest of the jocks.

Sam came to with a monstrous aching in his jaw. He sat up and looked around. He was no longer on the floor in the cafeteria; he was now lying in a bed in a fairly large blue and white room. He recognized the room and wondered vaguely who had taken him there. He got up and walked out into the lobby-esque area of the school health room. The nurse looked up at him and a look of relief spread over her face.

“Well it’s about time you woke up,” she said. “I was starting to think that I’d have to get out the smelling salts.” When Sam looked confused, she said, “You’ve been out for nearly three hours.”

Sam looked up at the clock and, sure enough, the bell would soon be ringing to send them all home for the day. He decided to wait it out there.

He checked his phone and saw that he had several new messages; and all of them were from Seth. Ignoring them, Sam walked over and peered out the window.

“Your friend is worried about you,” the nurse said from her desk.

“Huh?” Sam said, never looking away from the butterfly who’s path he was tracing along the sky.

“Mr. Brown has been in to check on you at least four times.”

“Seth?” Sam couldn’t keep the note of hope from rising in his voice. Then he remembered why he was in the health room to begin with. “What did he want?” Sam asked coldly.

“To make sure that you were alright, I assume. And he asked me to tell you that he’s sorry.”

Sam was spared from answering by the long, drawn out ringing of the final bell. He grabbed his bag from the room and left. Outside the room, he had gone no more than twenty steps before he was cornered by Josh and the jocks again.

“Still got shit to talk, Winchester?”

“Get out of my face.”

“I got suspended for a week because of you.”

“Well, if you weren’t so stupid, I wouldn’t have forced your fist to hit my face.”

Joshua’s face contorted with rage. He cocked back his fist again.

“Leave him alone!” a familiar voice rang out from behind Sam. Sam turned to see Seth walking towards them.

“Back off, Seth,” Josh said. “he’s got this coming.” And he swung. Before Sam knew what was happening, Seth was in front of him, shielding him from the punch. Joshua’s fist collided with the side of Seth’s face. A small smile spread across Seth’s face, and he lunged at his overgrown teammate. Sam stumbled backwards as the two started fighting. It went on for only a few seconds before teachers were breaking it up. In that few seconds, however, Seth had managed to give Josh a rather impressive black eye, and Josh had busted Seth’s lip, which was now bleeding freely over the floor.

“My office. Now!” Sam wheeled around and saw, to his astonishment, that at some point, the principal had appeared. The two of them grudgingly followed his direction, but not before Joshua stuck out his foot and Seth went sprawling across the floor. Seth pulled himself up from the floor and, before he could charge, security grabbed him and led him the rest of the way to the principal’s office.

Half an hour later, Sam was pacing back and forth in front of the office, vacillating between leaving, and continuing to wait for Seth. When the balance shifted to the leave side once again, the door opened and Seth strolled out, whistling a tune that sounded suspiciously like Oops!…I Did It Again. When he saw Sam, he stopped in his tracks, his lips still pursed in that distinctive O shape, but no sound coming out. The two of them stared at each other. Seth broke the silence. “I didn’t think you’d wait.”

“I didn’t.” Sam said, finding his voice and inventing wildly. “I was just passing by.”

Seth smirked. “Liar.”

Sam did his best to muster up a scandalized look, failed, and turned to storm away with some smidge of dignity left; Seth caught up to him in three strides and took his, Sam’s, hand in his own. Sam tried to tug away and Seth held on tighter. “I’m sorry,” Seth said. “I shouldn’t have let him hit you. I should have protected you.”

“You should have¾” and before Sam could say another word, Seth pushed him against a wall and administered one of those mind-blowing kisses that Sam was quickly becoming addicted to. Neither of them had any clue that Josh was watching them from a distance.

Sam called Dean to let him know that he would be late and the two of them went walking in the park. Sam figured that the park walking was Seth’s way of showing him that he, Seth, was not the colossal jerk that he, Sam, had pegged him to be earlier in the day. While they were walking, Seth explained to Sam that since he was a jock, there were certain things that had to be a particular way, but he would do his best to not let them interfere with their relationship. They stopped in front of the lake and Sam looked his companion straight in the eye.

“I don’t want to be a secret.”

“You won’t be.”

“So when will they know?”

Seth looked out at the water. “When I tell them.” He looked at Sam and saw the other boy’s face fall and his eyes sink to the ground. “Tomorrow,” he finished. Sam’s face lit up and Seth felt an intense pride at having put that glowing smile there. Seth took Sam’s hand and they walked again.

And when Seth did tell them, all hell broke loose.