Chapter 5

Paul had though the idea of talking to Jesse through a hole in the wall was stupid, Guy thought it was inspired and Mina thought I was downright nuts. Toman had kept his head down, generally pissed at me for losing student leader privileges which allowed me use of the common room and the ability to leave school at lunch. He missed our off campus excursions.

Jesse and I were still on a no conversation policy at school, but had managed to graduate to 'please', 'thank you' and 'pass the red paint'. We walked to and from school in near silence, but every night, without fail, I would hear the knock on the wall and we would lie in bed, on bed, and talk. They were the conversation we should have had at the beginning. Jesse told me things about his life back in London, his old school, playing county level sports, how he missed his friends but they'd all moved on and didn't miss him. He hated the snow, which I though was weird, loved running, and had no idea who Keane were. I played him songs from my computer through the wall, holder the speaker against the hole and introducing him to the music that went with the poster I'd given him. He thought they were cool but liked Cold Play better.

We lay there with our note books and discussed our English assignment. We were finally done with Shakespeare which meant we now got modern poetry and the genius that was Simon Armitage. My copy of The Dead Sea Poems was covered in my messy inky scrawl, I'd no doubt that Jesse's was as pristine as the day it was printed. Jesse liked 'The Two of Us', he read me the alliteration of the third line and I loved his voice when he did; "You eating swan, crustaceans, starters, seconds, sweet." I read him 'A Sculpture of Christ with Swings and a Slide' taking my time on the lines I loved 'I took back the stone like flesh from a bone/while he dozed, sleeping it off on his cross' and when Jesse had to read it aloud in class the following day he copied my tone, read it for them like I had for him.

We talked like two nearly normal teenagers would. He told me about his dad cheating and why his mum had relocated them to, as he described it, the middle of shit-all and nowhere. He missed the swim team. I missed lunch at Toast. He wouldn't talk about the kiss, simply knocked twice for no if I brought it up. We also steered clear of the fight and the hate and weirdness that had happened in the first two weeks we'd known each other.

And then, prize of all school-children everywhere, we got another blizzard and another snow day. Most of the kids at our school bussed in, and they couldn't get in. I heard it on the morning radio and banged on the wall to wake Jesse. He knocked back and I heard the poster move.

"Dude what?"

"Snow day."

"Cool. Lie in."

"Nah," I tapped twice on the wall for no, "Get up and come enjoy the day with me."

"I hate snow."

"Come on grumpy," I tapped the wall, "Come out in the snow with me."

I heard Jesse roll over in bed and I looked down the hole in the wall. He was silhouetted against the brightest in the room, I still had no ideas how he slept with the curtains open, and I felt hot lust run through me at the sight of him. Jesse's profile was soft and innocent in the half light squint.

"Fine, but only if you come running."

Now it was my turn to thump no on the wall.

"You scared of running Maxie?"

"Fine," I hated running, but if it helped get Jesse out of the house, I'd do it, "Meet me out front in twenty minutes."

I chose what I thought would work for running in the snow. Muck boots, tracksuit, t-shirt, hoodie and beanie. Everything was black, except the hoodie, which was bright orange and emblazoned ith the legend of the local universities ski and snow board club. It had been Paul's.

Jesse laughed when he saw me. He wore a zip up tracksuit in burgundy with a gold-yellow thermal shirt. His washboard abdomen half blinded me.

"You ready?" Jesse jogged on the spot and I nodded, feeling anything other than ready.

Any ideas that we could have had a conversation while we jogged were blown away by the time we reached the end of the road. Jesse was obviously a really good runner. After the first hundred yards he shortened his stride, a bit less like a gazelle, so I could attempt to keep up. We took a turn around the block and then start up across the paddocks, heading at an oblique angle away from the school.

After twenty minutes Jesse stopped at the highest point of the old priory fields and stood with his head back, gulping down the sky. I joined him, panting, a minute later.

"Holy cow," I dropped back and collapsed in the snow, "You really can run."

Jesse knuckled me once on the arm.

"Thanks," He held out a hand to pull me up, but I dragged him down instead, "We gotta get you some serious training, you could be a great runner."

"Very funny," I tried to stretch out my shoulders, "You know I don't do sports."

"Why?" We got up and Jesse began to walk down the hill, kicking out his legs, "You could join the cross country team. If you can match me you'd definitely place top five."

"Showers," I got up and followed Jesse, "Come on, let's go to Toast."

"But it's cold and wet and slushy."

I looked around at the pristine white powder snow.

"You should have worn boots. Come on."

Jesse seemed relaxed as we walked into town. The chill air cooled us down pretty rapidly, and all that exercise made it pretty easy not to be distracted by his beautiful abs and the way his high tight butt moved in his track suit. Three thing hit me when I open the door of Toast. The scent of freshly baked things, the waft of warm air that carried the smell and a three stone husky. Jesse shouted in surprise as I was knocked back by Nuka's flying fur.

"Hey there buddy!" Paul appeared in the doorway, "Nuka always did love that hoodie. Here boy." The big husky got off me and stood panting by his 'dad'. "Who's your friend?"

I jumped up and went to knuckle Nuka's ears, the big dog's tongue lolling.

"Paul this is Jesse," I gave him a hard look and shook my head almost imperceptibly, "Jesse this is my good friend Paul. And this Nuka. Nuka say Hi." The husky aimed his muzzle at the sky and howled, "He likes you."

"He does?" Jesse looked sceptical, "Hi."

"Don't stand on ceremony, come on in."

We ended up at a corner table. Jesse got a big coffee and a giant slice of chocolate cake. I got a vitamin water and a biscotti and earnt a bunch of Coffee Club vouchers.

"Dude what is with the diet food?" Jesse chowed down on his cake like he hadn't eaten in days.

"I don't do sport's remember," I rubbed my ribbed stomach, "And I like the way I look."

Jesse waved cake under my nose.

"You're running with me now. You're going to have to eat."

"Easy for you to say beanpole. Your waist is tiny."

Jesse smiled, and it was the first real expression I'd ever seen on his face. I rubbed his shoulder and he flinched away from me.

"There's stuff I wanna tell you," His voice was low, and his ice blue eyes, made brighter by the snow, pierced me once again, "But I can't. It ... just give me time OK?"

I nodded.

"Sure," I scoffed my biscotti, "Let's go build a snowman." When he frowned I chuckled, "Hey, I did your running thing, now you gotta come be stupid with me."

Snow didn't last and we were back at school all too soon. And everything had changed again. Jesse and I talked. On the way to school, in tutor, during English and art. We talked so much in fact that Miss Shin had to shush us as she did the register. In English we started a new poem and Jesse's finger followed the words of the work in his copy of the book which we held between us; 'to the place of his birth/with a gift for his brother/And they see for themselves/each eyeing the other/through a telescope now/which had once been a mirror'.

I loved 'Afterword', and Jesse liked it too, we discussed the work at length throughout the art lesson and by the end of the session had both planned different pieces inspired by the poem. At break he went to sit with Ian and Pete, drinking soda's and looking for all the world like he belonged with the sporty popular kids.

It was Wednesday before Mina and Toman found me one lunch in the art room, setting up my own canvas for 'Afterword'.

"So..." Mina plopped herself into the chair next to me, looking totally out of place and way too neat in the mess of the art room, "You and Jesse buried the hatchet?"

"Yeah."

Toman pulled my easel away from me.

"Oh no, you don't get away quite that easy." He fixed me with his best stern look, which wasn't very good, "A couple of weeks ago you hated each other's guts. And let everyone know that. Publicly. Now it's all hearts and flowers? What the heck is going on?"