none of it was supposed to be this way

 "Well," Mercer looked up at Cade, wishing he was taller than him. Why had he come to a dead stop at the edge of the vacant soccer field just behind the library? Sure, they came this way about every day at the same time on their walk down from the high school to start their shift at four. They usually plodded along as if they were prisoners on their way to the gallows. Nothing said. Silence.

"Why are you looking at me that way?" Cade wanted to know.

"What way?" Mercer cringed at the thought they needed to discuss anything. After all, they were not friends. 

"You..you're so..different now," Cade managed to say as if he would not be pressured to overreact. "What did I do?"

"What could you do?" He couldn't think of a better question. Mercer scowled as if this might all make him sick. He pushed at Cade out of spite. Even though it felt good to give him a shove. Only Cade shoved him right back.

Backpacks flung to the grass after one shove led to another. God forbid they'd use their fists. Shoving was just a force of its own which was their way of aggression. Evidently.

Yet, it felt like a release of some kind that finally brought one to the ground and the other took him down into the messy grass. How had this happened?

Mercer looked down at Cade. His heart beating like thunder, but not for long Cade wrestled him to the ground as if maybe it was more than just a match.

And that was when Cade kissed him as the fight left them both breathless. Mercer thought he kept his eyes closed, but not tightly. Not like he was keeping a kiss from him. He kissed him back. This time with tongue as if maybe all was not lost with his finesse. 

Suddenly, it felt a mix of the best and the worst of times. Possibly deja vu. Like it might have been a dream. Was he dreaming now?

He scrambled to get up. As if none of this was supposed to happen. After all, he didn't want to be late for work. Naturally, he left Cade behind.