All Chapters of Boys Don’t Play Fair: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

Friday rolled in gray and slow.Jay showed up at school early enough that the senior hallway wasn’t fully awake, the lights buzzing but never quite bright, the whole building heavy and in between. He went to his locker, swapped books, just stood there a second with the door open, not really doing anything.Then Mark slid up beside him, two coffees in hand and looking like he’d already survived the morning and made his peace with it.He passed one coffee to Jay, no greeting.Jay took it.“Forty-two percent of the formal budget is now photo booth,” Mark said.“That can’t be right.”“It includes the props.”“What props?”“I have a list.”“Mark.”“Feather boas were on sale.” Mark shut Jay’s locker for him. “Don’t look at me like that. They’re classic.”They set off to first period together. Around them, the school picked up speed.AP History lived at the end of the senior hallway old maps, old textbooks, the stale smell of paper passed down for too long. Jay had his usual seat. Mark dropp

The morning came in through his curtains before his alarm did.Noah lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling, the light already too bright for someone who was supposed to be asleep. His phone said 7:42. He'd set the alarm for 8:30.He got up anyway.The apartment was quiet. His mom's door was still closed, which meant she was either still asleep or pretending to be until she'd had enough coffee. Saturday was her sleep-in day. She'd earned it.Noah showered. Took longer than usual. Thought about the water temperature twice, which was twice more than he normally thought about it. Dried off. Stood in front of his closet.His clothes looked the same as they always looked.That was the problem.He pulled out a grey button-down—the one his mom had bought him for graduation photos last year, the one he never wore because it felt like too much. Held it up. Put it back.Pulled out a navy sweater. Looked at it. Put it back.Pulled out the grey button-down again."You Ironed that shirt," a

Sunday morning came in grey and slow.Noah woke up before his alarm again. Lay there with his phone on his chest, the ceiling above him pale with the kind of light that didn't know whether it wanted to be morning or evening. He didn't move. Just breathed. Let the previous day settle into his bones.The pier. The diner. The motorcycle.Jay's hand over his on the railing.He picked up his phone.No messages. Not because Jay hadn't thought about it. Because Jay wasn't the kind of person who texted first thing in the morning. Noah had learned that about him. Jay texted when he had something to say, not just to fill space.Noah put the phone down.Got up.The apartment was empty.His mom had left a note on the counter: Grocery shopping. Be back by noon. There's leftovers in the fridge if you want lunch earlier. She'd drawn a little smiley face next to her name, the way she always did, like she was seventeen instead of forty-something and still thought smiley faces fixed things.Noah made c

The library was quiet at this hour.Not empty Monday night meant people studying, people pretending to study, people using the building's heat to avoid walking back to their dorms in the cold. But it was quiet in the way libraries were supposed to be. Soft lights. The hum of the heating system. The occasional turn of a page.Noah was at their usual table. The one near the window, far enough from the front desk that the librarian's attention didn't reach, close enough to the vending machine that you could hear it hum.He had his calc notebook out. The Ishiguro response was done he'd finished it during his free period, the words coming easier than they had all weekend so calc was all that was left. The test was coming. He needed to focus.He underlined a problem. Read it twice. Wrote the first step.The door to the library opened.Noah looked up.Jay walked in. His hair was still damp from the shower, pushed back from his face in a way that made him look younger. He had his bag over his

The library was quiet at this hour.Not empty Monday night meant people studying, people pretending to study, people using the building's heat to avoid walking back to their dorms in the cold. But it was quiet in the way libraries were supposed to be. Soft lights. The hum of the heating system. The occasional turn of a page.Jay pushed through the doors at 6:15.His hair was still damp from the shower, pushed back from his face in a way that made him look younger. His bag was over his shoulder, his jacket unzipped. He scanned the room the way he always did not looking for anyone, just taking it in.Then he saw Noah.Their table. The one near the window, far enough from the front desk that the librarian's attention didn't reach, close enough to the vending machine that you could hear it hum. Noah was there, calc notebook open, pen in hand, his other hand resting on the pages of something else Ishiguro, probably, or whatever response he was supposed to be writing.Noah looked up when Ja