“What,” Chris asked, “you got a fuckin curfew or somethin? Is daddy gonna beat your little tight ass if you’re not home by ten o’clock?”
“More like eat his little tight ass,” Billy joked. Chris and the others burst out laughing.
Chris and the others burst out laughing.
Jason’s face became inflamed with rage again, but instead of walking out of the door, he shut it, made his way over to one of the chairs and sat. “I knew we could get you to stay,” Chris said smugly, still grinning. “Now the fun can get started–”
“Chris, I need to talk to you for a moment,” I said. Chris looked over at me and that smug grin faded from his face temporarily.
“About what, B?”
I stood from my seat. “I want to talk to you in private, Chris.”
“Why? We’re all friends here…well. actually, that shit isn’t true. But still, whatever you gotta say to me you can say it in front of everybody.”
“Chris, can you stop fuckin around for one second and do what I asked you?”
“Damn, Chris,” Billy said, “you’re gonna let him punk you around like that?”
“Billy, shut the fuck up,” I yelled. “Nobody was fuckin talkin to your ass.”
Billy and Scott burst out laughing again. I really hated those fuckin, dumb-hot-as-hell-assholes.
To Jason, Chris said, “See, this is how Brandon really is, not that little sensitive, innocent bullshit act he tries to pull off in front of you.” Jason didn’t respond. Chris rose from his chair and followed me to the kitchen where we could be alone. He opened up my refrigerator and pulled out a can of 7 Up. “What was so fuckin important that you had to drag me all the way in here to talk about?” Chris asked as he popped open the soda can.
“Tell me what you’re doin here, Chris.”
Taking a long sip from the soda, Chris burped extremely loud and said, “Told you I was gonna come over here and see you later on tonight. I know you remember me tellin you that.”
“Yeah, but you said nothin about bringin Billy and Scott Howard over to my house.”
“And you said nothin bout Jason Coleman comin over to your house,” Chris shot back. He crushed the tin can in his hand and tossed it in the trash can near the back door. “What’s up with that shit, B?”
“I don’t know. He came over here like twenty minutes after you left. I didn’t ask him to come over here.”
“And you didn’t tell him to leave either,” Chris said, a hint of anger in his voice. “Guess you don’t waste no time, huh?” Chris opened the freezer, looked around, and pulled out a frozen burrito.
“It would be nice if you asked to go through my shit, Chris.”
Chris popped the burrito in the microwave. “Well, B, it’d be nice if you wasn’t fuckin around with dudes after I asked you not to.”
“I didn’t do anything with Jason,” I said. That was a partial lie.
“Bullshit, B. And if you don’t want them to hear you I suggest talkin a little bit softer.” The timer went off and Chris pulled the burrito out of the microwave.
“For real, I didn’t do anything with him, Chris.”
“That big ass fuckin hickey on your neck says otherwise.” Chris took a large bite. “And even if you wasn’t playin with his dick, you wanted to, and that’s the same fuckin difference to me.”
I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything.
“So unless you got somethin else you wanna talk about,” Chris said, “let’s go back in there and see what’s goin on with everybody else.”
Defeated, I followed Chris back into the living room where we joined the others. Chris sat on the couch along with Scott and Billy, and I sat in the chair Chris had been sitting in before we went to the kitchen. As he finished the last bite of his burrito, Chris asked Jason, “Your name is Jason right? I saw you today in the library.”
“Yeah,” Jason said awkwardly, glancing in my direction.
“What are you doin over here?” Chris questioned. He sounded like a detective, asking a murder suspect where he had been on the night of the crime.
“Came to see Brandon,” Jason said. He tried to sound confident, but there was still some shakiness to his voice.
“But I told you that Brandon wasn’t gonna be available today,” Chris said. “What, did you think I was lyin or somethin?”
“I wanted to see for myself,” Jason answered firmly. He looked over at me. I smiled at him, but Jason didn’t return the smile.
“I see,” Chris replied, nodding his head. I could tell that he was getting ready to make his move. Billy and Scott could also tell that Chris was formulating the perfect trap for Jason in his mind. To Scott, Chris said, “Scotty, go in the kitchen and get some sodas for us in the refrigerator–”
Scott got up from the couch and walked toward the kitchen. I just sat, waiting in silence, wishing that none of this was happening. A minute later, Scott returned with five cans of Coke. He handed me one and tossed one over to Chris, who caught the can in one hand and popped the lid open with the other. There was a few moments of silence, and then from nowhere, Chris asked Jason, “So, Jason, did you come over here to fuck my boyfriend?”
Nobody said a thing; nobody moved–except for Chris, who drank heavily from the can while eying Jason. I sucked in a deep breath and my heartbeat skipped. Did I really just hear that? Did Chris just call me his boyfriend? For a while I believed that was just part of my imagination. Jason seemed puzzled too, because he had the same bewildered expression on his face that I and the rest of us had on our faces. “Huh?” Jason asked.
“You heard what I asked,” Chris said. “I really hate repeatin myself.”
Jason looked over at me very quickly and then at Chris. “No,” he answered indignantly. “I just came over here to spend time with him. And Brandon didn’t tell me he had a boyfriend.
“That’s `cause I didn’t know I had a ‘boyfriend’,” I said, glaring at Chris.
Chris chuckled and downed the rest of the Coke in one gulp. “B, we’ve been fuckin just about everyday for the past fuckin two weeks. That has to tell you somethin.”
“Two weeks?” Scott asked in disbelief. “Damn, Green. That must be a record for you. You’ve never been with one person that long.”
“See, B? Proves my point,” Chris said. “So Jason, are you sure that you didn’t come over here to get into my boyfriend’s ass?”
Jason gave Chris the meanest look I ever saw a person give. “I told you what I came here to do. And I don’t have to explain nothin else to you.”
“You’re right, pretty boy,” Chris said, “you don’t.” He took a brief pause. “You think B…Brandon is cute, don’t you?”
Not looking at me, my primarily at Chris, Jason said, “Yeah. I do.”
Chris crushed the empty soda can in his hand. “B thinks you’re cute too. He thinks you’re more than cute. He thinks you sexy as a motherfucker.” This time Jason did look at me and there was an almost hopeful look in his eyes as though he wanted to believe what Chris was saying. “I can tell by the way he looks at you,” Chris continued. “You can always tell by the way somebody looks at you. Isn’t that right, B?”
I didn’t say anything.
Amused by my silence, Chris went on. “Maybe you didn’t want to fuck Brandon tonight, but he wanted to fuck you–”
“No, I…” Everyone looked at me. I felt really embarrassed and stupid. The whole situation was making me feel embarrassed and stupid. “Let’s not talk about any of this shit,” I said. “I wish everybody would just get outta–”