“Tell Mum I’ll be home some time tomorrow night,” Levi said, ending the exchange of compliments in the room.
“Will do,” Mark replied with a mock salute.
Levi turned to Josh and said, “I’ll just go grab my bag so we can go.” He raced upstairs and fetched his bag before returning downstairs and luring Josh away from his overly-chatty stepfather. Once they were both sat inside Josh’s rusty station wagon, Levi groaned aloud. “Sorry you had to put up with talking to captain spastic back there.”
“Nar, Mark’s alright. He’s a good guy.”
“You think everyone’s a good guy though.”
“Aww, don’t get jelly on me,” Josh teased in an insanely adorable voice. “You’re still my number one good guy.”
“After all these years I’m still number one, aye?”
“Of course, mate. You will always be number one on my team.”
As he swept his gaze over Josh’s lap, deliciously twisted thoughts raced through Levi’s mind, wondering how far Josh would be prepared to go in taking one for the team.
***
Before they left town, Levi asked Josh to stop off at the liquor store so he could get some supplies. Being a typical Saturday, all the car parks in front of the bottle store were taken, so Josh found a park around the corner from the store. As soon as he’d parked up, he dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out his wallet to give Levi some money.
Levi shook his head. “No, nuh, uh. My treat. It’s your birthday.”
“My birthday was yesterday.”
“It’s still your birthday somewhere in the world,” Levi countered.
“Yeah, but you always shout on your own birthday too.”
“That’s because I can afford to,” Levi said, wincing as he realised how arrogant that sounded. “I just sounded like a dick, didn’t I?”
Josh nodded, smiling. “Just a tad.”
“What I was supposed to say was, help me spend Mark’s money.”
Josh snickered. “I feel bad though.”
“Don’t feel bad. The guy has more than enough to share.” Levi grinned, waving the credit card that his mum and Mark paid for at the end of each month.
“Okay, but don’t go overboard like you normally do.”
“Me, go overboard?” Levi said, pointing at himself.
“Yes, you. You’re too bloody generous.”
Levi enjoyed being generous to Josh. He always had, even before he’d acquired the dubious epiphany of wanting to fuck the guy’s brains out. “So what’s your poison of choice for tonight, Master Stephenson?” he asked in a posh voice.
“I dunno. How about you surprise me, Master Candy. You know I’ll drink whatever’s put in front of me.”
“Alrighty then.” Levi stepped out of the car and shut the door.
As Levi rounded the corner to go to the liquor store, his foot clipped something on the ground, sending him stumbling into a rubbish bin on the sidewalk. “Ough, fuck!” he cried out, rubbing his knee where it had crashed into the metal bin. He turned ’round to see what it was he’d tripped over, and saw it was an open guitar case belonging to one of his former school mates, Wade Benson.
Wade sat there on the ground, dressed in a hideous mish-mash of fashion from different decades. A tie-dyed shirt unbuttoned to show off his hairy chest, brown corduroy pants wrapped tight around his skinny legs, and a pair of black doc marten boots on his feet. He looked up with dozy concern, his eyes bloodshot as usual. “Sorry, man,” he said in a slow drawl, looking down at his guitar case. “I should probably move this along a bit.”
“Ya think?” Levi snarled, still rubbing his injured knee.
Wade dragged his case along to sit on the other side of him. He raised a hand and patted his scraggly brown hair that had been done up in a man bun before bringing his attention back to Levi. His eyes lit up excitedly when he realised who he’d just tripped up. “Shit, is that you, Levi?”
Levi nodded.
“I didn’t recognise you,” Wade said “I haven’t seen you in ages, bro.”
That wasn’t quite true. They had run into each other just a few weeks ago at Chelsea Simpson’s birthday party. Wade was a staple at house parties around town, where he’d entertain drunken guests with his mediocre singing voice and even more mediocre guitar skills. He had been a senior when Levi started high school and was known back then as the hairy hippy on account of his insatiable appetite for marijuana, and for being the only guy at school with a full mat of chest hair. Wade had embraced the nickname proudly until leaving school, and then rebranded himself around town as Banger Benson. Supposedly it referred to the fact that he wrote songs that were real bangers.
For the most part, Wade was a nice guy, but he was also incredibly sleazy. He would drift around at parties like a piece of sleazeweed, floating from person to person, unashamedly trying his luck with any girl he could. It wasn’t just girls who were victims of Wade’s shameless flirting though. Some guys were too—especially Levi who Wade seemed to have a soft spot for.
Even if Levi didn’t care whether people knew he was into guys, he still wouldn’t touch Wade Benson with a shitty stick. It wasn’t because Wade was a bad-looking guy, he may have been a bit short for Levi’s liking but he was still what you’d call a good average. No, the reason Levi (or anyone with half a brain) wouldn’t hook up with Wade Benson was because the guy had a big fucking mouth and told everyone about who he fucked and how he fucked them. He was basically Candy Boy without the secrecy. If you slept with Wade then you ran the risk of half the town finding out, and getting labelled as a Benson Banger. And that was not cool. That tainted you forever. Many girls and the occasional drunk guy had fallen victim to Banger Benson and their reputations had never recovered. Levi was not about to join them.
“It’s been a while,” Levi lied, going along with Wade’s slack memory.
“You look really nice today,” Wade said, his eyes running up and down Levi’s body.
“Really? It’s just jeans and a t-shirt.”
“Yeah, but you could be wearing nothing and still look really nice.” Wade’s sleepy eyes glimmered with a flirty glint. “I’ve always said if any guy could turn me gay it would be Levi Candy.”
Levi laughed. “Based on what I’ve seen at parties, you have gone gay once or twice before.”
“True, I have been known to dabble, but you’d be the one guy who could make me stay that way.”
“You know how to make a boy feel special,” Levi joked.
“Trust me. I do,” Wade said, waggling his eyebrows. “I could make a pretty boy like you feel really special if you gave me the chance.”
Levi went silent, toeing the ground, not wanting to be made feel special.
Wade rest his guitar on his lap and started to rummage through a canvas bag on the ground beside him. Eventually he pulled out a red felt-tip pen and waved for Levi to come closer.
Levi wandered over, wondering what the hell Wade wanted.
“Give me your hand,” Wade said. He bit the lid of the felt pen off and spat it into his guitar case.
Levi reluctantly gave Wade his hand. “What are you doing?”
He grabbed Levi’s wrist, flipped it over, and began scribbling a number on the underside of Levi’s forearm. “Giving you my number.”
“I’m pretty sure I already have your number.”
“Doesn’t hurt just to be sure.” When he finished writing his number down he stroked Levi’s arm seductively with his thumb before letting go. “You should give me a call sometime if you ever decide you wanna give guys a try.”