I didn’t come to school on Friday. I couldn’t stop thinking about Scott. God, what is wrong with me? I’m not a girl fawning over a guy. I am a guy and I’m not gay like Scott. I like girls. They are beautiful and amazing. But, even though i like girls, a relationship with a guy could very much happen. I guess I’m bisexual.
I look out the window, book in my hand and Elton John was on the record player. I read to get things off my mind. I decided to just be a little rational to myself and ask me this question. “Do you like him as a boyfriend?” The answer was no.
“You don’t even know if he likes you,” I say to myself, “he might like John or Joey or Hank. It’s impossible that he likes me.”
I guessed Joey. Joey is probably his crush. Even though he is small and frail, kind of like me but smaller, he still has more money in his pocket than I could make from working in my dad’s office for the entire summer.
I go to Starbucks on Saturday morning and order a latte. The lattes are never sweet here. I decided on four packs of sugar since one was like one teaspoon. I go to one of the tables and start my one thousand word essay on how DNA works when suddenly, I saw Scott come in the store. I duck beneath my laptop and position myself so that my back was facing him. I worked on my essay to pretend I’m busy.
“Marcus?” A voice behind me said
“Damn it,” I whispered to myself and turn to say, “Scott! fancy seeing you here,”
“Yeah,” He sighs, “What are you working on?”
“Oh the DNA essay. You know, the one due Monday?”
“I’m done with that essay,”
Okay, he seems very responsible.
“Can I talk to you about something,” I said gesturing him to sit beside me.
“Of course,” he drank his coffee, “what about?”
“About your crush,” I felt really awkward asking him this.
“I really want to keep it confidential,”
“Alright then, never mind,”
I closed my laptop and decide to finish my essay at home. He was staring in the middle distance, drinking his coffee. He seems a little bit tense yet again. He’s trying to hide it and he’s doing a good job, but not quite enough.
“You seem tense dude, you’ve been like that since Thursday,”
“I’m just nervous that my crush will suddenly figure it out and kill me for liking him,”
“It’s okay dude. I’m pretty sure the guy you like will take you in a heartbeat,”
“I’m not so sure about that,” He get’s up and leaves.
I really wasn’t expecting that answer. He likes someone. He’s afraid of getting rejected. I comfort him and he says he’s not so sure? That’s not how it goes. Yet again, nothing in my life went according to plan.
Two months later it’s December. Winter Break was coming and Joey had this lodge close by the mountains that we planned to stay at. It was only our little group. The lodge was close by a lake and since Joey had motorboats, we decided to go fishing. I decide to take my bow and my gun to do a little hunting. I still hunt even though if I gave any meat other then fish, chicken or beef to Elaine, she would take the biggest knife she could find and stab me.
The day of the trip came and we were packing. The trip would take 4 hours. I planned everything and made sure my minivan was packed. All of us got in that car and we take off. We started out rocking to different songs and emotionally acting out others. Soon, everyone got tired and we traded drivers. It had only been one hour. When we arrived at the lodge, everyone all went to their rooms and started unpacking. John was with Hank, Elaine was with Jen, I was with Scott, and as usual, Joey had his own room with a double bed and a jacuzzi in the balcony. Rich kids.
Joey, John and I decide to go for a fish while the girls do their girl things. We went out to the lake and joey and John took out their rods while I borrow Joey’s crossbow. Joey may be rich but he hates the elite world and prefers to do this then work in a big building. We fish for an hour and caught two trouts and a reasonably big river bass. We come home to Hank and Scott playing cards while Jen and Elaine did yoga.
I went to the back and prepared the trout. I’m pretty good at cooking considering my mom teaching me how and my dad telling me I don’t need that skill. I still learned anyway. I cooked the fish and made steak. John and Hank prepare the table. Joey talking to the girls about how yoga was useless. He should know what I do on my free time. Scott came in the kitchen and poured himself coffee, at 6 p.m. I looked at him and he says, “Coffee doesn’t affect me as it does you,” and smiled. I just smiled and nodded. Scott took up a quarter of the fairly big sized kitchen. He just leans towards one of the counters and sips his coffee calmly. I don’t see his nervousness anymore. I wonder where that has dissipated. I finally noticed that I was staring. Oh crap. Did he see that? I really hope not. I put the cooked fish on the plate and went out of the kitchen with 3 plates balancing on two hands.
“Something smells good,” I hear Jen say. We all take a seat and we dig in.
“Marcus Hale! Why didn’t I know you were a world class chef?” Scott says beside me. I blush and say, “I’m not,” I smirked at him, “you just have really bad taste on food,”
He punched my shoulder playfully and I punched his shoulder back. It was like punching a brick wall. Hard and firm.
When it was midnight, I snuck out of bed to the balcony being careful to not make sounds that would wake Scott up. He was sound asleep. I closed the balcony door and climbed on to roof. It was snowing. I stared at the distant environment and closed my eyes. My calm was disturbed by a closing of a door, a rustling of feet, and a figure sitting beside me.
“Did I wake you up?”
“No, I could’t sleep so I decided to go outside,”
“Well it’s always nice to have company,”
“Can I tell you something Mark?” he fidgets with his fingers and then leans in and kisses me. I kiss back.
“Wow,” I say breaking the kiss.
“Wow,”
“You know, I was sure that you liked Joey but man, was I wrong,”
“Mark, your’e okay with this?” He looks in to my eyes and says, “I’ve only known you for two months,”
“So what? So what if you only knew me for two months,”
“I was really expecting a different reaction from you,” He looks at me and says, “I was expecting rejection but you are different. Were you secretly gay before this?”
“Never underestimate Marcus Hale.”
“So Marcus Hale, will you be my boyfriend?”
“Yes”
