Pulling on a pair of jeans over his boxers, he went to the bathroom to relieve himself and brush his teeth. He yawned and checked out his appearance in the mirror. He looked tired. His hand lightly brushed his cheek. The redness from his father’s slap was gone but the memory of the pain remained. That pain didn’t hurt nearly as much as the way his father looked at him.
Carey sighed and made his way toward the stairs.
“What are we supposed to tell people?” he heard his father ask.
“Nothing. It’s nobody’s business,” Jeannie said. “It’s up to Carey, anyway.”
His father sighed heavily. “Do you think he’s going to start wearing make-up and getting earrings? I don’t know how I’ll keep my mouth shut if I have to see that.”
“Malcolm, he’s still the same person he always was. Music is still his life, he’s still a straight A student.”
Malcolm laughed humorlessly at that. “Well, he’s an A student at any rate. Not so straight anymore.”
Carey covered his mouth as he stood on the stairs listening. It seemed his father was having some sort of sense of humor about it. He continued to walk down the stairs, making enough noise so they knew he was coming.
He stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment.
“Morning,” he said. “Is it still morning?”
His mom smiled. “Only for another . . . thirteen minutes,” she said, looking at the clock on the microwave.
The silence was deafening, and Carey wished he had stayed upstairs.
“There’s coffee,” his mom offered.
Without speaking, Carey got a mug from the cabinet and poured himself a cup. He got the vanilla flavored creamer out of the fridge and shook it before adding some to his coffee. He felt as though his parents were watching his every move. Leaning against the counter facing his parents, he sipped.
“So, your father and I have been talking about setting up some house rules, like John suggested.”
Carey had to force himself not to roll his eyes.
“Like, you can’t be in your bedroom with him with the door closed anymore,” his father blurted out. “The same at Brian’s house. And you can’t be alone at each other’s houses.”
“What? Why?”
“I think you can guess why,” Malcolm answered.
His mother appeared torn. She glanced between her men.
“Carey, you have to understand. We just want to make sure you’re safe.”
Carey’s mouth hung open. If she started talking about condoms, he thought he would die on the spot. He blushed just thinking about it.
“I can’t believe you don’t trust me,” he said quietly.
“It isn’t that we don’t trust you. Or Brian. But teenagers don’t always think before they make decisions.”
If Carey thought he was embarrassed by the conversation, his father looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock.
“I’ve never given you any reason not to trust me,” Carey reiterated.
“I told you, it’s not about trust.”
“Yes, it is. Either you have faith in me to make good decisions or you don’t. I’m almost seventeen. I’ll be going off to college in a little more than a year. Are you going to try to enforce house rules on me then. Or are you going to trust me?”
Jeannie looked to her husband. “Maybe we’re being too strict.”
“Too strict? Do you want them having sex in our house?”
“What?” Carey choked out. “Is that what you think?” He put his coffee cup down on the counter, a bit too hard.
Mr. Reid remained silent, his mouth a thin bloodless line. Mrs. Reid opened and closed her mouth several times without speaking.
“God, I can’t believe you said that. We didn’t do anything except sleep in his room. In fact, we only figured out this morning that we want to be . . . boyfriends.”
Malcolm let out a strange grunt and closed his eyes, cradling his head.
“Better get used to hearing that, Malcolm,” Jeannie said.
“Don’t push me Jeannie. You’ve had longer to deal with this than I have.”
Carey shook his head. “You know why Brian broke up with his last boyfriend? The only boyfriend he ever had, really. He broke up with him because he was pressuring Brian to have sex. And he didn’t want to. He’s not some sex maniac.”
“We never thought he was.” Jeanette said. Though she said we, Carey doubted his father shared her opinion.
“I bet if I came home and told you I was dating Robin, you’d give me a handful of condoms and a pat on the back.”
He ran back up the stairs and into his room, closing his door a little harder than he meant to. His heart was pounding from his last little speech of defiance. He couldn’t believe he was the one to bring up condoms. Not long after, his mother knocked on his door.
“Carey?”
“I didn’t mean to slam it. It just got away from me,” he said.
She opened the door to find him lying on his bed in his usual position of distress, one arm resting over his eyes while the other clung to a small pillow he made in seventh grade.
“Our intentions aren’t to upset you. Or insult you.”
He removed his arm from his face and sat up against his head board. “Kind of hard not to be either.”
“I know. But, I also want you to know that even if it was a girl, we’d have rules about when and where you can be alone. It’s not about Brian being a boy.”
He shrugged. “How come you didn’t have all those rules when I was going out with Gina?”
His mother’s brow furrowed. “We did. In fact, she wasn’t allowed upstairs at all if you recall.”
“Oh, yeah.” Carey picked at the edging of his pillow. “You think I’m going to do something stupid just because you’re not here to keep an eye on me. I mean, you leave beer in the fridge, and I’ve never even thought about taking it. A couple of my friends smoke, but I’ve never tried it. Brian either. Although, his parents don’t drink. But you know what I mean. We’re not stupid.”
Jeannie smiled. “No, you’re both very smart. But love isn’t about how smart you are. It’s easy to get carried away. I don’t want you, either of you, to do anything before you’re ready.”
Carey blushed. “What if we promised not to do anything we’re not supposed to?”
“That’s an easy promise to make. Not so easy to keep.”
“I know. But what if we did? We’re only starting to figure out what’s going on between us, anyway. Neither of us is ready for too much. No one else even knows about us. Except maybe Robin. Please, trust me.”
Jeannie sighed. “I’ll talk to your father. Maybe we’ll relax some of the rules. But the bedroom door staying open is non-negotiable.”
“What about sleepovers? We’re still best friends. I don’t want everything to change.”
“I don’t know. I guess maybe if one of you slept in the basement, it would be okay. But I still have to talk to your father, and the Stricklands.”
“Okay.” He was satisfied that his mother was at least taking his feelings into consideration. “Thanks.”
She brushed the hair out of his eyes. “You’re so young, and you probably won’t think about settling down with one person for many years. But I can’t think of anything better than falling in love with your best friend. That’s the way it should be.”
Chapter 12
Carey waited outside his house nervously for Brian and Robin. Most of the time, Robin rode to school with her older sister, who had a car. But on Monday after the prom, she opted to walk with the new couple. She wanted to support them going into school for the first time since the prom.
Apparently, someone had seen the boys holding hands during the movie and posted about it on Facebook. Even though a lot of people commented that they didn’t believe it, or that it was about time, there were also some nasty comments. Apparently, some people had always suspected there was more to Brian and Carey’s friendship.
They had
no idea what to expect when they got to school. Of course, nothing was really different for Brian.
When they first walked down the hall to their lockers, no one seemed to pay attention to them. Robin had to turn off down her hallway while the boys continued on.
“Fags,” a boy said as he walked by. Carey didn’t even know who he was.
“Ignore it,” Brian urged. “Kids say stuff to me all the time. Most of them don’t do any more than that. You can’t let it get to you.”
Two girls started whispering to each other as the boys approached them. Then they laughed.
“Such a shame he bats for the other team now,” one said loud enough for them to hear. They giggled again.
“You gonna be okay?’ Brian asked.
“Yeah. I don’t care what they think.” Carey tried to sound confident. He felt anything but.
Brian stopped at his locker and Carey walked on alone. He didn’t encounter anyone else making rude comments by the time he got to his locker. He looked back at Brian, who smiled at him. He was nearly finished getting his books together when a familiar voice asked him a question.
“So, you’re out now?”
Carey turned to see Mark Reynolds standing there. He said nothing in response.
“Well?”
“Yeah. Okay?” Carey said curtly.
“You’re finally out, and you’re going with Brian?” Mark asked in disbelief.
“He’s my best friend. And you went out with him, why shouldn’t I? You had your chance.”
“Yeah, but . . . I thought . . .”
“You thought what? You thought he would be easy to take advantage of?”
“No. But I wasn’t going to wait around forever.”
“He told me what you did to him.”
“What? I didn’t even get to second base.”
“Not for lack of trying.”
Mark snorted through his nose. “You think you’ll get somewhere with him?”
“That’s not the only reason I like him,” Carey said. “We have a great time together. We have fun.”
“I’m fun.”
Carey frowned. “Like I said, you had your chance. And I’m with Brian now.”
“But that was a long time ago. You weren’t even out–”
“What do you want Mark?” Brian interrupted.
“Nothing. I was just asking if the rumors were true,” Mark answered.
“What was a long time ago?” Carey’s eyes narrowed.
Mark glanced between Brian and Carey.
“Never mind,” he said, and walked away.
“Jerk,” Brian muttered.
As the realization of what Mark was talking about dawned on him, Carey’s jaw dropped. He stood, staring in the direction Mark was walking, even after he’d gone out of sight.
Brian nudged him. “Ignore him. He’s just jealous,” he laughed. “Bell’s gonna ring. See ya later.”
Carey barely noticed as he contemplated his conversation with Mark. He walked down the hall into French class and sat down. At first, he had thought Mark was lamenting the fact that he was no longer going out with Brian. But the more Carey thought about it, the more it sounded like Mark was interested in him. The only thing Carey could think of that happened a long time ago was their kiss at a party. Did Mark think that was what Carey meant when he said Mark had his chance? As if he didn’t have enough to worry about that day, he may have inadvertently given Mark the wrong impression.
After a fairly uneventful day, Carey made one last stop at his locker at the end of the day before band practice. He didn’t have much homework and didn’t want to lug all his books to band. Unfortunately, Mark’s locker wasn’t too far down, and he’d spotted Carey.
Fumbling with his combination, Carey tried to open his locker quickly and get out of there without talking to the other boy. But going too fast was making him mess up, and Mark got to him before he could leave.
“What?” Carey asked, not looking at Mark.
“I wanted to finish our conversation.”
“I thought it was finished,” Carey said, trying not to sound anxious.
Mark stepped a little closer. “If I had known, I would have done something about it sooner.”
“Huh?”
“We were kids at that party. Neither of us knew what we were doing.”
Carey wanted to ask if Mark was interested in him, that way. But in his mind, it sounded ridiculous. Mark was a good looking, fairly popular kid. Coming out didn’t seem to hurt him any.
“Maybe you could give me another chance?”
He leaned in closer and Carey stood stunned. Mark Reynolds was after him. Carey leaned back and swallowed hard.
“You want . . . you want to go out with me?”
“Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?”
“But, I’m just nobody.”
Mark chuckled. “Yeah, okay.” His smile dropped at the confused look on Carey’s face.
“Is that why you’re with Brian? Because you don’t think you can do any better? Jeez, all this time, I thought you knew how much I liked you, how much everyone seems to like you. You really weren’t playing hard to get?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I could name ten girls off the top of my head that are hot for you.”
Carey frowned. He’d never thought of himself as popular with the girls. Although, Brian was always telling him some girl or another had a crush on him and he should ask her out. He figured Brian was only trying to boost his ego.
As Carey stayed silent, Mark continued. “And one guy. Well, now I guess two guys.”
“But you always made little jabs at me whenever you were around.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know I liked you. As far as anyone, including me, was concerned, you were straight. There’s nothing more pathetic than a gay guy hot for some straight guy. It always ends up badly. I know I was sort of a jerk to you, but I didn’t mean to be,” Mark continued. “And I don’t know what Brian told you, but I never forced him to do anything.”
“No, you just called him a baby for not doing it.”
Mark laughed. “Is that what he said? I don’t know, maybe I did. I don’t remember. He got me all worked up and then changed his mind. I probably should have been more understanding, but I was . . . frustrated at the time.” Mark’s face was mere inches from Carey’s.
“That, that’s not really a good excuse,” Carey stammered. “Uh, I’ve got to go to band. I’m late.”
Mark grinned and leaned back out of Carey’s way. Without another word, Carey took off down the hallway and into the band room. Most of the other kids were set up and tuning. He quickly opened his case and put his clarinet together. By the time he sat down in front of Sharon, he had calmed down a little but still felt flushed from his interaction with Mark.
“Are you all right? What’d you do, run all the way here?” Sharon joked.
“Huh? Uh, yeah. I knew I was running late.”
“Seriously, are you okay? You look upset,” she said. “Is it because of what’s on Facebook?”
He’d forgotten all about that in the wake of Mark’s attempt at seduction.
“Um, yeah. That’s all it is,” he lied.
“Well, don’t listen to everyone,” she advised him. “I think it’s nice.”
From across the room, someone shouted, “You’re wasting your time Sharon. Aren’t you in touch with social media?”
She turned around. “Aren’t you in touch with your brain? Oh, that’s right, you don’t have one,” the normally quiet girl shouted back.
“All right,” Mr. Daniels called out. “Let’s settle down. We’ve only got a week and a half until the concert. Let’s tighten this up folks.”
All through practice, Carey’s mind was on his encounters with Mark. He felt supremely guilty for feeling more than a little flattered by the attention. It was hard not to. Not that he would act on it. Carey was over the moon that Brian wanted to be with him. B
ut still, the relatively popular boy seemed to be chasing him, apparently harboring feelings since seventh grade.
Carey literally shook his head at that. On second thought, it was more likely just flowery words designed to get Mark what he wanted at the moment. Carey was fresh meat and Mark probably saw him as a conquest rather than crush.
At the end of rehearsal, Carey went to his locker as usual, and lingered waiting for Brian to finish chorus. To his surprise, Mark was there again.
“What are you doing here?”
Mark smiled. “Just hanging out, watching the baseball practice.” He grinned. “Waiting for you.”
“You shouldn’t have. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Come on, I’m not that bad, am I?” Mark said coyly.
Carey closed his locker and faced Mark. “You were right before, we were just kids at that party. It didn’t mean anything. And I’m going out with Brian now, so you can forget about it.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“Why are you here so late?” Brian came up behind the pair. “Why are you bugging Carey?”
Mark turned around. “I’m not bugging him. Right, Carey?”
“Yeah, actually, you are.”
Brian frowned, looking between the other boys. Mark was acting smug, and Carey looked extremely uncomfortable. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Mark shrugged.
Carey stood silent for a moment, trying to decide if he was going to tell Brian that Mark had basically told him he wanted them to go out. Brian would probably be hurt. But keeping secrets from him hadn’t worked out so well in the past.
“Mark is trying to convince me to go out with him.”
“I never said that,” Mark protested.
“Then what did you mean by giving you a chance?” Carey asked.
The corner of Mark’s mouth curled up. Two could play that game.
“I asked you to give me another chance.”
“Another?” Brian was still frowning.
Not willing to let Mark continue to hold anything over his head, Carey turned his attention to Brian.
“I have something to tell you. It’s not a big deal, but I never told you some things. Things about other guys.”
Brian and Carey Page 12