Stray

by Solveig Yrsa

  She had to admit it was very entertaining. By the time the first half was over, she was already cheering on a team. “Glad to see you fancy Manchester, love.” He laughed as he got off of the large couch.

  “You want a bite?” he asked as he started out the door.

  “A bite of what?”

  Landon laughed at her confused expression. “Sorry, love, a bite to eat, like a snack food.”

  Layla blushed slightly and nodded as she followed him to the kitchen. She of course couldn’t eat much without getting sick, but she knew she should have one of the nasty shakes so that Catherine didn’t get upset.

  Spencer jerked as he woke up. He looked at his phone and did a double take. “I’ve been out over an hour. Where the hell did Layla go?” He hopped off the bed and headed downstairs, stopping when he heard a female laughing from the kitchen. He walked in there, and instantly wanted to scream. There was Layla, laughing and joking with Landon while they pulled food out of the fridge.

  Landon was the first to notice his cousin’s presence and grinned. “Hello Spencie, Layla and I are just grabbing a bite while there is a break on the game.” Layla showed Spencer her cup with her protein shake while Landon heated some dip in the microwave.

  “What game?” Spencer said through gritted teeth.

  “Football!” Layla beamed. “I like Manchester United! They’re winning right now, but it’s close and they’re only halfway through the game.”

  “No worries, love, they’ll win it.” Layla smiled and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge.

  “Layla, you don’t even know what soccer is,” Spencer said, still confused by what was happening. Had he really only been asleep for an hour?

  “No, Spencer, it’s called football, not soccer.” Layla held her index finger up in the air as she corrected him.

  “Actually,” Spencer got ready to correct her but closed his mouth, he saw how happy she was, she looked so eager to learn more and apparently teach Spencer all about her new sport. “You’re correct, I’m sorry, ‘football’.”

  Layla smiled before continuing. “I’m learning a lot about it, thanks to Landon. He’s really smart.”

  Spencer groaned, someone just kill me now. She was actually taking a liking to his enemy. What about their team? He sighed and grabbed a beer out of the fridge before leaving the two. “Well, have fun then,” he muttered.

  Layla gave him a small wave before following Landon back into the living room. She would’ve really liked Spencer to come with her and watch the game too, but she felt as though he was in a grim mood over something and it may be best to let him be.

  Spencer sat on the large front steps and stared at the fountain while drinking his beer. He sighed and grabbed his phone, dialing Jensen’s number.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hey what are you doing tomorrow?” he asked while finishing his beer.

  “Not much, but aren’t you going out with Rachel?”

  Spencer rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we both know that ain’t going to happen. Anyway, do you want to do something with me and Liam?”

  “Liam is coming?”

  Spencer rolled his eyes at how quickly his friend's voice brightened. “You two really need to move this along, it’s getting ridiculous.”

  “Hey, I’m just waiting for the right time to make my move. Liam has school and his dad and sister, he might feel too overwhelmed to date and then I blow my chances.”

  “All I’m saying is, you may want to make a move before someone else decides to swoop in,” he grumbled while glaring at the front door.

  “Are we still taking about me and Liam? Or is this about something else?”

  Spencer shook his head. “Sorry, I’m just pissed off, Layla is watching a soccer match with Landon.”

  Jensen gasped loudly before speaking. “The nerve! How dare she watch television with anyone other than you?”

  “Dude, don’t be a dick.”

  “No, Spence, come on, you’re being completely unreasonable. What does it matter if she watches a match or hangs out with someone else? I mean sure, Landon is a complete ass but, if she wants to hang out with him, that’s her business. Why does it upset you so much, you’re with Rachel. Unless—”

  “No, stop right there,” Spencer interrupted. “It’s not that I want to be with her, I just…”

  “Don’t want anyone else to be with her?”

  Spencer rolled his eyes. “Ya know, I’m trying to remember why we’re friends.”

  Jensen laughed. “Let Layla get comfortable, let her get to know everyone. If she’s going to be there for a while, it’s important that you’re not the only person she feels comfortable with.”

  “Landon is the last person I want her to be comfortable with,” Spencer scoffed. He sighed as he stood up and headed back inside. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said before hanging up his phone.

  Walking in, he heard Layla and Landon yelling at the television. He groaned and decided a hot shower would be nice. At least then he wouldn’t be able to hear them.

  ***

  Jensen chuckled as he hung up his phone. “Oh Spence, always biting off more than you can chew.” He ran his hands through his sandy hair and looked around his loft. He and Spencer used to live in the same building. Spencer lived in the penthouse above Jensen’s place. While Jensen had money, he didn’t have Spencer’s money. Jensen had a great job as a research scientist for a large pharmaceutical company while he was working on getting his Ph.D. in biochemistry.

  He sighed and rolled his tired neck as he scrolled down his social media, stopping when he saw that Liam had updated his profile picture to one of him with his arm around his twin sister. He had forgotten that the two of them were in a race today. The picture was of them, in matching purple shirts with their tags pinned to the front. Jensen looked at Liam’s big cheesy grin, and couldn’t help but smile. He went to ‘like’ it but couldn’t decide if he should ‘like it’ or ‘love it’. If he loved it, would that be too weird? He bit his lip and thought for a moment. He didn’t want to come off too strong. Sighing, he hit the like button and then texted out a comment.

  You guys look like you had fun! So proud of you both for completing the race!

  He hit the send button, and then sighed before putting his phone in his jeans pocket and heading down the hallway to his bedroom. His bedroom, much like the rest of his place, was very bare. Jensen didn’t entertain much at all so he didn’t have extra seating, and he had no knowledge of interior decorating, so he basically moved everything that was his from his parents' house and threw it into his place. Spencer often told him to hire a decorator, or at least have Samantha spruce it up so it looked less like a lonely bachelor’s pad, but Jensen would just shrug it off. He disrobed and threw his clothes on the bed before heading into his bathroom to shower. Turning on the water, he sighed as he caught a glimpse of himself in front of the mirror. He ran his hands over his stomach muscles and groaned at the small amount of loose skin that moved.

  “I can’t ask Liam out,” he muttered, looking at himself in disgust. “He’ll take one look at me shirtless and laugh.”

  He looked away from the mirror and stepped into the hot shower. He thought back to school and his classmates' nickname for him, “Jumbo Jen”. Jensen was once over three-hundred pounds, and when you are that heavy, poor, and an out of the closet gay man in a very upper class school, it’s safe to say he was ridiculed at every turn. The only people that were nice to him were Spencer, Samantha, and Liam. Samantha and Liam lived in New York part of the time, but after their mother passed, they moved out there, and though they didn’t go to the same school as Spencer and him, they would constantly hang out at Spencer’s house. Spencer refused to let Jensen feel excluded so he was always around them.

  Jensen didn’t come from a well off family. His father worked as a mechanic and his mother held two jobs, both as a server. Jensen got into the elite schools on academic scholarships, the same way he got through the first p
art of his college. His parents were always working just to pay for the things he needed that the scholarships did not cover, so Jensen was alone a lot.

  He remembered the first time he met Liam and Samantha. Jensen was thirteen and had just come out to his parents and Spencer. His parents were very supportive, and he knew how lucky he was to have that in his life. He was actually terrified to tell his best friend, because Spencer was all he had, and he didn’t want Spencer to think he was different. When he told Spencer, he remembered his black-haired friend shrugging.

  “That’s cool, but you need to stop looking so upset about it when you tell people. Pretty sure being insecure will be a turnoff. Now, come on, I want you to meet my cousins.”

  When Jensen saw Liam for the first time, everything just clicked. Jensen wasn’t a real sensitive guy, he wasn’t really into romantic stories or movies, but he knew the only word he could ever use to describe Liam, was soul-mate.

  Liam was amazing. He was such a caring person. So smart, and all he wanted to do was help others. Jensen truly believed that Liam was one of those people that, when you were around him, he made you want to be a better person.

  When Jensen graduated high school, he was humiliated at graduation when he was going up to receive his diploma. Someone had patted him on the back, which he’d thought nothing of. But turns out, that person stuck a ‘WIDE LOAD’ sticker on the back of his gown and uploaded it to social media. It was that day, that Jensen decided to do something about his weight. It was also the day that Spencer and Liam both ended up arrested for assaulting the group that did that to Jensen.

  It took a year and a half, but Jensen lost all the fat, and bulked up. He had hoped that by losing the weight, he would gain enough self-confidence to ask Liam out. Unfortunately, Jensen still saw himself as “Jumbo Jen”, and could never find the courage to pursue a romantic relationship with him.

  He turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a white towel around his waist, and headed back to his bedroom. He looked at his phone and saw he had an alert from Liam. He opened it up and saw that Liam ‘loved’ his comment and replied to it.

  Thanks! We had a lot of fun! Maybe next time you’ll get your butt out there with us!

  Jensen smirked and ‘liked’ his comment. “Yeah,” he said, looking at his phone. “Maybe next time I won't be such a coward.”

  ***

  Liam sighed as walked out of his bedroom and into the small kitchen of the apartment he shared with his sister and their father. It was absolutely nothing to rave about. It was truly just the most basic apartment you could get. It was a two bedroom, one bath, with the tiniest living room and an eat-in kitchen. He hated that not only he had to live here, but worst of all, his sweet sister, who deserved so much more than this place, lived there as well. She worked tirelessly and never got to see any of the benefits. Their father, who turned the living room into his bedroom, took every cent they had that wasn’t hidden or used for bills. It was a constant struggle, and if they tried to stop him; he became violent. All Liam wanted was to disown him for how he was, but Samantha refused, she said he was their father and he was sick and needed help. The problem was, he refused help, and all he got from them was money to fuel his habits.

  He saw his sister making grilled cheese on the skillet and sat down on the folding chair, grabbing his phone off the makeshift table. He blushed when he saw the alerts on his phone.

  Jensen Carter Liked Your Photo

  Jensen Carter Commented on Your Photo

  “What are you grinning about?” Samantha asked while flipping the sandwiches onto a plate.

  Liam’s blush deepened. “Oh uhhh… nothing, just, Jen commented on the photo of us from the race today.”

  Samantha’s grin widened. “Ohhhh… Jenny and Lee-Lee sitting in a tree,” she sang as she handed him a plate.

  “Shut up! It’s not like that, he doesn’t even like me.”

  “Pfft yeah… that’s why he sits there and listens to you drone on and on about those boring little books you read.”

  Liam rolled his eyes. “They’re comic books, and you can’t call them boring if you’ve never bothered to read one.”

  “All I’m saying is, Jen likes you, Lee, and he’s a great guy. You’d be smart to snatch him up. I wish he had a brother that I could snatch up too,” she muttered while flipping another sandwich onto a plate.

  Liam shook his head. His sister joked about dating, but honestly, every time someone asked, she turned them down. She would say she was too busy to date. That was maybe a little true, but mostly she was ashamed to have anyone else in the middle of her drama.

  Speaking of, Liam looked over his should to see the man stagger into the kitchen. His long gray hair was wild and snarled, his clothes were stained and ripped. He glared at his kids with glassy eyes.

  “You making me food?” he slurred while looking at Samantha.

  “Yeah, Daddy,” she smiled. “Go have a seat and I’ll bring you a sandwich.”

  Their father staggered to the empty folding chair next to Liam and sat down. Liam tried to seem busy on his phone to avoid conversing with the man staring at him.

  “Where’s your manners, boy? What’s so important on that phone?”

  Liam put his phone in his pocket and shook his head. “Nothing, David.”

  “I am your father. Do not call me David.”

  Liam faked a shocked gasp. “You are my father? Well, hell, you could’ve fooled me.”

  “BOY! I will take my belt to you! Though you’re little que—”

  “ALRIGHT, ENOUGH!” Samantha yelled, and slammed the plate down in front of David.

  “Lee, go eat in your room. Daddy, you stay here, and if you use that kind of language again, we are going to have problems, you know better.”

  Liam grabbed his plate and stormed to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. He grabbed his phone and opened a text thread with Jensen.

  Hey, I don’t know if you’re interested or not, but do you want to maybe go ou…

  He stopped and listened to David yelling at Samantha because she was trying to limit his drinking. Liam sighed and deleted the text. So maybe Samantha wasn’t the only one who was too ashamed to let anyone else into this drama.

  ***

  Spencer laid on his bed, scrolling through his phone. He thought for a moment about calling Rachel to come back over, but having to deal with her and how she would act if she saw Layla, was not something he was up for this evening. His eyes looked at his door when he heard a light knock on it.

  “Yeah?” He watched as Layla walked in.

  “Hi,” she whispered, walking over to his bed and sitting on the edge. “I was wondering where you went to.”

  Spencer rolled his eyes. “Obviously you weren’t wondering that much or you would’ve found me.”

  Layla blushed slightly at the snappy remark. Spencer was obviously mad at her, and she didn’t want to anger him anymore. “I’m sorry to bother you,” she whispered, bowing her head slightly as she got off the bed. “I’ll leave you alone.” She went to walk away, but Spencer grabbed her arm, holding her there.

  “No,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry, I’m taking out my frustration on the wrong person. Please, stay.”

  Layla nodded and sat back down on the bed. She looked around Spencer’s bedroom. It surprised her that his room was actually smaller than hers. It was still a decent size, but it was definitely smaller than the ridiculously oversized rooms in the rest of the house. She looked at the different pictures that were framed and placed all over in his room. There were a bunch of him, Liam, and Samantha at different ages. “Who’s this?” she asked, pointing at a photo of him at about sixteen with his arms around a rather large, round boy about his age.

  “Oh, that’s Jensen.” Spencer chuckled at the shocked look on Layla’s face.

  “That looks NOTHING like him.”

  Spencer nodded. “Yeah, he likes pretending that that part of his life never happened, so if you wa
nt to stay on his good side, don’t bring up you’ve seen that picture.”

  Layla nodded. “I don’t know why he would want to hide that though, it must’ve taken a lot of hard work. He should be proud.”

  Spencer shrugged. “Jensen was tormented in school due to several things, but the big one was his weight. I tried to stand up for him as much as I could, but I was only one person. So because of that, Jensen prefers to forget about that time.”

  Layla knew what it was like to be teased and tormented. That was her entire life. She stopped and thought for a moment. “You used to protect Jensen?”

  “Hey, I’m not always a complete asshole.”

  She didn’t push it, she didn’t want to fight with him. Instead, she walked over to a bookcase in a corner of the room that was filled with medals and trophies.

  “Wow, what are all these for?” she asked in awe.

  “Oh, well, most are for when I played football.”

  She perked up. “You played football!?”

  Spencer chuckled. “Well, I played American Football, it’s different from what you watched with Landon. But yeah, I played most of my life.”

  “Why did you stop?” she asked, running her fingers over one of the medals, silently wishing she knew what it said. “Were you any good?”

  He laughed. “Yeah, I was pretty good. I played from the time I was six until I graduated high school. I was scouted and had a full scholarship at a very prestige college, and was their pick for quarterback. I got through two years and then had to drop out.” He looked over his shoulder at Layla, who was now sitting on his bed with her head on her knees, listening to him intently.

  “Why did you have to drop out?” She didn’t really grasp much of what he said, ‘scouted’ ‘scholarship’ ‘quarterback’ were all foreign words to her. But she knew what college was, and she knew what he meant when he said he had to drop out.

  “Well,” he sighed and sat down on his bed next to her. “I usually tell people that I was injured. I mean, I was, but I could’ve gone back. But my mom got sick. She was falling a lot and was having terrible headaches. My father thought little of it until she had a migraine so bad that she ended up having to go to the hospital for it. It was there that they diagnosed her with cancer.”