“Danial, huh,” he said. He rubbed his eyes. “Everything okay at school?” he asked, but somehow it was like he wasn’t really interested in the answer.
“Yeah. I’m a one-man freak show, but other than that, it’s okay. Where are your roommates?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.” He laughed a little. “Actually, they’re still at work. The show closes next weekend. They’re trying to tweak a few scenes for the big finale. But I couldn’t deliver a line if you put a gun to my head today. Too tired. The director sent me home.” He rubbed his eyes again.
“You need a haircut,” I observed.
He grinned. “I just got one. Do you like it?”
Saturday morning dawned bright, cool, and sharp thanks to a mild Canadian front that had passed through during the night. When I got to the music store, a caffe latte in hand, Juliet was propping the door open to let the fall air in. That usually irritated her dad; with the fresh air came the flies. He insisted if she let the little pests in, she had to get rid of them. Watching Juliet smack flies with a swatter, squealing and screaming when she missed and they buzzed her, was always a good entertainment value. Lucky for her, but to my disappointment, the front had blown all the flies away.
Mr. Ratliff greeted me with the news that Jessica was home sick today and asked if I wanted to fill in for her piano lessons. Was he kidding? I checked the schedule. She had six. The lessons paid a lot better and the guy at one o’clock was working on the Charlie Brown theme song, “Linus and Lucy”—I could hear him practice through the walls each Saturday. The first lesson, though, was a new student at eleven thirty. That gave me an hour and a half to restock and do a few minor repairs. I did a quick visual inventory, then got to work refilling the displays from boxes in the storeroom while Juliet waited on the first customers. When the racks were full, I grabbed a guitar that needed restringing and laid it gently on the counter in the workroom. I removed the broken fifth string, wiped down the area under it, and then uncoiled the new string and slid the ball end down a few inches into the hole on the bridge. I replaced the bridge pin, then gently pulled the string up toward the headstock and wrapped it around and fed it through the tuning peg. I turned the peg to tighten it.
Juliet came in and sat on the wooden stool next to me and watched. “You get any better at this, my dad is gonna retire and then I’m gonna get stuck with all the books.”
I smiled. “You’re dad is having way too much fun to retire.”
I turned the tuner on the sixth string to slacken it and then uncoiled it from the tuning peg.
“You could do this a lot faster if you didn’t take off the good strings too, you know.”
“The strings are worn. Replace one, replace them all, or the sound won’t be right.”
She continued to watch as I replaced the sixth, then abruptly got up. “So what’s your hunky boyfriend doing tonight?” she asked, getting a soda from a small refrigerator.
I shrugged then recoiled when she pressed the cold can to the back of my neck. A bridge pin slipped from my hand.
“Oops,” she said with a coy smile, then got down on all fours to scavenge for the pin. “Found it,” she said, handing it to me.
“Why don’t you go to a movie with Mike and me tonight?” she said as I took the pin and slipped it back into the hole.
“No.”
She uncoiled the next string and handed it to me but still held on. “Come on, you never go anywhere anymore.”
I tugged on the string and she let go.
I picked up the wire snips and clipped off the loose ends. “All done.” I settled the guitar in my lap and plucked at the strings, listening to the sound and adjusting the tuning pegs, not listening to Juliet’s commentary on my pathetic social life.
When Danial arrived about ten fifty for his eleven o’clock lesson, she was still trying to talk me into a threesome.
“Look,” I said, placing the guitar on a rack behind the counter, “I am not going on a date with you and Mike.” I took a sip of my latte, steaming again from a quick nuke in the microwave, and set it back on the counter so my hands would be free to tag the violin a customer had just dropped off.
Juliet threw her arms up in the air. “It’s not a date. We’re just going out to a movie—three friends. You haven’t been out even once since Adam left. You cannot sit around in your room and mope every weekend until Thanksgiving.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Tell him, Danial,” she pleaded.
“You cannot sit around in your room and mope every weekend until Thanksgiving,” Danial parroted. He picked up my latte and took a sip. I looked at him like “Seriously?”
“You don’t have anything I can catch, do you?” he said, hesitating before he took a second sip.
I rolled my eyes at him now.
Juliet huffed and glared at him. “Why don’t you come too, Danial? Then Nate won’t feel like the odd man out, which he wouldn’t be anyway,” she added, and I could tell from the look in her eyes that the idea of having Danial around was much more enticing than having me.
Danial grinned at me and folded his arms on the counter. “Won’t your boyfriend get jealous if you go out on a date with another guy?”
“We are not going out on a date.”
He laughed. “What time is the movie? I don’t get off until seven, so I’ll have to meet you there.”
Juliet gave an excited little clap.
Terrific.
While Danial had his lesson, I worked the front counter. Nice days always meant a steady stream of customers needing repairs, lesson information, instrument rental, and odds and ends like flip books and lyres for band instruments. It kept me busy. Maybe a movie wasn’t such a bad idea.
I would have killed for a sip of my latte, but Danial had taken it with him. I found myself wondering where he worked. He didn’t talk about himself a lot, and I didn’t ask a lot of questions. When he emerged from the lesson room with Gary half an hour later, I gave him a tipping motion with my hand to indicate I wanted my drink back. He crossed the room to the counter, shaking the cup and grinning. “Sorry, man. Empty.”
“Bring your own next time, moocher.”
“Excuse me,” a woman said, stepping up to the counter. “I’m Ms. Martindale. My son, Ryan, has an eleven thirty piano lesson with Jessica.”
Ryan looked to be about ten. I reached out my hand to shake his. “Hi,” I said, “I’m Nate Schaper. Jessica will be your regular teacher, but she’s out today, so I’ll be giving you your lesson.” Then I reached to shake Ms. Martindale’s hand. But she didn’t put it out. She was looking at my shirt.
Juliet’s dad had been cool about me proclaiming my gayness on my chest every day. I think he was even a little amused by it and understood my need to be unmistakably O-U-T. But customers’ reactions had been mixed. Those who were bothered by it, though, had the good manners to hold their tongues. At least, so far they had.
I dropped my hand and looked to Ryan instead. “Are you ready to go, Ryan?”
Ms. Martindale put her hand on her son’s shoulder as if to hold him in place. “Is Mr. Ratliff in his office?”
I glanced through the plate-glass window of the small office off to the side of the counter “Um, yeah, he is, but he’s on the phone right now. Is there a problem?” Of course, by then, I knew there was a problem. The disgust on her face couldn’t have been plainer.
Danial leaned up against the end of the counter next to me.
“Look,” she said, giving Danial an even more disgusted look, “I’m sure you’re a very good piano teacher, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t want my son alone in a room with you.”
There it was. Homophobia at its finest.
Mr. Ratliff had stepped out of his office. He opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to think better of it.
“He’s a little young for me,” I said, fighting the sarcasm in my voice and losing, “but if it makes you feel better, we can leave the door open.”
She
ignored me and turned to Mr. Ratliff. “We’ll just catch Jessica next week.”
Mr. Ratliff studied her for a moment, then approached the counter. He picked up a pen and marked a line through something in the appointment book. When he looked back up, I could see flint in his eyes. “I don’t think she has any openings.”
She huffed and dragged Ryan out with her, casting a scathing look at Danial and me as she went.
“Mr. Ratliff, you really didn’t need to do that.”
He smiled. “You’re family now, Nate.” He clapped me on the shoulder and went back to his office.
“Well, that was humiliating,” I said to no one in particular.
“What happened?” Juliet said. She’d been straightening the piano room and had missed the exchange.
“You want me to beat her up?” Danial joked.
“Beat who up?” Juliet asked.
“She thinks you’re my boyfriend, you know,” I said.
“Lucky you.” He winked at Juliet and picked up his guitar case. “Wear something pretty for me tonight, sweetheart,” he stage-whispered to me.
Juliet giggled.
“Get the hell out of here,” I said harshly, but he knew I didn’t mean it.
Juliet watched Danial leave, and sighed dreamily. “Too bad he’s not gay. You two would make a cute couple.”
I looked at her.
“What the hell am I saying,” she said, grabbing fistfuls of her red hair. “Don’t tell Adam I said that.”
I helped Mr. Ratliff close up shop at five o’clock then ran home for a quick shower. The phone rang just as I opened the front door. I didn’t see Mom or Grandma around. I grabbed the phone on the fourth ring, just before it went to the answering machine. “Hello,” I said, a little breathless.
There was a pause, and then, “Nate?”
I didn’t recognize the voice. “Yeah. This is Nate. Who’s this?”
The caller cleared his throat. “Nate, this is Mr. Wolf.”
When the assistant principal is calling your house on a Saturday afternoon, it can’t be good. I mentally ticked off the events of the week: I hadn’t been in any fights, I hadn’t insulted any teachers that I knew of, no major school rules broken with the exception of the daily dress-code violation that I always rectified in his office. Nothing.
I asked him if there was anything wrong.
“No. But, uh, actually I’m glad you answered the phone. Uh, I guess I’ll just be straight with you.” He cleared his throat again. “Nate, I’d like to ask your mom out on a date. Would that be okay with you?”
Okay, now this was just too weird for me. Mr. Wolf? And my mom? A date? Really? I didn’t even know they knew each other beyond the couple of conversations he’d hinted at earlier. I wasn’t sure exactly how I felt about them dating. But who was I to tell anyone who they could or couldn’t be interested in. When I hesitated, he said, “If you’re not—”
“No. I mean, sure. I think she’d like that.”
“You do?”
He sounded so relieved I almost laughed. Mom was reading on the back deck with Grandma. When I told her Mr. Wolf was on the phone, she blushed. Uh-huh. She took the phone from me, and Grandma grabbed my arm, directing me back into the house. At first I thought she just wanted to give Mom some privacy, but then she handed me Mom’s laptop.
“It’s got one of those bugs,” she said, shrugging and feigning complete innocence.
Bugs? Oh boy.
I sat the computer on the counter and booted it up. Before I could execute any other commands or open any programs, a pop-up appeared on the screen, followed by another and another. Each pop-up featured a couple of guys getting it on ... on my mom’s computer. Oh shit.
It had been a shock to Mom when I came out to her last December, but Grandma had embraced my identity. She even blackmailed me into showing her how to surf the Internet so that she could “understand” what being gay meant. I figured by now she must understand better than I did.
And now we had a problem. “I’ll take care of it, Grandma.” She patted my arm. “Nice young men, though, don’t you think?” Nice, yeah.
I flopped on my stomach on Juliet’s bed while she fiddled with her makeup in her bathroom. I’d texted Adam earlier this afternoon to let him know about my “date,” but he’d had a matinee performance and had only just now responded: LOL. Have fun!!
I don’t know, but that really wasn’t what I was after. Okay, he trusted me. Good. Great. But couldn’t he be just a little bit jealous?
I texted back: Wut r u doin tonite?
I wasn’t sure which I dreaded more—hearing that he was just hanging out at the apartment with his roomies or out partying with his new look. Both left me uneasy and feeling like an outsider, like a little high school kid.
No show tonite. Museum party with some of the guys. Tell Danial to keep his hands off u! Srsly.
About time.
“Nate?”
“Hm?” I said, thumbing out another text to Adam.
“Nate? Hello?”
I looked up.
“What about this one?”
Juliet was standing at her closet door now, modeling a pretty cool Bob Marley T-shirt, thin, no bra underneath.
I cleared my throat dramatically. “Uh, jeez, Juliet. You might want to leave a little something to the imagination.”
She smirked and yanked the shirt over her head and flung it at me. Okay. Juliet, topless.
The shirt landed on my shoulder. I pulled it off and turned it right side out. “Nice shirt. Can I have it?”
She dipped her chin and gave me one of her I-want-you-you-want-me looks. “Come on, Nate, doesn’t this turn you on just a little bit.”
I studied her half-naked self. Nice, if you liked that sort of thing, but I thought a hard, slightly muscled chest was much, much, much sexier. I smiled a little thinking just how much sexier. She smiled back and shifted her weight to her other hip, waiting, I guess, for me to get aroused. “Well?” she said.
“Well, what?” I looked back down at my phone.
“Oh forget it, asshole.” She turned back to her closet.
I snickered and thumbed out another text: Im that gay guy that girls get naked in front of now LOL.
He texted back.
“Adam says to tell you to quit hitting on homosexuals or you will end up a bitter, frustrated, childless old maid with a closet full of battery-operated dildos, a lifetime subscription to Playgirl, and bad skin.”
“He did not.”
I held the phone out to her. She had on a bra now and was pulling another shirt over her head, this one a low-cut V-neck that showed off her cleavage but at least kept the girls tamed. She took the phone and read the text.
I grinned and she flung the phone at me.
Chapter 26
Tinseltown was always packed on date nights. I feared we’d be sitting in the neck-spasm section up front, but a party of three with an empty seat next to them got up and moved a few rows down. Danial loped up the steps and nabbed the seats for us by stepping into the row. Danial was a pretty hunky guy, and Juliet had to squeeze past him to her seat. I was thinking it would have been easier if he’d just sat down or taken the end seat or stepped into the aisle, but he didn’t. Juliet took the next-to-last seat. Then Danial did sit down. Mike had to climb over both him and Juliet to get to the last seat. “Really?” I mumbled as I climbed over his long legs and took the seat next to him.
“What?” he mouthed, feigning innocence.
I handed him the bag of popcorn we were sharing and checked my text messages. I’d felt the vibration in my pocket as we were climbing the steps. Danial craned his neck over the armrest.
“Do you mind?” I said, turning the screen away from him.
“Actually, I do. I believe you’re my date tonight, cupcake.”
“In your dreams.”
He laughed. “Uh, didn’t you see the PSA? The one that said ‘Please turn off your cell phones in the theater’?”
; “The movie hasn’t started yet,” I said, thumbing in a reply.
He leaned forward to see what Juliet and Mike were doing. I cast a sideways glance at them too. Mike was whispering something to her. His hand fondled the pendant at her throat and looked like it would like to be fondling something else. I turned back to Danial. “Would you like to change places with me, cupcake?”
“Pass,” he said, flopping back in his seat and bracing a foot against the seat in front of him.
My cell phone vibrated again.
“Oh my God.” Danial groaned.
I smiled at the small screen. “Adam said to tell you to keep your hands off of me.”
“Give me that.” He grabbed the phone, and I let him have it. He thumbed in a long reply and hit Send, then handed the phone back to me.
“What did you do?”
He shrugged and stuffed some popcorn in his mouth.
I checked the outbox. This sexy bitch is mine tonite. I plan 2 thro him up against the nearest wall after the movie and have my way with him. Danial
Shit. The phone buzzed again. Nate?
I texted back an assurance that Danial was kidding, then elbowed him hard across the armrest.
“Ouch.”
Juliet leaned over me. “Would you two children knock it off? People are starting to look.” The middle-aged couple in front of us turned around. Danial tossed his arm over my shoulder and squeezed. The woman gave us a disgusted look, then whispered something to her husband before turning back to face front.
I gave Danial a withering look, and he took his arm back.
The movie was some apocalyptic flick. Between texts and Danial’s spying, I had trouble keeping track of the plot. I kept my phone low and close to me to keep the screen light from bothering anyone. Adam’s texts were getting increasingly amorous. Someone’s getting drunk ... and horny, I thought. Was he at the museum party already? I’d never seen Adam drink before aside from a few covert sips of a margarita or a wine cooler. Or was he high? Hadn’t seen that either. Danial was reading each text over the armrest, so I decided to hold my questions until another time. I’d given up trying to hide the screen. Damn, he was nosy.
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