“No,” I said. “We use all of them. Together. Let’s just mix them up, okay, babe? And we’ll wear each other’s clothes. We’re about the same size anyway. We put our stuff together.”
“Good idea.” Ethan grinned, liking it. “I’ll just organize them according to categories then.” When he was about to move, his eyes stopped at my phone lying on the bed. “Uh, babe. She’s calling again. Maybe you should talk to her.”
I let out a long sigh. I was still mad when I thought of what she had done to me. After we were done cleaning and packing, we decided that Ethan would bring the big transparent bag to the laundromat while I go to Joanna’s place to get all my stuff. When we stepped out of the room, Samuel and Jerry were opening the front door for Nathalie and Olivia.
The moment Nathalie and Olivia saw us, they squealed.
Samuel and Jerry turned around to see what was happening. “Whoa...”
“What the fuck?” Ethan said. “All of you have no class?”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Nathalie said. “Something happened last night? Why are you guys in the same room together?” She pointed back and forth between Ethan and me.
“This is pretty normal?” Ethan tried to answer casually. “He always sleeps over at my place.”
“But not him wearing your shirt, Eth,” Olivia pointed out. “Busted.” She giggled.
“Err...” Ethan said, probably trying to think of an excuse.
“It’s okay, babe.” I put my arm around his waist and pulled him closer. All of their eyes widened at what I just did. “I wasn’t planning to hide. Ethan isn’t my best friend now. He’s my boyfriend,” I declared.
Ethan looked at me. His eyes filled with concern. But I didn’t care. It wasn’t like being gay was illegal in this country anyway and I had no shame to have someone like him.
All of them grinned. “Ha!”
“It’s old news already.” Nathalie pawed the air once irritatingly. “We all knew you both are together.”
“Huh? What?” Both Ethan and I said the same thing together. “When? How?”
All of them rolled their eyes at our togetherness.
“It’s on Facebook. Live. Yesterday.” Nathalie took out her phone then. “On the event’s page. Didn’t you see it?” She opened the app, went to the page and passed her phone to us.
“Of course, they didn’t.” Olivia grinned. “They were probably too busy for it.”
“Busy, ah, ah, ah, ah.” Samuel humped the air, teasing.
“So who’s the top and who’s the bottom?” Jerry asked.
Okay, fuck. I totally regretted coming out so quickly now. It was so embarrassing. I didn’t bother to answer Jerry. I looked at Nathalie’s phone that Ethan was holding.
Ethan had pressed play. It was a clip of two big guys in black, wearing almost identical black masks. The one wearing a cape flew in between the other guy and an evil clown. He protected the other guy. After defeating the evil clown, both of them kissed each other passionately in the middle of the parking lot. They were us.
I smiled watching it. “Can you download it and send it to me?” I requested.
Ethan passed back Nathalie’s phone to her and looked at me. “Why?”
“In HD,” I added before I answered Ethan. “It was our first kiss.” I kissed him on the cheek. “And someone filmed the entire thing. How rare is that, babe? Not many couples have that.”
Nathalie and Olivia squealed again and began fanning themselves with their hands.
“Stop it, you two, stop!” Nathalie literally shouted.
“I feel ants all over my body already.” Olivia hugged herself and pretended to shiver.
Ethan and I laughed.
“You two going out?” Nathalie asked. “Go, go!” She made a small path for us. “Go!” Suddenly, she was chasing us out.
“Let’s go, babe,” I said and held his hand.
Ethan smiled and walked out with me. The moment we shut the door behind us, we heard Nathalie and Olivia squealing again, inside.
I laughed. “Your friends there are pretty excited.”
“You know,” Ethan said. “Nathalie actually had guessed that you’re into me. She’s just proud that she’s right.”
“Huh, really?” I raised an eyebrow. “I think she’s proud of her friends.” I kissed him again.
Ethan smiled again and kissed me back. “This feels like a dream, babe. I don’t wanna wake up.”
“You’re not dreaming, babe,” I assured him. “I’m real. And my feelings towards you, I know they’re real too. Trust me on this, okay?”
Ethan nodded.
When we got down to the pool area, that was where we needed to split up. He would be heading to the laundromat while I would be going to Joanna’s.
“Will you be fine?” he asked, squeezing my hand.
I nodded and let go of his hand. The moment I did, Ethan’s eyes dropped. I knew this face. He must have been still thinking this was all a dream to him. I grabbed his shoulders and kissed him on his mouth again, proving to him. There were a few people around passing by, but I didn’t give a shit if they were going to see us.
His arms came up to wrap around me, dropping the big bag. He pulled me, so that I was embraced in him completely. He kissed me back and within seconds, he dominated me, leading me to follow exactly how he wanted me to move in his mouth. He forced his tongue over and licked me and sucked me without giving me any chance to do the same. I let him. He could eat me however he wanted. I didn’t care. After all, assuming it wasn’t a prank last night, my life was his.
He finally let me go. “The kid is staring.”
I turned around to see where the kid was. The kid was in the pool.
“Don’t care.” This time, I was the one who hadn’t had enough. It was like I was addicted. I hugged him and kissed him again. Finally, when I was satisfied, I let go. “I’ll be back soon, okay?” I patted his head.
Ethan was smiling. He didn’t look sad anymore. He nodded.
We split up. I went to Joanna’s place. I didn’t hesitate to open her house’s front door and went in.
In the living room, Stitch was there sitting on the couch, watching TV. Joanna was beside it. The moment she saw me, she turned the TV off and got up from the couch. She came to me with her face flushed in anger.
“Where were you?!” she snapped. “How do you explain this to me?!” She threw her phone into my chest.
I caught it and saw what was played. It was the same clip that Nathalie had shown Ethan and me earlier, on the same Facebook page. Not only that, in the comments, Jane—I recognized her Facebook name—posted a video clip link that previewed Ethan and me dancing on the stage last night. Based on what she had captioned, she didn’t seem to know that I was one of them, though.
“Huh. I have nothing to say.” I tossed the phone onto the couch lightly. “It’s pretty self-explanatory already.”
“That was Ethan, wasn’t it?” Joanna pointed at her own phone.
“Mm-hmm, so?”
“What do you mean by so?!” she yelled. “You cheated on me! I was worried sick!”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? You left me to die with the clown, remember?” I ignored her and went towards my room.
I tried twisting the doorknob, opening the door. But I couldn’t. It was locked. I didn’t remember locking it. Heck, I didn’t even have the key.
“That-that-that’s because you cheated on me!” Joanna shouted from the living room, making that up. What did she mean by me cheating on her? Because we were still in a relationship? I admit that I had an emotional affair, but I swore I never did anything that was wrong until she disappointed the hell out of me.
“Where’s the key?” I headed back to the living room to ask.
“I’m not giving it to you,” Joanna folded her arms across her chest. “How could you do this to me, babe?” At first, she glared at me. There was a silence between us. I didn’t know what to say to her and I didn’t work on it. I was thinking ab
out where she would hide the key. Then, she dropped her arms to her sides and came towards me. She hugged me. “I do so much for you. I love you so much and I’ve been together with you for so long. We’ve done so many things together. Our happy memories, don’t you remember any of them, babe?”
I shivered. I pushed her away, disgusted. “Don’t call me babe. We’re done, Jo.”
“What?”
“Listen, Jo. Ethan is my babe now, not you. We’re done,” I said. “And if that’s not clear enough. I’ll spell it out for you. D. O. N. E. Done. We’re breaking up.”
That did it. Joanna’s face completely changed. She panted like a female Hulk, only that she turned red instead of green. “You, you! You choose that faggot”—she pointed outside the door, the direction of Ethan’s apartment—“over me?! How-how could you?!”
This time, I snapped. How dare she call Ethan a faggot?! I had enough of her. “I should be the one asking, how could you?! You fucking leave me to die with an evil clown!”
“It was a prank!”
“Did you know it was a prank?”
She hesitated. “Yes...”
I sniggered. Liar. Screw the key. I went back to my room. I stepped back. I charged and launched a push kick that I’d learned from YouTube when I was interested in picking up martial arts. It worked. The door flew open. I hurriedly packed my stuff.
“Babe, babe.” Joanna came and hugged me from behind, putting her chin on the side of my neck. “Please, don’t break up with me, please. I love you, really. I’m sorry, okay? I was just too scared, too scared. I won’t do it again, babe. I promise. I promise.”
I pushed her arms away. How could I still trust her after what she had done to me? And she was trying to lie to me. Just now. I turned around to tell her in the face. “It’s too late, Jo. You said you love me, you love me, you love me, many times before, but in the end, what you did? You left me. Even if Ethan hadn’t appeared last night. Even if Ethan had never existed in the first place!” I shook my head, able to recall the exact details when she left me in the parking lot. The fear, the trauma... “I still won’t choose you.”
Fortunately, I had been lazy in unpacking most of my stuff, so it wasn't much to pack. There was some stuff that I felt wasn’t important and would just cramp Ethan’s room, so I decided to leave them here. I still had three bags, though. One of them was full of textbooks. I carried that bag on my back and the other two with my hands. I quickly left. Joanna didn’t stop me this time. She was still frozen from what I’d just said.
Just when I was passing through the living room, she came back. “Babe, babe!”
I stopped but it wasn’t because of her. I moved the bag from one hand over to another, carrying two bags in one hand now and went over to the couch. I grabbed the giant Stitch with the free arm. I still remembered what Zorro—Ethan—had said when he gave this plushy to me.
“For you.” Ethan had passed Stitch to me.
I walked towards the front door. It was still open.
“What are you doing?!” Joanna yelled. “Where are you taking my Stitch?!”
“It’s not even your property,” I said. “Ethan gave it to me. You have no right.”
I left, and I didn’t bother to close the door. I heard her stomp the floor and begin crying loudly, like she wanted me to hear.
I sniggered. As if I would fall for that.
When I got back to Ethan’s apartment—our apartment—our bunch of friends was gone. There was no one in the living room. I went into Ethan’s room—our room—and found Ethan there sitting on the bed, pressing his phone. From the movement of his thumb, he must have been scrolling through social media while waiting for me.
He immediately saw Stitch. “Did you just—” he stopped abruptly, didn’t bother to continue.
“Yup,” I said, dropping my bags. “You said it was for me. So it’s mine.” I put Stitch on the bed.
Ethan laughed. I crawled into the bed to be with him. “What are you doing?”
“It’s been a while,” Ethan said. I knew he was referring to his Instagram. No. Not about his posts. But him and me in a photo together. He hit the camera app on his phone.
I moved closer to him and put Stitch’s big head underneath us. We took a picture together, the three of us. We looked damn awesome. Like a happy family. When we were done, Ethan beamed. He uploaded the picture to his Instagram immediately. He kissed me after that.
“Okay, put him outside,” Ethan said.
“What? Why?”
“What do you mean why?” Ethan said. “He’s not going to sleep with us. And I don’t want his two big eyes staring at us when I’m fucking you.”
OMG. I burst out laughing. I’d never thought of that. “You’re right.” I quickly kicked Stitch out of our room.
14
His or Mine
(Ethan)
I had never been this happy in my life. The guy of my dreams was finally mine. And I totally loved it when he said I’d seeded him. Where the heck did he even get that from? It was supposed to be a dirty gay reference. I mean, up till now he wasn’t gay. How did he know about it? I had to laugh, even now, when we were walking to school together, both at his spontaneity when he said that and the happiness that overflowed.
Walking to school had never been like this. It was an entirely new experience. He was holding my hand, showing everyone in public. Liam had changed. He was suddenly not the person I used to know anymore. He was treating me like a totally different person; like he had just seen something new in me that he had never seen before. And it didn’t matter to him if I was a girl or a boy. It was a good change though. I liked it.
When we got onto the campus, everyone was staring at our hands and the bite mark on his neck. The students could definitely relate; one of the hottest guys in school, who was dating a girl student pharmacist, was suddenly holding another boy’s hand. Then, there was the bite mark. I wouldn’t call it a hickey. Because I literally bit him like a wolf. Couldn’t control myself last night. When we passed by the open-air lounge area where most students hung out, Liam suddenly kissed me.
I was caught off-guard. I quickly kissed him back, didn’t want his feelings to get hurt. “We should tone it down,” I said after we were done. We continued walking. “Do you wanna be so open? Are you going to let everyone know? It’s just your first day.”
“First day?” Liam wondered.
I sighed. “First day, a gay in school,” I spelled it out.
“Exactly what I want.” Liam stopped and hooked his arm around my neck. “I want everyone to know that I’m yours now,” he said in my ear.
Damn, my cock flew right up at those words. “You sure?”
“Very sure,” he said and pulled my face to his mouth to kiss me again.
Professor Teresa’s eyes were wide open when she saw us entering the classroom holding hands. She put her specs on and asked what was going on. In a good way of course. We were really close to the professor. She didn’t mind us but only asked to pay attention to her class. It wasn’t only her. Liam’s friends in the classroom, mainly the girls, squealed at what was happening. Their reactions were no different than Nathalie and Olivia. I bet Liam had told them some stories when he was avoiding me the week after Nathalie’s birthday party.
“Remember, your report is due tomorrow,” Professor Teresa said. “Since you’re all fine now and lovey-dovey back there, I assume you’re also all well now, Ethan,” she said and winked. “You’ll not be given an exception for your medical reason.”
“What? But Miss—” I tried but she interrupted me.
“Goodbye, students! And off I go!” She went out of the classroom.
I elbowed Liam before I began to pack my stuff on the table. “It’s your fault, babe.”
“What?” Liam said, packing his stuff too. “You touched my leg first,” he complained.
“You touched mine first!” I said back.
“You touched mine first!” Liam argued back.
And we were still arguing like kids when we reached the library to do our assignment. Eventually, when we were looking for seats—it was so crowded in the library, probably because assignments were due that week—our little game turned into tag and we were chasing each other, trying to poke each other’s butt with our fingers as quietly as possible. Liam accidentally banged on someone’s table when I was trying to get him. My fingers got into his ass despite the clothes in between. He let a moan escaped out loud. The people around us turned their heads to see who made the sound.
I laughed like shit.
“Sorry,” he said to the table and straightened up. He turned around for me. “Fuck you, babe.” He tried to poke me back.
I let him do it but I made sure I didn’t moan like him.
Just then, someone shouted, “Hey, Lithium!” And then he got shushed immediately. We looked around and saw Samuel waving his arm high up in the air at a table. He wasn’t alone. Olivia was beside him. Both of them had their laptops, probably working on their assignments. When they saw us noticing them, they pointed at the two empty seats in front of them.
Liam and I pointed to ourselves, asking them if they were calling us.
Samuel nodded a few times quickly and gestured us to go over.
“What did you just call us?” Liam asked when we sat down. We took our laptops out so that we could work on our assignments too.
“Lithium,” Samuel repeated.
“Lithium?” I asked.
“Atomic number 3, symbol L. I. Li. Li-thi-um,” Samuel said. “You guys never study chemistry?”
“We did,” Liam said. “But why Lithium?”
“Liam,” Olivia held up a hand. “Plus Ethan.” She held up another, demonstrating. Her hands looked like the instrument scale. Then, she put them together. “Equals Lithium.” She grinned.
“Very funny,” Liam said.
“I like that, though,” I said, looking at Liam. “Can be our new code name.”
“Okay, if my babe likes it,” Liam looked at me, “I will like it too, then.” He smiled. It was so nice to see him smile and acting like that.
“You know,” Samuel said, pointing us with his pen. “I’ve already knew you guys would be together. It was just a matter of time. And then, boom!” He clapped his hands. “As I thought.”
A Monster's Love Page 21