“Enlightening?” Leif supplied.
“Yeah…that’s a word for it.”
We both laughed as I unsecured our bikes.
Lucy’s house was a lot further away, almost at the other side of the suburb. It took us twenty minutes to get there. The sun was lower, glancing the tree line and rooftops, and the air was a lot cooler. I wished I’d brought a jacket now, but we didn’t have much time left tonight if we were going to get Mister Metaxas back.
Urgency made me pedal faster.
That was until I got a text, no doubt from mum. I pulled over to read it. I was right. She wrote: Dinner for you and Leif will be ready in an hour, Sweetheart. Make sure you’re here. Also, I have made up the spare bed in your room for Leif. We’ll talk about new boundaries now that you are boyfriends when you get home. Don’t be late. Love, Mum.
She was right about one thing: if Leif slept over, it would be the first time since we dated that he’d done so. That image of Edwin and Ben flashed before my eyes again. The sound of Ben’s zipper being undone accompanied that.
I swallowed.
Hard.
If my Mum thought we’d be doing that sort of thing already, she was sorely mistaken. I wanted our first time together in an intimate way to be special and at a place and time where we wouldn’t be interrupted, closed door policy or not.
It would all start with another wonderful kiss.
That much I knew.
But when that would happen was anyone’s guess.
“What number is Lucy’s house?” Leif asked, his breath short; he was puffed out from the ride.
I was breathless, too. I didn’t realise how hilly it was beyond my direct neighbourhood. “Fif…fifteen, I t-think.”
We entered Lucy’s street. And not a moment too soon. I was beat.
Like the rest of Preston, it was tree-lined and had a lot of federation-style cottage houses, some massive, some not so big. In these parts of the suburb, the houses seemed older. More rustic.
One thing, everyone’s front yards were immaculate, rose bushes and lavender and all sorts of other flowers now in bloom because of the time of year dominated everything.
I sneezed, emulating Edwin. No wonder the boy wanted to stay indoors; the air was thick with pollen. And Ben was also a good incentive as well. I swallowed again. I was happy for them, I really was.
“Gesundheit,” Leif offered, copying Ben; I laughed.
When we finally made it to Lucy’s house, her father answered the door. I could see where Lucy got her looks from; plain but pretty. Although, him wearing brown to match his brown hair and eyes didn’t help his cause. “Can I help you, gentlemen?”
“Can we talk to Lucy, please?” Leif asked.
The father looked us up and down. After obviously deciding we weren’t any worry for him, more so because he was clued in by us holding hands, he shrugged. “Lucy, get down here! You’ve got company!”
When Lucy made herself known, what she said surprised me. “About time you got here. Come in. I’ve got so much to tell you both.”
Chapter Seven
Back to the Sixties We Go
Lucy’s house was like stepping back in time. The furniture was nouveau chic, but far more used and battered considering it all looked like something out of one of my mum’s old House and Garden magazines. I believed it was sixties inspired, or from that era anyway.
Either way, it was all strange.
She gave us a glass of homemade lemonade each. Even the glasses were retro, like they’d come straight out of one of those American Dairy Queens from that time, all white frosted with cartoon-like patterns on them.
“You guys look exhausted.” She sat next to Leif on her orange-coloured couch with rounded wooden legs. He shifted his weight closer to me, almost imperceptibly, and I tightened my grip on his hand. He returned it. Our hand language revealed far more about how we both felt than our outward expressions.
“It’s a long ride to get here from my house,” Leif stated matter-of-factly.
She sighed. “I know what you’re going to say, so let me fill you in so we can cut all the crap. Okay?”
Again, I was surprised. Today was turning out to be quite a ride. I didn’t know how many more shocks I could handle, to be honest.
“Okay,” I offered.
Leif added, “Tell us.”
“I’m sure you know what the note said. The one I passed to Ben in detention. Well, before you get all judge-y…I have a crush on Ben and wanted to warn him that people were talking about him and Edwin.”
Leif snorted. “Who doesn’t have a crush on Ben?”
She offered a crooked smile, but her eyes narrowed. “True. Anyway, about me now, because that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” I gestured for her to continue. Leif closed his mouth after being chastised; I let him know it was okay through our touch. She fiddled with her manicured red-painted nails as she continued, “When I heard about what Ben was doing with Edwin, I flipped. We all know he’s a lamington and he’s all over Edwin, but we also know about his parents. I’m serious when I say his Dad would kill him if he found out what he was doing with Edwin. Really. I only wanted to warn him.”
“Wait…what? You knew about Ben and Edwin?”
“Everyone does.” She shrugged but glanced out the window when the sound of a dog barking distracted her. It didn’t sound like Mister Metaxas though. “It’s not half obvious, is it?”
There was another shock I wasn’t expecting. Expect the unexpected, was the warning on that note Leif found this morning in his locker. So far never a truer word was written—or cut and pasted onto paper, anyway. “I didn’t know,” I admitted.
“That’s because you’ve been so far up Leif’s butt lately you haven’t noticed anything. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that, but you can, like, come up for air every now and again, guys. Just saying.” She paused, flicking her nails now.
If ever there was a more annoying sound, I’d like to know, because the click, click, clicking noise went right through me. I leaned over, putting my free hand onto hers to stop it. She looked me in the eye, realising what she’d been doing.
“Anyway, I suppose I can see where you’re coming from. When you’ve got someone everything else fades into the background, know what I’m saying?”
“I do,” Leif said.
I had to admit, I did, too. “Okay, so what about Mister Metaxas being kidnapped then?” I asked. “What’s that got to do with all this? Because everything’s gone ballistic since that’s happened.”
“Who in the hell is Mister taxi?”
“M-e-t-a-x-a-s,” Leif spelled out for her. “His name is Mister Metaxas and he’s my dog who I love and miss so much.”
“I’m sorry something’s happened to your dog.” Lucy didn’t sound too sorry, if I was asked my opinion. Leif reciprocated my feelings about Lucy’s lack of empathy through a well-timed squeeze of his hand. I was asked my opinion, after all, just silently, through Leif’s touch. “But what’s that got to do with me? Why would I know anything about your dog, Leif? I don’t even like dogs?”
My shoulders slumped.
Seemed Lucy was a dead end in our investigation.
Leif drained his glass of lemonade and thanked Lucy for her time. I did the same. Before we knew it, we were riding back home. The good thing about going up hills to get somewhere was the fact we could go down hills when going back.
We went to Leif’s house first. Again, the absence of Mister Metaxas saddened me. I really missed him, so I could only imagine how Leif felt.
We’d failed Mister Metaxas.
I’d failed Leif.
Sure, Leif was putting on a brave face, but I could see the pain behind those mysterious misty blue eyes of his as soon as he’d got beyond his front hallway.
Without too much in the way of conversation, Leif grabbed his stuff for the stay at my place, shoving it all into a duffle bag: a few changes of clothing, plenty of underwear (it was cute to see his underwear—he
wore boxer briefs like Ben, but more colourful), his school uniform and sports uniform, Marvel motif pyjamas, deodorant, toothbrush, hairbrush, and his pillows. He never slept anywhere without his own pillows.
“Let’s go,” he said, shrugging the bag onto his shoulder. “It’s probably for the better I’m not here, anyway.”
“I miss him, too.”
Leif nodded. “We’ll get him back. I know it.”
“We will.” But after today’s failure, I wasn’t confident in my own words. And that was a strange, “unexpected” feeling.
Mum greeted us with enthusiastic hugs when we finally got in my front door. Dad was sitting on the couch watching TV, and the news was on. He liked watching the news—finding out how many people had been murdered or worse was something he wanted to know.
I never watched the news. Too depressing.
“Hey, Sport. How’s it going?” he asked once I was clear of mum’s attention and was able to get into the house proper.
“Good, Dad. Thanks.”
“And you, Leif—haven’t been up to any mischief, have you?”
Leif was used to my Dad’s attempts at being cool. “Nothing that would get me caught or the police involved, Mr. Wallace.”
“That’s good.” He returned his attention to the TV.
Mum waggled her finger at me. “After you’ve put your bag into Lyle’s room, and the both of you have washed your hands ready for dinner, it’s time we all had a talk.”
Leif and I looked at each other before we nodded.
When we’d done as my mum asked, we proceeded to the kitchen, hand in hand. I was really hungry now, my stomach rumbling. More so when I smelt dinner—pot roast if my nose was correct. I hoped it was. Talk about yum!
Leif and I sat next to each other at the table which had been set already.
Dad then joined us, parking himself down at the head seat.
Jasper was helping in the kitchen, wiping down the countertop and putting away the pots that had already been used to cook the meal. Wowsers. Having his charger taken away from him had worked like a charm.
Mum was a genius.
Although, I noticed Jasper had his phone on charge at the benchtop’s power point, so it seemed mum had also accepted his apology to me. I knew that the return of his charger was conditional, she would have made sure.
So that’s why he was helping in the kitchen.
Jasper sneered at me and Leif, glaring at our joined hands, but didn’t say a word. I didn’t believe he wanted any more hassle with Mum, otherwise I’m sure he would have said something.
The dinner was perfect.
A pot roast for sure, with heaps of roasted vegetables, potatoes, and of course lashings of gravy made from the juices of the meat. I wolfed it down.
When the plates in front of us were all squeaky clean because it was so good, the dinner at the coffee stage, Mum said, “Jasper, you can clear up the dishes and start stacking them in the dishwasher, please, honey?”
I was “sweetheart” to her, my little brother was “honey.” That’s how it had always been. I think I got the better end of the endearments. Even Leif being given “darling” wasn’t too bad.
“Yes, Mum,” he said without protest. He got up straight away and gathered the crockery and cutlery but doing it so we all knew it; there was a lot of banging and clattering going on.
But okay…watching Jasper clean up? C’mon. That really topped everything in a day filled with surprises. Actually, scratch that. What Mum said next while Dad listened took the cake and the plate it had been presented on, that’s for sure.
I couldn’t believe my ears.
“Lyle, sweetheart. Leif, darling, please listen to me,” she began. We both nodded. “We can’t stop you doing things together, because if we do, you’ll probably do it behind our backs anyway. You’re both old enough to understand responsibility and being safe.”
My cheeks became hot with flushes of embarrassment. People should never have to hear their parents mention stuff like this.
I squeezed Leif’s hand and he reciprocated.
My mum continued, and I had the feeling nothing but a freight train hitting her was going to stop her telling us what she had on her mind. I was right. “And after talking with your mother as well, Leif, we’ve decided the closed-door policy remains so long as you both respect the rest of us who live here. Am I understood?”
Jasper gasped.
We both nodded again. What could we say to that, anyway?
She sipped on her coffee but wasn’t finished. “Many kids, gay or straight or otherwise, don’t have the luxury of being loved or living in a house where their love is understood and accepted. Look at poor Ben DeGennaro’s parents and how they hate him for being who he is. It’s terrible and so sad.”
How did she know about Ben? Was there a parent gossip network that worked more efficiently than the high school grapevine? If there was, it was something amazing. I didn’t think anything travelled faster than high school talk, the speed of light included in that.
Mum didn’t know I was still sitting in shock and she continued, “I want you both to know you do have a safe place here. That’s all I’m saying on the matter. I think you both understand me.”
“We know that we have to use condoms, Mrs. Wallace,” Leif said. I felt uncomfortably warm all of a sudden hearing Leif talk like that to my mum.
“Darling, it’s more than that, but that’s a start and I’m sure you’ll understand as your relationship develops. Just know, I love you both and together you’ve made each other very happy. Except for tonight. What’s happened, Leif? You look worried.”
“Err…it’s…it’s okay, Mrs. Wallace. Nothing Lyle and I…nothing we can’t handle.”
God, Mum was intuitive, no doubt about it.
Dad interjected, “Have you fed Mister Metaxas, Leif?”
I heard Leif swallow. His sadness washed over him again and my hand was squeezed to the point where my circulation was cut off. There were no prizes for guessing what Leif was thinking. Mum frowned.
He eventually lied, “I have…yes, Mr. Wallace. And for now, it’s best if he stays at my house where it’s familiar for him.” That wasn’t a very good lie, and I knew Leif hated doing that because he was as stiff as a board, his grip in mine remained.
Dad nodded nonchalantly. “Good, good. Well, I’m off to finish watching…” But he trailed off, got up and was leaving the kitchen before I could blink. He would fall asleep on the couch, only going to bed when Mum woke him and told him to stop cluttering up the place.
Mum got up, too and followed Dad.
That left us alone with Jasper.
I gulped.
Much to my continued astonishment, which was now common lately, Jasper didn’t say a word when the opportunity presented itself. What was wrong? Had I missed something? To me, it was like he’d given up. Even his shoulders were slumped, head hung low as he did his chores. I knew his phone charger being taken away wasn’t the reason for his defeat. Something more was going on here. But what?
Jasper looked tired, dark circles under his eyes.
My curiosity rose even more.
What’s more, when Jasper reached up to put away the glassware, his shirt lifted and I saw he was covered in bruises, some bright bluish/black, others yellowing. They were all over his lower ribs and stomach. They were also fist-sized.
I gasped at seeing them. “What in God’s name happened to you, Jasper?”
He quickly pulled down his shirt. It was then I also noticed a pink-coloured band peeking out from above the waist of his jeans. His response brought me back to the moment. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Those bruises don’t look like ‘nothing’ to me,” Leif stated.
Jasper looked away, as if he was embarrassed. “Please don’t tell Mum or Dad…please.”
What.
The.
Hell!
I was taken aback. Not only was there no name calling or deroga
tory terms used, like there had been before when we talked or bumped into each other, Jasper was asking us to do something for him. And nicely, too. Something was definitely going on. Again, my question was…what?
And did it have anything at all to do with what had been happening today? With Mister Metaxas being kidnapped?
There was only one way to find out.
Leif let me know all too well with his touch that he was as concerned as I was. Before I could question my little brother any further, Mum came back into the kitchen.
“Who’s taking the first shower spot tonight? Now we have a guest, we may have to shuffle the schedule, so the hot water doesn’t run out.” Now I knew why she followed Dad; they had been discussing things.
We had a storage hot water system which worked great for about an hour of continuous use. After that, it took about three hours to fill and warm again. For the four of us, there was usually plenty, but with Leif added into the rotation, the last person might experience the discomfort of a cold shower, especially if Jasper took ages like he always did. What he was doing in there I didn’t want to think about.
It’s okay, Mrs. Wallace,” Leif piped up. “Lyle and I can have one together…if that’s all right with you?”
I didn’t know how to respond to that.
Today had been terrible because of Mister Metaxas being kidnapped; astonishing because of what had been revealed about Ben and Edwin; amazing, because of what mum had said earlier; weird because of how Jasper was behaving and why he had bruises all over him; and worrying because he was no longer insulting me but seemed defeated. But Leif’s suggestion surpassed all others.
I stared at him, dumbfounded. I couldn’t speak and my stomach tied itself into knots I knew would take ages to unravel. He had that knowing smile, the one that snuck up onto his lips to change his whole attitude.
“Very well,” Mum replied carefully. It seemed the truth of Mum’s words about trusting us would be tested sooner rather than later. “You two can go first. But not for too long. There’s the rest of us who need to shower as well.”
The Fabulous Adventures of Leif & Lyle Page 5