Hallelujah 25
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Thursday, May 22, 2008
There are some crazy things that I do for Matt.
I mean it. I’ve done everything from buy him weed to drive across three states and a country border to being his phone reference for a summer job, but this - this had to be the craziest. And he didn’t even put out for it! (Not that I’d want him to. I love him but ew.)
I adjusted my numb fingers on the six pack of wine coolers and I opened one more door in this far-too-massive house that our graduation party was at. I was looking for the promised sulking Al in a bathtub that Matt told me to go look for, and like a good friend, I did. I had actually seen how the hostess chick had come onto him between rounds of beer pong, and unlike what some people think, I do pay attention to shit like that. I knew how often that sort of thing happened to him, and by the shoving and stomping away that always ensued, I gathered he didn’t really like it.
This wasn’t a bathroom. It was a linen closet. Maybe the next door was a bathroom.
I flung open the door harder than I meant to, and it banged against the wall and back into my face. A startled scream came from inside as I yelled at the fucking door and hit it open again. It was a bathroom this time! I grinned and stepped inside so I could see into the shower/tub combo, where Al was sprawled uncomfortably and holding a hand over his heart, wide-eyed and terrified.
“What’s up, wonderboy?”
His fright turned into a glare as he pushed himself around to sit better, sideways and feet dangling over the side. “What do you want, asshole?”
I gasped and sat on the toilet (seat cover down) across from him. “Such language! Didn’t your mama teach you better?” He tried to kick me. I sneered at him and popped a can off the plastic holder, handing it to him. “Want one?”
He frowned at it suspiciously, but took it and popped it open. “Thanks, I guess.” I grinned and shrugged, then opened one for myself.
“So, you tryin’ to take the worst bath ever, or is there some other reason you’re in here?” I asked, tipping back half the can in one gulp.
He flicked the tab on his can back and forth until it snapped off, then dropped it inside. “Cathie Grace tried to seduce me, and I ran away.” I cackled wildly, an he threw the soap at my shoulder. “It’s not funny!”
“Uh, yeah it is,” I argued, throwing the soap back at him. He caught it and threw it back at me, and it turned into an angry game of catch. “You could’ve just gotten laid tonight and you wouldn’t be talking to me in a bathroom.”
This long of a frown looked weird on his face. I’d never noticed.
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to sleep with her tonight.” He threw it to the side of me holding the wine cooler; I drained it and tossed it in the small trash can under the sink before throwing it back.
“Why not? She’s pretty hot and obviously willing.” Granted, she wasn’t really the hottest chick at the party, but we were also a house full of starlet celebrities, so it was to be expected.
He threw it hard at my solar plexus, and I barely caught it before it knocked the wind out of me. “Maybe I wanted to take her out to dinner and buy her flowers before I had sex with her,” he snapped his frown ferocious as he caught my throw aimed at his head with one hand. When I got it back, there were slight finger grooves in it. I raised my eyebrows.
“You like her that much?”
He groaned and ran his hands through his hair. I decided to keep the soap for a minute. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?” This playing psychologist shit was fun.
“I just- I’m tired of girls only thinking I’m hot or whatever and wanting a lay without a relationship! I mean, they’re girls! They’re supposed to be the emotional ones! I don’t want to be this player sleaze type, but I just-” He tugged on his hair and growled at the ceiling. “I hate girls so much.”
I stared at him as he leaned his head back against the tiles with his eyes closed, gulping down his wine cooler. Christ, Matt was right when he said that Al needed help. This was a part of him I’d never seen, and I didn’t like how it looked on him.
I stood with a heavy sigh and moved the now four pack into the tub, then slid down next to him in mirror position and popped off another. “That’s rough, buddy.”
He tried to grin at me, and I hated it more than the moping. “Not like you’d understand, of course,” he said, and there we go, back to familiar ground.
I hit his shoulder with mine. “You kiddin’? Chicks dig the awesome! Can’t get them off me!” He barked out a laugh. “C’mon, let’s get drunk and forget about girls,” I said with my biggest grin. He chuckled and finished his first can, tossing it into the trash can with stupidly good aim.
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
C~~~~~~G
Two hours and several wine cooler runs later, Al and I were sharing his headphones, slouched against each other’s shoulders and singing along horribly to The Eagles.
“Don’t you draw the Queen a’Diamonds, boy, she’ll beat you if she’s able!” Al crooned, head tilted back and feet waving in something like the beat.
“You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet,” I sang into his shoulder. That jacket was damned comfortable. I wrapped my arms around his and held it to my chest.
“Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table, but you only want the ones that you can't get. Deeesperadoooo.” Al’s head rolled over on top of mine. “D’you ever think that a song describes ya?”
I shrugged. “Nah, that only happens in movies.” It was fucking warm, too. I nuzzled deeper into the leather. “And freedom, oh freedom, that’s just some people talkin’,” I went on, belting it a little.
“Your prison is walkin’ through this world all alone,” he sang louder than me, and it turned into a shout-singing contest until someone in the next room having very loud sex stopped to yell at us to shut up. We giggled like girls and wailed along to the guitar introduction to ‘Hotel California’.
C~~~~~~G
I don’t remember going to sleep, but I sure do remember waking up when someone turned on the shower.
“Shitting Christ!” I cursed, springing up and trying to fight the water with my hands, eyes still closed. Beside me, Al groaned and sat up slowly. The water turned off, and we both looked up to find Cathie Grace, bra strap hanging off her shoulder from under her dress and hair tousled everywhere, glaring at us like we had murdered her parents and she was back for revenge.
“Get out of my house.”
I groaned and pushed myself out of the bathtub, catching my stumble on the sink. “All right, crazy woman, you don’t have to be a bitch about it,” I grumbled, trying to rub the lights from my eyes. She ‘hmph’ed at me, then looked down her nose at Al, who was checking his jacket for water damage.
“I should have known,” she said, condescension dripping from her every word. I didn’t even know that was possible.
Al looked up at her in sleepy confusion. “I’m sorry?”
“You should be.” She gave one last ‘hmph’ and clacked back into the hallway to go stick her heels up someone else’s ass, I’m sure.
I gave Al a hand up, and he smiled at me blearily. “Thanks.”
“No prob, man.” I looked out the window to see that it was still dark, although the sky was turning a little gray on one edge. “Need a ride?”
He grimaced at himself in the mirror, then buttoned the bottom two buttons on his blue polo back up. “Sure, I guess.” He sighed and slumped out of the bathroom, checking for the woman scorned before sticking his hands in his pockets and walking away. I ran a little to catch up, and I realized I didn’t know where my shoes were. Whoops. Oh well, I didn’t like those anyway.
“Girls suck, eh?” I said, grinning and poking his arm with my elbow. He shrugged, staring at the floor.
“Not the first time someone’s pulled the gay card on me.” I snorted.
“It’s your life, right? Who cares what they think.” He glanced at me sharply. I shrugged. “Look, when your mom still practices free love and is sort of dating a woman with a gay son, you stop caring.” He laughed for real and jumped down the stairs two at a time, taking the last five in one leap, waiting for me at the bottom with a smile.
“Y’know, sometimes you’re not half bad.”
I grinned and tousled his hair when I was two steps up (stupid him for being way too much taller than me). “Same for you, wonderboy.”
“Don’t call me that!” He pushed me into the wall, then stuck out his tongue when I glared at him. “I said only sometimes.”
I snorted. “Come on, let’s go make sure they haven’t towed my car yet.”
C~~~~~~G
Yeah, okay, that ride home was awkward.
The clock on my dash said 3:58 when I turned it on; Al looked at it and cursed, pulling out his phone frantically.
“Mom’s gonna kill me when I get home,” he moaned, flipping through five missed calls from ‘Home’.
I let him curse to himself while I weaseled my way out of the front yard and back to the main road before I said anything.
“So, you wanna get food or something?”
He glared at me. “It’s four in the morning and I am already in deep shit as it is. Why on Earth would I want to get food?”
I shrugged. “Well, I’m hungry, so I thought you and your bottomless stomach would be, too.” I flashed a grin at him between watching the road. “Besides, you’re already out.”
He groaned and facepalmed. “You did not just quote Mean Girls at me.”
“Hey, shut up, it’s a good movie!” I hit his shoulder kind of playfully. He made a face at me, but he finally seemed to be lightening up. Thank God. Sad Alfred freaked me the fuck out.
“Fine. Nothing too far away, though,” he relented. I cheered and rolled down the windows, gunning it through the empty rich people neighborhood. He laughed and turned up the radio.
C~~~~~~G
An hour later, we were finishing off our McDonald’s fries a block from his house, watching the sun rise and talking over The Eagles still playing faintly in the background.
“I kinda miss him, y’know? I mean, we talk all the time and shit, but I miss seeing him like actually seeing him.” He sighed and leaned back a little to prop his boots up on my dashboard. “It’s weird, but it’s true.” He popped the lid off his soda and shook a few half-melted ice cubes into his mouth to chew on.
“Huh.” I stole one of his fries while he was staring vacantly at the sunrise. “Sounds like a girlfriend to me.”
He frowned, but didn’t look away. “I’ve been wondering about that recently, but… I dunno.” He ate a few more ice cubes. “Don’t feel right to call ‘im that.”
“Well I hope you wouldn’t call him your girlfriend.” He glanced at me and stuck his tongue out, but looked away again. “You know what I mean.”
I sighed and leaned forward on my steering wheel. “I know of it, I guess. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the same about someone before, though - or if I did, I didn’t notice.” The sun was all the way over the too large roof of the house across the street now, and I sat back and stretched. “Well, I guess it’s time for you to face the music,” I yawned. He sighed and sat up.
“I guess so.” I turned the car back on and drove down to Al’s house, just as unpretentious as I remembered it from that one cast party a few years ago. Before he opened the door, he paused and looked at me over his shoulder.
“Hey.” I raised my eyebrows. “We’re never gonna talk about this again, okay?”
I grinned broadly. “Sounds ‘bout right.”
He grinned back, then got out and went into his house. I waited until he got in his door, then yawned again and headed home myself.
It wasn’t until I got home that I realized he’d left all his trash from McDonald’s in my backseat.
Oh, Mattie owed me big time for this.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
There are some crazy things that I do for Matt.
I mean it. I’ve done everything from buy him weed to drive across three states and a country border to being his phone reference for a summer job, but this - this had to be the craziest. And he didn’t even put out for it! (Not that I’d want him to. I love him but ew.)
I adjusted my numb fingers on the six pack of wine coolers and I opened one more door in this far-too-massive house that our graduation party was at. I was looking for the promised sulking Al in a bathtub that Matt told me to go look for, and like a good friend, I did. I had actually seen how the hostess chick had come onto him between rounds of beer pong, and unlike what some people think, I do pay attention to shit like that. I knew how often that sort of thing happened to him, and by the shoving and stomping away that always ensued, I gathered he didn’t really like it.
This wasn’t a bathroom. It was a linen closet. Maybe the next door was a bathroom.
I flung open the door harder than I meant to, and it banged against the wall and back into my face. A startled scream came from inside as I yelled at the fucking door and hit it open again. It was a bathroom this time! I grinned and stepped inside so I could see into the shower/tub combo, where Al was sprawled uncomfortably and holding a hand over his heart, wide-eyed and terrified.
“What’s up, wonderboy?”
His fright turned into a glare as he pushed himself around to sit better, sideways and feet dangling over the side. “What do you want, asshole?”
I gasped and sat on the toilet (seat cover down) across from him. “Such language! Didn’t your mama teach you better?” He tried to kick me. I sneered at him and popped a can off the plastic holder, handing it to him. “Want one?”
He frowned at it suspiciously, but took it and popped it open. “Thanks, I guess.” I grinned and shrugged, then opened one for myself.
“So, you tryin’ to take the worst bath ever, or is there some other reason you’re in here?” I asked, tipping back half the can in one gulp.
He flicked the tab on his can back and forth until it snapped off, then dropped it inside. “Cathie Grace tried to seduce me, and I ran away.” I cackled wildly, an he threw the soap at my shoulder. “It’s not funny!”
“Uh, yeah it is,” I argued, throwing the soap back at him. He caught it and threw it back at me, and it turned into an angry game of catch. “You could’ve just gotten laid tonight and you wouldn’t be talking to me in a bathroom.”
This long of a frown looked weird on his face. I’d never noticed.
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to sleep with her tonight.” He threw it to the side of me holding the wine cooler; I drained it and tossed it in the small trash can under the sink before throwing it back.
“Why not? She’s pretty hot and obviously willing.” Granted, she wasn’t really the hottest chick at the party, but we were also a house full of starlet celebrities, so it was to be expected.
He threw it hard at my solar plexus, and I barely caught it before it knocked the wind out of me. “Maybe I wanted to take her out to dinner and buy her flowers before I had sex with her,” he snapped his frown ferocious as he caught my throw aimed at his head with one hand. When I got it back, there were slight finger grooves in it. I raised my eyebrows.
“You like her that much?”
He groaned and ran his hands through his hair. I decided to keep the soap for a minute. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?” This playing psychologist shit was fun.
“I just- I’m tired of girls only thinking I’m hot or whatever and wanting a lay without a relationship! I mean, they’re girls! They’re supposed to be the emotional ones! I don’t want to be this player sleaze type, but I just-” He tugged on his hair and growled at the ceiling. “I hate girls so much.”
I stared at him as he leaned his head back against the tiles with his eyes closed, gulping down his wine cooler. Christ, Matt was right when he said that Al needed help. This was a part of him I’d never seen, and I didn’t like how it looked on him.
I stood with a heavy sigh and moved the now four pack into the tub, then slid down next to him in mirror position and popped off another. “That’s rough, buddy.”
He tried to grin at me, and I hated it more than the moping. “Not like you’d understand, of course,” he said, and there we go, back to familiar ground.
I hit his shoulder with mine. “You kiddin’? Chicks dig the awesome! Can’t get them off me!” He barked out a laugh. “C’mon, let’s get drunk and forget about girls,” I said with my biggest grin. He chuckled and finished his first can, tossing it into the trash can with stupidly good aim.
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
C~~~~~~G
Two hours and several wine cooler runs later, Al and I were sharing his headphones, slouched against each other’s shoulders and singing along horribly to The Eagles.
“Don’t you draw the Queen a’Diamonds, boy, she’ll beat you if she’s able!” Al crooned, head tilted back and feet waving in something like the beat.
“You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet,” I sang into his shoulder. That jacket was damned comfortable. I wrapped my arms around his and held it to my chest.
“Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table, but you only want the ones that you can't get. Deeesperadoooo.” Al’s head rolled over on top of mine. “D’you ever think that a song describes ya?”
I shrugged. “Nah, that only happens in movies.” It was fucking warm, too. I nuzzled deeper into the leather. “And freedom, oh freedom, that’s just some people talkin’,” I went on, belting it a little.
“Your prison is walkin’ through this world all alone,” he sang louder than me, and it turned into a shout-singing contest until someone in the next room having very loud sex stopped to yell at us to shut up. We giggled like girls and wailed along to the guitar introduction to ‘Hotel California’.
C~~~~~~G
I don’t remember going to sleep, but I sure do remember waking up when someone turned on the shower.
“Shitting Christ!” I cursed, springing up and trying to fight the water with my hands, eyes still closed. Beside me, Al groaned and sat up slowly. The water turned off, and we both looked up to find Cathie Grace, bra strap hanging off her shoulder from under her dress and hair tousled everywhere, glaring at us like we had murdered her parents and she was back for revenge.
“Get out of my house.”
I groaned and pushed myself out of the bathtub, catching my stumble on the sink. “All right, crazy woman, you don’t have to be a bitch about it,” I grumbled, trying to rub the lights from my eyes. She ‘hmph’ed at me, then looked down her nose at Al, who was checking his jacket for water damage.
“I should have known,” she said, condescension dripping from her every word. I didn’t even know that was possible.
Al looked up at her in sleepy confusion. “I’m sorry?”
“You should be.” She gave one last ‘hmph’ and clacked back into the hallway to go stick her heels up someone else’s ass, I’m sure.
I gave Al a hand up, and he smiled at me blearily. “Thanks.”
“No prob, man.” I looked out the window to see that it was still dark, although the sky was turning a little gray on one edge. “Need a ride?”
He grimaced at himself in the mirror, then buttoned the bottom two buttons on his blue polo back up. “Sure, I guess.” He sighed and slumped out of the bathroom, checking for the woman scorned before sticking his hands in his pockets and walking away. I ran a little to catch up, and I realized I didn’t know where my shoes were. Whoops. Oh well, I didn’t like those anyway.
“Girls suck, eh?” I said, grinning and poking his arm with my elbow. He shrugged, staring at the floor.
“Not the first time someone’s pulled the gay card on me.” I snorted.
“It’s your life, right? Who cares what they think.” He glanced at me sharply. I shrugged. “Look, when your mom still practices free love and is sort of dating a woman with a gay son, you stop caring.” He laughed for real and jumped down the stairs two at a time, taking the last five in one leap, waiting for me at the bottom with a smile.
“Y’know, sometimes you’re not half bad.”
I grinned and tousled his hair when I was two steps up (stupid him for being way too much taller than me). “Same for you, wonderboy.”
“Don’t call me that!” He pushed me into the wall, then stuck out his tongue when I glared at him. “I said only sometimes.”
I snorted. “Come on, let’s go make sure they haven’t towed my car yet.”
C~~~~~~G
Yeah, okay, that ride home was awkward.
The clock on my dash said 3:58 when I turned it on; Al looked at it and cursed, pulling out his phone frantically.
“Mom’s gonna kill me when I get home,” he moaned, flipping through five missed calls from ‘Home’.
I let him curse to himself while I weaseled my way out of the front yard and back to the main road before I said anything.
“So, you wanna get food or something?”
He glared at me. “It’s four in the morning and I am already in deep shit as it is. Why on Earth would I want to get food?”
I shrugged. “Well, I’m hungry, so I thought you and your bottomless stomach would be, too.” I flashed a grin at him between watching the road. “Besides, you’re already out.”
He groaned and facepalmed. “You did not just quote Mean Girls at me.”
“Hey, shut up, it’s a good movie!” I hit his shoulder kind of playfully. He made a face at me, but he finally seemed to be lightening up. Thank God. Sad Alfred freaked me the fuck out.
“Fine. Nothing too far away, though,” he relented. I cheered and rolled down the windows, gunning it through the empty rich people neighborhood. He laughed and turned up the radio.
C~~~~~~G
An hour later, we were finishing off our McDonald’s fries a block from his house, watching the sun rise and talking over The Eagles still playing faintly in the background.
“I kinda miss him, y’know? I mean, we talk all the time and shit, but I miss seeing him like actually seeing him.” He sighed and leaned back a little to prop his boots up on my dashboard. “It’s weird, but it’s true.” He popped the lid off his soda and shook a few half-melted ice cubes into his mouth to chew on.
“Huh.” I stole one of his fries while he was staring vacantly at the sunrise. “Sounds like a girlfriend to me.”
He frowned, but didn’t look away. “I’ve been wondering about that recently, but… I dunno.” He ate a few more ice cubes. “Don’t feel right to call ‘im that.”
“Well I hope you wouldn’t call him your girlfriend.” He glanced at me and stuck his tongue out, but looked away again. “You know what I mean.”
I sighed and leaned forward on my steering wheel. “I know of it, I guess. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the same about someone before, though - or if I did, I didn’t notice.” The sun was all the way over the too large roof of the house across the street now, and I sat back and stretched. “Well, I guess it’s time for you to face the music,” I yawned. He sighed and sat up.
“I guess so.” I turned the car back on and drove down to Al’s house, just as unpretentious as I remembered it from that one cast party a few years ago. Before he opened the door, he paused and looked at me over his shoulder.
“Hey.” I raised my eyebrows. “We’re never gonna talk about this again, okay?”
I grinned broadly. “Sounds ‘bout right.”
He grinned back, then got out and went into his house. I waited until he got in his door, then yawned again and headed home myself.
It wasn’t until I got home that I realized he’d left all his trash from McDonald’s in my backseat.
Oh, Mattie owed me big time for this.