Gemini - 11. Cody

Josh

This was definitely not the right moment to think about whether I was getting any kinds of signals from Ethan. I forced my legs to move and caught up with him. By then, the changing room was pretty much empty. Almost everyone was in the showers or already heading back out. Other than us, there was only one other guy left on this side of the room.

When Ethan and I passed him, he joined us on our way to the shower room. It almost seemed like he had been waiting for us. I took a quick look at him and then remembered that his name was Cody and that he was new at the school. He had moved here just two weeks ago and was still having problems to fit in. I hadn’t really spoken to him yet, but other than most people in class, Ethan had always made a point of being nice to him.

He was about my size and, just like me, not exactly muscular. His body and his movements had a slightly feminine touch, but not enough to make him look gay. It kind of made him look cute, though. He seemed like a nice guy, if a little reserved.

I stuck close to Ethan and took the shower right next to his. I didn’t dare to look around the room or glance at anyone; not even at Ethan. I was too scared to be caught looking. My previous worry about popping a boner turned out to be a non-issue. I was just too nervous about the whole situation. Even if I had wanted to, I could’ve never managed to get it up.

Facing the wall, I started washing my body. When I grabbed the shampoo from the soap tray between me and Ethan, I forced myself to keep my eyes up. I didn’t dare to glance at the nether regions of anyone, especially Ethan’s. The fear of what might happen if I did, as well as the fear of being caught, was just too big. I was just washing the shampoo out of my hair when I heard a loud unfriendly voice from the other side of the shower room.

“What the hell! Were you just looking at my dick, faggot?”

I cringed and turned around just in time to see some tall guy pushing Cody against the wall.

“Hey everyone, Cody’s a little faggot,” he exclaimed. This was exactly the reason why I avoided the showers at my school. I was torn between feeling sorry for Cody and being glad that I wasn’t him.

“Yo Jenkins, shut the fuck up,” Ethan said with a totally annoyed voice as he took a few steps in their direction. Everyone in the room had their eyes on Ethan, waiting to see what would happen next.

I looked at him, at his back, in admiration. Ethan was small, only 5’3’’ or maybe 5’4’’, and that Jenkins guy was a giant compared to him. Yet Ethan was standing up to him and not only that, he was doing it while standing in the middle of the shower room, completely naked, with everyone staring at him.

“Let him go,” Ethan demanded. “Dude, you’re imagining things. Nobody would want to look at your needle dick. Hell, even if I were gay, I wouldn’t care to look at it.”

Jenkins scowled and took a step towards Ethan, still holding Cody’s arm in an iron grip. I tensed up, ready to jump in if Jenkins attacked Ethan. I had no clue why I got like this. Normally, I would’ve crawled into the next hole in such a situation, but now it was him and us; fight or run. If I had to fight to protect Ethan, I would do it. I didn’t even worry about being naked anymore, I was too caught in the situation.

Jenkins just stared back at Ethan with a puzzled look on his face. Ethan turned his head to one side, then to the other, making eye contact with several other guys. When he looked back at me, I could see that he was grinning.

“Right, guys?” He said with a raised voice, and I could hear a few chuckles.

“That’s so true,“ one of the guys standing close to Jenkins and Cody chimed in. “Jeez Jenkins, what’s your problem? Even if Cody were gay, so what? I wouldn’t give a shit. Leave him alone.”

A couple of the other guys nodded and Jenkins’ face hardened. After a few seconds he finally let go of Cody’s arm. “Weirdos,” he muttered, before he grabbed his towel and vanished into the locker room. The tension in the room ebbed away as quickly as it had come and everyone continued what they had been doing as if nothing had happened. Only Ethan stood there for a few moments longer, staring after Jenkins.

I suddenly realized that I was still naked and turned around to finish my shower as quickly as possible. I didn’t even wait for Ethan to return to his shower. Despite the hot water, I couldn’t keep myself from shaking slightly. A minute later, I turned off the shower, grabbed my towel, and headed back to the locker room. When Ethan came back to the corner where our lockers were, I was almost done dressing. I sat down on the bench behind me, turned my face away from him, and grabbed my shoes.

I took my time tying the shoelaces and when I was done, I remained sitting there. Keeping my eyes on the ground, I waited for Ethan to finish toweling off and get dressed. While I was waiting, the whole scene that had taken place in the shower came back to my mind. I was glad that it hadn’t come to a fight, but if it had, I would have stepped in. I finally stopped shaking, but there was a weird, negative emotion left, as if the fear had left a bitter taste in my veins.

This emotion, however, was mixed with a strong feeling of pride. Being in Jacob’s shoes had changed me, even in such a short time. An hour ago, I could have never imagined to strip down in front of someone else, except maybe for a doctor. I had been afraid of it. Now, I had not only been naked in front of every single boy of Jacob’s class, I had also been ready to jump in to protect Ethan, if it had come to a fight. Admittedly, I had been scared, but I hadn’t frozen, like I usually would have. Probably because Ethan took the first step, and because it was him that was threatened.

I turned my head and looked at him. He had finished dressing and was sitting on the bench, lost in thoughts. I got up and cleared my throat, but got no reaction.

“Hey,” I finally said to him. “Are you ready to leave?”

It took a few seconds before he reacted and looked back at me, a little confused. “Huh?”

“A penny for your thoughts,” I said with a grin.

For a moment he kept looking at me, as if he was contemplating to tell me what he had been thinking about, but then he shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s go?”

I considered prying, but before I could say anything, he shot me a grin and stood up. “C’mon. We have to get to our next class.”

He was fully back to his energetic self and bounced through the locker room and out of the door without even waiting for me to grab my backpack. I shook my head and went after him, trying to catch up. When I entered the hallway, I found him waiting for me. I stopped and looked at his beautiful body, and for a few seconds I regretted that I hadn’t checked him out while he was naked. I hadn’t even as much as glanced at him during the whole time, at least not on purpose.

My eyes had accidentally glazed his body a few times, of course, but I could hardly remember what I had seen. Maybe I would be calmer about it the next time we would have PE together? I dropped the thought immediately. Somehow, just the mere thought of doing that, of looking at him while he was naked, felt wrong, and I was too afraid that he’d catch me staring.

I caught up with him and we walked side by side. After a few steps he leaned over to me and laid an arm around my hips. “See? It wasn’t all that hard, or was it?” He whispered, and then he winked at me.

I blushed, but playfully shoved him away and laughed. “Whatever.”

We left the building and walked over the schoolyard. Ethan looked around to make sure that nobody was close enough to hear us before he turned to me again. “You should check the timetable for other surprises. Who knows what else we forgot about?”

I nodded and stopped for a moment to pull out Jacob’s timetable. When we were walking again, I scanned it. “I don’t think so. Well, French could be a problem. I still have trouble pronouncing the stuff from my own lessons correctly, and Jacob is two years ahead of me. I will probably fuck up in that class.”

“Ouch, that’s not good”, Ethan commented. “I heard that teacher loves to speak French. At some point she will talk to you and you won’t even know what she’s saying.”

I shook my head. “Man, we suck. How can we forget about things that are this obvious?”

“Well, you can’t do anything about it now, can you?” Ethan asked me with a smirk. “When are Jacob’s French lessons again?”

“Today, Wednesday, and Thursday. Always the period after lunch,” I told him.

“Well, send Jacob a text, he’ll tell you what to do,” he advised me.

I pulled out my phone and sent Jacob a text explaining the problem. I felt my phone vibrate as we took our seats in the next classroom and pulled it out to see what Jacob had written.

Skip it. Tell Sarah to pass on that you’re sick. I’ll deal with it tomorrow, but it won’t be a problem. I haven’t missed it before, so it’ll just be recorded and that’ll be the end of it.

The lesson hadn’t started yet, the teacher was busy talking to some students, so I got up and walked to the front of the classroom where Sarah was sitting. She was chatting with some girls, but as soon as she saw me approaching, she stopped talking and looked at me expectantly. The other girls broke up their conversation and looked at me, too. I suddenly felt very insecure and stopped dead in my tracks. After a second I realized that I couldn’t go back without looking really stupid. I forced myself to take the last steps and smiled at Sarah.

“Hey,” I said and held the phone out to her. She took it and stood up to read the message, so the other girls couldn’t try to glance at it.

When she was done she gave the phone back to me and nodded. “That’s okay.”

I slid the phone into my pocket and made my way to the back of the room where Jacob’s table was. When I dropped down on my chair next to Ethan, my eyes fell on Cody who was just taking his seat in front of us. He turned around and looked at Ethan as if he wanted to say something, but before he could open his mouth, the teacher called the class to attention.

Cody turned back to the teacher and we had to listen to an insanely boring summary of several mathematical formulas that they had learned during the year. I tried to listen, but in the end I just stared out of the window. I had tested out of this class, so this was way below my own math level, and that made the time trickle painfully slowly. After ten minutes, the teacher finally handed out a few exercises to check if we knew everything for the upcoming finals.

When the teacher finished passing out the papers and returned to his desk, he took out a newspaper. He leaned over his desk, unfolded it and started reading while the students worked on the problems. As soon as he did that, Cody turned around again.

“Thanks a lot for... earlier. That was pretty brave of you,” he said to Ethan in a low voice.

“It was nothing,” Ethan whispered back. “Jenkins’ an asshole, and someone had to do it.”

“Well still, thanks,” Cody whispered, and then he blushed. “I thought I’d die from embarrassment right there.”

“Hey, why don’t you join us for lunch?” I asked him before Ethan could say anything.

Cody frowned. “Some people think I am gay. They might think the same about you if they see us together. I wouldn’t want to cause you any problems.”

“You worry too much,” Ethan replied. “Nobody will think that we’re gay just because you’re sitting with us. Also, what people think is never going to stop me from being friends with someone.”

Cody smiled at him and then looked at me. “What about you?”

I was still processing what they had just said and simply stared back at him. After a few seconds I felt that I was running out of time and cleared my throat. “Uhm, what he said.”

“Thanks a lot. I’m glad that you feel that way. You guys are great,” Cody said, and smiled. “Well, let’s finish these math problems.”

With that he turned back to his desk. I looked at him for a moment longer. Was this really a good idea? He seemed like a nice guy, but I didn’t want to cause Jacob any problems. He had said that his brothers weren’t all that accepting. If those rumors about Cody being gay turned out to be true, and if that got around, he would have to deal with his brothers’ reaction. Or maybe it would be me that they would confront. I wasn’t so sure if I could handle that.

I sighed. It didn’t matter now, it was too late to worry. I could hardly tell him that I had changed my mind and didn’t want to be seen with him. I scribbled a few words on a piece of paper and passed it to Ethan.

Brief me, what does Jacob know of Cody?

Ethan read it while I started going over my math problems. I didn’t stop until I was done, and when I looked up from my papers, I saw that Ethan had returned the piece of paper to my table. I shoved my solutions to him and then unfolded the paper to read it.

Nothing much, he moved here from California, his name is Cody Thomas and he has a small brother. I don’t think they have talked all that much, Cody was pretty reserved before today. Good idea to invite him to eat with us!

♊

We sat down in the corner of the lunchroom at a secluded small table for four. Cody and I took out our home-made sandwiches while Ethan and Sarah started eating the cardboard-food that they had bought.

“So, how do you like living in Albany?” I asked Cody.

He had just taken a bite from his sandwich so he signaled with his hand to wait and took a few seconds chewing and then swallowing. Finally he was done and cleared his throat.

“S’ok, I guess, but I’m not quite sure I will survive the winters here,” he grinned. “I loved living in LA, but this is a nice town, too, and the school isn’t as bad as I expected. I’m just glad my parents didn’t have to move to Texas or something.”

“What do you mean? Have to move? And why not Texas?” I asked.

He leaned back in his chair and put his sandwich aside. “Well, my dad works for this big company and every few years they make him move to a new location. We don’t have much choice about it, but this time he promised we wouldn’t move again until I’m done with high school.”

He looked at Ethan. “Idiots like Jenkins are everywhere, but in some places they are in the minority, like at this school, and in other places they are in the majority. I’m glad I ended up here, and not in one of the… more judgmental places.”

“What’s that about Jenkins?” Sarah wanted to know.

“Oh, he was just being an asshole,” Ethan jumped in.

Sarah rolled her eyes. “What did he do this time?”

Ethan glanced at Cody, obviously unsure of whether he should tell Sarah what had happened in the showers. After a few seconds, Sarah looked at me, but I didn’t say anything either. I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to tell a girl about what happened in the boy’s showers. Also, if I had been Cody, I would have been too embarrassed to speak or hear another word about a situation like that one. Cody hesitated too, but when Sarah looked at him, he shrugged. “He called me a faggot.”

“What did you do?” Sarah asked eagerly.

“I didn’t do anything, Ethan told him to fuck off before I even had a chance to respond,” Cody grinned and turned to Ethan. “Thanks again for having my back.”

Ethan made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “No problem.”

Nobody seemed to know what to say, so we continued to eat in silence. When Sarah finished her meal, she looked at Cody. “I did hear some rumors, though. Is it true? Are you gay? If you don’t mind me asking…”

Cody raised an eyebrow. “Does it really matter? I mean, why would you want to know?”

Sarah opened her mouth, and then closed it again, surprised by his counter question. Cody kept looking at her, and when he didn’t stop, she finally spoke. “I don’t know. I was just curious, I guess.”

“If you have to know: it’s true. I’m gay,” he replied. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Of course not!” Sarah exclaimed. “I was just wondering.”

Cody started to grin. “Why were you wondering? Are you gay, too?”

“Oh… uhm, no I’m not… why would you think so?” Sarah stuttered, her face turning beet-red.

Cody’s grin became even bigger. “So you were asking because one of them is gay?” He gestured at Ethan and me. “I mean, why would you want to know if not for that reason?”

Sarah looked at him speechlessly and Ethan cleared his throat, but before he could say anything, Cody laughed. “You should see your faces. I’m just pulling your legs.”

He turned to me. “What kind of stuff do you guys do in your spare time?”

“Uhm, just hanging out, I guess,” I replied. I wasn’t quite sure how I should feel about this more than obvious change of topic. I was glad that he hadn’t asked me if I was gay, but I would have liked to hear Ethan’s response to the question.

“We’re usually either playing Xbox at my place, going to the public pool or playing basketball with J’s brothers,” Ethan added.

“Cool. Would you like to come over to my place? Maybe this afternoon?” Cody suggested. “I’ve got a PS3 and some other stuff. I suck at basketball, but we could still play it, if you really wanted to. My little brother plays it sometimes, so we’ve got a basketball hoop in the driveway.”

“Sounds cool,” I said. “I have to work at my aunt’s farm this afternoon, though. Maybe some other day?”

Cody nodded. “That’s okay. What about you Ethan? Would you still like to come?”

Ethan started to say something, but I interrupted him. “Actually, I wanted to ask Ethan to help me out on the farm today.” I grinned. “He owes me for talking me into cross country this morning. I’m still sore from that.”

I turned to Ethan and gave him a pleading look. “Would you? Please?”

“I don’t really have time either,” Sarah commented.

Ethan looked indecisively from me to Cody and then back to me. Finally he sighed. “Alright, I’m gonna help you out. I owe you that much, I guess. Sorry Cody, we’ll hang out some other time. How about Friday?”

“Sounds good,” Cody said happily. I gave Ethan a thankful look and he saw it, and smiled at me.

“We gotta get going,” Sarah said, before anything else could happen. “Break will be over soon.”

We got up and packed our stuff. At the door of the cafeteria I gave Sarah a short hug. “Don’t forget to tell the French teacher I’m sick. See you tomorrow.” I fist bumped with Ethan and told him to meet me at the school parking lot.

Ethan and Sarah headed off and I turned to Cody. “Alright, see you tomorrow. I’m looking forward to hanging out on Friday.”

“Me too. See ya,” he replied, and we fist bumped. I started walking over to Jacob’s locker and suddenly I had an idea. Normally, I would have never skipped a period, but today wasn’t normal. I was already going to skip French and after everything else that had happened, I just felt like doing something unlike me. I pulled out my cell phone and send a message to Jacob.

Hey, feel like skipping both periods after lunch and meet up in the park?

We had lunch at the same time, so his reply came almost immediately. Are you sure? What if your parents find out? Won’t there be problems?

I grinned. We should be fine. Also, who cares? It’s time to do something out of the ordinary. I don’t give a shit what my parents think! See you in 10