Brandon Smiling: From the Billy Chase Chronicles (2) - 33. Entry 33

Sunday

Well, my adventures with Stevie yesterday aside, my Saturday ended on a sour note, unfortunately.

I’ve been in my room most of the evening today sulking. I swear it’s more karma coming back to bite me in the ass from playing jealousy games with Billy a few weeks ago. He’s getting some of his own back, I guess.

So, I get this most random call out of nowhere from, of all people, Bobby Jinette!

Why he’d call me out of the blue should be a mystery, but, unfortunately, it was pretty clear why Bobby wanted to talk to me. He wanted to know all I knew about Billy!

“What’s Billy’s favorite music? Do you know?”

“What does he like to eat?”

“Where does he like to hang out?”

Most damning, “What’s his girlfriend’s name if he has one?”

Like a damned fool I answered his questions without asking any of my own like: “Why the actual fuck are you pumping me for all I know about Billy Chase? Why do you want to know all this stuff? What exactly is your problem, Bobby Jinette?”

It was borderline creepy, to be honest.

I mentioned to Bobby that he should probably ask Billy these questions directly. That was a mistake, because then Bobby wanted to know if I’d share Billy’s number with him!

“Sorry. Not without his permission.” I thought that would put an end to it, but, then karma wasn’t done with me yet.

The other line sound chimed on the phone. It was Billy!

Now, usually, that would have been a really welcome call, but Billy’s timing couldn’t have been worse yesterday.

I answered, but couldn’t help but to sound a bit frustrated and unpleasantly surprised. I felt ‘caught’ somehow. Caught doing exactly what I was doing, talking about Billy to someone else behind his back.

Flustered, but wanting very much to get rid of Bobby so I could talk to MY Billy, I asked, “Can I call you back in a few minutes? I've got Bobby on the other line.”

“Bobby? Bobby Jinette?” Billy asked, sounding just as unpleasantly surprised as I was. That was hopeful. Something in the way Billy asked the question sounded like he wasn’t too thrilled that Bobby had called me.

I confirmed that it was Bobby that I was talking to and then there was a long pause. I could almost smell the brain cells cooking in Billy’s head from behind the phone receiver. Billy certainly didn’t seem happy.

“Um…k.” Billy said, obviously confused and taken aback.

“Are you ok? I can stay if you want.” I offer, hoping Billy will say yes so I could get Bobby off the line and get to talking with my favorite boy.

But, unfortunately: “Nope. I'm fine. See ya,” and then he hangs up really fast. That hurt that he’d cut me off so fast. Like I said…karma.

I switch back to Bobby who, in his typically nosey way, wanted to know who had been on the other line. He sounded giddy when I said it had been Billy.

“No way! Cool! Did you ask if I could have his number?” he asked me, like I’m Billy’s fucking secretary or something.

“No…he hung up before I could ask him. I can call him back, I guess.” I don’t know why I offered to do that. Sometimes I could kick myself.

“That would be awesome! It’d be great to talk with him!” Bobby answered excitedly.

So, of course, being the dweeb that I am, I call Billy back…

“Hey, Bobby says he wants to talk to you. Can I give him your number?” I drone into the phone. I hoped that I could have shown how uninterested I was in doing that, but Billy didn’t seem to pick up on that.

Now, what Billy was supposed to say was ‘Naw! I do not want that weirdo to have my number! Tell Bobby to fuck the hell off!”

Instead he said, “"I guess so. Sure."

I suppressed a growl of frustration and asked again in hopes that Billy would get the message that I rather not do this, “You really want me to give it to him.”

To my lasting sadness he confirmed, “Yeah.”

“Fine. He'll call you in a minute.” is all I left Billy with since I was so disappointed. I switched over to Bobby and gave him Billy’s number and then hung up on him too.

I went into my room and growled and cursed into my pillow in complete frustration.

I don’t know if I’m right about Bobby, but I really suspect that he wants Billy in the same way I do. His questions to me and the way he acts around Billy all point to the idea that Bobby may like Billy in ‘that’ way. My instincts are screaming it and the crazy part of me is thinking of tracking Bobby down and happily strangling him to get him out of my way!

That said, the most damning thing of all is that I know this is all my fault.

If I hadn’t played games with Billy and acted so hard to get none of this would have happened.

Could I lose Billy to Bobby now? Is Billy justifiably tired of me? Does he want to move on to someone a lot bolder and more courageous than me? Someone like Bobby who seems to be shameless about getting what he wants?

I’m afraid the answer to all of these is ‘yes’.

First Jamie now Bobby…

This is Brandon frustrated.