Andy's Circle - 7. Players

I came to school that day in high spirits in anticipation of Rex’s approaching visit, and Nico noticed it right away. Not like I was trying to hide it, to be honest. I was happy and I didn’t mind if people noticed. After our first class, we went out to the lockers to get our stuff for the next class, which was chemistry. Ugh, I hated it so much, unlike Nico, who was actually good at it. Good thing we were in class together, so he could help me.

“Hey, what’s gotten into you today?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just that I got a text, my best friend’s coming to town. I haven’t seen him in months,” I said without thinking.

“I thought I was your best friend,” Nico replied jokingly, but it made me wonder – does he really consider me his best friend? We’ve become very close these few weeks we’ve known each other, but I wasn’t sure I could call him my best friend yet. I mean, I’ve known Rex for years and even though he was living in another country, it would take a lot for someone to take his place.

“I meant he’s my best straight friend,” I said, raising my eyebrows and giving him a grin.

“Oh, I see,” he smiled back, obviously pleased with my comeback. “So how come you haven’t seen each other for so long? Where does he live?”

“In Canada,” I said with a frown. “He moved there years ago, but we’ve been friends practically since we were babies. Maybe you can come over and meet him when he arrives?” I offered.

“Sure, why not?” Nico nodded.

“Great! What did you do over the weekend?”

“Oh, I went with Lori and Carl to the pool, it was awesome. You should come with us some time, it’ll be fun!”

Nico’s brother and sister were both older than him, but I still haven’t met them. His sister Lori sounded cool, but his brother Carl was definitely a player, at least from what Nico told me. He was a big football jock and a bit arrogant, but I guess that comes with the territory. At least they were both fine with Nico being gay.

“Sure, count me in,” I agreed. It couldn’t hurt to get to know them, plus I haven’t gone swimming in ages!

At lunch, we sat together much like we always did, chatting and eating food that was… passable, I guess. Nico was telling me about a new movie he wanted to watch, Shazam, when we noticed Jackson a few tables from us, talking to some guy.

“Oh, there’s Jackson, want me to get his attention to come sit with us?”

“I think he’s busy, if you haven’t noticed,” Nico smirked.

“Ohh… I didn’t know that was his boyfriend,” I replied, a bit confused. I actually thought Jackson was single. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me that he might be seeing someone. He certainly never mentioned anything.

“Never said it was his boyfriend,” Nico teased. Ok, now he was starting to get on my nerves a little. I know the two of them have history, but how was I supposed to know what was going on?

“Well, you said he was busy, what else was I to think?” I said defensively.

“I mean,” Nico lowered his voice along with his head, “they’re just fooling around, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh, ok,” I nodded slightly, still somewhat taken aback. I looked at Nico, observing his reaction. He looked down at his food and after a few seconds, continued quietly.

“That’s actually why we broke up.”

“You mean he cheated on you with that dude?” I asked, shocked at his confession. Jackson seemed like a cool guy and I didn’t expect him to be the cheating kind. Then again, how well did I really know him?

“No, he didn’t cheat with anyone, but he didn’t want anything serious either. I wanted us to be boyfriends, in a serious relationship, but he just wanted sex, no commitments,” Nico explained. “So, we decided we didn’t want the same thing and broke up. That dude,” he glanced at the guy next to Jackson, “is just his latest trophy.”

“I had no idea,” I said honestly. I didn’t know what else to say.

“Jackson didn’t tell you?”

“No, nothing.”

We continued eating in silence for a minute, and as I thought about changing the topic from the awkward conversation we just had, we were interrupted by a girl who came over and stood next to our table. She was a mannish girl with a ton of makeup on her face. I guess she thought it’d make her look prettier, but it only made her look ridiculous. She was one of the few students who’d sometimes give strange looks to me and Nico when they thought we weren’t watching.

She stood in silence for a few moments until we turned to look at her.

“Nice shirt, Nico,” she said snidely. “Can I borrow it sometime?”

Nico was wearing a cute pink shirt with a Pokemon print. He certainly didn’t give a rat’s ass about the color, and neither did I, but some people obviously found it something to be made fun of.

“Thanks, it’s actually a men’s shirt. So I guess it would suit you,” Nico said, cocking his eyebrow and smirking at the girl. She opened her mouth slightly, but was lost for words. The two girls standing behind her burst into laughter, unable to control themselves. That did it for me and I joined in, laughing my ass off. The girl shot her friends a nasty look and stormed off.

“Who was that bitch?” I asked, wiping tears from my face.

“No clue,” Nico shrugged. “Obviously jealous of my superior fashion sense,” he teased and I snorted in response.

Just a few moments later, a guy with beautiful, wavy brown hair came up to us.

“Hey, guys. Sorry about Nicole. She’s my cousin, but she can be a real bitch,” he said apologetically.

“It’s not your fault, you don’t have to apologize,” I said. “I’m Andy, by the way, and this is Nico.”

“Oh… Sorry, I’m Austin. Nice to meet you,” he blurted out. He looked really cute, all confused and not knowing what to say.

“You too,” Nico said. “Are you a freshman? We haven’t seen you around?”

“Yeah, I am. Well, this is actually my first day. My family just moved here from the West Coast.”

“Oh, welcome then! If you need any help, let us know,” I smiled at the cutie and got up as we’d finished eating.

Austin thanked us and walked off, leaving Nico and me to go and get ready for the next class.

***

I spent much of the Saturday morning walking around the neighborhood and taking pictures. The weather was actually perfect for that. I know people usually hate fall because it’s starting to get cold and rainy, but it’s really inspiring for taking pictures, at least for me. Random puddles on the street after rain, heaps of fallen leaves on the ground, trees painted in shades of gold and red, everything around you was just inviting you to snap a photo.

After lunch, I went to my room and copied all of the photos on my computer, choosing the best ones and deleting the others. Mark was there to help me choose and tell me what he thought of them. He must’ve noticed I was fidgeting like I usually would whenever I was nervous about something. Only this time I wasn’t exactly nervous, just anxious to see Rex.

“Heard from Rex yet?” he asked. I guess I was easy to read.

“Not yet. They should’ve arrived by now. I guess they’ll come once they get some rest from the trip,” I replied, playing it down like it was no biggie, while in fact I could hardly wait to see him.

“Yeah, I guess so. Hey, when you’re finished here, wanna go out and see the new tennis rackets dad bought? We could play some table tennis later,” Mark offered. I wasn’t really into it, but I said ok just because he was my brother and he often did things I wanted even though he wasn’t particularly interested.

It wasn’t long after we went outside to check out the new rackets and set up a table for tennis that we heard the gate open and a familiar face appear – Rex!

Wow, I was always surprised when I would see him after being away for so long. He looked really tall and tanned, like what were they feeding him there? And where did he get all the sun from? You’d think he was living in the Caribbean, not Canada!

Anyway, he looked really good and I couldn’t hide the grin plastered across my face. I was just so glad to have my best friend back, at least for a few days. He looked up at us and smiled. I waved him over and he walked slowly toward Mark and me.

“Hey guys! How’s it going?!”

“Hey, you’re here!” I exclaimed, giving him a big hug. Ahh, it felt so good to be close to him again!

“Yeah, finally!” Rex replied, returning the hug. “It’s great to be back! Hey, Mark,” he added, turning to hug my brother as well.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Mark asked, patting him on the back.

“How was the trip?” I asked.

“Good, but I’m glad it’s over. What are you guys up to?” he asked curiously, seeing us setting up a table at the middle of our back yard.

“We’re gonna play some table tennis, wanna join?” Mark said, pointing at the rackets and balls.

“Sure!” Rex replied readily, obviously excited to play. He always did love sports more than me, but this time I didn’t mind playing either, just to be close to him.

As we played ping-pong and laughed together, I realized how much I missed his voice, his smile and just his presence. Sure, Nico and Jackson were great, I loved hanging out with them, but now that Rex was here, I realized how much I wanted him back.

Suddenly, mom opened the door that lead from the house to the back yard and Dean ran out like lightning, barking and heading straight toward Rex’s legs. Once he reached his target, he started jumping around, obviously wanting to play with the new human he didn’t recognize.

“Ohhh, who’s this?!” Rex said excitedly. “You didn’t tell me you had a dog!”

“Yeah, I forgot. Rex, meet Dean Winchester!” I grinned, looking at the two of them playing. I couldn’t tell who was happier, Rex or the puppy. I noticed my best friend had no reaction to the dog’s name. Well, he obviously wasn’t a Supernatural fan like Jackson and I…

A few minutes later, Mark and Rex continued their match while I took over the satisfying duty of entertaining Dean. The dog seemed to have endless energy as he ran around the back yard, with me behind, trying to get him interested in catching a ball that I was throwing.

My phone rang and I fished it out of my pocket, seeing Jackson’s face on the screen. If I’m being honest, my opinion of him has changed a bit since the day Nico told me about why they broke up, but not necessarily in a bad way. It just made me realize how sometimes we don’t really know some people as well as we’d like to think.

I just never thought of Jackson as someone who’d have sex with a bunch of random guys, but at least he didn’t go behind Nico’s back and cheated. He was honest and upfront about what he wanted.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey, man, I was just taking Sam out for a walk and wanted to see if you were home,” Jackson said.

“Sure, come by. I’ll grab Dean and we can walk them together.”

“Cool, I’ll be over in fifteen. See ya!”

As he opened the gate, Jackson let Sam from the leash and the pup ran toward Dean, the two brothers reuniting. It was surely brotherly love worthy of Supernatural! While the pups played together in the grass, I introduced Jackson to Rex and Mark, who were still engrossed in their little ping-pong duel.

Leaving the two of them to duke it out, Jackson and I sat on the porch and got some sodas. Looking at Rex and Mark playing tennis, I could see they were having fun, not even noticing I wasn’t there. I felt a pang of jealousy although I knew it was ridiculous. What was I exactly jealous of? My best friend hanging out with my brother? If only I didn’t have these feelings for Rex, things would be so much easier…

“Shall we?” I finally stood up and got Dean on a leash. Strangely, I wanted to get out of there.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Jackson followed with Sam and soon we were out, walking down the street with our two dogs strutting in front of us.

“So, that’s the famous Rex you’ve been talking about?”

“Yeah, he just arrived today.”

“And you guys are just friends or…?”

“Yeah, of course. He’s been my best friend since childhood,” I said, looking straight ahead even though I could tell Jackson was looking at me. I didn’t want to look at him, afraid that my face would betray some of the emotions I was feeling.

“Ok…” he replied, clearly not convinced with my response.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, I mean, I have eyes, Andy. I saw the way you were looking at him.” I still refused to look at Jackson, but by the sound of his voice I could tell he was now smiling.

“Well, aren’t you perceptive,” I finally turned toward him and rolled my eyes. “So what, maybe I have a crush.”

“I’m not judging, just observing,” he said defensively, now grinning at me, pleased that he was able to make me confess.

“Speaking of observing, I saw you with that guy today during lunch,” I said, desperate to change the subject.

“What guy, Danny?” Jackson asked.

“I don’t know, Nico didn’t tell me his name. Or he did and I forgot.”

“Oh… And what else did Nico say?” Jackson said, his voice now unusually timid. “Something about our breakup, I guess?”

“Yeah, he did mention it.”

We walked in silence for a while before Jackson spoke again.

“Danny’s cute, we fool around now and then. Nico wanted something more serious, but I wasn’t ready for that. Fuck, I’m sixteen, I wanna have fun, you know?”

I nodded. Although I didn’t feel the same way, I understood him. A lot of guys our age feel the same way, it’s only natural, I guess.

Jackson explained what happened between them and then asked: “What did Nico say?”

“Pretty much the same thing you told me,” I confirmed. “Not that you guys owed me any explanation or anything. But I consider you both my friends and I’m glad we can all hang out.”

“Sure,” Jackson nodded. “No hard feelings on my part.”

“Good to hear that,” I smiled.

“And that was a great way to change the subject from you and Rex,” Jackson said, giving me that ‘busted!’ look.

“What? I would never…” I feigned ignorance, but then smirked a second later when I looked at the tall blond.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jackson nodded sarcastically and playfully bumped my shoulder. “Of course you wouldn’t.”

My sincere thanks to everyone who is reading the story, I appreciate every one of you!!