Black Star Cross - 31. Busted!

Black Star Cross

Chapter 31: Busted!

“Dude!” yelped Keith.

“Hey!” I said simultaneously.

We both rushed to Anthony’s side. He was leaning against the lockers, looking about ready to throw up. A cold sweat was starting to form. Mentally, I was searching for where the nurse’s station would be. I was beginning to worry. Goddammit! What the hell is going on here!?

“Yo! Anthony! What’s wrong!?” said Keith. “Was it something I said?”

I just HAD to give him that look, the one that says “No shit, Sherlock!” Anthony was slowly starting to regain his composure. He was still looking fearfully at Keith. Now that I think about it, what Keith had said wasn’t all too surprising. Did I NOT tell Anthony MANY TIMES that Keith might know about us? Just how dense did Anthony think Keith was? Aren’t they supposed to be “best friends” or something?

“You...what...what?” he said between pants.

“Hey Anthony, are you going to be okay?” I asked.

He completely ignored me.

“Keith...I...uh...um...” he continued, still breathing heavily.

“Yo, dude, chill out,” Keith said. “You’re starting to scare me here, man.”

“Keith...what...did you say about us?” Anthony asked, finally able to put words together.

“Dude, I just asked if you guys were a couple or not,” he answered plainly. It was as if he was asking what time it was.

Anthony continued to stare in fear.

“Bro, it’s a yes or no answer. It’s not that hard.”

Feeling that I should finally get involved with this, I turned to Keith.

“What do YOU think the answer is?” I challenged.

He turned to me, a quizzical expression on his face, like he just realized that I might be involved in this as well.

“Well, I assumed you two were. I mean, what with the closeness you guys have and all, being complete strangers at the beginning of the year.”

“We were far from being ‘complete strangers’ back then. It was more along the lines of ‘bully’ and ‘bullied.’”

“Okay, true enough. But now with all the friendly chatter you guys have, it’s confusing to the rest of us, you know?”

“Who’s the rest of you?”

“Duh. Try the student population. Why else do you think those sex rumors were going on in the first place? Or why Anthony’s involved with these new ones? Plus you have to take into consideration that Anthony’s never had a real girlfriend before, and not much is known about you, so we can assume anything we want to about you. For all we know, you’re a hustler who picks up old married guys late at night for some spending cash for drugs. You never say anything, so therefore you never refute anything as well.”

“I DON’T pick up old married guys for sex and blow the money on drugs!” I growled, outraged that he would think of such a thing. Did these people NOT think that I had any dignity?

“Well there you go. Now we know that that’s not true, but what about any of the other rumors? You’ve still got a lot of talking to do. That’s how high school works, dude.”

‘That’s how high school works, dude.’ Had I not been thinking that all along? Wasn’t that practically my motto? Was I incorrect in my theories about high school? About the social hierarchies within it? Was there something that I had missed? Has it come around to bite me in the ass?

“Yo, none of this answers my question, bros,” he continued, becoming impatient.

Anthony was still motionless. I was too busy rethinking my theories on life. Keith was about ready to do the potty dance from being ignored.

“Yes, we are,” I said.

“Shawn!!! You motherfucker!!!” Anthony yelled in response.

“What?” I asked, ignoring the looks we received from people nearby due to his outburst. “He already knows. If he didn’t, he would’ve eventually. Plus, your response just now kinda confirmed it.”

I swear Anthony was about to cry. He seemed to be taking this way too seriously. I mean, I know that this is his, ours actually, first coming out to someone else, but it’s to Keith, who seems to have known forever and doesn’t seem too bothered by it.

“Keith,” he begged. “Please tell me that you won’t tell anybody else. Please promise me that you won’t tell Liz, Brett, or Wes. Please...”

The warning bell suddenly rang. Students started scrambling to get to their next class. Keith started to back away.

“Hey bros. I got to get going. Seeya later!” he said, then dashed off into the mass of students.

“No!” Anthony yelled, but it was too late. Keith could no longer be seen.

“Come on, Anthony. Get up,” I said to him. “We can’t do anything right now. And we both have to get to our next class.”

Anthony didn’t say anything back, but got up anyways. We only had one minute left before our next class began. There was no way that he would make it in time, but I might if I run.

“Listen, I’m going to get going too, okay? Just keep telling the truth to people. You ain’t doing anything with Peter. Seeya!”

I left Anthony to fend for himself. I felt bad about it, but I needed to get to class. With my grades being the way they are now, I couldn’t really afford to miss any of them if I could help it. I hope that Anthony finds his way to class okay. I managed to make it to class just as the late bell rang.

I didn’t see him until the end of the day. He was already at my locker, ready to go. This hasn’t happened before. Usually it takes him a couple minutes to get his stuff ready before coming over here.

“How did you get here so fast?”

“I skipped my last class.” he simply stated.

“What?!” I said, exasperated.

“Well, I didn’t want to go through an entire class period with all those people staring at me like some sideshow freak. And Keith was also in that class as well. I didn’t want to deal with either of them. So I hung out in the gym, bench-pressing some weights. I got out early, got my stuff ready, and timed it so that I was only waiting for you for a minute.”

It’s sad to think that he could put so much effort into something like this and not into something constructive, like learning or having awesome gay sex. I sighed and rubbed my temples.

“Anthony, you can’t just go skipping classes because things are bad right now,” I reprimanded. I felt like I was talking to a child here. “I don’t want you failing your senior year as much as you don’t.”

“My grades aren’t that bad. I can afford to skip a class or two.”

“Were you only going to skip a class or two?”

He looked to the ground.

“Maybe.”

I developed the sudden urge to smack him right then and there. I, thankfully, suppressed it.

“Look. Let’s just go already. I got my bag ready and everything.”

“Cool. Let’s hit it.”

We walked out to his car. Anthony seemed to be walking faster than usual. It was hard trying to keep up. He power-walked his way to his car, trying not to make any eye contact with anybody else. I felt like the girlfriend of some celebrity who didn’t want to be seen with me, walking past the paparazzi with him. It was pretty much the same thing. Even I wasn’t that dumb. Anthony wanted people to see as little of us together as possible. Understandable, given the circumstances that we’re in right now, and given how people in this school are during a hot gossip season. So it was understandable when we both heard somebody give us the cat call. Anthony spun around to see who it was. Neither he nor I could pinpoint the exact location of the guy.

“FUCKER!!!” he yelled, giving the finger in the general direction of where the whistle came from. We then both made it to his car and got in. We pulled out and drove a little ways before Anthony started breaking down.

“Fuck!” he said, while hitting the steering wheel with his fist. I was surprised the airbag didn’t deploy. His face was reddening; a sure sign that he just might cry in the very near future.

“Why is it like this?” he said to no one in particular.

“Anthony, pull over. I don’t want us getting killed because of your menopausal driving,” I said.

He didn’t laugh nor smile, but he did pull off to the side of the road and got out of the car. We switched sides and I took over driving while he continued to think aloud.

“Why me? Why did people have to suspect me? Why did ‘I’ get involved? Oh God, if I didn’t kiss you, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“What was that?!” I said, angrily. I did NOT just hear him say that.

“If I didn’t kiss you, then I wouldn’t have been as close to you, and there wouldn’t have been any rumors about us in the first place, and I wouldn’t have been thrown into these rumors at all, and even if I was, I could’ve laughed them off because I wouldn’t be afraid of people finding out the real truth, and...”

“Anthony, shut the fuck up,” I interrupted. “Chances are, if you didn’t kiss me that one night, you would’ve done it eventually. You wouldn’t be able to hide your feelings for me forever. At some point, you would’ve broken down and taken a bigger risk than you did. Just kissing me that one time didn’t turn you gay. I don’t see why we keep having to have this conversation. You don’t just ‘turn gay.’ It’s about as much biological as the color of your eyes. You can’t do anything about it.”

A moment of silences before him saying, “So...what? You think we’re star-crossed lovers or something?”

“I’m not quite sure about destiny and predetermined fates or whatnot. It may have been completely random that you felt something about me. What I’m saying is that once you did feel something for me, it’s practically set in stone that at some point, your feelings would grow to the point where you’d risk being caught in the school bathroom trying to give me a blowjob.”

“Blech! Disgusting,” he reacted.

“Oh you’ll like it. If it takes you a hundred tries, you’ll like it.”

“I am NOT putting my mouth anywhere NEAR your dick.”

“Oh c’mon. You know you want to. You’re curious, admit it. You want to know what it tastes like.”

“DUDE! No! It probably tastes all slimy and disgusting-like.”

“You never know until you try.”

“I think I can live without, thanks.”

I could tell that our little banter was cheering him up, despite what it may seem. He turned to me.

“Dude, can we go to Aunt Emmy’s? I don’t feel like going home right now.”

“Why not? Won’t your mom be worried?”

“She works late tonight. She wouldn’t know I’m gone unless I get there after seven. And I have a feeling that Keith might show up at my house soon, and I can’t deal with him right now.”

Knowing better, I still said, “Okay. But you’re still going home before seven.”

He turned back to the window.

“Thanks, dude.”

It didn’t take very long for us to arrive there. It wasn’t until we got onto the driveway that I realized that maybe my own mom might worry where I was. Maybe. I honestly don’t know with her anymore. But maybe Kim?

“I might have to phone home to let my mom know where I’m at. She might come home early and be surprised that I’m not there. Or Kim might be worried as well when she comes home and no one’s there,” I said.

“Well dude, there’s always the phone in the kitchen.”

“Won’t Emmy be surprised to see you and me here?”

“Probably. We’ll just have to wing it when she starts asking questions.”

I raised an eyebrow, not liking the idea of lying for him to someone whom cared for me so much like Emmy did. However, I’m sure that, if the roles were switched, I’d be asking Anthony to do the same thing for me. We walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. Emmy did seem surprised to see us.

“Anthony! Shawn! Why hello there. What brings you two to this humble of joy? Come in, come in!” she ushered us in.

She hasn’t seemed to have changed much in her demeanor. Cheery as always, she led us into the kitchen, where she offered us something to eat. I inquired about the phone, and she let me use it. I rang home and got the answering machine. It seems like no one was home. I left an answer on the machine, explaining where I was and why and when I would get home, and hung up. I turned around and looked at Anthony, chowing down some of Emmy’s cookies. She’s supposedly his aunt, but acts more like a grandmother than anything else. She looks like one, too. I sat down next to him.

“So may I ask why you two are here?” she inquired.

Knowing better than to say anything at this point, I kept my mouth shut.

“I’m just a little stressed out right now, Aunt Emmy,” answered Anthony. “School’s been tough, y’know? And I felt like this was a safe place to go to.”

“Well, you know that it is, dear.”

“And I brought Shawn along basically because we carpool anyways. He doesn’t mind.”

‘I’d like to have said that myself, instead of you putting words in my mouth, Anthony.’ And I wonder how many lies he’s going to spin today?

“Oh? Is that true, Shawn?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s true,” I answered, willing to go along with this charade.

She seemed to pause and think for a moment or two.

“I would have thought that the stress came from your boys’ relationship.”

Anthony started choking on his cookie. I started patting his back. Emmy looked on in puzzlement. Oh God, not again.