Something Like Lightning (18 page)

“You want me to make a prediction?”

“Sure,” Kelly said.

William thought about it. “Everything’s going to be perfect.” “Really?”

“Yeah. No more heartbreak. Not for my mom, not for us, not for anyone. And then. Vegas.”

“Vegas?” Kelly asked.

“Yup. We fall so madly in love that by the time the school year is over, we head down to Vegas to get hitched.”

“Wow,” Kelly said. “Are you proposing to me?”

“Not yet,” William said, “but give me another swig from that bottle and we’ll see what happens.”

Kelly laughed and handed it to him. A moment later, shouting came from downstairs. Outside the open window, someone started banging a pan. Two thousand eight had arrived. They looked at each other in surprise, William’s eyes searching his. Then he leaned over, and with lips tasting of champagne, he gave Kelly his first kiss of the year. 
click

“He’s so... nice.”

Bonnie placed her feet on a plastic chair, popped the last bite of a homemade brownie into her mouth, and considered him. “You say that like it’s a cussword.
Nice”

“I’m simply stating the facts,” Kelly insisted.

“And is his niceness the reason he’s not here?”

“Sort of.”

The gay youth meetings had descended into chaos lately. Phil, their group leader, hadn’t shown up today. This happened on occasion when he was ill or some other emergency cropped up, but now he had missed three consecutive meetings. For better or worse, they were on their own. Kelly enjoyed it, since all they did was get together to socialize. William missed the structure and wasn’t as eager to attend anymore.

“I’ve mentioned that Royal is totally crazy about him, right?” Kelly said. “Now he’s decided he wants to be in the Coast Guard too, and today in Galveston they’re having some sort of open house. On a boat. Or maybe an aircraft carrier. I don’t know, but guess where my boyfriend is. He’s driving Royal down there so he can see it.”

“That bastard,” Bonnie said without emotion.

“He’s taking a road trip,” Kelly stressed. “Without me.”

“You couldn’t go?”

“It wouldn’t have been romantic with my little brother tagging along.”

“I guess not.” Bonnie shrugged. “Maybe the break will do you both good. Carpooling to school, classes together, a shared lunch period, and gee, what do you do after school?”

“Hang out.”

“Together. Just you and him. No one else. That’s pretty intense. I don’t remember the last time you and I did anything.”

“Sorry,” Kelly said.

“I get it,” Bonnie said. “I know what it’s like to be in love. But moderation and all that. Eat too much candy and you’ll end up sick.” “Maybe you’re right.”

Bonnie put her hands behind her head and leaned back. “You should be happy. Most couples who spend that much time together argue nonstop. Sounds like you guys get along.”

“We bicker,” Kelly admitted. “Usually over stupid stuff. Like on Valentine’s Day. We went out to dinner together and were halfway through the meal when the waiter asked if we could hurry up. I’d been saving my allowance for weeks! I made that reservation a month in advance too. The stupid waiter didn’t want us to finish our food.”

“Fuck that,” Bonnie said.

“Exactly! It was supposed to be our big romantic night out. I got pissed and told the waiter that not only were we still eating, but we were planning on having a leisurely dessert afterwards. Of course William got all flustered and acted like I was being offensive. Then he ate even faster than usual and insisted he was full. He’s
never
full. So no dessert. Just a rushed meal. Super-expensive fast food. When I suggested we shouldn’t tip the waiter, he looked at me like I was being unreasonable.”

Bonnie scrunched up her face. “Okay, so maybe that’s a little too nice. But it’s still better than him being a jerk. Would you rather William had leapt up from the table and put the waiter in a headlock?”

Kelly thought it about it carefully. “Yes. I would have liked that very much.”

Bonnie laughed. “You’ll be fine. Opposites attract.”

“I suppose. I just wish we hadn’t spent the rest of the night arguing about it. Definitely not a romantic Valentine’s Day.”

They noticed then that the youth group had quieted down. An adult had entered the room, one wearing a flannel shirt and round glasses. With his medium-length hair, the guy could have been a John Denver impersonator. “Settle down now, everyone.”

Kelly and Bonnie exchanged glances. The party was over.

“My name is Keith, and I’ll be leading these group meetings from now on. I’ve been asked not to talk about what happened to Phil, the previous group leader, but I feel that being open and honest is important. As you may have heard, Phil was asked to step down because he engaged in inappropriate conduct.”

“You mean kinky sex?” Bonnie asked.

Keith reconsidered his words. “More of an inappropriate relationship.”

“Wait,” Kelly said. “Wasn’t he married? He talked about going to Massachusetts with his husband just so they could get hitched.”

“That’s true,” Keith said, adjusting his glasses nervously. “I don’t want to go into details, but I thought you should know the general reason.”

The room was silent. “What do we care if he cheated?” Bonnie said. “Has nothing to do with us.”

“Unless one of us helped him cheat,” Kelly said, meaning it as a joke.

In the comer of the room, Layne started coughing, waving away any offers of help. When he recovered, he tittered nervously, unable to make eye contact.

“And now we know,” Kelly murmured.

“Anyway,” Keith said, “with that out of the way, I’m afraid there will be other changes too. Meetings will now be biweekly—” A mixture of groaning and jokes interrupted him. “—but this will also free up the budget to allow activities outside the church. For the remainder of today’s meeting, I thought we could discuss some of those possibilities.”

Kelly rolled his eyes and tuned out the rest of the lecture. Or tried to. Bonnie seemed genuinely interested, even raising her hand when Keith solicited ideas.

“A camping trip,” she said.

“I do love pitching a tent!” Layne chimed in. “With people my own age, of course. Um.”

Other members of the group latched on to Bonnie’s idea. Kelly shot her a glare, as if she had betrayed him.

“What?” she said. “It’ll be fun. Just think about sharing a tent—and a sleeping bag—with William.”

Kelly blinked a few times. Then his hand shot up. “Camping sounds good to me!”

Mosquitoes or the ghastly chemical smell that kept them at bay? Not the best of choices. Kelly slapped his arm, deciding that if he weren’t hoping for action tonight, he would have gladly dunked himself in skunk spray to avoid any more insect bites. He just hoped all this suffering would be worth it. He glanced over at William, who was still trying to get the campfire going. The sun hadn’t gone down yet, but he insisted it would be easier to start now rather than fumbling around in the dark.

“You wouldn’t believe how romantic he is,” Layne was saying to a captive audience. His forbidden relationship with Phil was common knowledge now, but he’d been tight-lipped about the details. Until tonight. With Keith having wandered off to gather firewood, Layne was taking the opportunity spill the details. “I never would have guessed he has a foot fetish. That’s sort of weird, but whatever. He sure knows how to make a guy feel special. Once Phil moves out of his mother’s place, he says we can live together.”

“You’re sixteen,” Kelly pointed out.

“So? That’s legal in most states. I can’t help it if Texas is so prudish.”

“He’s forty years old,” Kelly said next.

“Thirty-nine,” Layne corrected. “And you’re just jealous that I have a lover with so much experience.”

“Congratulations,” Kelly said, “but you guys don’t have anything in common. You can’t.”

“Leave him alone,” William said.

Kelly ignored him. He knew Layne well enough to know he could handle a little teasing. “What do you talk about when you’re not shoving your feet in his face or whatever?”

Layne pursed his lips. “He’s going through a midlife crisis and wishes he could be a teenager again. I
am
a teenager, and I want school to be over so my adult life can begin. We spend a lot of time comparing notes.”

“And other things, no doubt,” Bonnie said. She had her arm around Shirley, a skinny new arrival with big teeth and probing eyes. The black makeup she wore only drew more attention to these features. Kelly supposed she was pretty, in an alien sort of way.

Layne considered them one by one. “You can’t tell me none of you have lusted after an older man. Or woman. Come on! No hot teachers? No friend of the family who always wants you to sit on their lap?”

“You’re horrible,” Lisa said, covering her mouth.

“He’s honest,” Bonnie corrected. “And yes, there was someone. My boss at my first job. She was nearly fifty. Of course I didn’t know that at the time. She could have passed for twenty, I swear, and she totally fed into that. I didn’t find out her real age until—”

Kelly slapped at his neck. Deciding he’d had enough, he stood and headed for his tent. Maybe once the fire was blazing, the smoke would drive away the mosquitoes. Until then, he would take sanctuary inside aluminum poles swathed in cheap nylon. Once inside, he zipped shut the entrance flap and surveyed their weekend paradise. The tent had enough room for two sleeping bags, a cooler filled with ice and drinks, and their backpacks, which contained a change of clothes and toiletries. And in Kelly’s case, a little bit more, just in case things went further than before.

Flopping onto a sleeping bag, he reached for his cell phone before remembering it was still in the car. He spotted William’s and swiped it, typing in the password and checking reception. One meager little bar connected them to civilization. Maybe it would be enough for some surfing. He opened the web browser, finding it on the page William had been viewing last. Google Maps. Nothing interesting. Kelly was about to head over to his Flikr account when he noticed the address. It wasn’t just familiar. He knew it by heart because he’d been there himself. Countless times.

Jared’s house. Why would William need to know where Jared lived? Kelly forced himself to stay calm and consider the possibilities. An affair? That was laughable. Kelly may have once deluded himself into thinking Jared was gay, but he harbored no such illusions now. Maybe William loved Kelly so much that he felt driven to pick a fight with Jared. But no, he was much too kind for anything like that.

Kelly wracked his brain but couldn’t think of a single reason why William would need Jared’s address. Not one. William’s text messages and email revealed nothing. Finally, he got up and unzipped the tent. Keith had returned, the fire was nearing a roar, but Kelly had no intention of rejoining his friends.

“Darling?” he said. “Could you step inside for a moment?”

“Got a hankering for some hanky-pankering?” Layne asked. “No doubt my stories got you all riled up.”

“That’s right,” Kelly said. “William, get in here so I can suck your toes.”

He smiled at the laughs this summoned, but as soon as William was in the tent and the flap zipped shut, he became serious. “I didn’t mean to snoop,” he said, holding up the phone. “I was just trying to... What is this?”

William, sitting on his knees, peered at the screen before realization dawned. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Kelly repeated.

William sighed. “I don’t want to have another argument. This is supposed to be our special weekend together.”

“No one is arguing!” Kelly said, his voice rising. Then he forced himself to take a deep breath. “I just want to know why you were looking up the address of someone who— Ugh. Forget it.”

“Someone who what?” William asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Broke your heart?”

Kelly gritted his teeth. “Someone who hurt me. And don’t tell me you’re still jealous of him!”

William sighed and let his arms drop. “He’s in my sociology class.”

“Since when?”

“The beginning of the semester. Ever since we changed our classes around. You know, so I could spend more time with my boyfriend and eat lunch with him every day.” William offered a smile. “Remember that?”

“Yes,” Kelly said, feeling a little better. “So why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew it would upset you.”

“Damn right,” Kelly said, but he did so softly. Crisis averted. Almost. “I still don’t get why you have his address.”

“We were assigned to work together on a project.”

“So you had to meet after school? That must have been awkward.” William broke eye contact.

“What? Tell me.”

“You were friends with him for a reason, right? He’s a likable guy.” Kelly’s jaw dropped. “Are you telling me that you’re
friends
with him?”

“We talked a lot while working on the project. His grandfather was in the Coast Guard, and they still have a lot of his things so—”

“Are you kidding me? The fucking Coast Guard is your excuse?” “No!” William said. “I don’t need an excuse. He’s a nice guy and we hung out. Don’t act like that’s a bad thing because you were his friend once too!”

“Yeah, before he made racist and homophobic comments. Has he mentioned that?”

“We don’t talk about you,” William said. “He started to once, but I felt it would be disrespectful, like talking behind your back.”

“Disrespectful is sneaking around to hang out with someone I—” “Still love?” William interrupted. “I know.”

“No,” Kelly said, jaw clenching. “That’s not how I feel at all. And for someone you think I still love, you sure seem eager to spend time with him.”

“I honestly don’t think about it. When I hang out with Jared, everything is normal. It’s only when you overreact like this that I wonder.”

“Wonder what? That I don’t love you?”

William shook his head reluctantly. “I don’t know.”

Kelly stared at him. “I get upset about you hanging out with a former friend, and that somehow equals me not loving you anymore. Great! That makes perfect sense! So what does not taking my feelings into consideration when hanging out with your new buddy mean?”