Chapter Two

Chapter Two

“Hey, baby,” Leo spoke into his cell phone after practice the next afternoon, “I told you I’d call. Uh, let me know if you’re free tonight and maybe we can do something. I know your parents sometimes have shit to do on Saturdays and you may have to watch Max, but let me know… Call me back.”

Leo shut his flip phone and threw it inside his sports bag. He glanced up from the bag to find amused looks on some of his teammates’ faces.

“Baby?” Scott said, laughing, “You call him baby?”

“You call Shelby baby!” Leo said, pulling off his t-shirt and changing into a polo.

“Yeah, but it’s-”

“No it isn’t,” came a voice from behind Scott. It was Zac, one of Leo’s oldest friends, who had just gotten out of the shower. His hair was matted down by the water. “It’s not different. Leo’s whipped by Robby like you’re whipped by Shelby!”

Everyone laughed, including Leo and Scott. Leo finished getting changed and waited for Zac to get dressed. The two walked out of the locker room together to the sidewalk, where Zac leaned against the fence and faced Leo.

“If you’re not busy with your boyfriend tonight, maybe we could hang out.”

“Why don’t we double?” Leo asked, “You can bring Natasha.”

A pained look came over Zac’s face. “You don’t want to subject Robby to Natasha.”

“I subject him to you!” Leo said.

“Oh funny,” Zac said, “Don’t compare me to Nat. I’m not nearly as bad as her…”

“You complain about her all the time. Why don’t you break up with her?” Leo asked.

“For the same reason that Jeremy didn’t break up with Gloria in Wedding Crashers. I dig it.”

“You sound like such an idiot when you talk like that,” Leo laughed, walking in the direction of his house.

Zac pushed himself off the fence and followed Leo. “Alright, smartass. So why do you like Robby? He’s got to be tolerant to put up with you.”

“Yeah, Robby’s made of steel,” Leo said sarcastically, “I don’t know. Why do you care?”

“I’m just curious,” Zac told him.

“Because he’s cute and funny. And he’s smart, when he’s not making some stupid joke and applying himself,” Leo said before continuing with, “Are we watching Pearl Harbor when we get to my house? Do you want to knock out the research paper now?”

“Might as well,” Zac said, nodding, “I don’t feel like doing it tomorrow. My parents want me to join them tomorrow for breakfast.”

“Ouch,” Leo said.

“Yeah,” Zac said, shuddering, “Apparently they’re going to attempt to undo some of the damage they inflicted upon me when they divorced.”

One of the reasons that Leo and Zac had become close was that their parents had divorced at around the same time, when the boys were fourteen. The two had come together for a mutual love of their fathers and a mutual dislike of their mothers, though Zac wouldn’t argue that Leo’s dislike was much, much deeper. Zac didn’t like his mother for having an affair with a coworker. Leo didn’t like his mother because she was an overly conservative idiot who refused to accept her son for who he was. When Kevin voted Gore, Angela voted Bush. Kevin and Angela Parker were polar opposites in every way, and Leo learned at an early age that his mother was wrong on almost every topic and that Kevin had a much more liberal view on things. Needless to say, when it came time to see who would get custody of Leo, Leo had chosen his father immediately, with no hesitation. He didn’t care if he hurt his mother; she hurt him every time she told him that his “lifestyle” was a sin.

Zac’s parents weren’t exactly on speaking terms, but every once in a while, they would get together with Zac for a meal or something. On occasion, Leo was jealous of this. Then again, he hated looking at his mother, so he quickly got over the jealousy.

When they reached Leo’s house, they heard opera music blasting through the open kitchen window. They periodically saw Leo’s dad move in front of the window, obviously in the kitchen. When they opened the door, they got hit with an almost nauseating wave of the scent of cookies.

“I’ll never get over the fact that your dad cooks,” Zac said, brightening at the side of the kitchen table laden with various types of cookies.

“If you ever get married and divorced, Zac, then you’ll get it,” came the voice of Leo’s dad.

“What’s up, Kevin?” Zac greeted.

“Help yourselves to some cookies,” Kevin said, not taking any notice that Zac had called him by his first name. Kevin told a lot of Leo’s friends to call him by his first name.

“Did you spend all day baking, Dad?” Leo asked, selecting a chocolate chip cookie from the table.

“Basically, yes…” Kevin said, “It’s not like I had anything better to do.”

“Uh, you could have gone to the office,” Leo said.

Kevin was an environmental lawyer who worked about twenty five minutes away in a more bustling part of New Jersey. He made decent money doing his job, and often got to pick his own hours, which surprised a lot of people. Kevin picked random days of the week to go into the office, unless he was actually needed there, which he often wasn’t. He was more of an over-seer of things. The part of his job description that he cherished most, that wasn’t actually written in his job description, was that he got to boss people around.

In response to Leo’s statement, Kevin shot him a look that said, “Like I’d spend a Saturday at the office.”

“Don’t you have a date tonight or something, Dad?” Leo asked, changing the subject. The idea of his father dating wasn’t hard for Leo to talk about at all. As long as the woman was better than his mother, Leo didn’t care who his father went out with.

“Yeah,” Kevin said, staring at the clock, “It’s at seven.”

“You should bring her some cookies,” Zac said, his mouth practically stuffed with a sugar cookie, “These are awesome.”

“Thanks, Zac,” Kevin said, “But I think she’s on a no-carb diet.”

“Who isn’t these days?” Leo asked, grabbing some more cookies. “Dad, we’re going up to my room to watch Pearl Harbor. Let me know when you’re about to leave.”

“Sure thing,” Kevin said.

Leo and Zac exited the kitchen and darted up the stairs. The house was relatively large, especially since only two people lived in it. Leo had the biggest room in the house, with room for a couch underneath one of the four windows as well as a king sized bed.

Zac made himself comfortable on one of the sides of Leo’s bed, enjoying eating more of the cookies that Kevin had baked. Leo searched through his DVD collection underneath his DVD player until he came across the Pearl Harbor DVD.

“Have you seen all of them?” Zac asked, referring to the large DVD collection.

“Most,” Leo said, “My dad likes to collect DVDs, even if we never watch them. To be honest, I’m more interested in the foreign films he picks up. And the indie flicks.”

“When did you stop watching mainstream?” Zac asked.

Leo put the DVD in the player and waited for it to load before seating himself next to Zac on his bed. “Right around the same time I started dating Robby.”

“How can you watch foreign movies?” Zac wanted to know, shuddering, “All those subtitles…”

“You have to want to watch it,” Leo said, skipping through the previews, “If you don’t want to watch it, you’ll get bored.”

“And what about indie movies?” Zac asked, “Do you have to want to watch them too?”

“Yeah,” Leo said, “I mean, you can watch them without needing to really pay attention, since you’re not reading subtitles, But most people think they’re boring without all the special effects and large lumps of money poured into them.”

“They are boring.”

“You liked Garden State,” Leo reminded him.

“Yeah, but that’s because Natalie Portman’s hot,” Zac explained.

Leo rolled his eyes and hit play on the screen.

--

“Hey, baby. I told you I’d call. Uh, let me know if you’re free tonight and maybe we can do something. I know your parents sometimes have shit to do on Saturdays and you may have to watch Max, but let me know… Call me back.”

Robby shot his flip phone and couldn’t help but grinning as he thought about what Leo had said to him. It was almost five o’clock, and Robby felt guilty about having to do overtime when he told Leo he’d be out at three. Robby tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. He texted him, but he didn’t respond.

Robby sat on his bed in his bedroom, staring at the ceiling. Where was Leo? A lot of people would be coming up with various depressing scenarios, like Leo got into a car accident or was actually cheating on Robby with someone else. Robby didn’t worry about things like that. He had enough stuff to worry about already.

He heard music blaring from Max’s bedroom next door, and Robby couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Since becoming a freshman in high school, Max had taken to thinking he was cool. Robby explained to him time and time again that the sophomore, juniors, and seniors didn’t take the freshmen seriously. Using the line, “Well, you were a freshman once, too!” would get you nowhere, because it would fall on deaf ears. The common response to said statement was, “Yeah, but I’m not anymore, so fuck off.”

Robby couldn’t wait for the school year to be over. He would be free from school work at Lucas Hills, and while the majority of his time would be consumed by his job at the golf course, he’d have a lot more time to spend with Leo. That was the most exciting prospect of summer. He just couldn’t stand the idea of Max thinking he was going to be cooler once he became a sophomore. Max already had too much of an ego.

Robby vaguely wondered where Olivia was. He knew she worked on the weekends as a “barista” at Starbucks, which also made Robby roll his eyes. Out his entire family, Olivia was the most accepting of him, but Robby knew that that was only because Olivia was as blonde as they come, and the only reason she would be accepting was because she didn’t fully understand what the cold, hard definition of gay was, despite her being a senior and almost-graduate from high school.

Robby’s cell phone suddenly vibrated and he looked at the main screen. He had a new text message: Watching Pearl Harbor with Zac. It’ll be over by seven. Want to do something with me and Z and Nat?

Sure, Robby typed back and waited for a response. When it came back, it said: Brace yourself for Nat. We’ll meet you at my house at seven.

After texting back, “Okay,” Robby headed into his bathroom to take a shower. His shoulders were sore from lugging bags of golf balls around all after. The heat felt soothing on his muscles. He never understood how Leo’s shoulders could take such a beating from lacrosse.

He was out within ten minutes. He chose a pair of jeans and a polo that he knew Leo loved: dark blue with baby blue trimming and a black interior. He wasn’t as fond of it, but he knew Leo liked it, so what difference did it make to him?

His hair was the next problem. His dark brown hair was semi-long and minimally wavy, but he could only get the waves out by using a straightening iron (something he took grief about from his friends all the time); if he tried merely blow-drying it out, it became a gigantic, poofy mess similar to an afro. He didn’t mind the waves, but sometimes they fell into his eyes, and he liked having his eyes free. He was about to heat up the straightener, but froze at the last second. Leo liked his waves, so he’d let them go.

Robby threw on a pair of black Vans that he never wore, mostly because Leo liked them. After staring at himself in the mirror, there really wasn’t much about his appearance that evening that didn’t have something to do with Leo’s preference of his clothes.

As he was straightening the collar on his polo, he heard a loud banging noise from the room next to his. He rolled his eyes. Max had decided to turn up the music on his trashy screamo music from the early nineties. Robby really didn’t know where Max had picked up on his taste in music, as he and Olivia definitely didn’t give it to him. Olivia was still wrapped up in the pop music from the late nineties to early two thousands, something both Robby and Max had attempted to stamp out of her to no avail, and Robby preferred alternative post-grunge music from the mid to late nineties. He preferred listening to Matchbox Twenty and Third Eye Blind to the types of music his siblings listened to.

After running over to Max’s room to yell at him to turn down his music, Robby returned to his room and sat down at his computer to check his email. He hadn’t done that for several days, and his inbox was full.

--

When checking his email got boring, Robby took for Leo’s house. He knew he was going to be early, but he knew that Leo wouldn’t mind. He figured he’d just watch the rest of the movie with him. Robby arrived at Leo’s house about twenty five minutes before seven. Robby loved Leo’s house. It felt homey and quaint despite its large size. Robby’s house was bigger, but it felt cold and uninviting. Leo’s house was warm and welcoming.

After knocking on the bright white door, it flew open to reveal Kevin standing there attempting to tie his tie.

“Hey, Robby!” he greeted kindly, “I suppose you and Leo have plans?”

“Yeah, we’re going to do something with Zac and Natasha,” Robby nodded.

“Hmm,” Kevin responded absent-mindedly, “Well, Zac and Leo are up in Leo’s room watching Pearl Harbor. Go on up.”

“Thanks,” Robby said, and took off for the stairs as fast as he could. Kevin was a perfectly nice man, but Robby never felt at ease around him. Kevin was about a million times less judgmental than his own parents, but he still wasn’t comfortable around him. But that wasn’t anything new; Robby felt uncomfortable around most people. The only one he felt completely comfortable and at ease around was Leo.

Robby headed up the staircase to the second floor. Leo’s bedroom, the master bedroom, was directly across from Kevin’s room. Robby often wondered how Leo managed to get the biggest room in the house, but he didn’t question it. Kevin didn’t seem to mind, so what business of it was his? Leo’s bedroom was located at the end of the hallway on the right of the stairs. He made the turn and walked down the hallway, his sneakers thumping on the hardwood floor. When he made it to Leo’s room, he peered in the open doorway. Leo and Zac were on Leo’s bed, enthralled with the bombing scene set before them. Robby knocked lightly on the side of the door. Leo’s head turned towards the doorway, and his face brightened at the sight of his boyfriend.

“Hey,” he said cheerfully, motioning for Robby to come over. Zac, on the far end of the bed, made a signal with his hand to note that he knew Robby was there and kept his attention focused on the movie. He moved over a little bit to make room for Robby and didn’t say anything about lying on a bed with two gay teenage guys.

“Hey,” Robby replied, keeping one eye locked on Zac and kissing Leo quickly on the lips. Leo knew what his problem was, but didn’t say anything. “What time is Natasha getting here?”

“Seven-ish, I think,” Leo whispered, “You’re here early.”

“There was nothing to do at my house,” Robby admitted, resting his head on Leo’s left shoulder, “I had to get out.”

Leo smiled and ruffled his boyfriend’s messy hair. “You didn’t straighten your hair,” he commented.

“Oh my God!” Zac announced impatiently, “I am still here, you know. If you’re going to go all gay on me, could you at least give me some notice so I can leave the room?”

Leo laughed and said, “Sorry, Z.”

Zac rolled his eyes and went back to watching the movie. Leo was laughing, and Robby was smiling politely, but inside, he felt his stomach clench. He never liked public displays of affection with Leo. It didn’t matter if it was just Zac; he felt like he was on display.

Leo took Robby’s hand reassuringly and held it against his chest. The two settled back onto his bed and continued to watch the movie. At close to six forty five, Kevin came into Leo’s bedroom.

“Hey, guys,” he greeted.

Robby pulled his hand out of Leo’s grasp and ran it through his hair. “Hey!” he said a little over-zealously.

“Hey, Kevin,” Zac said, “You’re going out now?”

“Yup,” Kevin said, “Just wanted to let you guys know. I left some money on the bar counter for pizza or something.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Leo said affectionately.

“Don’t get into too much trouble while I’m gone,” Kevin said, backing out of the room, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“We won’t!” Zac called out.

“Have fun,” Leo said.

“Bye,” Robby said quietly, rubbing at his forehead anxiously.

Leo looked over at his boyfriend. He never understood why Robby got so worried about showing that he wasn’t single. Yet, Leo knew in his heart that it wasn’t the fact that Robby wasn’t single; it was the idea that Robby wasn’t single with a guy, and that issue always bothered him when he thought about it.

At seven o’clock sharp, the doorbell rang. Zac got up and headed downstairs to answer the door. When he reappeared in Leo’s room, he was followed by Natasha, his girlfriend. At five feet six inches, she was moderately tall for a girl, and only several inches shorter than the boys. Her hair matched Robby’s almost exactly; it was the same dark brown color and waved exactly the same way. Natasha took the time to straighten it every day, though. She, however, never got made fun of by her friends for straightening her hair. Apparently, it was more socially acceptable for a girl to straighten her hair than for a boy to straighten his.

“Hello, losers,” she announced, sauntering confidently into Leo’s bedroom. She leaned over Robby to peck Leo on the cheek, and she smiled at Robby warmly. “Hi, Robby.”

“Natasha,” he said, nodding slightly. He refocused his gaze back to the TV, which had since been paused by Leo.

“So what are we doing this fine evening?” she asked, collapsing on the bean bag chair Leo had thrown carelessly next to his walk-in closet.

“There aren’t any good movies playing,” Leo said, nestling his head into one of the many pillows across his bed.

“So what are we going to do?” Zac asked, “Seems kind of stupid to get us all over here and not even have a plan, Leo.”

Leo rolled his eyes and shook his head incredulously. “So says the person who wanted to hang out tonight.”

“Shut up,” Zac replied intelligently, “It wasn’t my idea to double. Besides, this is your house… Don’t you have something we can do?”

“I think we should just watch one of the movies my dad’s collected,” Leo suggested, “It’s not like we don’t have enough to choose from.”

“What do you think, Robby?” Natasha asked, looking directly at Robby, who was squirming uncomfortably now that the attention was on him.

“Whatever,” he said lowly, shrugging, “You guys decide…”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Fine. Let’s order some food and watch a movie downstairs in the TV room. I don’t feel like subjecting myself to three guys on a bed. I don’t care if two of them are gay and it’s king sized.”

With that, Nat pushed herself off the squishy bean bag chair and headed out the door and down the hall. She was halfway down the wooden stairs before Zac looked over at Leo and laughed. “Told you she was a handful…”

He headed out of the bedroom after his girlfriend, leaving Leo and Robby to themselves. Now that they were alone, Robby visibly relaxed, and Leo felt it. Leo brushed a lock of hair out of Robby’s eyes and smiled. “You can talk to me if you’re uncomfortable… I know that Zac and Nat can be a little much…”

“I’m fine,” Robby said reassuringly, “Don’t worry about me.”

“But I do worry,” Leo explained, “When you get like this, you worry me. I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me about it, though.”

Robby sat up and turned his head back to look at Leo. “You don’t need to help me. I’m really fine. It’s not your responsibility to look after me.”

Robby slid off the bed and walked out of the room. When he was out of earshot, Leo sighed and punched at his comforter. “Yes it is.”

--

At around eight o’clock, the pizza finally arrived. Natasha had taken it upon herself to pick out the movie herself, as she was getting no assistance from any of the boys. She had picked a classic, Good Will Hunting, that had Zac groaning with disgust.

“Nat… Good Will Hunting? Are you fucking kidding me?” he whined as Leo worked the complicated combination VCR/DVD player’s remote.

“I like this movie,” Leo said, agreeing with Natasha, “I don’t know, it was cool, because it started off as indie and ended up a lot more mainstream than people thought.”

Zac developed a look on his face of complete and utter repulsion. “You are such a movie nerd, Leo,” he commented, “I mean, I knew you were bad, but I didn’t think you were this bad. This is pathetic.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” Leo said, shutting the DVD case and settling on the floor next to Robby. He pressed play on the remote.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Zac said, rolling his eyes.

“Both of you, shut up!” Nat said impatiently, “It’s starting!”

Indeed it was. They watched the movie for a good forty five minutes before the pizza finally showed up on the doorstep. Leo handled the payment and headed into the kitchen without his friends. It was about five minutes before they all realized that Leo wasn’t going to be a good host and bring in the pizza and drinks for them, and they all reluctantly got up to join him in the kitchen. Robby, however, stuck around in the living room for an extra minute or two in an attempt to learn how to pause the movie; he finally succeeded, though, and joined the other three in the kitchen.

The kitchen table was laden with the result of Kevin’s baking spree earlier that day. Those cookies, Zac decided proudly, would be dessert, and Leo said that Zac could have as many as he wanted. In an attempt to downsize the amount of cleaning he would have to do following their dinner, Leo made everyone use the paper plates stored in the cupboard above the dishwasher.

“If you want an actual plate, you can clean it yourself,” he said, “I don’t feel like cleaning anything later on.”

Natasha rolled her eyes and pulled two slices of pizza on the flower-décor paper plates Leo supplied (Zac felt it necessary to ask if Leo picked them out from how gay they looked and was promptly smacked by Natasha.). After stealing a water bottle from inside the refrigerator, she headed back into the TV room without waiting for the others.

When the movie finally ended at around nine thirty, Zac decided that he should be heading home or his dad would have a panic attack.

“Well this was stimulating,” he said affectionately to Leo, “Thanks for having me over.”

“Thanks for having us over,” Nat said, hugging Leo tightly, “I had fun.”

“Yeah, it was alright,” Zac said straight-faced, though Leo could tell he was trying to hide a smile.

Nat hit him over the head with her purse, and Zac burst out laughing. “Well, alright… I guess this is our cue to leave,” he said, barely able to get the words out.

“Bye, Robby,” Natasha said softly, opening her arms, signaling an invitation for a hug.

Robby, not entirely sure of himself, hugged Natasha quickly and darted out of her arms.

Nat just smiled softly and headed towards the door with Zac.

“So I guess you’re giving him a ride home?” Leo asked, “How feministic.”

Natasha smiled brightly. “I know,” she said, “You think he’s going to walk home in the dark by himself? Sure…”

“Hey!” Zac said, infuriated, “Try not to denote my masculinity any more than you already have, alright?”

“Bye,” Nat said, ignoring her boyfriend. Then, more quietly, she said, “Be careful.”

Leo didn’t need any clarification as to what she meant, and although he knew she didn’t have anything to worry about, he didn’t tell her. He just waved as his two friends headed down the pathway to Natasha’s car. When they were safe inside the car, he shut the door and locked it.

He turned around and rested his back against the door. Robby was sitting on the stairs tapping his foot nervously on the floor. Leo smiled slightly and pushed off the door. He walked over to his boyfriend and sat next to him.

“Hey,” he said, kissing Robby on the cheek airily, “Sorry about those two…”

“They’re fine,” Robby said.

“They can get a little carried away sometimes,” Leo said looking up at the ceiling, “But, you know, they’re my friends.”

“I said they’re fine,” Robby said, “Zac’s a little high strung and Natasha might actually be classified, but they’re fine.”

Leo laughed, and rested his head on Robby’s shoulder. “I’d say you can subject me to some of your friends, but I have a feeling that not even you would want to do that.”

Robby didn’t say anything. He just jerked Leo’s head from his shoulder and stood up. “Maybe I should get going.”

“Why?” Leo asked, standing up as well, “Stay…”

He held out one of his hands for Robby to take. After a moment’s hesitation, Robby reciprocated the action and took Leo’s hand. He allowed himself to be led upstairs and back into Leo’s bedroom. After they were both safe inside the room, Leo shut the door.

Robby had made himself comfortable on Leo’s bed, and Leo headed over to his TV. Pearl Harbor was still in the DVD player, so he removed it. He turned off the DVD player and grabbed the remote control for the TV. He joined Robby on the bed and rested his back against one of his pillows propped up against the wall. Robby moved closer to Leo so their bodies were meshed against each other. As Leo scrolled through the channels on the TV, looking for something worth watching, Robby leaned close against him and laid his head on Leo’s shoulder.

When he felt Robby’s head rest on his shoulder, Leo gave up looking for something on the TV. Suddenly, it didn’t seem so interesting. He pressed the volume on the remote control down to lower the sound. He looked over at his boyfriend, whose gaze was still on the TV. Robby’s body tensed, every muscle on edge.

“Are you alright?” Leo whispered, kissing the top of Robby’s head.

Leo took the slow jerking motion up and down of his head as a yes. Robby turned his head to face Leo and smiled. Leo tilted his head a little and kissed Robby quickly. As he was pulling away, Robby grabbed Leo by the back of his head and forced him back down. He crashed their lips together, keeping Leo’s head steady above him, his hand entangled in Leo’s hair.

Their position was uncomfortable. Their heads were turned at awkward angles, and Leo began to feel a sharp pain in his neck. Without breaking their contact, Leo raised himself from his position and moved so he was kneeling above Robby, his knees straddling one of Robby’s legs. Leo rested his arms on either side of Robby’s shoulders.

They remained like that for a while, just kissing, nothing more. Leo had no objections to taking things further, but he knew Robby did. It wasn’t because Robby was a virgin and was nervous. Quite the contrary, Leo was a virgin and Robby wasn’t; he’d since confided in Leo that he’d lost his virginity when he was fifteen. No, it was more that Robby wasn’t entirely sure he was ready to have sex with his boyfriend; things, he knew, wouldn’t be the same as he remembered them.

At close to eleven o’clock, Leo began to pull away from Robby. Their tame make-out session was at an end, though neither was willing to make any motion for Robby to leave. Leo instead laid back down next to Robby on the bed, his arm underneath Robby’s neck. The remote, long since kicked off the bed, was forgotten on the floor. The channel that Leo had stopped at was MTV. An episode of Made was on, one of many about a girl wanting to be a cheerleader.