6. Chapter 6
Jake’s knee bounced as he waited for choir rehearsal to start.
Ezra wasn’t there yet. Sean was.
Jake glared at him.
Sean was sitting there drinking a Surge at nine o’clock in the morning.
Jake thought that was stupid. What kind of a stupid idiot does that?
Just look at him. Sitting there with his drink, being all stupid, with his big ears and crooked nose.
That’s the award Sean would win. Not Best Looking.
He’d win The Most Stupid. And maybe Crookedest Nose and Weirdest Ears too. Jake could go on and on.
So then Jake would win Best Looking, but maybe now that Ezra was so transformed, it would be a tie. Jake would be okay if there was a tie, if there ever were such a thing, and there wasn’t, but Jake really hadn’t thought about it all that much or anything.
Sean turned to look at Jake glaring at him. “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing.” Jake turned his attention to the Robert Shaw Medley in his music folder. He muttered, “You just better be happy is all.”
“Happy about what?”
Jake sighed. “You know Ezra Mitchell? He has, like, a huge crush on you.”
Sean raised his eyebrows.
“And he wants to take you to the Gay Prom.”
“The what?”
“He’s going to ask you out on a date.” Jake messed with the corner of his sheet music. “I think he’s going to ask you after choir practice.”
Sean snorted. “I’m not going on a date with him.”
Jake turned to Sean. He felt his fists bunch. “And why the hell not?”
“Because he’s weird. And kind of looks like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo .” Sean took a sip of his drink. He shook his head and laughed. “No way. He’s gonna get a big fat—”
“Hey, guys.”
Jake and Sean looked up. The can of Surge slipped from Sean’s fingers and spilled all fizzy on the carpet.
Ezra was standing in front of them, the New and Improved Ezra.
The Confident Ezra with a smile that could light up Vegas.
The Ezra that had everyone’s attention right at that moment.
He had the same outfit on from yesterday, his bookbag slung across one shoulder, and he stood tall, completely at ease, with one hand in his pocket.
He wasn’t invisible at all. Everyone was noticing him.
He smiled at Jake. And then at Sean. “Hey, Sean.”
Sean was speechless for a second, then he said, “Uh, hi.”
“I really like that shirt on you,” Ezra said smoothly, running his fingers through his hair. “It really brings out the deep blue in your eyes.” Then he smiled a dimpled smile and gave Sean a sly wink.
Jake’s head turned in sync with Sean’s as they both watched Ezra walk up the rows to his seat.
“Whoa.” Sean gasped. “I take back everything I said.”
“I bet you do,” Jake muttered under his breath.
Sean had to clean up his spilled drink, and Jake didn’t help him.
It was because Sean kept ogling Ezra in between the seats, and it made Jake so mad.
And then choir practice started and when they all stood up to sing “Old Man Noah,” Jake caught Ezra looking over at him in the corner of his eye.
Ezra was smiling as he sang, and Jake smiled back—until he realized Ezra was looking at Sean.
While the two of them exchanged glances and grins, Jake forgot the words to all their songs and tripped over the notes.
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that got worse as practice went on.
Then when it was over, he had to watch Sean practically hurdle over the seats to get to Ezra.
Jake watched them from the other side of the choir room, talking and smiling, then he put his music away, and quietly walked out alone.
It was their second to last tutoring session.
Jake couldn’t focus, even when Ezra showed him the practice test he’d made for him. All Jake could think about was that Ezra and Sean had a date this weekend. It was all going to happen for him. He was going to get what he’d wanted.
And it looked like Jake would too.
So, Jake didn’t know why he felt so bad.
Even though Jake’s end of the bargain was over, Ezra was keeping his by getting Jake ready for test day next week. That evening, they were in Jake’s room because Jake’s roommates had taken over the table downstairs with a poker game. It sounded like they’d gone out, though.
The hour flew by, and Ezra began to pack up his books. Jake didn’t want their time together to end just yet.
“Hey, um,” Jake began. “You want to go to Sharkey’s? They’ve got darts.”
Ezra shrugged. “I’ve got a project due in the morning. Better not.” He stood up from Jake’s desk. “Remember to go over the practice test. It’ll help.”
“Yeah.” Jake stood up from the beanbag chair he’d been sitting on. He slowly walked with Ezra to the door. “Did, um, did you want anymore, like, advice or anything?”
Ezra’s manicured brows furrowed. “Like what?”
Jake shrugged. “Just, like, if you have any questions. For when you go on your date and stuff.”
“I think I’ll be able to talk to him now. And don’t worry, I won’t mention anything about bugs.” He smiled the dimpled smile, and Jake got that funny feeling in his stomach.
“So, you think he’ll go to that dance with you?”
“I hope so. I haven’t mentioned it yet.”
Jake looked around his room and got an idea. “Well, how about”—he walked over to his boom box and shuffled through his CDs—“slow dancing. Have you ever slow danced with anybody?”
Ezra looked at him warily. “No. But it’s basically just swaying around.”
Jake put a Boyz II Men CD in the boom box and skipped through the songs to “End of the Road.” He went over to Ezra. “You want to practice? So you’ll know how to dance with Sean?”
Ezra chewed his bottom lip, hesitating. “Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Then he set down his bookbag and went over to Jake. “Okay, what do I do?”
Truth be told, Jake wasn’t completely sure.
He’d only ever slow danced with girls. He wasn’t sure if it would be different with a guy.
But he was going to find out. “Well, it depends on how you want to do it.” Jake got close to Ezra, putting his hands on Ezra’s waist. “You can put your hands here. Or he can, I guess. And then the other one puts their arms around whoever’s neck. ”
Ezra hesitated for a second before he slid his arms around Jake’s shoulders, a hand resting on the back of Jake’s neck, bringing him closer. “Like this?”
Ezra’s eyes were almost level with Jake’s, so Jake could look at how green they were. He could write a fucking poem about how green they were. “Yeah. Like that. And, then you, um.” Jake moved Ezra and himself to the slow beats of the song. “You kind of do this.”
Ezra smirked. “So, I was right. It is just swaying around.”
Jake smiled as they slowly turned in a circle to the music.
“Yeah, I guess.” Then Jake took one of Ezra’s hands in his, and held them out to the side.
He slid his other arm around Ezra’s waist. He put his hand on the small of Ezra’s back and pushed Ezra right up against him.
“This is if, um, if you want to get closer.”
And they were closer. Jake was close enough to feel Ezra’s body heat and see flecks of blue in Ezra’s green eyes.
“Yeah,” Ezra said softly. “I guess it is.”
“You can put your head on his shoulder,” Jake said softly.
“If you want. Or you can do this.” Jake put his cheek against Ezra’s cheek, and when he did, he felt the soft exhales from Ezra’s nose on his neck.
Jake’s skin prickled, and the funny feeling he kept getting was spreading.
Bubbling up to his brain and seeping into his groin.
Or maybe that was just all the blood flowing to his cock.
Because every nerve ending in his body was laser-focused on Ezra.
His hand in Jake’s hand, the way he felt in Jake’s arms, and how Ezra was still swaying close to him even after the song ended.
Jake moved his head to look at Ezra. Ezra was looking at him.
“Jake,” Ezra said softly.
“Yeah?” Jake said softly.
“You’re standing on my foot.”
“Oh, sorry.” Jake moved his foot. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Ezra was still in his arms, and they were still standing way too close. Then Ezra glanced down at Jake’s mouth.
Jake whispered, “You think you’ll kiss him?”
Ezra licked his bottom lip. “I don’t know. If it seems like he wants me to.”
Jake’s heart began to beat just a little bit faster. “You want to… um, practice? With me?”
Ezra blinked a few times, studying Jake’s face. “You want me to kiss you?”
“Just if you want to,” Jake added. “You don’t have to, of course. Just thought you might want to be ready for the big moment, you know?”
Ezra nodded.
“Have you kissed anybody before?”
“I had, like, sort of a boyfriend in high school. We did some stuff, but not a lot of kissing.”
Jake put a hand to Ezra’s face, his palm resting on Ezra’s cheek. “Then you should practice. With me.”
Ezra seemed to think about that for a few seconds. “Okay. What should I do?”
Jake really hadn’t thought much about his hand placement before he kissed someone. Until now, that is. And he had no idea what Sean would do before he kissed someone. Probably flap his big, fat elf ears like Dumbo or something. But Jake didn’t want to think about that curly-haired twerp right now.
“Well.” Jake still had one hand on Ezra’s face.
“You could do this first before you kiss him.” He added the other hand.
“Or you could do this.” He brought one hand down to Ezra’s jaw, fingers sliding around his neck, thumb brushing up against his earlobe.
“Or he could, I guess. However, um. However you want to do it.”
“Like this?” Ezra then mimicked Jake’s gesture, but he added to it by brushing his thumb over Jake’s lips. Jake felt a shiver down his spine that went all the way to his dick. He’d never wanted to kiss someone so bad in his life.