Chapter Eleven #2
The rest of the drive is spent telling Aaron the story we’ve made to cover up my dad's abuse. Well, it’s spent with Felix telling him. I sit in the back seat and look out the window in perfect silence.
The plan is simple. When people notice—because they will—I’ll tell them that Felix and I drove out to West Brooke on Sunday to go to the new anime cafe they recently opened.
When we were getting gas right on the outskirts of the city, some super scary looking guy tried to mug us.
Luckily, Felix was still in the car, so I was the only one who got hurt.
In the end we came out as the winners of the unfortunate situation—the mugger was unable to steal anything from us.
A pretty convincing, story if I do say so myself.
The only person we can’t tell this super realistic cover-up story to is Kayla, as her and Felix FaceTimed throughout the morning on Sunday while he waited for me to come home.
I had Felix call her and tell her I had shit to deal with and I had concocted something so I didn’t have to blast my information and ask if she’d go with it.
Kayla agreed and didn’t ask what ‘shit’ I was dealing with. I like Kayla.
◆◆◆
I get plenty of questions throughout the day.
All about the obvious marks—like my eye, my arms, my collarbone.
I could have worn a long sleeve turtleneck but then I would have died of heatstroke.
Everyone seems to believe the mugging story pretty well.
Drew seemed pretty concerned for me, even going as far as dragging his fingers over the bruise on my collarbone and asking,
“How bad is it? Benjamin, does it hurt when I do this?” I just laughed and shook my head.
“No, that doesn’t hurt.” And Drew just smiled.
Now Felix, Drew, and I are in Felix’s bedroom getting our swim trunks and towels out.
“Ugh, Aaron keeps stealing all the pool towels.” Fe says as he stares into the linen closet in the bathroom.
He has the bathroom door wide open. I’m looking inside at him in just my briefs and a handful of bandages littered obscurely, about ready to change into my trunks.
Drew is somewhere behind me, presumably changing as well.
“Bub! Give me a pool towel!” Felix yells.
“Hold.” Aaron says from the other side of the door.
A couple of seconds later it opens and there stands Aaron with a towel in hand.
“Here is…” He looks at me, a face of shock for all of three seconds before his eyes settle on something behind me and the dirtiest glare I’ve ever seen on his face appears.
“Thanks!” Felix says, grabbing the towel and going back to his room.
I’m turning away, grabbing the handle to shut the door when Aaron speaks again.
“Hey, shouldn’t you be changing in the bathroom if you’re getting completely nude?” He asks. In his voice there's a hint of a warning. The side of me that gets off on his praise and on his punishments, being a brat and listening to his every word, is suddenly wide awake.
Today, being a brat and earning my punishments seems to be my provocation.
I turn and look over my shoulder, looking him up and down.
He’s still locked in place, right where he was when he first saw what I’m assuming was Drew by how he’s acting.
His jaw is clenched and his knuckles are turning white where he’s gripping the doorknob.
He’s looking at me with such a clear command.
He’s giving me those intense, devouring eyes and they’re telling me, ‘You do not get naked in front of other men. Change here. Shut the door. Be a good boy’ like I'm supposed to listen. God, why do I kind of want to listen? To see him smile all proud and affectionate? Fuck, this is part of his tactic, isn’t it? !
“Don’t worry, Aaron—we’re all boys.” I grin, feeling my dimples cave so hard it hurts. This feels phenomenal. The color draining from his face, the wide eyes, the harsh swallow. I give him a wink and shut the door behind me.
About twenty minutes later I’m lying on the concrete, bathing in the sun, my feet in the pool.
Felix is doing laps with his goggles on, and Drew's swimming lazy circles. I’m surprisingly content considering Dad beat the shit out of me yesterday.
But I don’t feel like ripping the skin off my wrist, and my brain isn’t so loud I can’t think or hear the noise around me. I sigh in contentment.
And then because he just knows when I’m happy and apparently wants to ruin it, Aaron comes out the back doors, Amber in tow.
“Cutie Bear,” she sings. “Do you mind if we use these two chairs and tan? I can’t stand the public pool.” I smile at her. I really do like Amber.
“Afternoon, Amber—I don’t mind at all. This isn’t my house anyway.” She lays her towel on one of those fold out chairs you can lay on with your upper body still propped up, tanning oil shining like a second skin and a paper fan in her hand.
Aaron lies on the one next to her, closest to us, about fifteen feet from the pool. He’s got on his trunks and some dark aviators, so I have no clue what he’s looking at once he settles in. His arms go up and he rests his hands behind his head.
“Is that Felix’s brother and his girlfriend?
” Drew asks, out of the pool and now sitting beside where I’m laying.
On the opposite side of me from where Aaron lays, so unfortunately, I can still see him if I am tempted to.
And I am tempted to. Instead, I turn my head to Drew who has his knees pulled to his chest.
“Yeah, but Amber’s not his girlfriend. She’s too cool for him.” Drew laughs lightly, looking at them for a moment before smiling down at me. He really is quite handsome.
“Do you not like Aaron, then?” Hm. I’m not sure how to answer. How honest to be. What says too much? What makes me suspicious?
“I wouldn’t say that.” Is my lame response. Drew nods and thankfully doesn’t pry anymore.
“So,” he starts, reaching down to play with my hair (he is quite the toucher, not that I mind). “Everyone calls you Bear?” I shrug, my skin dragging on the concrete.
“Yeah, I guess.” There's a beat or two of silence. “Well, Aaron doesn’t.” Drew raises a brow, tugging on a section of hair on top of my head. Now that Aaron’s been brought up, I can’t seem to stop bringing the conversation back to him.
“Then what does he call you?”
“Button.” Drew and I are staring into each other’s eyes as we talk, have been this whole time, and I realize at this moment I haven’t once thought about my dad.
“He calls you Button? Why?” I shrug again.
“Actually, I don’t know. He just always has.” Drew makes a humming noise, running his fingers through my fringe, dragging it off of my forehead and doing it again as it falls back down.
“I want to have a name for you too. Unless you want me to call you Bear. Or maybe just Benjamin.” I laugh, staring at his flushed face. Slowly, his smile comes back.
“You can call me whatever you want, Drew.” His eyes widen slightly, his hand pausing for half a second. Even I’m acutely aware that that sounded a little flirty, but Drew just smiles again and resumes his hand.
“In that case, I’ll brainstorm and get back to you. Until then, you are Benjamin.”
“Oh, you’ll allow it? You’re so generous.” He laughs, slapping my stomach once without much force.
“You know what I meant, asshole.” He then turns and slides back into the pool, staying at the ledge I move to sit at and talking about how his English teacher is a massive bitch.
Felix comes to join us, sitting next to me.
“Dude, it sucks we don’t get to see you at all. Why the hell is Lancaster so fucking big?”
“Right, I was—wait. Didn’t you guys have a bet going on?”
“AH!” Felix jumps up and runs inside, presumably to get the paper. I grin down at Drew.
“Nice.” He just smiles back. Felix returns, plops back down next to me and sets his narrowed gaze onto Drew.
“Okay Drew, you’re the last voter. Who do you pick?” Drew raises his hands in defense.
“Wait! I don’t even know what I’m voting for.” I sigh, rolling my eyes. Fucking Felix, always ahead of himself.
“Damnit Drew, here it is: do you think that even when Bear’s got a fucked-up face like he has today,” I give him a look and Drew snickers. “That he is still prettier than me?” Drew looks shocked that that would be the end of this question, stunned to silence for at least ten seconds.
“That’s the fucking bet?”
“That’s the bet.” I confirm.
“Well?” Felix questions. Drew’s eyes bounce between the two of us, face getting redder and redder. He bites his lip.
“One of you is going to be so mad.” Felix taps the bottom of his foot on top of Drew’s head where he bobs in the water in front of me.
“No, we won’t, now answer.” Drew blows out a huge breath, staring at the ledge of the pool.
“Okay, then yes is my answer.” There are a couple beats of silence before Felix jumps to his feet.
“WHAT?! Look at him! Look at the bruises!” I glare up at him and try to squish his feet with my fists. Felix hops around, dodging me pretty easily.
“Yeah, but he’s like a sexy street fighter, you know?” Drew looks very embarrassed as his defense leaves his mouth. I don’t think he meant for any of us to hear that. I lean back on my palms and laugh.
“Damn Bear, want to fight me in the street too?” Amber pokes, and I realize that she and Aaron can hear everything we say from this distance.
“Depends. How much can you lift? And only if I’m left standing after Drew’s done with me.” Drew’s face flushes further as Amber cackles loudly, hand squeezing Aaron’s bicep what looks to be uncomfortably hard.
“We want to vote too. Give us the paper, Fefe!” Felix hands her the notebook and pen, glaring at Drew.
Drew waves for me to lean down, and when I do, he whispers, “I told you someone was gonna get upset.” Chuckling, I try to ignore the pool water that came from his lips and now sit on the shell of my ear. I lean back a bit so I can see his face, and to stop his hot breath from hitting my neck.