Chapter Eight #4
He had Dylan’s fancy mocha order memorized from years of friendship, and learning Rus’ order hadn’t taken too long either. He liked his coffee black and bitter like his soul, or so he professed. Kaiden believed Rus to be anything but bitter. Well, maybe to jerks who deserved it.
Once he’d gotten the orders, Kaiden made his way to a corner table the duo had procured for them.
Dylan wiggled in his seat while sipping his super sugary mocha with the lightest dash of coffee inside.
It was mostly a caffeinated chocolate milkshake at this point.
Rus did his sleepy gurgle of annoyance, then took a gulp of hot coffee.
This was his real morning ritual. He wasn’t much of a person until he’d had his first cup of coffee.
The door jingled as new customers walked inside, catching Kaiden’s eye as they wandered toward their table instead of the growing line.
An effeminate guy dressed in the preppiest polo, clashing shorts, and insultingly rugged sandals sauntered over, accompanied by a very well-dressed petite blonde with a horrendous spray tan.
It was too extreme, too out of season, and not at all blended with her makeup.
Kaiden bit his tongue, having a thousand tips on how to improve each of their shitty try-hard looks, but finding both already nauseating.
Though that might’ve had to do with the snarl Rus let out when they approached.
“You’re that guy who got the shit kicked out of him for—”
“Get fucked,” Rus spat before the girl could finish her statement. Her hateful insult.
But the damage had already landed. Kaiden clammed up, lost in the realization that despite not wanting to press charges or make a big deal out of his assault, people still ran with the story.
Between online trending videos and so-called newspapers, there had been enough of them to drop his name and picture that did the rounds in town.
It was horrible knowing that if someone searched up his name online, they’d find articles and images of his assault.
It would follow him forever, always at the top of the search engines.
“Don’t worry, Emma,” the gay guy said while batting his eyes. “Rus is all bark and no bite. Probably why he got the shit kicked out of him, too.”
“Fuck off, pick me,” Rus snapped.
“Don’t speak to Landon that way,” Emma retorted. “I swear, the way you—”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Rus interrupted, straightening up in his chair and giving Emma a salute before flipping her off.
“Anything for you, Commander Conservative Cunt. And while I know you’d love to spell those Cs with Ks, you’ll just have to keep crossing your fingers that the kappa kappa whatevers sorority you’re in update their name. ”
Emma furrowed her brow, and the deep creases in her face were amplified by her overly tanned skin.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite bitchy bi boy,” said a Black girl with a familiar face as she strutted over and side hugged Rus, who responded with a polite morning growl.
Between Rus’ scowl and the girl’s side eye of disdain, Emma and Landon took the hint and wandered away to a corner booth of the café.
“Daysha, right?” Dylan pointed, and the name quickly returned to Kaiden.
He always struggled learning names, whereas Dylan could meet someone for five minutes and have half their life story memorized in his vault of a mind.
It probably had to do with how many teens shuffled in and out of Dorothy’s Home over the years.
Or maybe Dylan was just smarter. Kaiden wouldn’t be too surprised by that.
“So, are we just going to pretend like that whole scene didn’t happen?” Kaiden asked, gesturing to the empty space where Emma and Landon had stood a moment ago.
“That’s your best bet,” Daysha replied, tapping Rus on the shoulder. “Unless you want to be like this guy, provoking them into an argument every time they appear.”
“It’s not my fault,” Rus said. “They’re ignorant and evil and deserve to be mocked.”
“And I have missed your vicious mockery as of late,” Daysha said, eyeing Kaiden and Dylan. “Especially, since y’all have been holding my buddy hostage.”
“Sorry about that,” Kaiden said with a chuckle, letting the stress of their last encounter wash away.
Tension still ate away at Kaiden. Thankfully, his friends noticed. They didn’t make a big deal out of it but offered solace. Dylan gently shoulder-bumped Kaiden, and Rus pressed his knee against Kaiden’s under the table, each offering a subtle way to soothe away the stress.
“So, you coming to the Pride Club event?” she asked, eyeing her friend.
“Huh?” Rus did a poor job pretending not to know what she was talking about, then returned to sipping his coffee.
It hadn’t taken long for Kaiden to realize Rus scrunched his face when he was genuinely confused and stared out blankly into the void of the world when faking it.
“There’s a Pride party?” Dylan asked with a glint of excitement. “That sounds awesome. Is it only for students?”
“No,” Daysha said. “It’s just hosted by us. Pride Club likes to organize a few fundraisers every year, and work with local communities to raise donations.”
“I’m in love with your club already,” Dylan said. “When is it?”
“It’s tonight at Himbos.” Daysha nudged Rus. “And I’ve only told him about it like a hundred times.”
“Oh, yeah,” Rus quickly covered. “But we’re not going to be able to do that on such short notice. We were going to, um…”
“We were going to—um—nothing,” Kaiden jumped in, wondering why Rus felt the need to hide this, to play it off.
He stared at Rus, trying to understand where this came from, but when he caught a quiet Dylan with a pensive expression in the corner of his eye, Kaiden had his answer.
“We’ll see you there tonight,” Kaiden declared.
Rus and Dylan remained silent, though their tense expressions said so much.
“Fantastic,” Daysha replied before a barista called her order. “I’ve got to get to classes, but I’ll be seeing you all there. Can’t wait. Bring your money.”
Rus scoffed.
“It’s a fundraiser!”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rus huffed.
“I hope it goes well.” Dylan sipped his drink, keeping his eyes fixed on Rus. “So, what movie is on the agenda tonight?"
“No movie,” Kaiden interjected, then raised his hands to silence both of them. “Did you not hear me? We’re going to the fundraiser. We’re watching drag, we’re celebrating, and we’re having a good time.”
“I’m not really that into clubbing late into the night,” Rus said. “Not on a weekday.”
“Your first class tomorrow isn’t until eleven,” Kaiden replied. “We’re going.”
“I don’t know.” Dylan shrugged. “It’s sort of last-minute.”
He quickly returned to his drink and averted his gaze from Kaiden.
“I’m not doing this. I’m not letting what happened there control what I do.
” Kaiden’s body trembled as he spoke. He was grateful Dylan and Rus took his feelings into consideration.
He admired them for it, for caring in a way so few did about him, but he wouldn’t let this become his story.
“I’m not letting one incident control my life, my future.
My fucking fun! We’re going. We’re going, and we’re going to have so much fun tonight, we completely forget what happened last time. It’ll be all, gay bashers who?”
Dylan and Rus made a face, each of their eyes wide with shock and perhaps concern.
“Shut up,” Kaiden blurted. “I heard it. I was trying something out, it didn’t work, pretend it never happened. I’ll have a better catch phrase tonight.”
He wouldn’t, but he would have fun tonight. That much was determined.
They headed downtown around nine, finding the special drag show performance for the Pride Club fundraiser was already underway as they arrived.
Much earlier than Himbos usually performed, but since it was for an event that sort of made sense.
Kaiden skirted by the Pride fundraiser tables, dropping a donation into one of their offerings, but leaving before someone could chat him up.
Festive decorations lined the walls from cobwebs in every corner to dangling skeletons with obnoxious twinkling lights in their ribcages.
“Leave it to the gays to start celebrating the day October hits,” Kaiden said with a small smile.
“If they were really festive, they’d have started decorating back in July for Summerween,” Rus shouted.
“For what?” Kaiden shook his head in protest, but Halloween did seem like the one thing Rus put real effort into.
For starters, he had a slew of horror films at his place that he always tried to trick Kaiden and Dylan into checking out. Secondly, he’d already pulled out his slasher hoodies and seemed to have quite the collection of horror apparel in his closet.
Himbos was much more crowded than usual, especially for a Wednesday.
Kaiden tried to enjoy the performance from a distance, mind recalling the frenzy the drag queens went into the night of his assault.
It filled Kaiden’s throat with a lump, his nerves getting the better of him, the more people walked by him.
Every time someone paused and stared, he wondered if they knew what happened.
How many people knew? Did anyone know? Did anyone even care?
Kaiden believed he was being dramatic for no reason.
No one cared. No one even remembered. It was a million years ago.
Well, a month and some change, so he didn’t understand why he was hanging onto it so much. Especially right now.
“You good?” Rus placed a hand on the small of Kaiden’s back, guiding him through the crowd and toward some free seats at the bar.
“Yep.”
“What’cha want?” Dylan asked, flashing some crinkled bills like a big spender with his singles and fives. “I’m buying.”
“Um, nothing right now,” Kaiden replied.
“I’m good.”
“You’re not going to drink either?” Dylan asked Rus.
“No, not feeling it.”
“Have a drink,” Kaiden insisted. “Have several. Have that awful blue motorcycle brake fluid cocktail you had last time.”
Rus gagged. “Ugh. Never again.”
“Come on, have a beer.”