CHAPTER 13 #2
“I do love him,” Silvia said, feeling emotional.
Mindy exhaled. “Truth or Dare is a dangerous game. We would have been better off playing with a Ouija board.”
“Then let’s quit.”
“Nope! You have to do at least one dare.”
Silvia shook her head ruefully. “Fine. Tell me my penance.”
Mindy thought about it. Then a sly smile crept over her face. “I dare you to press your bare boobs against the window.”
“You’re crazy!”
She shrugged. “You accepted a dare.”
“Fine. At least it’s the middle of the night.”
They had already taken off their bras when changing into their pajamas. Silvia only needed to walk to the window and lift her shirt. Which she did… after turning off the lights. Once her skin touched the cold glass, the lights switched on again.
“What are you doing?” she demanded while recoiling.
“The old man across the street usually takes his dog for a walk around now,” Mindy said matter-of-factly. “That’s what you get for slut-shaming me. Such a hypocrite too. I can’t believe you’d show your boobs to a complete stranger!”
They chased each other around the room, screeching insults, but none were truly intended or taken personally. They loved each other far too much for that.
— — —
“What do you think?” Ricky asked, hands on his hips.
Next to him, in the aisle of the school auditorium, Cameron studied the scene. “It looks like a spotlight shining between two ladders. I’m really starting to hate this play.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Ricky said with a shrug. “It’s given us a lot of free time.”
Cameron grinned at him. “That’s true.”
Neither one of them had much to do in this class recently, so they often browsed computer advertisements in a local paper, still planning their build, or flipped through the Player’s Handbook while chatting about the most recent session of Dungeons & Dragons.
Ricky was beginning to feel like he had a free period each day.
“What bothers me,” Cameron said, considering the stage again where students were rehearsing, “is that anyone who reads the program is going to see my name listed under set design, and if they’re not familiar with the play, they’re going to think I’m lazy.
What if I build a sort of backdrop to represent the other houses in town? ”
He pulled out his notebook and scribbled. Ricky used the excuse to move closer to him and peer down as he worked. Cameron always smelled like soap. With a hint of sawdust.
“See what I mean?” he asked, glancing over at Ricky. “I’d basically just be nailing together two-inch planks to make obtuse angles. Still minimal, but they’ll create the outline of roofs in the background.”
“That looks cool!” Ricky said. “You should do it. You know what I was thinking? We could put clear film over the spotlight and draw some splotches on it, to make it look more like a moon.”
Cameron raised his eyebrows. “Great idea!”
“We make a good team,” Ricky said, the air thin in his lungs.
“Yeah we do,” Cameron replied. “Cedric and Zazzle, besting their foes with sword and sorcery.”
Their characters had proven to be an effective duo in the campaign. The tide had turned. They were making steady progress now.
“I’ll go run this by Ms. Deville,” Cameron said, clearly eager to get started.
“Okay. I’ll cobble together a mockup of the moon, to make sure it works.”
“Awesome.”
They smiled at each other before going their separate ways.
Ricky had to do some digging to find the transparent spotlight covers he’d seen before.
He’d been hoping for one that was clear, to represent the white light of the moon, but yellow was the closest he could find.
That would do for a quick test. He didn’t want to ruin it with permanent marker, so he went to a nearby classroom for whiteboard markers that could be wiped off.
After drawing craters on the cover, he climbed up into the rafters and clipped his safety harness to the catwalk rail.
He was struggling with the spotlight when Diego’s voice drew his attention to the stage.
“I don’t get this play. Like at all. Too many of the scenes are people talking about nothing.”
“That’s not true,” Mindy replied. “It’s all about context.”
They were facing each other, holding scripts. Ricky squatted so they were less likely to notice him. And so he could continue eavesdropping.
“Like when Emily helps George with his homework,” Mindy continued. “He’s learning to value her intelligence. And she likes helping him. They’re falling in love.”
Diego snorted. “If you say so.”
“I do! I think it’s sweet.”
“I like the part where she tells him that he’s being an asshole. At least that’s relatable.”
Mindy shook her head. “You’ve never been an asshole. Not to me.”
“Yeah, well you never gave me a good enough reason. You’ve always been nice.”
“Nice?”
“Uh huh. Ever since we were kids.”
“I’m not sure I want to be called nice. It sounds like something a disapproving mother would say. ‘Forget about who you actually want to be with. Why don’t you find a nice girl to date?’”
Diego laughed. “How about sweet?”
“That’s a little better.”
Ricky was tempted to switch on the spotlight and shine it in their eyes, like a police officer checking to see if someone was intoxicated. They better not be in love!
“Thanks for helping me run my lines,” Diego said. “I just can’t get them to stick.”
“You and Whitney always end up improvising,” Mindy replied. “You’ll do fine. Too bad that she’s sick.”
“There’s a lot of that going around. If she doesn’t get better, you’ll have to take her place.”
“I’m not her understudy!”
“Maybe you should be.”
Mindy tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “We better run the scene.”
“Yeah, you better!” Ricky wanted to say.
His task forgotten, he watched them take turns reading from the script.
Mindy was right. There was a certain banter to the lines, like two people who were really into each other.
The words themselves didn’t matter as much as the tone.
Which wasn’t so different from how Mindy and Diego usually spoke to each other.
Was he any better? Ricky felt self-conscious, wanting to see himself from the outside when he was around Cameron.
Diego groaned in frustration and tossed the script aside. “Too many lines!”
“You’re doing great!”
“If you say so. I’ve just gotta make it to the end of the second act. George is as good as dead from then on.”
“Emily is the one who dies,” Mindy said softly. “In childbirth. Isn’t that sad? And poor George has to raise their son all on his own.”
“That’s probably why he isn’t in the third act much. He’s off somewhere losing his damn mind, like my mom did.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“You’re fine. I like that some real shit happens in the play. I wish more of it focused on that. Tons of people fall in love and get married. Big deal. They should show what George went through. People need to see that sort of thing.”
Mindy placed a palm on his crossed arms.
“How’s your mom doing?”
“Good. I’ve made my peace with her. She did the best she could.”
“I guess she had to be strong. For you.”
Diego snorted. “That’s not how it felt to me, but what do I know? I’ve never had kids.”
“Do you want them someday?”
“Yeah.”
The answer surprised Ricky. Especially how fast it came, as if it was a certainty.
“Would you adopt?” Mindy asked.
“Nah. I want little clones of myself. A hellraising son and a daughter who doesn’t put up with anyone’s shit.”
Mindy laughed. “I can picture them already. So you would use a surrogate?”
“What do you mean?”
“Assuming you and Ricky are still together then. You would need a surrogate mother so you could have biological children.”
“I’ve never thought about that. Are you offering?”
“What?” Mindy cried. “No way! I don’t want to become a professional baby dispenser.”
“You don’t want kids?”
“I do. Eventually. With the man I love.”
“So that’s the price of admission, huh?”
“Diego!”
Ricky lost his balance and fell onto his butt, the safety harness clip rattling against the rail. When he looked down again, Diego was shielding his eyes while staring up.
“Is that my favorite little squirrel?” he called. “Come down from your tree.”
“I can’t right now,” Ricky shouted back, hurriedly attaching the transparent cover and switching on the spotlight.
That way they could see that he was busy and had been this whole time.
The moon looked fine. He adjusted the focus and size experimentally, his pulse racing.
Not because of the flirtatious undertones.
Ricky was guilty of that himself. Diego had insisted there be no judgment, which was acceptable to Ricky so long as they were together.
But how long would that last? Especially with the bombshell that had just dropped.
Diego wanted kids! Biological children. Ricky couldn’t give him that. Mindy could though, and it was an unfair advantage. He was guilty of having a crush on Cameron, sure, but at least that was an even playing field. Guy versus guy. Ricky couldn’t compete with Mindy. Her womb had tipped the scales!
By the time he climbed down from the rafters, the stage was empty. He wandered into the wings and saw Diego and Mindy talking. Cameron was with them, so they weren’t about to reproduce or anything, but his unease remained.
Diego never showed much interest in other guys.
Not sexually. When they slept together, it wasn’t like he needed to touch Ricky to satiate a craving.
The opposite was true. Diego needed to be touched.
Ricky was more than happy to oblige. But would a woman satisfy him just as much?
If not more? What would happen in the future, after graduation, when they were ready to start their careers? And a family.
Surrogate mothers were an option, sure, but why would Diego choose that over getting everything he wanted in one complete package?
Ricky didn’t want to lose him. He wanted their relationship to last forever.
And that meant he’d have to find a way to compete.
Ricky went rigid with the realization that there was one thing he could give him that nobody else could.
Something that Diego had wanted for a very long time.
The suicide note.
“Are you ready?”
He blinked in surprise.
Diego was standing right in front of him, as if the potential alone had lured him near. “Cameron is giving Mindy a ride home. It’s just us.”
That’s all Ricky wanted. No matter the cost. “Can we go back to your place?”
“Nope. One of my mechanics has the flu. We’re backlogged. I’ve gotta work.” He nodded toward the exit. “C’mon.”
Ricky began to follow him. “What about this weekend?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“I have something really important to show you.”
Diego glanced at him. “Like what?”
“Your mom shouldn’t be home when I do.”
“Oh I see… In that case, I’ve got something really important to show you too.”
“I mean it,” Ricky said, his throat tight. “You don’t know how much I love you.”
Diego looped an arm around his neck and pulled him close. “That’s what you think.”
He didn’t understand. But he would.
“Sunday,” Diego said. “My mom has been going to church with the new guy she’s seeing. We’ll have the place to ourselves. Cool?”
“Yeah,” Ricky said, snuggling against him possessively.
On the ride home, he questioned if he was doing the right thing. Until he glanced over at his boyfriend, his heart swelling in response. No matter how much it hurt, this would create a bond between them. One that nobody could break.