Talk to Me

11

Collin didn’t show up until bedtime Sunday night, and I wasn’t the least bit bothered. Though his ability to hold onto a grudge was legendary, I was surprised he was holding onto this particular one as long as possible. I’m the type of guy who will apologize immediately if I’m wrong, but if the other person is to blame, I’m never going to apologize to keep the peace. Especially if the person in question is acting like a total tool.

So, I let him ignore me Sunday night and Monday morning and went about my typical routine without speaking to him unless necessary.

I was so on top of things that I actually had time to wait in line at Midway Roasters for a coffee before my first class. As if that didn’t improve my day, I ran into Theo on my way from my first class to my second.

As he breezed by, he smiled and said, “No one has called me a dick yet today!”

Laughing, the two of us gave each other a high five as we passed. Somehow, seeing that Theo had found some humor in his problems made me feel better about everything.

Even if people still stared and whispered—and even shouted insults from time to time—he was getting to a place where he didn’t let it bother him as much.

I wasn’t certain if it was the best outcome to his situation, but I suppose you have to accept any type of win.

After my last class, I went to the dining hall for lunch.

The dish of the day was the incredibly midwestern goulash with buttery garlic toast, and the dining hall actually made a pretty good version of it.

Since they made huge batches of it, they didn’t give students too much crap if we went back for seconds and thirds.

Goulash day was a great day to fill up in the dining hall.

Once my belly was distended and I couldn’t possibly eat anything else, I went back to my dorm and freshened up.

I grabbed my lanyard and wallet, and headed to the parking lot.

Like every other Monday during the school year, I planned to go to Spice House to hang out with Arthur.

I was thinking about what candy I’d pick up at the gas station for him on the way when I got shoulder checked in the parking lot.

Looking up, ready to argue about who hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going, I saw Theo standing there, smiling at me. The frown on my face flipped into a smile.

“I had the right of way,”

I said. “I demand an apology.”

“I’m sorry,”

Theo replied immediately. “Especially since I bumped you on purpose.”

“Rude,”

I said, then continued walking.

Theo laughed and fell in beside me, following me as I made my way to my car. We’d barely walked a few yards when he spoke up again.

“So, what’s the intent, chat?” he asked.

Stopping dead in my tracks, I turned to him.

“Excuse me?”

I cocked my head to the side.

“What’s the plan?”

he said, chuckling. “What are you about to do?”

“Sorry,”

I said. “I don’t speak whatever language that was you were speaking.”

“Don’t be a snob.”

He reached over and nudged my upper arm. “Really. What do you have going on? Wanna hang out?”

“Sorry,”

I said. “I actually have plans. Kind of this standing arrangement on Mondays. That’s the…intent?”

His face fell, but he chuckled. “Oh.”

“Yeah,”

I said. “I go hang with a friend every Monday after classes and lunch. It’s a thing.”

“Oh,”

he said, looking down at his feet. “Like your…boyfriend…or whatever?”

A laugh burst forth from my throat.

“I don’t date guys who are old enough to be my grandpa,” I said.

Theo looked up at me, a confused smile on his face.

“I’m not opposed to an older guy, but ten years is my limit, I think,” I added.

“You said he was a friend.”

Theo shrugged.

“Well, yeah,”

I said. “If someone asked about you, I’d say you were a friend. So, the logic you employed is faulty at best.”

I turned to continue to my car and after a moment, Theo fell in beside me again.

“Well, now you have my curiosity piqued,”

he said. “Why are you sneaking off campus to visit a man who’s old enough to be a grandpa?”

“Sneaking?”

I scoffed. “If I was sneaking, I wouldn’t be walking in broad daylight through the parking lot and you wouldn’t have seen me.”

“Fair.”

Theo agreed. “But really—what’s the deal?”

“You are incredibly nosy,”

I teased. “Not everything I do is about you or for you. Being perpetually online has made it impossible for you to mind your own business, hasn’t it?”

Theo laughed loudly.

“Okay,”

he said, “I am a very curious person. Especially when we’re talking about the lives of my friends.”

Stopping and turning to him, I considered him for a moment. Theo stopped to face me, a goofy smile affixed to his face.

Telling him about Spice House and Arthur wasn’t that big of a deal, really. Arthur wasn’t some big embarrassing secret, and my friendship with him wasn’t a personal shame. However, I’d always refrained from talking about him much with others. It wasn’t to protect myself; it was because our friendship was precious to me.

When I told people I went and hung out with a senior man in his assisted living facility every Monday, I didn’t like the reactions I received. People would smile and nod, as if they had come to some understanding. As if I was doing Arthur some big favor by keeping him company. They immediately thought Arthur had no one who cared about him, so I was simply trying to be a good person by hanging out with him until the inevitable happened.

The truth was, Arthur was a real friend. Even after I graduated from Midway, I’d find ways to come back and visit him as often as possible. Not just that, he was a vital, healthy man for his age. He wasn’t sitting in a dark room, hooked up to machines, waiting for death. He lived at Spice House because he had a few mobility issues at times, and having help nearby in case was good. Having help at hand if he found his knees or back acting up made him feel secure.

Also, the staff at Spice House did all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Arthur simply had to bathe himself—though he could get assistance if needed—and entertain himself in between meal times and activities. As far as I was concerned, we should all end up as lucky as Arthur. If you find yourself living in a home that has regular movie nights, game nights, serves three delicious meals a day, and does all of your chores for you, you won at life.

So, I didn’t want to see those stupid sympathy grins on people’s faces when I talked about one of my best friends.

It was that simple.

“Do you want to come with me?”

I asked without thinking it over. “Sate your curiosity?”

Theo studied me for a moment, his eyes squinting with deep thought.

“This isn’t a trick, is it?”

he asked. “You’re not going to drop me on the side of the highway to teach me a lesson for getting in your business, right?”

Laughing, I started walking again.

“Well, I wasn’t going to,”

I said. “But now that you’ve given me the idea…”

Laughing, Theo ran to catch up with me.

“Okay,”

he said. “I’m in. But if I end up walking miles back to campus, I will never forgive you and I will make a video for Peepers about what a dick you are.”

“Fair,” I said.

We got to my car and I unlocked it with the fob. Theo slid into the passenger seat and closed the door. He immediately fastened his seatbelt, which I appreciated. I hated having to tell grown people to wear their seatbelts, or worse, arguing about it. I followed his lead and started the car.

“It’s cool you bring your car to campus,”

Theo said. “Do you have to drive far to get home?”

“A few hours,”

I said. “East side of the state. But it’s not bad.”

Heading out of the parking lot, I listened as Theo talked about his car he had at home. Living across the country, it was too much of an ordeal to bring his car to have available while attending classes. So, he either had to walk everywhere or ask friends for rides. Having not made many friends at Midway yet, he was doing a lot of walking so far. Of course, I told him I’d be happy to drive him places if he needed when I had time. Being a college student and not being able to easily get to a grocery store was a pain, so I would be happy to help.

At the gas station, Theo grabbed a giant fountain drink, several bags of chips, and enough candy to get him through an apocalypse while I considered the candy aisle. Although Rolos was Arthur’s favorite, having too much of a good thing often lessened one’s love for it. After careful consideration, I decided on a Twix bar for Arthur. He could still get his caramel and chocolate fix, but with the cookie layer, it’d make things different enough to not wear him out on the combination of sugary substances.

When I got back to the car, Theo was loading up the supplies he’d purchased for his dorm room, a twelve-pack of sodas having joined the rest. He smiled at me sheepishly when I laughed at his haul. Immediately, I told him we’d plan a trip to the local grocery store over the following weekend so he could stock up. Grinning with gratitude, he slid back into the passenger seat as I hopped into the driver’s seat once more.

A few minutes later, after furthering our trip down the highway, I was pulling into the parking lot of Spice House. Theo leaned forward and stared out the window at the sign as we passed into the parking lot, a look of wonder on his face. When I parked and got out without saying anything, he followed my lead and walked across the parking lot in silence with me. We checked in at the front desk, as I always do, and got our name badges to stick to our shirts.

Leading Theo down the hallway that led to Arthur’s room, he would peek into rooms surreptitiously and glance at residents we passed. Whenever I’d say “hello”

to a staff member or resident by name, I could tell he was dying of curiosity. However, he had enough tact to realize that asking too many questions while at Spice House was probably rude. When we got to Arthur’s room and I knocked, I could tell that Theo was about to burst at the seams.

Arthur’s voice came from beyond the closed door before Theo could say anything.

“Come in!”

Arthur squawked.

I pushed the door wide and led the two of us into the room. Theo’s eyes danced around as we made our way into the room, not quite noticing Arthur in his chair. For once, Arthur had his drapes open, the sunlight pouring into the room, filling it with warmth. He only had a throw blanket over his legs, so his button-down and bowtie were on prominent display. He had chosen a blue-on-blue combination for the day. When he saw me, his eyes lit up. However, a second later, he noticed Theo, and his eyes darted over to him.

“Hey, Arthur,”

I said cheerfully. “How ya’ doin’?”

At the sound of my voice and Arthur’s name, Theo’s head snapped around to take in the man waiting in the chair. Their eyes met, and I could immediately tell they were suspicious of each other.

“I’m well,”

Arthur said formally. “How are you, Josh?”

Laughing, I walked over and held out the Twix to him.

“Switching it up a bit,”

I said about the candy bar. “So you don’t get bored.”

Arthur eyed Theo a moment longer, then looked down at the candy bar in his hands, his face brightening.

“My second favorite,”

he said. “Thank you.”

Nodding, I walked over to his bed and sat down gently. Theo stood in his spot a few yards away from Arthur in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do. Arthur stared back for a moment before turning his head to me.

“You brought the Peepers celebrity with you?” he asked.

Chuckling, I nodded. “Yeah. Theo was being nosy about my life, so I figured he could come along. I hope you don’t mind?”

Arthur glanced over at Theo, who was looking somewhat uncomfortable and awkward.

“I suppose not,”

Arthur said finally, laying the candy bar in his lap before placing his hands on the arms of his chair to relax. “But tell him to sit down. He’s making me nervous.”

I laughed.

“Hey,”

I motioned at Theo, “come sit down.”

Theo, smiling and rosy-cheeked, shuffled over and sat down gingerly on the bed next to me.

“You better have good hygiene, young man,”

Arthur said, eyeing Theo warily, his nose slightly high. “Outside clothes don’t belong on the bed.”

“Oh, good lord, Arthur.”

I groaned and stood from the bed.

Theo stood quickly as well, unsure of what to do. As Arthur stared Theo down and Theo stood rigidly at the bed, shuffling his feet as he stared down at them, I went into Arthur’s ensuite bathroom. I found a large towel in the linen closet and stomped back into the main room. Unfolding the towel and flapping it like a flag, I ceremoniously laid it across the bed, then nudged Theo to sit down. He obeyed and I plopped down beside him.

“Don’t be an ass, Arthur,” I said.

“I’m not being an ass,”

Arthur replied. “I just don’t like strange ass on my bed.”

“Since they stopped refilling your Viagra?”

I quipped.

Arthur’s head fell back and he cackled as I grinned at him. Theo was suddenly attending a tennis match, his gaze drifting back and forth between Arthur and me. I waited for Arthur to settle down, but gave Theo a reassuring look.

“Now, if you don’t stop being mean, I’m going to take your candy back,” I said.

Arthur clutched the Twix to his chest.

“You wouldn’t!”

he squealed.

“I wouldst!”

I declared.

“You shant!”

“I shall!”

Arthur ripped the package open and immediately popped one of the bars up like a cigarette in a pack and bit a piece off.

“I’ve already had my mouth on it,”

he said. “It’s mine.”

“By that logic, half the men in the tristate area belong to you,”

I said, rolling my eyes.

“It’s more than three states, my dear.”

Arthur leaned forward and wiggled his eyebrows at me.

Both of us laughed, and Theo actually let a chuckle escape. Which drew Arthur’s attention and a steely glare. Theo was very quiet suddenly.

“Arthur,”

I said, “please. Don’t be mean. This is Theo Hendrix. He’s my friend.”

Arthur’s face softened slightly.

“Theo, this is Arthur Thompson,”

I said. “A raging queen with a side of bitch. Also my friend.”

Arthur puffed slightly, pleased with my introduction, actually taking pride in the way that I described him. Or he was pleased to be referred to as a friend. It probably wasn’t the friend part, though.

“Hello, Theo Hendrix,”

Arthur said with a nod.

“Hi,”

Theo said. “Arthur. Uh, Thompson.”

I chuckled.

“You do those videos on Peepers with your boyfriend?”

Arthur asked, nibbling at the end of his Twix again. “Bob? Billy?”

“Arthur.”

I warned him.

“Uh, Ben,”

Theo looked down at his lap. “Not anymore. We broke up several months ago.”

“Oh,”

Arthur sniffed as he chewed, as if disinterested, “that’s right. Now you do them on your own?”

“I guess. Yeah,”

Theo replied.

“Arthur’s being a cunt,”

I explained to Theo, though my warning eyes stayed on Arthur. “He knows who you are and that you aren’t doing videos with Ben anymore. Stop antagonizing people for your own amusement, Arthur.”

Arthur stared at me frostily for a moment, then giggled. He bit into the Twix again.

“Fine, fine.”

He waved me off.

Theo’s feet scuffed the floor as he shuffled them, and I suddenly realized how much we differed in height. My feet dangled a few inches off of the floor, and I swung them slightly as I sat on Arthur’s bed. Theo’s feet were easily touching the ground. I found it funny how I never noticed that he was several inches taller when we were standing. Or when going top and tail in bed. We had to sit down for me to notice.

“I like your animal videos,”

Arthur said. “They’re cute.”

“Thank you,”

Theo said, but he didn’t look up.

“I didn’t pay him to say that.”

I teased him.

Arthur gave me a quizzical look, so I felt the need to explain.

“I said the same thing to him,”

I added. “That his animal videos are the best videos.”

Arthur nodded in understanding and went back to his candy bar.

“Except the Uno video,”

I continued. “But I probably just think that because ninety percent of the commenters agreed that I was right about the rules of the game.”

I glanced over at Theo to find that he allowed a small grin at my comment. The tension in the room was palpable, since Arthur was always mean to new people, and Theo had dealt with too many mean people lately. He had no defense against anything Arthur threw at him. Theo was simply too beaten down to really tackle a hard case like Arthur. And I couldn’t completely blame Arthur. He had every right to be suspicious of strangers.

“I hear the other children at the university are bullying you?”

Arthur asked casually.

I cringed, but said nothing. Technically, Arthur hadn’t said anything rude. Of course, that’s where his line of questioning might have been heading, but I’d have to wait. Accusing him of meanness before it happened would only rile him up.

Theo shrugged almost imperceptibly. “I mean, I guess? I don’t know. Some of them aren’t nice.”

Arthur made a disgusted sound.

“It’s okay to say they’re all cunts, dear,”

Arthur said. “Why sugarcoat it when they certainly don’t sugarcoat what they say about you? I have a Peepers account. I see the news.”

“The…news?”

I scoffed.

Arthur shot me a look and a nervous chuckle escaped Theo’s lips.

“Yes,”

Arthur said. “The queer news. They tear him to shreds online. I can only imagine what it’s like in real life.”

I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. Arthur bringing up the problems Theo was facing was not why I had allowed my new friend to come along. Knowing Arthur, I’d expected some initial cattiness. Making Theo uncomfortable by bringing up the worst situation he’d probably ever faced in his life was not what I had wanted.

“Arthur,”

I began, “do you really think Theo wants to—”

“As a black gay man,”

Arthur interrupted me, “of a certain age, don’t you feel I might know something about being screamed at in public?”

“Well, yes,”

I said. “But we came here to have a nice, friendly little visit.”

“Real friends don’t have nice, friendly conversations.”

Arthur chided me. “You know that. And you brought this boy here for a reason, so I’m not going to make polite inoffensive conversation. He’s your friend, I’ll treat him like a friend.”

I rolled my eyes. Arthur snapped his attention back to Theo.

“Boy,”

he said, “those hos treating you poorly, or what?”

I couldn’t help but belly laugh at Arthur’s question. Theo chuckled nervously again and nodded.

“Yeah,”

he said, his voice more certain. “They do. They’re all dicks.”

Arthur made a humming sound, and when I looked over at Theo, he was smiling ruefully. When my eyes caught his, he jerked.

“Except Josh,”

he said. “Of course. And a few others. My roommate’s a stoner, but he’s not awful. But yeah, most of them are dicks.”

“Of course,”

Arthur nodded.

When Theo and Arthur locked eyes, it seemed as if some understanding passed between them. As someone who had never really been bullied, I assumed it was something that only the two of them would pick up on. A secret they could share with a simple look, and one I hoped to never know. The room was quiet for several moments, and I was about to speak to break the silence, but Arthur beat me to the punch.

“Do you want to hear about the time a man threw a bottle at me on the street when I was living in New York and I threw a toaster through his window?”

Arthur asked.

Theo and I both laughed, which made Arthur sit up straighter.

“I mean, I want to—” I began.

“You’re A.M. Thompson,”

Theo said.

It wasn’t a question.

“You wrote all of those crime thrillers,”

Theo added.

Arthur, taken aback, examined Theo for a moment before speaking.

“Yes.”

Theo nodded. “I saw you in a documentary about queer African American authors at Blaze. Uh, Blaze University. But they only showed a picture of you, that, uh, I guess was from a while ago. You were with a drag queen at a party or something?”

“That’s my friend Bang Bang.”

Arthur waved a hand dismissively. “Leave it to that pasty bitch to show up in a documentary about African American authors. Taking up space and playing the diva.”

Theo and I laughed.

“How much time did they talk about me?”

Arthur leaned in.

Blanching, Theo said, “A few minutes, maybe?”

“Mmmm.”

Arthur sat back. “How long did they talk about James Baldwin?”

Theo and I were laughing again. Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle along. Finally, he straightened himself in his chair and folded his hands in his lap.

“So,”

he asked, “do you want the story or not, Theo Hendrix from Peepers?”

“Of course, I do,”

Theo smiled. “Yeah.”

For some reason, I felt as though Theo and Arthur had come to some understanding about each other without me even catching it. Maybe it was a kindred spirit thing—having been bullied. Of course, Theo and Arthur were much different cases when it came to bullying, but they both understood the gist of it. Having never bullied, nor been bullied, I was the outsider for once.

“Well—”

Arthur began.

“Wait,”

Theo said as he dug in his pocket. “Do you…would you mind if I…can I video this? For Peepers?”

Arthur examined him for a minute as Theo held his phone in his lap, waiting for an answer. When I thought Arthur was about to clam up and tell Theo to put his phone away, he seemed to soften. Theo was about to slide his phone back into his pocket when Arthur finally spoke.

“Well,”

Arthur said, “I suppose. If you must.”

Theo smiled. “Thanks.”

Arthur waited as Theo unlocked his phone, found the app, clicked on it, and began recording. Theo lifted the phone and framed Arthur perfectly, making sure he was getting the best light he could from his angle, then spoke.

“Okay,”

Theo said. “Let’s hear your story, Arthur. Talk to me.”

When Theo and I were finally making our way out to my car over an hour later, Theo was smiling, and I was pleased with myself. Obviously, Arthur was going to have one more visitor a week for the foreseeable future. As we slid into my car, Theo turned to me and smiled.

“Thanks,”

he said. “I needed that.”

I chuckled. “Everyone needs a little Arthur from time to time. He always seems to know what to say. Even if it isn’t always pleasing to the ear.”

Theo chuckled. “Yeah.”

“Anyone like your video yet?”

I asked as I buckled my belt.

“I saved it to drafts,”

Theo said. “I don’t know if I want to post it. I want that story to be just for us. For now.”

I turned to stare at him for a moment.

“I get that,” I said.

And I really did.