6. We’re all assigned a beaver upon birth #2
“Oh, my parents knew the pool house was our Playboy mansion and didn’t care. Mom even made sure to stuff it with condoms,” Colby informed Hunter but didn’t add, as long as we were only banging girls, which was definitely a fact.
“So, it’s you and two brothers?”
“Yeah. Both older. I had a younger sister named Freya, but she was stillborn. Had a thing called a true knot in her umbilical cord.” Colby really didn’t need to share those details with Hunter, and to ensure he shut up, he drank more of his beer.
“Wow. That’s horrific. Sorry.”
“Mom never got over it. She really wanted a girl. She had the name picked out since before Atlas was born.” Colby cleared his throat and glanced at Hunter, who seemed riveted by all this. “You? Siblings?”
“Only child. Adopted.” Hunter ran a fingertip over the mouth of his bottle.
“I think I was a last-ditch effort to save the marriage, and it didn’t work.
Dad has a kid from his second marriage, so I guess I have a stepbrother.
I never see them, though. I see my dad. He used to come to my school stuff, take me out on weekends, and even came to LA once for a long weekend.
My parents aren’t fans of my career. My mom’s very level-headed and strategic.
She’s a paper-pusher in a government job.
She’s not at all creative. Doesn’t draw or sing or write or act.
We have nothing in common, literally. Dad is more of a performer because he’s in politics.
He’s the mayor of his town, which is forty minutes from Downtown Montreal, where my mom lives.
He thinks it’s okay for me to try this out now, but tells me that at some point I’ll have to be realistic.
They’re both chronically worried I’ll end up homeless and destitute, but neither actively stops me. At the moment.”
“Adopted, huh?” For some reason, that intrigues Colby. Hunter nods but doesn’t add anything else. Colby used to wish he was adopted because maybe then there would be someone out there who he shared blood who would accept him.
“So what happened between you and your dad?” Hunter asked, leaning his head back and staring up at the inky sky.
Fuck. Colby couldn’t talk about it. Could he?
Explaining the whole story would out Atlas, and outing people was a horrible thing to do.
Also, it would kind of make it seem like Colby was gay.
And Colby wasn’t sure that would be accurate.
He certainly hadn’t had sex with a man. Or even kissed one.
He just… he got off to gay stuff. But he hadn’t done gay things with someone.
So… “You don’t have to tell me. I’m being a nosy bitch. Sorry.”
“No. I just… well, it’s complicated.” Colby picked at the label on the bottle. “When I was sixteen, my brother Atlas did something… My father didn’t approve of it, so Atlas said I did it. And my father believed him. Without even thinking about it.”
Colby could feel Hunter staring at him, but he didn’t look up. He studied a wildflower that had bloomed up between the stones that edged the pool. “Like crashed the car? Accidentally lit something on fire?”
“Burning the house to the ground with all his baseball memorabilia inside would have been preferable,” Colby muttered and sucked in a breath, then exhaled loudly.
“I don’t wanna rehash all the gory details, but it was a big deal.
To Dad. And he believed Atlas and just shut down toward me.
Like, he grounded me and stuff. But then afterward, he just stopped interacting.
Gave me years of the silent treatment or the bare minimum.
When I said I was skipping college to live in a van and move here to give music a shot, he just handed me five hundred dollars cash, said good luck, and that was it. ”
The label tore in half, and Colby balled up the part that was between his fingers.
“Growing up, he said he had one non-negotiable, and it was that we all had to go to college for something. He said he didn’t care what we took, so for a while I thought maybe I would try and get into Juilliard or something musical.
But after the… incident… he just didn’t care what I did.
He didn’t even blink. Just handed me cash and walked away.
He never calls. Never checks in. Today, when I saw him, he kinda just nodded, and that was about it.
Never asked how I was. And when he saw the cut on my head, he was only concerned with how it would look in the family photos we had to take, not if my van survived or if I was okay. ”
“Why don’t you just tell him Atlas lied?”
“Because it doesn’t matter.” Colby finally stole a glance at his new friend.
Hunter’s dark eyes were narrowed, and his smooth forehead wrinkled with concern.
Maybe confusion too because Colby wasn’t giving him details.
“The thing is… what my brother got caught doing, I’d done too.
Before. Prior. So, it’s not that I was innocent, I just wasn’t caught. ”
“Okay, I don’t have siblings, like I said, so I’m not exactly sure how it works, but I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t just throw your brother under the bus,” Hunter said, and he sounded so sure of himself it made Colby feel like he wasn’t the only one who knew he was on the right side in this family feud.
Briar did that too, but it was nice to have unbiased reinforcement.
“I mean, if you didn’t get caught, then you didn’t get caught. Atlas needs to own it.”
“Too late. Damage is done.” Colby finished his beer. “Anyway, why did your day suck?”
“I was up for this guest star part on a network show, and I didn’t get it.
Also spent the entire day earning minimum wage as a background actor on a show, and it was a brutal day.
Long and hot and we had to wait around for only like an hour of actual shooting,” Hunter replied.
“And the second I got home, Leandra started in on me to pick up day shifts at work, which I’ve been avoiding. ”
“If you work during the day, you can’t audition for stuff.”
“Exactly.” Hunter lifted his hand, excited. Colby got it. “She doesn’t care, though. Her friends invited us on a weekend trip to Tahoe, and I can’t go because I can’t afford it.”
“Pool is closed, Hunter!” a feeble voice called out. “You and your guest need to go elsewhere.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Yoon!” Hunter called back. “We’re leaving.”
He stood, and Colby did too. Hunter leaned close to Colby so he could whisper. “She’s the building’s security guard, I swear.”
Colby smiled and ignored the ripple of something hot that unfurled in his gut as Hunter’s breath tickled his cheek. “Hey. Do you do edibles?”
“Dude, I’m Canadian. It’s so legal there you buy it from the government,” Hunter replied as they walked toward the gate. “So yeah, I partake. When I can afford it.”
“Canadian? Right. Leandra mentioned that, I think, but I forgot,” Colby replied and tilted his head toward the stairs at the back of the building that led out to the parking. “Wanna come to my van and tell me about life in the great white north?”
“I would be delighted,” Hunter smirked and then held the gate for Colby to leave the pool area. “Should I start with the fact that we’re all assigned a beaver upon birth or just tell you about the time my sled dogs took a wrong turn, and I almost had to make out with a polar bear?”
Colby laughed. It felt unnatural because he hadn’t done it all day, but also really, really fucking good. “Have you thought about stand-up comedy instead of acting?”
Hunter winked at him. “Nah, man. I’m meant to be the next Keanu Reeves, not the next Jerry Seinfeld.”
“You do give strong Keanu vibes.”
Hunter covered his heart with his hands. “Nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
They got to Colby’s van and climbed inside.
Colby was still wet but not dripping. He wanted to change, but there was nowhere private to do that, so he sucked it up and went to where he kept his secret stash of his favorite edibles.
This company made sour gummy edibles that gave him the most chill buzz.
He found a packet, tore it open, and handed two to Hunter before popping two in his own mouth.
Colby sat on the floor across from Hunter, each with their back against opposite sides of the van.
Hunter’s eyes darted around the dented, cramped space. “You okay in here?”
“Yeah. I mean, not being able to stand up kinda sucks, but insurance will figure it out soon,” Colby said confidently, even though he had no clue if that was true. So far, his insurance company had been slow to respond to him. “So tell me about Canada.”
Hunter smiled and suddenly looked gorgeous.
He was a good-looking dude. Colby could admit that without feeling uncomfortable, at least to himself.
Hunter was what Colby would call his type, if he allowed himself to have one.
Dark hair, tall, intense eyes, pretty mouth.
The last woman Colby had slept with—Briar’s roommate—was half-Chinese and had hair similar to Hunter's, all lush and silky and dark. Only much, much longer. Like it went all the way down to her ass, and it was always in Colby’s eyes or mouth as they hooked up. It had been distracting.
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything.” Colby leaned back into the wall of the van.
Hunter took a breath and started talking.
Colby learned that Hunter grew up in Montreal, Quebec, but had actually been born in Vancouver, British Columbia.
His parents had flown out to get him forty-eight hours after his birth.
They divorced when Hunter was young, and he lived primarily with his mom.
In school, he played hockey and was in theater.
He made his mom take him to an audition for a commercial when he was thirteen, and he “bombed it so bad.”