Virgin Queries

7. Lines

Popcorn and empty soda cans covered Paxton’s bed, and their Friday night line studying session hadn’t even reached the halfway point.  Their plan of having the get together at August’s house was cancelled when he found out his mother was going to have company over.  August, Paxton had learned, was a complete slob when it came to eating food in bed.  He’d even seen the boy watch popcorn fall from his fist and not bother picking it up.  Had it been anyone else, they’d have been kicked out of his room, his house, and his life.  His bed was his sacred place.  It was the Holy Grail of mattresses.  But with August, he didn’t seem to care.  He’d even spilled a bit of Coke on the comforter and hadn’t considered cleaning it up before it stained.  They were having too much fun reading through lines and trying to memorize the play.

It had only been a few hours since school had let out, but Paxton decided he wanted to do this.  He wanted to be with those people in the theatre department.  Though he’d said he wouldn’t, Paxton discovered he quite enjoyed speaking with a horrible British accent and kept this up while he fed lines to August. If anyone was to blame for his addiction to the way of speaking, it was August.  Had they not succeeded in their prank yesterday, Paxton wouldn’t have made his version of Chad Danforth from High School Musical that much more interesting.

“I have a question,” he said primly, his nose in the air.  “Pray tell, what did your mother say the evening of our… our lollygagging.”

“Oh my god,” August muttered, shaking his head.  “She didn’t say anything at all.  She made dinner at the regular time, told me not to eat that much ice cream, then went to bed.”

“Did you eat all the ice cream?  You did, didn’t you?”

“Pfft, you’d like to know…”  He read over his lines with full knowledge that the other boy was staring at him expectantly.  He sighed with mock exasperation.  “Of course I ate all the ice cream.  I have a fast metabolism, what can I say?”

“You can say sorry for being so skinny.  I have to work hard to keep this fat off.”

“Woe is you for looking good,” August teased.

“Woe is you for being skinny,” Paxton shot back.  August shoved him playfully and hopped off the bed, tossing his binder down behind him.  He wandered around the room, looking at the various posters lining the walls.  He tapped his finger against a Britney Spears one curiously.  “She’s the princess of pop, of course I have a Brit poster.”

“And this one?” he inquired.  Paxton tried to hide his embarrassment.  Last year, Paxton had a secret yet powerful addiction to the music of one One Direction.  He’d left the poster up because it looked good on his wall.  He should have remembered to put it away before he had company over.

“Let’s not talk about that one.  I… I won it in a carnival game.”

“Yeah, the carnival was called Walmart, huh?”

“Shut up,” Paxton muttered, tossing a pillow in August’s direction.  The pillow hit him in the butt.  He smiled and continued to look around, the stack of books in front of him piquing his interest.

“You’re still reading these, yeah?”

“Of course.  It’s actually helped me understand the female body a lot more.  It’s not all glitter and tampons, did you know that?”

“You don’t say,” he said replied sarcastically.

“Look, bitch,” Paxton warned.  August chuckled and carried the book from the top of the stack over to the bed.  He plopped down next to Paxton on the mattress.  They sat shoulder to shoulder.  While August flipped through the pages of the book, he played on his phone, checking his text messages and emails.  “Ooh, got a few new queries,” he said happily.