An hour passed after the other boys had left.
Steve, who had downed 5 beers, 3 shots of vodka and half a cup of strangely warm wine, had found himself slightly sober and silently standing 5 feet apart from the other boy in the pool. Soft music and cicadas murmured quietly in the background.
"I'm not gay." He blurted out after almost an eternity of pure silence.
"O-okay..." Jonathan watched him through his peripheral view, not daring to look up at Steve or even move any part of his body.
When routine bites hard
And ambitions are low
"It's just earlier... I-I don't want you to get the wrong idea. It was a joke," Steve tried to correct himself.
"I know."
"Cool... just because... well y'know."
This time Jonathan did move. He shot his eyes up to meet Steve's with a questioning look.
"Because what?"
"Uh... well... you're gay right?" Steve bit his lip as he asked Jon the question the boy had been asked all his life.
"W-what? No! Why would you think that?" Jon cast his eyes away nervously as his cheeks turned a deep shade of red.
"Well, that's what everyone at school says... I thought you knew..."
"No one at that school knows me. They all think I'm some kind of freak." Jonathan looked down in silence, the outline of his hands and legs being distorted by the moving pool water. He always knew he was a social outcast but now it was for different reasons. Reasons even he's not sure were 100% true.
Why is the bedroom so cold?
Turned away on your side
Steve wished his friends hadn't left earlier. The tension radiating between the two boys was unbearable as they stood awkwardly against the concrete walls of the warm pool. Summer was always hot in Hawkins, no matter where you were you could always hear people swimming and chattering in backyards throughout the suburb.
"Well... I mean... you've got to admit you kind of are. Like, I only did it because I wanted to show the girls that I'm not a pussy and the guys dared me," A heavy shot of pain twinged inside of Jonathon's heart as he clenched his jaw, trying to ignore Steve's comment.
Steve laughed nervously as he watched the boy across from him intently.
Before Steve knew about Nancy's friendship with Jon, he had hardly knew Jonathan existed. Sure he saw him once or twice in the hallways but Steve was always goofing around with the other popular kids on the football field whereas Jonathan was tucked away in the school's darkroom.
Love,
Love will tear us apart again
"I mean c'mon, do you really think I actually wanted to kiss you earlier? I got paid 60 dollars to do that," Steve scoffed again, "it's like you're trying to make yourself a target. Just look at you! The floppy hair? The old hand-me-down clothes?"
Instant regret twinged inside of Steve as he saw Jonathan's hands twitch in frustration.
"YOU KNOW I DON'T EXACTLY WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH YOU EITHER, STEVE," Jonathan finally snapped. He pushed himself off the wall of the pool and staggered up the concrete steps. "You're not everyone's best friend! You think everyone's desperately in love with you but in reality you're a self-centred asshole who is too pathetic to realise that he's peaked in high school and will never live up to anything!" He angrily wrapped a towel around him before marching to the side of the house away from Steve.
