The Homeboy and The Virgin

25-Junior

Chapter 25—Junior

 

 

I shook my head in Duke’s direction. What did he even want with me? Liam came from downstairs with a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair still wet and spiky from his shower. He narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t leave him outside like I asked you to?”

    “Mosquitoes. West Nile. That sort of thing.” I wasn’t that heartless, even if I was angry at Duke and supposedly in love with Liam. “I don’t want him to die.”

    “You should.” Liam bent down and pressed a kiss to my lips. “You know, I really like kissing you.”

    “You’re not that bad either, big boy,” I joked, tossing myself on the two-seater recliner. “Especially when you’re not high.”

    One month had passed. Well, one month and four days, and everybody believed me and Liam had a thing. Even Honey and Rena, who knew about the bet but had sworn to secrecy. They had even started to make jokes about our baby names and talking about marriage colors. I didn’t mind it, even though I knew I didn’t love Liam like that. We had a relationship that was hard to describe. We would’ve made a good couple had we actually felt that way for each other. But we didn’t. We liked each other, sure, and we liked having someone there for our teenage hormones, but nothing else. Everything else was a sort of closeness that was reserved for friends.

   He frowned. “But that’s not fun.” He dropped the towel and reached over and grabbed his boxers. He pulled them on, flashing me a bright smile and a wink. He wasn’t afraid to get naked either. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I mean, he had a nice body, but, by nature, I wasn’t a fan of nakedness. Especially other people’s.

   “Sucks to suck, my friend.” I changed the channel from wrestling to some action packed movie I was sure to fall asleep on.

   He grabbed a blanket and laid in the chair next to me. It felt natural. “You’re the one that sucks.”

   “No, no. It’s definitely you.”

    “You didn’t catch that, did you? Junior, you suck.”

    It took me a minute to get it, and when I did, my eyes brightened in understanding. “You know, you’re a nasty, nasty boy. I have never!”

    He gave me a look. “You mean Ol’ Boy hit it without getting one first?”

    I nodded. “Yes… is that not how it goes?”

   “Depends. If you really love the girl, you focus on her first and foremost. Now, if he licked the plate clean—and please tell me you understand that—and then hit it, then he loves you. Like, he wants to be the Jay-Z to your Beyonce love you.”

   I didn’t feel like talking about that night. Especially with my supposed “boyfriend.” So I changed the subject. “And you? You wanna be someone’s Jay-Z, Liam?”

    He stretched, putting his arm behind me and tucking me into his side. “Maybe one day. Right now I live by not falling for anybody, you know?” He smiled down at me. “But you’re not changing the subject that easy, you little butt.”

   I shrugged. “I don’t wanna talk about it!”

   “It was your first time. You know you wanna talk about it.”

   “Then you talk about your first time, and I’ll listen.” But I really didn’t want to talk about it. Not with him. Or anybody really. That was private and disgusting, and bleghhh. Instead of going into detail, Rena and I had kind of brushed it off with a ‘yeah, we enjoyed it’ and left it at that.