this is a short story i wrote for @lgbtq's anthology contest.
basically, boy meets boy, boy kisses boy,
boy pushes boy down the well, and grudges ensue.
subgenres: humor, boy/boy, romance
" — yeah, and so I told Mom we'd hang out with him for the summer."
Cam choked on his straw. Pepsi shot up his nose and caused him to cough up the contents of his soda, saliva landing on the diner table with a wet splat. Kenji at least had the heart to look worried at his extreme reaction. Mae just looked supremely disgusted.
"Not Wyatt?" he finally managed to wheeze out. "Asshole, Wyatt? Bane of my existence, Wyatt?"
Kenji furrowed his eyebrows at Cam. "I know you don't like him, but — "
"I don't like him?" Cam's mouth dropped open. "Is that what that sonuvabitch told you? That's rich seeing as how he's the one who pushed me down a well when we were in sixth grade!"
"You did try to make out with him," Mae said, shrugging. She dipped a French fry in her milkshake and pointed it at him. "I'd push you down a well if you tried to make out with me, too."
"Okay, first." Cam snatched the fry out of her hands and turned it on her. "I didn't try to make out with him. There was no trying going on anywhere near that well. We were totally kissing, and he had some weird, straight freak-out, and then shoved me down a well." He munched down on the fry, giving Mae a pointed look. "Facts."
Kenji opened his mouth to say something dumb and reasonable, so Cam held up a hand before he could.
"A dark, freezing, probably hiding a dead body well, Kenji!" He yelled, arms flailing. "Your cousin is evil incarnate. He's a total ass, and he's not hanging out with us this summer."
"Okay, but — "
"No buts!" Cam looked affronted. "Whose side are you on?"
"For the record," Mae cut in, "I'm on the side of whoever's paying for my meal, because I totally, and most definitely not on purpose, left my wallet at home."
Cam pointed at her. "I am willing to give bribes for loyalty. Since apparently — " He shot Kenji a meaningful look. " — buying loyalty is the only way to get it around here."
"Don't you think you're being a bit, I don't know, of a jerk? Think about it from his perspective. A black kid moving to a small town in the South, in the middle of the summer, with no friends and no way to make friends."
"What does race have to do with anything? You're black and Asian, and you managed to survive out here. Why can't he?"
"We live in Virginia. When doesn't race have to do with anything? And no offense, I love you two, you're my best friends in the whole world, but I wouldn't call having only two friends — one being a hyperactive spaz and the other being — "
