All American Boys

31. Teen Idle

All American Boys

Chapter 31: Teen Idle

I couldn't face Isaac. I avoided looking at him whenever I could. And he seemed to be happy with the way things were. He avoided sitting with us, so now there was only four of us left at the table – Cyril, Shoshana, Emily and I.

It has almost been two weeks. Two weeks of radio silence. I couldn't help but feel concerned for him. I thought that perhaps he just needed some space and that he would eventually come crawling back, but I suppose I was wrong. I wondered how he was doing.

I admit, it was wrong of me to just leave him alone for two weeks, and not attend his father's funeral. In my defence, I thought that he would be fine with it, and that he would be better off not seeing me for the time being. I thought that once things had settled down we would go back to how things were before, but the days gone by and things were still left frozen. I thought of approaching him, but I had been rather hesitant.

There was also the thing about Cyril. If I were to try to make it work out with him, or at least make it last long enough, I had to address the elephant in the room. Cyril knew Isaac and I were 'friends', but I had to make sure nobody could use whatever I had with Isaac against me. I had to tell Cyril. It was that better learned it from me than anyone else. I'd rather he not know about me and Isaac as all, but I was afraid that, for whatever reason, Isaac could just go up to him and tell him everything. Not that I think he would, but I just didn't want to risk it.

Especially after what happened at the funeral, from what Emily told me, I had reason to be cautious. Cyril had approached Isaac, and although she couldn't hear what they talked about, I couldn't help but worry about it. When I asked him about it, Cyril told me that he was just giving Isaac his condolences. I knew Cyril wouldn't lie to me, but I suppose when you've been lying for as long as you remember, you would just naturally be more suspicious of everything. I suppose it was something that I had to live with, being afraid of every little shadow, every minute creak. Cyril questioned me on why'd I ask that, so I just told him I was curious. It wasn't an exact lie. He gave me a weird look, but he otherwise said nothing else. That was the end of it.

It did remind me even after all that while I hadn't even given Isaac my condolences. Not long after that, I sent a text to him, telling him how sorry I was for his loss. Well, I didn't truly feel that way, but it dawned on me that my radio silence only served to reflect badly on me to him.

Isaac left me on read.

It left me on edge. As long as I didn't have Isaac firmly in my grasp, I was not safe. There was still the thing about Aaron Beauchamp, but so far I've managed to convince him that I was 'working on it', and he seemed satisfied for the time being. For now, I had Aaron in check, but who was to say that he wouldn't turn against me and released that video?

That's where me telling Cyril about Isaac and I came into play. That way, Aaron and Isaac wouldn't post as much of a threat. Cyril would believe me over them.

On one of the days when he didn't have football practice, I asked Cyril to go grab a bite after school. I decided that the time has come.

We went to the same diner, the one that he had brought me to on our first date. It was quite empty that afternoon, just Cyril and I, together with a few truckers. Cyril's expensive red car was a stark contrast to the giant trucks parked a stone's throw away. It was an establishment near the outskirts of town anyway, so truckers weren't that rare of a occurrence.

Cyril sat across the table from me, a light blue cashmere sweater tied over his shoulders, covering his pink polo shirt. We had some milkshakes, and shared a basket of onion rings and French fries between us. I wasn't that hungry, to be honest. It was just an excuse for me to talk to him in private, but I didn't want to go to his house. We'll just have sex anyway and it'll get nothing done.