Lucky (boyxboy) (complete)

Chapter Nine

The following Monday at school Patrick told me he was thinking about selling one of his guitars.

"Really?" I asked. "Wouldn't you rather sell something less personal, like, a kidney?"

"Well," he said, stuffing his face with mediocre, rectangular high school pizza, "A kidney would fetch me a lot more money, I suppose. However, I'm considering becoming an alcoholic later in life, so starting out with both kidneys would definitely give me an edge. And anyway, I'm not sure if I can put that on Chuckslist."

"What exactly is Chuckslist, anyway?" I asked.

"You haven't seen it? It's like a big website of classified ads for, like, anything you can imagine. And they have it for different regions, so I can, like, go on to the North Jersey section and put my guitar for sale. And the best part is, it's free."

"Hmm. I'll have to check it out. So, why are you selling your guitar, anyway?"

"Well, I kind of need the cash. My car needs some work and my crappy five hour paycheck from the grocery store isn't gonna cut it if I want to get it fixed any time soon. You know how expensive that shit is."

"Do you know what's wrong with your car?" I asked, now stuffing my own face with mediocre rectangular high school pizza.

"Yeah, it needs brakes and rotors."

*****

Even though I had scarfed down pizza at school, I made a sandwich when I got home and parked myself in front of the television for a while. Then I remembered Patrick telling me about Chuckslist, so I decided to see what it was all about.

I found the website and clicked on North Jersey. Patrick was right. There was everything. Jobs, apartments, things for sale, personals, you name it. My curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the personals for men seeking men.

I wasn't expecting to see such a tacky list of ads, but that's pretty much all there were. The biggest recurring theme, I noticed, was older guys wanting sex from younger guys. And they were disturbingly specific about what they wanted to do to each other. I noticed one heading from a guy in my town that was 18 years old so I had to look.

"Wanna Get Together?" was the heading. It went on to say how the guy wanted to hook up with someone immediately and get his backside "pummeled raw." I cringed just reading it. When I saw the accompanying pictures of the guy who posted the ad, I couldn't believe my eyes.

My phone rang. It was Patrick. "How much would you pay for a 1995 Gibson acoustic guitar?"

"Not much," I replied. "Especially since I don't know how to play one."

"I have no idea how much to ask for. I mean, I want it to sell fast, but I don't want to get, like, totally hosed either."

"Well, I'm the wrong person to ask about that."

He sighed. "I knew I should have taken that mechanic elective. Why does getting a car fixed always have to cost so much?" he asked.

I got an idea. Maybe a stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless. "Let me call you back in a few minutes, okay?" He said okay and I hung up the phone.

I scrolled through my contacts and found Ryan's name, which I couldn't bring myself to delete just yet. I tapped on his name and dialed before I allowed myself any more time to think it through.

"Hello?"

"Is this Ryan?" I asked, sounding stupid since I knew it was.

"Yeah," he said.

"Hey, it's Travis." I said.

Long pause. Did he already delete my number? It didn't seem like he knew it was me right away.