CHAPTER 9
[ Derek ]
When my eyelids fluttered open, I was greeted by a beige colored wall. There weren't any sounds present other than the faint whirring of my breath. After a while of staring at the wall, I started to think something was seriously wrong. Did I seriously just die? "Am I in heaven?" I asked no one in particular.
Maya's head hovered over me, obstructing my view of the beige wall. "Nope," she said coolly, "you're still in hell."
After a slight switch in body position, I realized I was laying in the midst of Calvin's bedroom, still half-naked with a towel tied around my hips. Maya was knelt down beside me, gazing back at me with her chocolate eyes and her rosy lips curled into a smug smirk. Mike, on the other hand, was settled on the bean bag, not paying any attention to me.
I sat up straight when I recalled how I ended up fainting in the first place. "Where's Calvin?" As soon as I got my hands on him, I was going to tear his body apart, limb by limb.
"He's getting you something to drink," she informed me as she brought her hand up to my forehead, feeling my temperature. "You have a high fever."
I simply ignored her and balled my hands into fists. "He better not come in here, because I'm going to snap his neck."
Mike perked up, becoming interested. "What'd he do?"
"He made me smell a dude's underwear."
Mike and Maya exchanged worried looks and they broke into full laughter almost simultaneously. They didn't even try to be discrete about it and laughed right in front of my face, burying me in more humiliation. It wasn't like any of this was my fault. I had jogged upstairs to take a shower and caught sight of Calvin's backpack hanging on the door. I didn't know what possessed me to go through his bag, but it felt like the right thing to do, especially since he had just came from Frenchy's place. I stumbled upon the thong and it looked like it belonged to a girl. I didn't even know man thongs existed.
I was okay with Calvin being gay in the condition that he didn't flaunt it wherever he went. Having sex with French dudes and keeping their underwear was definitely flaunting, and really weird.
Maya stopped laughing way before Mike did, and his little chuckles were really starting to annoy me. "Shut up, Mike, before I punch your intestines out of your mouth. Then you'll have something to really laugh about."
He fell silent immediately, shrinking into himself and staring back at me with scared, beady blue eyes.
The bedroom door swung open and Calvin strolled in with two water bottles and a damp washcloth. "I was thinking that we could probably force feed the-" He stopped mid-sentence when his eyes met mine, and he swallowed a lump in his throat.
Not taking the time to think through what I was going to do next, I launched myself at the brown haired boy, tackling him to the floor and knocking the water bottles out of his hands. With widened eyes and pathetic pleas, Calvin tried to push me off him, but I pinned him to the hardwood floor by enclosing my hand around his neck. He coughed and choked as I raised my free hand, balling it into a fist and preparing myself to punch the living shit out of him.
"Derek," he managed to say between chokes, "t-the ... t-towel."
I froze. "What?"
His hands grasped onto the hand that was strangle him, trying to pry my fingers off, but that didn't stop him from breaking eye contact and letting his eyes venture lower. Suddenly feeling a slight draft, I glanced down to the towel around my waist to see it had unraveled and that I was giving Calvin a pretty good view of my dick.
"Fuck," I cursed in a bare whisper as I released my grip on his neck and stumbled backwards, hastily grabbing onto the ends of the towel to cover myself. Normally, I wouldn't have cared if my guy friends saw my junk, but Calvin was gay and I didn't want him getting aroused over me. Somehow, that seemed worse than the man thong.
I caught a glimpse at Calvin to see that his cheeks had reddened severely, and it only made me want to punch him again. Considering that it wouldn't be too suitable in my current wardrobe, I continued to back into the room until I was pressed against the furthest wall, staying as far away from him as possible.
Maya clapped her hands together to gather our attention. "Now that you two are done killing each other, can we get back to the reason why I'm here?"
Calvin stopped looking at me weirdly and shifted his attention to Maya. "Yeah, why are you here?"
She placed a hand over her heart, raising a perfectly plucked brow and feigning heartache. "Now, is that any way to treat your beloved girlfriend?"
I snuck a glance at Mike, who had seemed to check out of the conversation ever since Calvin joined it. Instead, he avidly tapped on his cell phone and tried to distance himself from the situation. I shook my head in disbelief as I crawled over to Calvin's dresser, tugged open a random drawer, and rummaged through to find clothes to wear.
When I returned to my seated position, I noticed Calvin was staring at me. "Stop looking at me," I spat.
He looked away almost immediately, preparing himself to reply to Maya. "Um, well, I already know you're going to be my girlfriend for the week. What else is there to do?"
Maya slowly rose to her feet and plopped down on the edge of Calvin's messy bed. "The relationship isn't official unless we prove it," she stated as she patted the empty space next to her, beckoning Calvin to sit. She switched her gaze to Mike, and flashed him a toothy grin. "Mikey, can you take a picture of us kissing?"
Mike jumped out of his skin. "What?"
"Take a picture of Calvin kissing me," she repeated as she held out her phone for him.
He looked to me for confirmation, but I shrugged. No matter how many hints Maya dropped, Mike never seemed to understand that he didn't have a chance with her. It was sad, really.
When no one spoke up to ease his mind, he heaved a sigh and took her phone. He aimed the camera at Calvin and Maya. "Whenever you're ready."
Maya flipped her long black hair over her shoulder and dropped her hands on Calvin's shoulders, squaring them. "Have you ever kissed a girl before, Calvin?"
He stammered, "N-no."
This caught her interest. "Then how do you know if you're really gay? You haven't even tried the other side."
Calvin stared back at her like a deer caught in headlights and his gaze landed on me for only a second, before they snapped back to her. "Uh, I-I don't know. I j-just know."
Maya challenged him with a raised brow, but she decided not to pry any further. "Okay, well I'm gonna need you to pretend that I'm a boy for like a few seconds. Can you do that for me?"
He folded his hands in his lap and nodded solemnly. "Yeah."
She nodded toward Mike to let him know they were ready, and he responded with a low growl. I fully expected Maya to make the first move since Calvin was so hesitant, but I was ultimately surprised when he took the initiative by placing his hands at the back of her neck and crashing his lips on hers. Maya didn't need any time to adjust because she had already loosely wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss deepened, and I swore I saw them swap saliva at some point.
Something about their kiss didn't feel right. Maybe it was because we all knew he was gay and that he couldn't actually be enjoying it. Then again, him kissing Frenchy didn't feel right either.
After a minute, they pulled away from each other's lips, breathing heavily. Calvin unknowingly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and glanced up at Mike with hopeful eyes. "Are we done?"
"Yeah, the pictures came out just fine," Mike muttered with no enthusiasm in his words as he tossed Maya's phone onto the bed and returned to his secluded position on the bean bag.
Maya jumped up in excitement. "Great, I'll post them on all of my social media accounts and by Monday, it'll be official." She threw an arm around Calvin and tugged him closer to her. "Maya and Calvin. What should our ship name be?"
I rolled my eyes. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Maya. You guys are breaking up at the end of the week."
She shrugged. "Doesn't mean I can't have my fun with Cal while I can."
He winced. "Please don't call me that."
Despite his objections, Maya continued to overstep his boundaries by grabbing onto his face and squeezing his cheeks. "Que pasa, mi novio sexy?"
Calvin pressed his lips together in a thin grim line. He obviously wanted to say something, but he was too fearful to speak up, so I took it upon myself to stand up for him. "Cut it out," I snapped at the Latina, causing her deep brown eyes to snap to mine in irritation.
"Whatever." She lifted herself from the bed and stood to her feet. She sent a quick glare Mike's way to let him know they were ready to leave. Like the lovesick boy he was, he leaped to his feet and followed her to the door. Before they left, Maya peered over her shoulder at me. "Don't forget Chloe's party tonight and don't bring the faggot if he's going to keep acting like that."
Mike chuckled at that, and they both exited the bedroom, leaving nothing but silence between Calvin and I. He sat gently on his bed and stared straight ahead, like his mind was elsewhere.
"She didn't mean that," I said before I could really think about what I was saying.
Calvin shrugged. "I don't care."
"Really, she didn't mean that. She's just-"
He snapped his eyes to mine, the sky blue color burning with anger. "Why are you defending her decision to call me faggot?"
"I'm not, I'm just-"
"Yes, you are," he hissed, "she wouldn't have said it if she didn't mean it."
Where was all this anger coming from? "Calvin-"
"Do you think I'm a faggot?"
There was something about the way he looked at me. It was like he was desperately hoping for me to say what he wanted to hear. If not, then he'd be sure to cry. And the last thing I wanted him to do was cry.
"No, of course not-"
"Why not?" He asked, obviously surprised by my answer. "You call me gross all the time. Why can't you call me a faggot?"
"Because-"
He cut me off once again. "I know you're thinking it."
He was asking me all these questions and not giving me time to respond to them, like he had already thought up my answers beforehand. If he really believed I thought of him that way, then he really didn't know me at all. "Will you just shut up and listen to me?" I demanded. "Calvin, you are my friend. We may have drifted apart during the past few years, but right now, you are my friend. And friends do not degrade each other."
A glimmer of happiness flashed in his eyes, and it made me sorta happy. "Thanks Derek. Maybe you're not that much of a jerk, after all."
I felt the sudden urge to hug him—not because I wanted to, but because it felt like the right thing to do in the moment.
And so I did. I walked over to his side and threw my arms around him in what I intended to be a very quick and very brief man hug. But Calvin took this to be more because he kept holding onto me, even when I tried to pull away.
"Calvin," I said through gritted teeth.
"Shut up," he spat, "it's been a while since I hugged you. I deserve a few more seconds."
I rolled my eyes and gave into the hug. A few seconds passed before Calvin finally pulled away with a satisfied smile on his face and I returned the smile. After a moment's hesitation, I found myself asking, "Where are your parents? I haven't seen them lurking around."
"My mom takes up double shifts at the hospital, now."
I frowned. "Since when?"
He was slow with his answer, almost as though he was debating whether he should tell me or not. "Since my dad left us."
"Shit," I said before I could stop myself, "when did he leave?"
"Two years ago."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
He brought his gaze to mine slowly. "We weren't talking."
Even when I wanted to forget the amount of time we spent away from each other, it always came up one way or another. Why couldn't we just pretend it never happened?
Deciding to change the subject, I jumped to my feet and urged Calvin to follow. "Well, I'm not leaving you here by yourself. Come to the party with me."
He let out a bitter laugh. "No, I give up on parties."
I knitted my brows together. "Why?"
"Well, the first time I went to a party, I got myself hung by my underwear on a closet. The second time, you had sex with Gina. It's enough to make me stay away."
I grinned. "Third time's the charm! Dude, I just don't want you to be alone on a Saturday night."
Calvin chuckled for a little bit, but he still didn't budge. "I'll pass, Derek. Besides, Nicolas asked me out to dinner. We were supposed to go tomorrow, but I'm sure we can go tonight. I won't be alone."
What was it with this stupid French kid? Other than his annoying accent and fake innocence, there was nothing appealing about him. Yet, Calvin drooled over him like he was the best thing in the world. "I'd rather you be alone than with him. He's-"
"He's a creep, yes, I get it." He breathed out a long sigh and moved to the other side of his room where his dresser was. He began to rummage through the clothing for something to wear. "You keep saying that."
"I keep saying it because it's the truth."
"No, it's not," he objected, "Nicolas is the sweetest guy I've ever met and he's probably the only other gay guy at our school. I like him, and he likes me, so leave us alone."
I swear, Calvin was so fucking stubborn. Regardless of anything I said, he would always think the best of that creep.
He slipped on a button-down shirt over his current tee, clearly ignoring all of my warnings.
"He's going to molest you," I added.
For some weird reason, Calvin found this to be funny. "It's not molesting if I agree to it."
Images of Calvin and Frenchy doing the dirty flashed through my mind, and I wanted to faint again. "I'm not okay with you having mindless sex with weird French guys."
Calvin started to take off his shirt and replaced it with another one with a different pattern. He wandered around his room, searching for articles of clothing, and barely paying me any attention. "Don't you have mindless sex with weird girls?"
"Yeah, but that's me. You're not into mindless sex."
Calvin stopped in his strides and spun around to face me. "Why are you suddenly concerned about my sex life?"
My body tensed at his accusations. "I'm not!"
He sent me a look that said he was just messing with me and I relaxed a bit. "We're not going to have sex, Derek. It's just dinner. Go to your party and have fun." I didn't even notice he was pushing me out of the room until I was at the door.
"What if he slips you a weird aphrodisiac and you-"
"Goodbye, Derek." He successfully shoved me out of his bedroom and slammed the door in my face. I heard the faint click of a lock on the other side.
I ground my teeth together in irritation and punched my fist into the wooden door. Calvin simply ignored me like the asshole he was and I had no other choice than to step away from the door and wait for him to open it again.
If he thought I was letting him go on this date alone, then he was wrong as hell.
**
a/n: this chapter isn't as eventful because it's sort of a filler, but I still hope you guys enjoyed.
Next chapter will be of Nic and Cal's date. A lot of you guys have expressed concerns about the French guy, so I'm wondering how do you think the date will go?
I'm doing quick updates now because I have severe writer's block on my other stories, so until that clears up, I'll probably be writing this non-stop.
Also, if you guys have any "rules" on how to be straight that I can use as titles then please feel free to share them with me. I'm running out lol.
Until next time,
Lara <3