A/N This is Twinkie: A.K.A Ethan's dog even though she's supposed to be a family dog.
I was laying in bed watching YouTube with my dog Twinkie curled up beside me. My comforter was pulled up to my neck, keeping out the unusually cold air, and I was all comfy and cozy. I've pretty much been in my bedroom for the past three days, except to eat and go to the bathroom. Pathetic, I know, but I've just generally felt like shit lately, so I haven't even attempted to act like a normal human being...and the whole situation that happened on Sunday was playing over and over in my head, bringing back memories that I didn't want to unleash.
Twinkie was completely crashed out next to me (snoring away), then she suddenly jumped up and galloped over to my bedroom door, her tail wagging a mile a minute.
I pulled one of my earbuds out and sat up, figuring she needed to go to the bathroom or something, but before I could even get up, the door opened. My Mom poked her head in, and said somewhat mischievously, "You have visitors."
"Long time, no see," Abby remarked as she stepped through the door and bent down to scratch Twinkie's chest. Twinkie's leg started impulsively kicking and her lips curled into a big doggy smile as Abby scratched her.
"What are you doing here?" I questioned as Abby stood up.
Her lips curled into a devilish smile. "We're here to kidnap you, of course."
"We're?" I questioned, confused as to who the other person in this equation was.
Will stepped into my bedroom, a sly grin on his lips. "I would be the other half of that equation." He grinned, apparently knowing exactly what I was thinking. One of the things I loved and hated about my two friends was that they could read my mind like a damn book.
"Did you bring the pillowcase?" Abby asked Will, her tone entirely serious.
He shook his head as his expression sobered, though his eyes were still full of humor. "No, I forgot it."
"You guys have fun," Mom sang as she waved and closed the door.
I glanced between Abby and Will, completely, and utterly confused. They managed to keep up their little charade for a few more seconds before they both burst into laughter.
Will collapsed on my bed next to me, sobering from his laughing fit, and took his baseball cap off--revealing the faint hint of hair scattered across his skull. "Now, let's get down business," he said as he slipped his hat back on and rubbed his hands together like a villain in a movie.
"What the hell are you two up to?" I accused, sending both of them a glare that said I was done with their antics.
"We're getting you out of this house for two reasons," Will said and dramatically held his hand up, one finger extended. "1. So your poor mother can clean your room, because damn..."
Abby and Will glanced around my room that was typically immaculate, but had turned into a complete mess lately; piles of homework littered my desk, random shit littered every available surface, and my dirty were clothes starting to create small mountains on the hardwood floor.
I cringed, my cheeks flushing at the horrendous state my room was in. "Yeeeah... I haven't cleaned in a while."
"A while?" Abby sputtered. "It looks like a fucking tornado came through here."
I picked up my pillow and threw it across the bed at Abby. She caught it and hugged it to her chest, her emerald eyes filled with mischief.
"As I was saying..." Will drawled, which earned an eye roll from Abby. "Reason number two is that you're explaining to us why you haven't left this room, texted either of us back, and for just acting like a general asshole for the last few days."
"You're the asshole," I muttered under my breath.
Abby threw the pillow back at me, feigning an astonished expression. "You apologize right now," she scolded, barely able to remain straight-faced.
"I will not," I argued.
"Fine, guess I'm just the asshole here," Will mumbled, his shoulders drooping in mock hurt.
I playfully hit him with the pillow, which he deflected, and hit me with it. "Ow!" I cried, dramatically yanking the pillow out of his hand and holding it to my head.
"Baby," Will teased.
I scowled at him. "I'm not a baby," I protested. "Now, where are you guys taking me for this supposed intervention?"
"It's a secret," they both said in unison.
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"Where are we going?" I pressed, desperately wondering where Abby and Will were dragging me to.
"We're going to Charley's," Will said without taking his eyes off the road. Charley's is our--along with pretty much everyone at our schools'--favorite restaurant/hangout spot.
"So, have you guys heard of the new Melissa Mccarthy movie?" I asked.
Abby turned around in her seat to look at me, a sly smile on her lips. "No Eath, I wasn't aware of my favorite actresses' new movie."
"Well, just in case you didn't see the trailer, it looks hilarious," I retorted as I crossed my arms over my chest and smirked.
Her eyes widened, excitement flashing in them. "I know, it looks so good!" she exclaimed.
"It looks much better than her last movie, I can tell you that," Will agreed as he pulled into the Charley's parking lot.
Abby rolled her eyes before turning back around. "I know that stupid Cook-Off movie sucked."
I snorted. "Oh, yeah. It looked good on the trailer, but the actual movie was garbage."
"Exactly. The advertisers always put the good parts in the trailers, but then the actual movie is complete crap," Will said as he flung his door open.
I got out of the car and closed the door behind me, then I huddled down further in my jacket and shoved my hands in my pockets. For some reason, it's been really fucking cold lately. It's been in the 60s all week, which is pretty normal for winter's here in Florida, but that's definitely way too cold for April.
I couldn't wait for summer to come. Hot every day, rain in the afternoons...it's my favorite season. And not because that's when school lets out... Okay, that may be part of it.
"Why is it so fucking cold? It was actually nice last weekend," I growled as a gust of cold air blew straight through my jacket and into my bones while we were walking up to the restaurant.
Abby opened the door, and the mouthwatering smells of hamburgers and onion rings filled my nose, making my stomach growl. "I don't know. It's weird," she responded.
"It feels pretty damn good to me," Will said with a smirk, obviously not the least bit cold in his t-shirt and sweats.
Abby rolled her eyes at him and remarked, "That's because you're the weirdo who likes when it's cold."
"I'm from Canada," Will said and shrugged like that was enough of an explanation. He headed into the restaurant, and I followed him in; the nice warm air from the restaurant helping to ease my chilled body.
Abby laughed and teased, "Exactly, that's why you're a weirdo."
"Whatever, I like it when it's cold," Will retorted and lifted a shoulder.
There was a large crowd of people all clustered around the doors, and we had to squeeze through the crowd just to get to the hostess station. Once we reached it, Abby rolled her eyes at Will, signaling that the conversation was over, then she turned to the hostess.
"We need a table for three, please," Abby asked the hostess, her voice sickeningly sweet.
The hostess glanced down at her seating chart, and I could already tell it was going to be a long wait simply by the number of people waiting for their table's. "There's a 35 to 40-minute wait. Is that okay?" the hostess asked without even looking up, like she expected us to say yes.
"Um sure, that's fine for me. Though, I don't think my friends here can stand around waiting for too long..." Abby said then leaned across the hostess stand, and she lowered her voice. "You see, both of them are very sick. So, if you could squeeze us in a little earlier, that would be great." She sent a frown at the hostess, her eyes becoming distant as she glanced back at Will and me.
Will conspicuously took his hat off to show off his bald head, really adding to Abby's whole "take pity on them, so we can eat faster" thing, and I leaned against Will as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over me.
The hostess glanced from Will to me, frowning as she scrutinized us, obviously not buying it, until she noticed Will's obvious lack of hair, our undoubtedly ghostly skin, and my sudden need to use Will like a wall so I wouldn't fall over.
She must've put two and two together as her expression softened and her frown disappeared. She scanned her chart, a new determination to find us a table in her eyes. "Um, yes. I can squeeze you guys in here somewhere..." she said, then suddenly glanced up, apparently finding what she was looking for. "It'll only be about ten minutes. Is that okay?"
Abby smiled thankfully at her, really playing up the 'we need help because we're sick' thing. "Yeah, that's okay. Thank you so much!" She turned back to us, and she did an almost imperceptible happy dance.
We headed over to the seating area, thankfully there were still a few empty seats, and we all sat down. "I can't believe that actually worked," Will muttered as he sat down.
Abby smiled smugly, obviously pleased with her superb acting skills. "What can I say? I'm the queen of persuasion."
"You're the queen of exploiting me and Eath's cancer perks," Will corrected.
"Well, what's the point in having cancer perks if you never use them?" Abby retorted and shook her head.
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"So, are you going to explain why you've been ghosting us?" Will asked as he picked up a fry from the basket we ordered.
"I haven't felt great the past few days, and with everything that happened on Sunday... I haven't really been able to get out of bed," I answered, not even realizing what I was saying.
"What happened on Sunday?" Abby asked as she dunked her fry in ketchup before shoving it in her mouth, a confused yet intrigued twinkle lighting up her eyes.
Crap, I said that out loud...
I was now frantically trying to find a way to change the subject to anything other than what I just admitted. Though apparently, my mouth defied my brain's orders to bring up another subject, as I spilled about everything that happened on Sunday. Though I hesitated on telling them about what happened with Leo.
"So, to recap what you just said. You went to the beach with your family. Your football game was interrupted by Leo, then you hung out with him for a while after that. And Alex got in trouble for murdering a snail, but you never explained why you didn't finish your football game," Abby said confusedly.
I didn't know how to tell them what happened with Leo, or that whenever I think about him my heart skips a beat. Or that I can't stop thinking about him...sometimes in not so appropriate ways...
"Well?" Will pressed after I didn't answer.
I heaved a sigh, realizing I couldn't delay this any longer, so I just blurted out, "I never finished the game because my heart skips a beat every time I see Leo's face. I can't stop thinking about him. And I, and I quote, 'checked Leo out on the beach...'" I sucked in a deep breath and gave each of my friends a helpless look. "And now I don't have a clue how I'm going to face him again."
Abby and Will both stared at me blankly, like they couldn't believe what I just said.
To be completely honest it felt so good to get that off my chest. I've been keeping that to myself for three days now, and I felt much better to get that out. Though I was still terrified about how they would react to that because I don't just go around telling my friends I might possibly be gay.
"Wait...do you like Leo?" Abby asked astoundedly after a moment of staring at me.
"Well yeah. He's pretty cool, I guess, though I don't really know him," I answered and lifted a shoulder, obviously not realizing what she was asking.
"Well obviously you like him, he seems really nice, but I'm asking if you like him?" Abby explained with a smirk, then she shoved another fry in her mouth.
I felt my cheeks heating up as I realized just what Abby was asking. She was asking if I liked Leo the way I shouldn't like him. The way I do like him.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Will asked, "Are you gay?"
How was I supposed to answer his question, when I didn't even know the answer to it? "I don't know," I replied honestly as I stuffed a fry in my mouth, wishing a hole would open up and swallow me.
"Have you ever liked another boy?" Abby asked and leaned her elbows on the table, completely invested in this conversation.
When Abby said that two certain someone's popped into my head. When I was in 3rd grade I liked this boy, and at the time I just thought I liked him as a friend, though it now dawned on me that I liked him about as much as 9-year-old can. You know how you like someone when you're 9 and you think you're in love with them and they're going to marry you? Well, I now realized that's how I thought of him.
And there was another incident that happened when I was changing in the locker room after gym, and some very strange things started happening with a certain part of my body when another guy started changing next to me...
Oh, and there was Allex...
"I think the answer to that question is yes," Will said pulling me out of my thoughts.
I looked at my friends, and both of them still looked slightly shocked, though they looked mostly amused now.
I felt a hot flush burning the back of my neck, as I slid down further in the booth. For a second time, I hoped a hole would open up and swallow me so this conversation wouldn't have to continue.
"Well, who was it?" Will pressed.
"Tommy Hayes," I mumbled to the table knowing Abby would laugh.
Which she did. Abby burst into laughter, and Will looked between Abby and me, completely bewildered. "Oh, my...god! Tommy freaking...Hayes!" Abby gasped.
"It's not that funny," I growled.
"Who's Tommy Hayes?" Will asked.
I was about to answer when Abby cut me off, "Oh, Tommy was one of Eath's best friends in elementary school. And when he moved away, Eath cried for like a week straight"--she paused to send a devilish smile my way--"now I know why."
Will smirked at me. "Oh, did your boyfriend moving away make you cry?"
"Shut up," I growled.
"Will, you better watch out, there may be another Tommy situation happening between you two," Abby said deviously and pointed at Will and me.
"Yeah, maybe he's only friends with me because he likes me," Will teased.
I didn't think my face could physically get any hotter, but it did when Will said that. "Stop," I pleaded.
"Sorry, that was the last one. Now, where were we?" Abby questioned.
"We were talking about Eath's crush on Leo, and Eath possibly being gay," Will swiftly answered.
"Oh, right. So, how are you going to deal with this? Is Leo gay or... Do you not know?" Abby questioned.
The waiter came over and interrupted our conversation then. "Are we ready to order, or do you need a few more minutes?"
I glanced at my friends, and both of them nodded, signaling that they were ready as well.
After we all ordered our food, I answered Abby's question. "I honestly don't know. After he flirted with me..."
Abby cut me off again by exclaiming, "He flirted with you?!"
"Shhh!" I growled, not wanting anyone to hear her.
She glanced around to see our classmates and their families around us, then she sent me an apologetic look.
"Yeah...he flirted with me on Sunday before we were going to finish our football game," I replied much more quietly.
"Wait, was this before or after you were checking him out?" Will asked, only slightly serious.
I sent him a glare before growling, "After."
"Why did he flirt with you though? Did you flirt with him?" Abby inquired.
"I never flirted with him, so I don't have a clue why he flirted with me," I answered and shrugged, just as confused as they were.
"So, what did he say? When he flirted with you?" Will asked right after I finished speaking.
I ignored the question, hoping they would just let it go, and I tried to change the subject by asking, "So...how's your cheerleading going, Abby?"
Abby's eyes lit up--as they always do when someone brings up cheerleading--and she started babbling on about some new girl who recently joined their squad.
Thankfully, after I changed the subject, my friends forgot about me, and my unexplained sexuality because if I had to talk about that any longer, I might've just spontaneously combusted.
'Am I gay?' I wondered the entire time. I also wondered if I would ever find the answer to that question. I've been wondering about that question for quite some time now, and to be honest I wanted answers to it...
-Love,
Mikey ❤