10:26 RUSHIL: Open snap
— Lee shirtless, knee-deep in the ocean —
10:27 Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot screenshot your snap!
10:27 MILO: Could I talk to Lee?
10:28 MILO: Please?
10:30 Missed call from Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot
10:32 RUSHIL: O sorry got distracted talking to Lee
10:28 MILO: 😡
12:06 RUSHIL: Open snap
— Lee sitting on the back porch railing, already sunburnt —
"Dude, you look like Rudolph."
"Fuck you, I look amazing—Oh, shit, sorry. I didn't mean to cuss."
"I'm sure you didn't, mister. Best keep that language to yourself."
"Right, sorry Miss Patel, won't happen again."
— Rushil snickering behind the camera as his mother closes the patio door. Lee leaps off of the railing to attack him. —
"I swear to God—"
— The video cuts off —
12:10 Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot replayed your snap!
12:12 MILO: Give me his number Rushi Roll 😡
12:13 RUSHIL: O sorry can't hear you over me not giving a fuck
12:13 MILO: 😡 Rushi Rolllllll
12:14 RUSHIL: 🥳💃🕺
13:46 RUSHIL: Open snap
— Lee through the glass of a shop door, flipping the camera off. He's wearing a sunhat and sunglasses —
"Mr. Asano, tell me, how does it feel being a celebrity?"
"Feels like I don't give a fuck that's what it feels like. Quit taking videos of me."
"But Mr. Asano, what do you have to say to your adoring fans?"
— Lee leans in close, takes a sip from his drink straw, and lowers his sunglasses —
"The only thing you should get high on is life."
"Hypocrite."
— Lee shoves his hand into the camera and Rushil screams bloody murder —
13:51 Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot replayed your snap!
13:52 MILO: Let me talk to him D:
13:52 MILO: Plz Rushil D:
13:53 MILO: Did he tell you what happened??
13:54 MILO: I swear to God I didn't do anything I've never lied to you before so why would I now? Felix was my presentation partner in Spanish I borrowed his textbook and bought him coffee to make up for doing most of the work in our projects. It was shitty of me to use him for that but I haven't taken him out since I started seeing Lee
13:55 RUSHIL: O shit you were seeing Lee
13:55 RUSHIL: Like, Sexy Times seeing??
13:55 MILO: 🤭
13:56 RUSHIL: Lmao I'm just pulling your leg
13:56 RUSHIL: So this is about Felix? Wasn't he, like, super into you?
13:57 MILO: Yeah D:
13:57 MILO: I also... never apologized for that time you walked in on us making out...
13:58 RUSHIL: Yeah tell that to my therapist when you pay for my next appointment 🤲
13:58 RUSHIL: I'll consult with Lee
13:58 MILO: THANK YOU
14:00 MILO: And tell him that Felix kissed me and that I imMEDIATELY told him I just wanted to be friends. I doubt Felix is ever gonna talk to me again tho D:
14:00 MILO: He made a lot of good memes imma miss em
14:01 RUSHIL: Yeah Felix's memes were pretty fire
14:01 MILO: Who will be my meme dealer now D:
14:03 RUSHIL: LMAO Lee's got lit memes too bruh
14:03 RUSHIL: Guess you guys never talked memes tho huh 👅🍆
14:04 MILO: Fuck off 😆 I'm an angel excuse you 😇
_____
Lee had his lips around the straw of a Long Island ice tea mixed by one of Rushil's moms. He reclined back in the low beach chair he had pulled from the back of the Patels' jeep. With the sun on his sunscreen-lathered skin, he felt like he was in Heaven. The pulse of heat along his arms had him ascending into a blissful, calming sigh as he tipped his head to look at Rushil.
Rushil, with his partially Hispanic genes, had the olive skin tone that made for easy tanning. He was lying in the sand on his stomach, his head and arms perched on a rolled-up towel. Rushil blinked open one eye at him and smiled. "This is the dream, huh?" Rushil said.
"I can't believe you grew up here," Lee said. "This is..."
"Amazing."
"Yeah."
They lulled into silence. The ocean waves were crashing in and washing over Lee's muddled mind. He let it all fade away until Rushil asked, "Where did you grow up then?"
"Portland, Oregon," he replied, clearing his throat. He pulled his knees up so that he could pinch his ice tea between them. The alcohol made his head swim a little when he turned to face Rushil. He needed more water but was too relaxed to get up for it. "Rainy all the time and cloudy. Pretty much sums up my family."
"Damn. Pretty area, though. Branch off of the Rockies, national forests... the works," Rushil said.
"I guess, yeah. My family's always been big hikers, so... I really got to know the trails in the area," he confessed. He shook his head then, frowning. "But I hate being so close. I'd rather be on the East Coast, I think. I wouldn't mind going to school in Seattle if it wasn't so damn expensive and if my parents didn't have a firm there."
"So you've been to Seattle?"
"Oh, yeah, I spent a lot of my summers there," he confessed. He adjusted the rim of the sunhat Rushil's mother gave him and smiled. "Kiki and I would just hang out at Pike's Place all day long. Spent my summers at the first ever Starbucks, you know. People watching."
"Now that is the dream. This here? Basic bitch dream," Rushil said, gesturing to the beach. Lee laughed, looking out over at where the back of the jeep was propped open and Rushil's mothers watched from afar. They were to far to hear them cussing.
Lee turned back to Rushil with a smile. Rushil sat up a little, his entire front now caked with sand. "Well, I'm gonna go for a swim to wash all this off."
"Sounds good. I'll hold down the fort," Lee promised.
Rushil pushed off and wandered up to the waves. Lee put his sunglasses down then and waved when Rushil turned back to face him. Rushil waved back before tipping back into the water. Lee tucked his hand against his mouth, hiding his giddy smile.
Rushil's phone lit on the towel next to him.
Snap from Milo Park.
Lee frowned at it. He reached over to pick up Rushil's phone, squinting at the dimmed screen where Milo's username was. The sight of it was so familiar on his own phone that, for a second, he smiled. The feel of it on his face—light, easy, energetic—reminded him that he wasn't supposed to feel like this when he saw Milo's name on his phone. It wasn't even his phone.
He set it down but, a moment later, he picked it up again and typed in Rushil's passcode.
Rushil had saved his chat with Milo and Milo had let him. Lee read through it, biting his thumbnail between his teeth as he did. He furrowed his brow at the name—Felix. So that was the rat bastard who Milo took out for coffee. Knowing it didn't change what Milo had said to Felix.
For a moment, he wanted an explanation. He had been so dead set on ignoring everything to do with Milo that an explanation never crossed his mind.
His thumbs hesitated over Rushil's keyboard.
_____
14:11 Rushi Roll 🍣 is typing...
14:12 RUSHIL: Why did you tell Felix you liked him?
14:12 MILO: Lee???
14:12 Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot is calling
14:12 Missed call from Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot
14:13 Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot is typing...
14:13 RUSHIL: Just answer the fucking question
14:13 MILO: You know I don't like serious talks over text D:
14:14 RUSHIL: Well suck it up and deal with it
14:14 RUSHIL: I'm not fucking talking to you answer the question
14:15 MILO: OKAY okay give me a hot second
14:15 Milo 🏈🤼♂️ Parking Lot is typing...
14:17 MILO: I still LIKE other people I can't stop liking people but it's different when I'm with you. With Felix I liked him as a friend but I abused his grades to keep mine up. It wasn't until I met you that I even realized that I just liked him as a friend. That whole line between friends and WHATEVER was blurred before you and I wound up letting people fuck with me and I didn't even realize it.
14:18 MILO: And if that makes me a fuck boy then fuck it yeah I screwed around with people but I always did it consensually. But bottom line I don't like Felix the same way he likes me, but I like him AS A FRIEND.
14:19 Rushi Roll 🍣 is typing...
14:19 RUSHIL: Did you fuck with Rushil
14:19 MILO: WHAT
14:20 MILO: NO what gave you that idea??
14:20 RUSHIL: Well since your line was blurred or whatever
14:21 MILO: Rushil's STRAIGHT I don't I wouldn't do that
14:21 MILO: I mean it'd be kinda hot if my roommate was gay... I thought about it before like back in high school wouldn't that be cool??
14:22 RUSHIL: Not every gay guy would fuck you Park
14:22 RUSHIL: Take me for example
14:22 MILO: D:
14:23 MILO: You don't mean that do you??
14:25 MILO: Can I call you? What's your number?
14:34 RUSHIL: Lee's gonna call you later dude
14:34 MILO: How later???
14:35 MILO: I have a team get together tonight but I'll send you my schedule
14:35 RUSHIL: He said and I quote: "Fuck his schedule. My terms, bitch" and then walked away
14:35 MILO: Shit okay his terms
14:36 MILO: Is he royally pissed at me?? I told him everything D:
14:36 RUSHIL: He's screaming at the ocean
14:36 RUSHIL: He just threw the lawn chair
14:37 MILO: D:
14:37 MILO: Tell him not to pull anything
14:38 RUSHIL: He said (and again, I quote) "I'll pull what I want when I want where I want"
14:38 RUSHIL: I'm assuming it's a euphemism
14:40 MILO: God that's sexy
14:40 MILO: He's so hot when he knows what he wants if ya know what I'm saying
14:41 RUSHIL: I'm trying not to know what you're saying
14:41 RUSHIL: brb Lee's on the run he's sprinting down the beach at top speed
14:41 RUSHIL: the guy's like a fucking greyhound dude shit's made for running
14:42 MILO: Yeah I noticed he has especially good stamina
14:42 MILO: 😳🗣
_____
Lee didn't touch his phone for two days. He didn't so much as check the time on it. Instead, he stuffed it into his duffle and promptly forgot it existed as he let Rushil take the wheel. When they weren't hanging out with Rushil's moms, Rushil had them on the move. If money was involved, Rushil's mom would slap a twenty in her son's hand and say, "Spend it wisely," and they'd make the day out of it for the sake of their own wallets.
Surprisingly, a twenty could go pretty far. On the first day, they spent that time theater-hopping after paying for two tickets to Avatar II. After emerging from the chilly theater into the dense San Diego heat, they went back home for food and walked it to the beach where they cooled off in the ocean until dusk.
Lee's skin became pruny and pink. His nose started to peel on the second day without his phone. Rushil giggled about it until Lee peeled off an entire strip of transparent skin cells like a goddamn snake, at which point Rushil said, "Holy shit, you're shedding!"
"I'm just tryna live, leave me be," Lee whined.
Their twenty dollars that day had been halved by a boba shop down the road from Rushil's neighborhood. They sat on the bar top facing the street, sipping their drinks and watching the traffic roll by. Lee tucked his feet against the stool spokes and tapped idly at his sunburnt nose. He popped boba in his mouth and sipped on tea like he was living the dream.
The dream ended when Rushil asked, "What're you gonna do about Milo?"
"I don't know," he confessed. He propped his head on his chin and turned to look at Rushil. They had only been in San Diego a total of four days and somehow, Rushil looked more like himself. Dark, olive skin highlighted the edge of defined tan lines. He wore Hawaiian printed tank tops and frat boy shorts.
Lee never thought he'd say it, but Rushil had the makings of a frat dude bro. To top it off, Rushil was straight. He had all there was to it.
Rushil looked down at the counter top and said, "Are you gonna call him?"
"No," Lee said. Rushil looked up sharply, solidifying the hunch he had before. He was being too harsh. "I don't know. I get why he did it but that doesn't make it right, you know? Maybe I just shouldn't date book stupid jocks."
"Yeah, Milo's kind of an airhead," Rushil agreed with a sigh. "But he's your airhead right now."
"No he isn't," Lee huffed, sucking down a mouthful of bobas. He bit into them and swallowed them all down in one go. "Okay fine. Yeah, he's my idiot right now. I guess I have to call him whenever I decide. Did you actually walk in on Milo making out with Felix?"
"You read that?" Rushil laughed. Lee frowned at him. Rushil cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away. "Yeah, but I could tell Milo was majorly embarrassed. I mean, the guy's fine with PDA—he hangs off all of the players on the team like a monkey—but kissing... not so much."
"Oh," Lee hummed. He thought about all of the times they made out in the locker room.
Rationally, he wasn't mad at Milo. Milo's excuses made sense, but the fact that an excuse was even needed rubbed Lee the wrong way. He wanted to avoid a situation like this, but somehow, he had stumbled right into it. It was selfish of him to wish he had stayed at the gym longer the day he eavesdropped on Milo and Felix.
This mean that logically, Lee wouldn't be able to hold back if he saw Milo again. The chances of seeing Milo again were so impossibly high that Lee couldn't imagine a time where Rushil had successfully kept them apart. At the moment, he wasn't sure what he would do first: Punch Milo or kiss the fuck out of him.
"Could you give me his number?" Lee asked. Rushil raised an eyebrow at him. "So I can call him later."
"Yeah, sure," he said.
Lee had some semblance of self-control, so he waited for a time when he was entirely alone. He could see it on Rushil's face, wondering if Lee had called Milo already, wondering if Lee was keeping the final result from him. Lee would give him a flat stare from over the dinner table that evening and the next.