It's not a phase mom!

Just sitting in class had now become difficult because I could not for the life of me keep my mind off of Claire and what we had done with mixed emotions. Pretty or not, I had sex with a boy for the first time in my life and...part of me hoped it wouldn’t be the last time. When I dropped him off the following morning we didn’t really discuss a second date and I had failed to call the next day, or text, or email, or smoke signal. I hated being this guy, I had heard stories from my sister about guys who did exactly this and I wanted to do unspeakably illegal things to them.

A fry suddenly hit my face as Joey gave me a cocky smile, “So B-man, word is you went out with Claire this weekend. Please tell me you hit that.”

“What? N-How do you know?”

“Dude, do you think anyone’s lovelife is secret? Especially when it comes to the little miss queen bee?”

“Y-yeah, maybe, but I don’t go in for that.”

“Told ya he’d crash and burn.” Roger held out his hand and Joey grumbled as slapped a twenty in it.

“You guys were betting on me having sex with Claire?”

“No. I figured she’d leave you with a bad case of blue balls.” Roger laughed as he pocketed his ill gotten gains.

“What?!” What the hell topsy turvy town was I living in? “Why do you guys care so much if we did or didn’t?”

“Oh don’t take it so hard. It’s just a bit of fun.”

“Plus you two didn’t really seem like a good fit anyway.” Freddy, who had remained silent up until now finally spoke up.

“What? We’re not fitting-and what do you mean?”

“I mean yeah he’s cute and all but, I don’t know from what I’ve heard he’s high maintenance. And who needs that stress.”

“He’s not high maintenance.”

“Wait,” Joey jumped in hopefully, “so you guys are dating? Pay up!” Roger grumbled and handed back the twenty.

“I didn’t say that!” Roger snatched the twenty back victoriously.

“Then what about Terry, he’s been asking about you.” Joey pointed out a slim kid with a shaved head who looked like he was a runner.

“Wha-n-”

“No way, Terry’s a slut.” Freddy cut in.

“Well yeah, the man needs some rebound tush after getting rejected like that.”

“I’m not-and I didn’t get rejected.”

“So you two did it?!” Joey tore the twenty from Roger’s hand.

“I didn’t say that.” Neither Roger were listening anymore having devolved into fighting over the twenty. Kyle suddenly grabbed the bill and ripped it in half giving half to each. He nodded as if urging me to go on and I felt compelled to do so, “I’m not gay.” Their eyes bulged out in true shock.

Freddy was the first one to speak, “What do you mean?”

“...I’ve had girlfriends. And I never really thought of guys like that.”

“We all saw you making out with Claire at the cabin.”

“Yeah, I was drunk and I thought sh-he was a girl…”

“Are you sure that’s the case?” Kyle asked. “Pretty much all of us went through a phase where we thought we liked girls.”

“Are you serious?”

“Not me.” Freddy said proudly.

“Then why’d you ask him out?” Kyle furrowed his eyebrows, almost accusing me of lying about being straight.

I couldn’t believe it, it was like some bizarre twilight episode. “I-I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Yeah...so...sports, huh?” Joey chuckled trying to break the sudden awkward tension. Eventually the conversation resumed on a different topic but the awkwardness remained.

After lunch I saw Claire and Jerry with their equally effeminate friends walking in sync towards the lunch room. I couldn’t avoid him any longer. I needed to march right up to him and explain why I was an ass and didn’t call. It’s what any good man would do. Who knows he might understand...but considering how my lunch just went..I ducked into the bathroom as quickly as possible and heaved a heavy sigh. “Coward.”

Later at home, while I was trying to study and not think about Claire or today’s events, Jerry came into our room and turned on the tv as loudly as possible. I tried ignoring it but there’s only so much random reality tv noise you can take before you break. “Jerry! I’m trying to study.” He glanced at me before turning the tv up even louder somehow. “Jerry! Jesus!” I got up and turned the tv off. “I get you’re mad-” he turned it back on and in that brief moment of silence it somehow gained more power behind it. “Motherf-” I turned it off again only for Jerry to turn it back on. I could easily have taken the remote but I was so not in the mood so I simply pulled the plug. “Finally. Like I said I get you’re mad-”

“You’re an ass.” Jerry finally looked at me with a sneer.

“...it’s complicated.”

“It’s not complicated, you’re an ass.” Before I could fumble for words to defend myself Jerry cut me off, “Dad always told us not to be like those asshole guys, always call after, don’t lead anyone on, but what did you do?”

I sighed and sat on my bed across from his, “I’m an asshole, I know.”

“We saw you hide in the bathroom by the lunchroom.”

“You...all saw?”

“Yeah, he saw too.” Fuck.

“What did he...is he, what did he say?”

“He’s devastated, obviously. I tried to tell him you were an ass.”

“Stop calling me an ass.”

“Stop being one.”

“It’s too late. Especially after today. There’s no way he’d forgive me.”

“It’s never too late. Besides, forgiven or not, you still need to set things right.”

“When’d you get so smart?” my mouth pulled into a half smile.

“I’ve always been smarter than you. You were just too dumb to know it.”