My Summer of Firsts

Chapter 10 - The Most Mortifying Moment of My Entire Life

Things with Elian stayed on much the same level over the next two weeks. Elian continued his daily trips to the pharmacy, no longer feeling the need to make up excuses to be there. He usually stuck around for at least an hour to help mitigate my boredom. He even let me paint his nails once, but it disappeared by the next day.

We had dinner together almost every night. Sometimes we'd go to a restaurant, sometimes we'd get take out. Either way, we'd end up at his house on his couch making out for a while. Then I'd go home, and we'd do it all again the next day.

Things were going so well. I'd never been happier. But happiness was just a fleeting emotion. More importantly, I'd never felt so content in my life. With Elian, I no longer fantasized about running off to get a life. I had actually developed one right at home.

When Elian invited me over for a movie night, I suspected that was code for "Come over and let's make out." Although the code was unnecessary. He could've said those exact words, and I would've been there in a heartbeat.

I stopped in my tracks when I walked into the living room to see a mountain of junk food on his coffee table.

"You actually meant a movie night?" I asked, kicking off my shoes at the door.

"Yeah. What did you think I meant?"

"I figured we'd just turn something on as background noise and kiss."

He slipped his arms around my waist, rubbing his hands up my back, and gave me a quick peck on the lips. "We can do that, too."

"What are we watching?" I followed him to the couch.

"I figured we could take turns picking." He sat down and grabbed the remote. "I'll show you some of my favorites, and you can show me yours."

Sometimes, everything he said sounded sexual. I didn't know if it was because sex was always on my mind around him, or if he did that on purpose to make me think these things.

"I thought you didn't like sweets." I gestured to the sugary smorgasbord he'd laid out.

"I don't like them for breakfast. I love them as movie snacks." He popped a handful of Skittles in his mouth to prove it.

"What are we starting with?" I removed my phone and keys from my pockets and laid them on the table, stretching out beside him.

"An underrated classic that is one of my favorites of all time."

When he pulled it up on screen, I knew I'd never seen it. I'd never even heard of it. "What the hell is Stick It?" The cover art of an angsty teenage girl gave me no clues.

"It's about gymnastics," he said. I never would have guessed that. "It's funny and very cute. I've seen it like a hundred times."

"Is it that good?" I asked.

"I think so, but I'm probably biased. I did gymnastics until I was thirteen. Me and my friends from the gym watched this movie practically every weekend on the bus to our meets."

That intrigued me. I had to know more. "Did you do all that flippy stuff?"

"I did," he said, with a hint of smile. "I loved it. I was pretty damn good, too. Even won some medals. My best event was the parallel bars."

"Why'd you quit? Did you get hurt?"

His face shifted, going somber. "A boy at my school found out when he started dating a girl at my gym. He started calling me gay in front of everyone at school. And he told all his friends who also made fun of me. I was kinda small for my age, so they pushed me around a lot, and somebody wrote 'fag' on my locker. So, I quit." He took a deep breath. "I wasn't ready to accept that I was gay, and I couldn't handle anyone knowing. Not yet. It broke my queer little heart." He added a halfhearted laugh to play it off as a joke.