On the Fritz

Chapter 3 - Part 2

Rafael wasn't an outright social person, but he did enjoy hanging out with Christian and Thomas. They were an odd mix - Christian was normal and Thomas was flamboyant, both of them were extroverted while Rafael wouldn't speak until he was spoken to. Nonetheless, they got on. The group worked.

"Here's a question for you," Christian said, lying on his back in the damp grass with a raised forearm shielding his eyes from the overexposed afternoon. "We all know who Thomas is into, I think the whole school does, but what about you, Raf? Who have you got your beady little eyes on?"

"He doesn't actually have feelings," Thomas said helpfully, eliciting a cool snicker from Rafael.

"So you're telling me," Christian began, his head turned to look at Rafael, "you went to all the trouble of deciding on a sexuality and telling everyone about it, just to do nothing with it?"

"Sounds like something I'd do," Rafael said, giving a knowing squint to the sunset. He always surprised himself with how utterly wonderful he was at being vague.

Beneath his uncaring facade, he was silently mortified that Christian and Thomas were going to pick up what Fritz was putting down. Fritz had been weirdly nonchalant all day, even going so far as to give Rafael a friendly wave when the three boys walked past.

Thomas figured it was just Fritz being a dick, so he flipped him the bird and yelled, "Up yours!", but Christian saw the nuances. He'd paused for a moment, glanced to Rafael who stopped in his tracks, and asked if he thought Fritz was being weird. Fritz shrugged and kept moving.

Fritz was indeed proving hard to shaken. Rafael began wondering if he should try harder. But how?

"Why are you scowling?" Thomas asked, and Rafael snapped out of whatever reverie he'd been stuck in.

"That's just my face," Rafael said, and Christian laughed.

"So go on," Christian prompted, grinning. "Whose pants are you trying to sneak on into?"

"Nobody's," Rafael told them. "All the boys here suck."

"Fair enough," Christian said, before pushing himself up. "Okay, picture this. You can have one guy in the school, regardless of anything. Who is it?"

"Regardless of personality?" Thomas asked, not pausing for an answer. "If it was, I'd chose Fritz."

"Hoh, mate," Christian said, throwing his head back. "I would never complain again if I looked like Fritz. If only he wasn't such a dick, mate, I would be so on that and I don't even like guys."

Rafael sat there, completely frozen in the fear that somehow his secret had gotten out and this was Christian testing him. He usually wouldn't be so worried about having his secret lover found out - in fact, Rafael would usually want to hold it over the other boy's heads - but this was the exception.

No one hated Fritz more than Rafael, but if there was going to be somebody, it would be Christian. Not only did Christian resent Fritz because he was constantly taking the piss, but also because the only girl Fritz had been with for longer than a month was Julie Bessinger in year 11. When they were 15, Christian's crush on Julie was somehow even more insane than Thomas's feelings for Will. For those few months, Christian genuinely seemed to hate Fritz more than Rafael, which Rafael didn't realise was possible.

The whole situation was dire. Rafael couldn't help but wonder if he'd done the wrong thing.

Or rather, the wrong person.

"Fritz is fine," Rafael said calculatedly. "Visually fine. He has nice ... nice legs."

"Nice legs?" Thomas asked. "Nice everything. Dude's fine. I bet his dick's massive."