On the Fritz

Chapter 4 - Part 1

Christian had been sickeningly silent for too long. He had claimed he was just in a bad mood when Thomas asked why he'd been winning staring contests with the concrete all morning, to which Rafael had simply scoffed. Christian just couldn't help himself from being so childish.

Maybe Rafael could understand his anger if it was just because he lied and said he couldn't go to the movie with him. However, on the very tense walk home the three boys had shared, Christian ranted about how the issue was in the morals of the whole thing. "Fritz bullied you for years!", Christian exclaimed. Fritz made a passive comment about it just being banter, to which Christian yanked at his hair.

Rafael didn't really have much to add to this. He obviously hadn't forgotten the near-death experiences he'd had at the hands of Fritz at the back of the school field, but he didn't care. In fact, the arrangement was kind of fitting.

If Fritz had made his life a living hell for a few years, the least he could do would be to make it up to him in the form of two hour make out sessions. Honestly, Rafael didn't know what Christian was getting so worked up over. It was merely repaying emotional trauma for sexual favours, and come on, it was 2010. Who hadn't done that?

The entire time they walked back from the theatre, Fritz had stayed behind the two boys on the pavement with a disturbingly calm expression. This made Christian detonate even further, yelling, "Rafael, look at him, he doesn't even care! He doesn't feel anything!".

Fritz countered, "Of course I don't care." Rafael had waved an arm back proudly, showing off his perfect new buddy who had zero emotional attachment. Fritz had then added, "Christian, why would I care if you know I'm fucking your friend?"

Obviously, the wording was brash, it usually was from Fritz, but Rafael could ignore that, it was the sentiment that threw him right off. Fritz had every reason to care about Christian knowing about their arrangement, because one wrong move from Christian and the entire school would turn on him faster than he could say, "I'm straight!". It would be so miserable, all his friends and his parties and his reputation would all cease to exist, but Fritz just didn't care?

Unfathomable. At the same time, Rafael really liked being one of three or so people to know Fritz was gay. It was an unbelievably juicy secret, though it would be better still if he wasn't so involved in it. God, he'd kill to see Fritz getting mocked as often as he was when he came out, and getting to be the one responsible for getting his secret out there? It would be incredible. Rafael couldn't imagine a better way to ruin Fritz's life.

"Get that stupid smile off your face," Christian hissed, and Rafael looked up. He felt his face shrink back from whatever sick grin it had twisted into.

"Don't be such a dick about it," Rafael said back. "Be happy for me. I'm using him."

"For hook ups," Christian whispered exasperatedly, staring down at the spread of his design work in front of him. Rafael couldn't help but notice he'd done hardly any work in class today. He hoped Christian realised he was going to fall behind.

"What else would I use him for?" Rafael said, before he realised: money. And to cheat on exams.

Perhaps Fritz was more valuable than he initially thought. How exciting!

"So," Christian said quietly to his paper, "I suppose your crush on Calum was a lie."

Rafael scoffed. "Have a guess."

"Are you sure you don't want to give him a go?" Christian asked, and Rafael just stared at him. Christian put his hands over his face and groaned.

"Calum is shorter than Fritz," Rafael offered, making Christian glance over, horrified. "And he's got to be way worse at-"

"Shut up," Christian interrupted, his voice a harsh whisper. "When did you get so horny?"

"As if you'd still be interested in Molly Fuller if she didn't have tits," Rafael said.

"Molly didn't assault me for four years," Christian reminded him.

"I actually hadn't forgotten," Rafael said, irritation creeping into his tone. "You've reminded me about 50 times. Besides, you heard Fritz. It was bants."

Having been sufficiently driven up the wall, Christian put in his headphones and continued to stare at his work. Despite all of Christian's attempts, Rafael had not been swayed to give up his situation with Fritz.

Sure, getting spotted by Christian was risky, it easily could've been anyone who would've reacted far more violently, but it was just a lesson in being careful. They wouldn't make the same mistake again, and Christian would agree to keep it private, so their secret would be watertight once again.

All Rafael would have to do is have a little chat with Fritz about keeping things on the downlow, and his life would be sweet. Besides Christian's newfound bitterness, which was admittedly putting a small dampener on the situation, Rafael stayed winning.

"Is Fritz good in bed?" Christian asked suddenly, his tone weirdly curious.

"Clearly," Rafael said, "or I wouldn't be putting up with this crap."

"Good to you?" Christian clarified, pulling out one earbud, to which Rafael nodded.

"I hope he's not being good to anyone else in my bed," he said defensively. "My sheets would be gross as."

"Do you think that's kind of odd?" Christian questioned, now devoid of frustration and seemingly genuinely curious. "The guy that took the piss out of you for so long now cares if you both have a nice time?"

Rafael was completely devoid of a comeback. Christian had raised an unusually good point, giving him another topic he needed to bring up at Fritz's upcoming performance review. Whether or not he was going to get a straight answer as to why Fritz wasn't using him back was another question entirely, but Rafael didn't have a choice. It was far too strange of an occurrence to let it pass him by.

This part is a bit of a shorter one, so let me set something straight.

I wrote the first draft for this story in my third year of high school. I still look back on it sometimes, and Jesus, man, it was rough.

On the Fritz went through a lot of rewrites, and even more edits, but ultimately, this is the story that got me through many years of emotional turmoil, and sharing it is a privilege. If even one person is excited to come home and read this, let alone if any of these characters resonate with anybody, then I'm a real happy girl.

Shit, where was I? Leave a vote or something. Sorry for the word vomit.

Who am I kidding, this whole story's word vomit. Anyway, an upcoming chapter has a half decent make out session, so maybe it is worth reading. Stay tuned, team.