Heaven

chapter 14: little loves

Sina had to wash it all off – the rain, the chill, the way the priest's eyes had rested upon him. Arriving back at Cookies' before his friend, he kicked off his soaked jacket and shoes in the hall and entered the bathroom. Glaring at himself in the mirror, he thought he resembled a drowned rat. Sina pushed his hair away from his face before pulling his top off and dropping it onto the floor. When it fell upon his bare feet, he scowled and kicked it away. Emotions swirled inside him strangely.

When he blinked, he saw the priest stepping out of the shadowy bit of the church and into view. He leaned against the sink and winced. "I draw the line at holy people. A priest? No, no, no! No way. I have standards. At least I sometimes pretend I do."

He pushed back and drew in a deep breath. "I fucking hate everything." Sina's fingers moved to his jeans and worked the buttons open with swift, fluid gestures.

Tendrils of steam found him as soon as he turned the water on. When he ran his hand under the stream, it reminded him of the way he felt standing across from Father Caleb; warm and wonderful and momentarily serene. Stepping in, Sina felt the water slither over his head and down his back to wash away the chill the rain had left behind.

There was a hush throughout the house. It was rare Sina felt like he belonged but he often did at Cookie's place. At least until Cookie's aunt would come home and threaten to chase him away with a broom like he were some sort of roach.

Luckily, Aunt May was on her bi-monthly pilgrimages to Las Vegas where she stayed away for a full week giving Sina a chance to visit his friend without worrying someone would try and bust something over his head.

But he'd have to leave soon. And Sina had no idea where he would go. The water slithered around his arms and legs. It enveloped him in what Cookie would call bliss. Sina had never used that word before. He never found the need to. Sighing, he leaned against the tiles and pictured Father Cal standing on the other side of the steam. "Bliss," he whispered to the water.

The front door of the house opened and shut loudly. A set of keys was dropped in the ceramic bowl by the entrance. "God hates the sin but loves the sinner!" Cookie's voice carried over to Sina's daydream and popped the bubble of serenity.

Groaning, Sina placed his palms onto the wet tiles and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. "I hope you got cake. Lots of cake," he grumbled.

"I got the very last chocolate almond at Evan's! Mrs. Cullen had come in right after me asking Al Jay for one and Al Jay, God bless her sugar-sweet heart, didn't even look up at that woman as she placed my cake in the box AND gave me a bag of jam cookies on the house. I swear, that Cullen woman still hates my guts as much as she always has but God above, I got to see Travis and –"

When Cookie stopped to take a breath, Sina uttered, "I nearly melted into a puddle of goo."

"I nearly melted into a puddle of goo, Sina. After all this while that man is still able to make my heart pitter-patter like I'm some damn schoolboy."

"Even after they did what they did to you?" Sina whispered into the falling water.

"Even after all they did to me...to him. To us." When Sina didn't comment, Cookie knocked on the bathroom door and hollered, "Did you hear me, boy?"

Sina tilted his head back. He knew what the Cullens had done to Cookie. How they found out he and Travis were a thing. How Delores Cullen had told everyone (and their dog) how that dirty black person had drugged her dim-witted son when Cookie had never even looked at drugs in his life.

Lies upon lies about Cookie were sewn into the fabric that was Heaven –that Cookie had seduced Travis with his lewd dances when in truth Travis had fallen utterly in love with Cook and had begged him for months to go out before Cookie agreed.