bros (a bxb story)

Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen: High School Reunion

We decided to meet back home. At our old high school.

It was Easter vacation. Schools in the area closed down for a long weekend. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I planned on going home anyway. It's not like my family was religious.  Growing up, Easter was deviled eggs and a chocolate rabbit  in a basket, not long hours in a stuffy church. But my parents stopped when I turned fourteen, figuring I was too old for that kind of stuff. Which I was, but still...who turns down free chocolate?

Being home was weird and wonderful and sad and chill. All mixed up. Mike went home for the holiday too. His family had a kind of reunion for Easter, relatives coming from all around for a big dinner. He'd asked me to go home with him, and wanted to introduce me to his family. But I said my parents missed me.

Which they did. I guess. I wasn't really a spend quality time with my parents kind of guy. I love them and all, but ...you know. They were just my parents. We do our own things. And we all liked it.

No, I said no to Mike because of Jeremy. Which sucked.  But Mike didn't seem to bothered.  

I didn't really know how things stood with Mike. He said he was my boyfriend, but never really asked me. He hung out with me a lot, and we fucked, and it was great, but I just didn't...I mean he was nice and everything...but.. I think maybe he was more invested than I was. Maybe. Sometimes I couldn't quite tell. I wished I could just be happy with him.

But that's why I asked Jeremy to get together. I think I need to just kind of..talk to him, and then maybe I can move forward.

But I didn't tell anyone I was doing it. Not Mike, not Kenny. Not Stella.

Not Sammy.

===

Our school was just a few blocks from my house. I could have walked. It was a beautiful day. Typical for this time of the year. Sunny, blue skies. Just wisps of clouds. Not warm at all, but pleasant. Like sixty degrees.

I rode up and down the outdoor hallways, passing by the orange lockers, weaving in an out of the jasmine filled planter boxes. I was just wearing an old tshirt, and jeans. My keds. Feeling like my old high school self, but like a stranger at the same time. Wondering what I'd think if I told the sixteen year old me that I was out, gay, with a kind of boyfriend. That I'd slept with dozens of girls and hated it. That I was a former internet sensation, with a fan group in Malaysia.

That I'd slept with my best friend.

With Jeremy.

I snorted. My sixteen year old self would probably have an anxiety attack and need to go to the nurse's  office.

He was waiting at the same table where we ate lunch for four years. Near the bio lab classroom, under a huge pine tree. Kenny used to complain when needles fell onto his food, but we never got up the energy to find another spot.

Jeremy watched me approach, looking me up and down, just like I was checking him out. He was a far cry from his sixteen year old self. Back then, Jeremy was still cool, but skinnier, more acne. Still the same kind of I could give a fuck attitude. Lazy, laid back, chill. A good foil for my nervous ass. He always knew how to calm me down, when I worked myself up. Freaking out about grades or girls who ignored me, or whatever was the drama of the day.

Now he looked like he'd stepped out of a magazine. My wardrobe these days was mostly just crap, but he was wearing expensive jeans, I could tell, artfully ripped along the entire leg. A tight thin gray sweater that showed off every inch of his hard earned muscle. Spotless white sneakers. The sunglasses he sponsored. Which I knew ran about 800 dollars a pair.