Young Lather

What?

"What?" It's all I could get out.

Dara smiled, a little sly. "Everyone can see it."

"Even Archie?"

"Not Archie."

"See what? I don't see... You're full of it! You can't just say... Why do you even think that?" I was trying to be mad, but mostly I felt damn scared.

"We see it," Dara said. "Celeste and me. It's obvious. And Kara."

"Kara?"

"Yes, Kara. She sees it too. We all talked about it," Dara admitted. "We all agree — Track's into you."

"But..." My best friend. "But..."

"He's gay."

"No fucking way! Is Track — no fucking way he is gay!" I'm feeling way uncomfortable now. "No fucking way! He — did you see? He was just staring at Connie with his tongue hanging out. He's into Connie big time."

Dara smiled. "No, he's not. He's just trying to be into Connie, because he doesn't know he's gay." Dara seemed to think for a second. "I mean, I don't think — we don't think he knows he's gay. That's what I mean."

"But I'm not gay, so why..." I was lost here.

Dara laughed quick. "It doesn't matter if you're not gay! Only if Track is gay. For him to like you, I mean. That's a whole thing with being gay, right, that you might like someone whose not gay, and that's a problem."

I had no idea whether that was true, false, or somewhere in between, and I didn't really think Dara was that smart about it either. I just stood there. The party seemed to go quiet around me. But then I shook my head, because it just couldn't be true. Track, gay? No fucking way! ...And even if he was, there's no way he was into me. No way. No. Fucking. Way.

Dara could see I was pissed.

"You don't have to do anything," she said. "Just, you know... Well, I mean, if he does something... I mean, if he's gay and he hits on you or something, just say no thanks, just friends."

She made it sound easy. So... So I pretended it would be easy. If anything ever happened, I mean, which it wouldn't. No fucking way.

Just then I heard an ugly smack, then a scream and a splash, then a big sound from a bunch of people — like a 'whoa!' or an 'oooh' or a 'nooo!' all together. Right after, Buckstone and Saquan plowed into the water and dragged out Lonnie, who was choking and holding his elbow, and making this ugly half crying sound. Teri went over to him looking... well, looking like she didn't know how to look. A couple of that gang came over too, and then pretty soon they were finding Lonnie's clothes and his smokes, and helping him up to the road. Teri followed. They were gone. People talked and pointed for a couple of minutes until the story was straight, but then it was back to normal, the party smaller and a little quieter, less wild, for awhile. The fire looked bigger now, and people seemed to be gathering there.

* * *

I stayed sitting up high on the edge of the valley for a long time and just watched. Not that high, I mean. It's only about fifty feet up from the pool below the falls to where it gets flatter and the trail is. Dara had gone back over to Celeste after Lonnie got hurt. They were just hanging and talking, and didn't seem to be paying any attention to me or Track, who was sticking close to the keg. He'd been drinking hard again, but now he seemed to just be settled in talking to Trevor. My mind raced, but I didn't really think about anything for long. I just felt... I don't know — stressed, but not nervous. Does that make sense? Like I just felt tight inside, but I didn't feel like I had to do anything about anything. Like that.

Then Archie comes back. I see him look around, and then he sees me, comes over.

"Hey man," I said. "Where did you go?"

"Did you see Lonnie?" Archie asked. "I saw him in the parking lot. He was crying like a fucking two year-old, except coughing at the same time like a dog. He fell or something."

"He dove wrong," I corrected. "Off the diving rock. I think he slipped and went off the side and cracked his elbow on a rock."

"Did he break it?"

"Probably."

"Jeez."

We just sat there for a minute, looking down over the scene. The shadows were long now, and the fire was starting to shine out good. "So, uh, Archie. I—"

"She kissed me," he said. "Did you see?"

"Yeah. I saw. But I'm not sure anyone else did," I added.

Archie sagged a little. "But she hates me now, though."

"What?" I asked. Was he that dumb?

"I just left," he said. "She was... she kissed me two times and I left."

He was that dumb. "Archie, you moron, Dara does not hate you!"

He looked at me like an excited dog. "You don't think so?"

"I know so," I said. "She knows you get nervous easy."

"She does?"

"Archie, she knows you get nervous! Everyone knows you get nervous!"

"I guess."

And then... Well something a little evil came over me. I smiled a little evil smile. "Yeah," I said. "And she knows about your boner," I said like it was the most boring thing ever.

Archie looked at me with a look of pure terror. "What? No!"

"Yup," I said. "I told her."

"You told her!?" He was as pissed as I'd ever seen him.

"Listen," I said, "I had to!" I didn't 'have to,' but... "She didn't understand why you'd just walk away like that, so I explained about you being nervous, but, listen, I told her about the boner too, and that's good for you!"

"How the fuck is that good for me?" he asked. His fists were tight, and I thought he might hit me. "How can I even talk to her now?"

I was making this up as a went along, but I suddenly realized that it was good for him. ...Probably. "Listen, man. Okay, so she knows you're nervous. That's good. But now she also knows how you feel — how she makes you feel, right? She knows you think she's hot."

...He was thinking about it.

"Archie, it's perfect!" I announced. "And she doesn't know you know she knows, and I won't tell her, so just don't tell her — unless she says something. Now she'll know how much you want her, but she'll think you're just being polite and everything, and girls like that pretty much." At least, I thought they'd probably like that. "I mean, she didn't see your boner — just me." I smiled again.

His fists loosened, which was good, because I'd seen Archie go ape before, and even big guys did not want to get in the way of that. "You think?" he said.

"Yeah I think," I said. "So, there she is down there." I nodded in Dara's direction.

"I know." Of course he knew.

"So..."

He looked at me once, and then started down, slow, trying to be cool.