Angelo & Julian [Boyxboy]

Chp 7: No No

Thursday

"Fuck yes, class is over," Cameron groaned ahead of Angelo.

"TGIT," Lil Ant said, hitting Kelson on the chest behind him.

 The sun was setting and the city was cast in a cool, orange twilight. The cars didn't thin, though. Their headlights beaming as they rode down the city streets, horns still blaring as if it were daytime, not six pm. The nights were getting cooler now as the semester headed into late September, the sun beginning to set a little earlier every day.

"What are we getting into tonight, man?" Angelo asked Cam, the group's de facto leader.

Cameron turned to land his sleepy brown eyes on him and quirked an eyebrow. "You smoke?"

o

Angelo's eyes darted around. They were on the top floor of a mostly vacant parking garage. From here, he could see the city below, the people walked on the sidewalks below and Angelo felt a type a power knowing that they didn't know he was watching them. He'd taken two hits already and it was beginning to get to him.

His eyes darted around again. The lights at the top of the garage were on, though they'd picked the dark far corner. He didn't feel safe up here though. There was nowhere to run if the cops showed up. Or what if someone found them up here? His fingers drummed on the cool cement as he leaned over to watch the city below. The sun was even further below the horizon, the sky a bright fuchsia, and stray, tiny motionless clouds hung in it. Someone propped their elbows up on the cement wall next to him.

"Beautiful ass sky," the figure beside him commented. Angelo looked over and Cameron gave him a lazy smile. He passed him the blunt and Angelo took it and pulled it to his lips. He took a long hit, the blunt burning his lips as the smoke passed into his mouth.

Angelo held the smoke in his lungs. His lids drooped and he stared at the blunt as he handed it back to Cameron who gave a tilt of his head for him to hand it off to someone else. Someone took it. Angelo couldn't remember who. He turned back to the sky, which seemed even darker now, but brighter at the horizon. Calm settled into Angelo's chest and he could feel his heart beating slow and even. He slowly relinquished the cloud of smoke and glanced back, though, at the stairwell exit, over which a light glowed almost a sickly green.

"Chill out, man," Cameron said. "Nobody's coming up here. I used to smoke up here all the time."

"With who?"

"I had a cousin who went here a few years back. Never got caught."

"Have you ever gotten caught?" Even as Angelo asked, he felt genuine concern about the answer to that question, but couldn't seem to put that concern into his voice. Instead, he sounded monotone.

"Yeah, once."

"What happened?"

Cameron shifted around to rest his back on the wall and propped his elbows up. "Cops showed up at our door with fucking dogs. Apparently they were on a random patrol and the dogs smelled it."

"Did you get arrested?"

"Naw, I was a minor, I was 'detained.' I got community service."

A familiar word to Angelo. He was about to comment when Kelson spoke.

"Yo, can we get some McDonald's or something? I'm hungry as fuck!"

O

Friday

Julian entered quietly at 1am. He gently toed out of his shoes at the door and walked back to his room He was only momentarily back to grab a few things from his closet. Paul was gone for the weekend, and his door was closed and locked. Julian didn't know where Angelo was, his shoes weren't kicked off at the door like usual. The talk over shoes and their place at the door was brief. Angelo's mother hadn't allowed shoes on in their home either, neither had Paul.