How To Be Straight

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CHAPTER 12

     [ Calvin ]

It had been a whole week since I last talked to Derek. Every time I saw him in the hallways, I secretly hoped he would stop me and try to work things out, but he never did. I mean, why would he when I said I hated him? 

But it wasn't like I really meant it. God, I could never hate him. Even after he ditched me for three years, slept with my friend, and ruined my date with Nicolas, I still didn't hate him.

I never wanted to push him away like that. I just wanted him to apologize. That was all he had to do. If he had apologized for all the things he did, then I wouldn't have reacted the way I did. Even when I yelled at him, he still didn't apologize! I walked the hallways everyday at school, hoping that he'd get it through his thick skull, but I gave up on hoping that he would say he was sorry. He never did it in the past, and he wasn't going to do it now.

If I had known he was going to take what I said to heart, I wouldn't have ever said it. The last thing I wanted was to spend another three years away from him.

And since it was obvious that we weren't going to be friends anymore, I thought he would have outed me to the whole school and admit that I wasn't really dating Maya. But on Friday, Maya stalked up to my locker and publicly broke up with me, just like we had planned. A sliver of hope shot through my body, but it quickly faded when I realized Derek was only following through on his plan. It wasn't because he was trying to reach out to me.

And even now, I would be lying if I said I wasn't constantly checking my phone for any messages from him. It was rather pathetic, really.

I was pathetic.

I lifted my head from my phone when Nicolas inched into my room, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, and carefully carrying a medium sized plate in his hands. "I hope you are hungry," he sang as he made his way to me and sat in the empty space beside me on my bed.

I gazed down at the dish to see three poached eggs sitting atop a piece of garlic bread surrounded by an unknown brown sauce. When I brought my attention back to Nicolas, he smiled. "Oeufs en meurette."

"This is French?" I asked and when he nodded, I stared back at the food. "What's that?" I gestured to the brown sauce.

"Bourguignon sauce. It is made with red wine, bacon, mushrooms, onions, butter, parsley and cayenne pepper." He dipped his finger into the sauce and held it up to my face, his eyebrow raising. I lowered my mouth onto his finger and slowly sucked the creamy liquid from it.

As soon as it settled onto my tongue, my taste buds danced with excitement at how amazing it tasted. "Oh my god," I exclaimed, "it tastes like heaven in my mouth."

Nicolas chuckled and handed me the plate. "Bon appetit."

I wasted no time digging into the food. With each bite, I tasted something different and I was thoroughly amazed at Nicolas' cooking skills. "You made this with the stuff in the kitchen?" I questioned. "Because my mom kinda sucks at cooking. I didn't think she would have all these good ingredients."

I stuffed another forkful of food into my mouth and nearly shivered when Nicolas brushed away a stray hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear, and slowly nodding. "They say food is the key to a man's heart."

"Well, you have my heart for sure," I said with my mouth full.

His lips stretched into a satisfied grin. "That is great news, Calvin."

With every second that ticked by, it was getting harder to fight the urge to kiss him. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would end up with someone like Nicolas. He was beautiful, nice, smart and funny. He was the definition of perfect and that perfect being wanted to be with me, a perfectly imperfect loser.