Welcome to Helix Studios: A Short Story

Take Them Off

*Picture is Suraj Sharma

Kody sighed and glanced over at Evan, who lay beside him on the massive king size bed, tapping away at his phone.

"What're you doing?" Kody asked, making a grab for Evan's phone. Evan snatched it back and slapped Kody across the back of the head.

"I'm playing Words with Friends dummie," Evan said, exasperated.

"You didn't have to hit me on the head," Kody muttered. Evan raised an eyebrow at him and Kody stuck his tongue out.

"How mature," Evan responded drily.

Kody shuffled closer to Evan and peered at the screen. 

He snickered. "You're getting your ass kicked by an old lady."

Evan rolled his eyes. "She's not just any old lady. She's my grandmother." 

Evan's grandmother scored a fifty point word with "tzarina", whatever the heck that meant.

Kody slid his hand through Evan's arms and added another word.

"Kody!" Evan cried. 

Kody rolled over with laughter. "Bet your grandma will like that!" 

Evan just shook his head and whacked Kody on the head again.

A message appeared on the screen that read 'Good morning Kody'.

"Holy shit," Kody breathed. "How the hell did she know that was me?"

Another message appeared. 'I know Evan is too polite to put PENIS on a Words with Friends game, and the only person who's be messing with his phone is you." 

Kody chuckled and grabbed the phone. 'Sorry Mrs. Parker,' he typed. 

She sent an emoji rolling it's eyes and responded with the word 'neanderthal'.

"Is she talking about me?" Kody demanded, aghast. 

"You deserve it dumbass," Evan said.

'Don't you start swearing Evan Parker!'

Evan and Kody looked at the screen wide eyed.

"Geez. Grandmothers must have psychic powers."

Evan grinned shaking his head. "Nope. Only my grandmother."

They fell silent for a while, Evan creating bigger and bigger words, and Kody thinking about something that had not stopped popping up in his thick head recently. Or rather, someone.

Andy had been amazing, no doubt about it. Making out was great, and sex was beyond awesome. Andy was more than Kody could ever ask for in a boyfriend, until... Well, until things changed.

But why did he feel such a strong pull towards Jonathan? When Kody was with Jonathan, it wasn't the same burning passion that he had with Andy. It was a sort of calmness and warmth, that spread through him like... 

"You're thinking about Jonathan," Evan observed.

"Psychic runs in the family," Kody muttered. "How'd you know?"

Evan sat up and leaned against the headboard. "It's not hard to tell you like him. After all, you let him in without an interview and without paying the initial entry fee. No one gets that discount, not even Brad Pitt if he wanted to join."

"Well, I guess I thought he would make a good pornstar," Kody defended weakly.

Evan rolled his eyes. It looked awfully like the emoji his grandmother had sent. "Kody, you are such a bad liar."