The Wonderful Tales of "Straight" Scott

The Tipsy Tomato

My palms are sweating and I'm shaking. I look at my sheet of paper another rime-yeah so what I like lists-Why would he add for me to spend the night?! Plus, how does he know I love Boba Tea? I don't know maybe I told him at some point, but that's not what I'm ranting about, why does he want me to sleepover? What if he tries to hurt me? No, he would never. But, what if his parents are trying to hurt me? OK, now I'm just getting ridiculous. Maybe I'm over thinking this a little bit. Guys sleep at each other's houses all the time, it's just a friend thing. Because you don't like him, You. Are. Gay. STRAIGHT, I meant straight, straight.

Our final class, trigonometry, ends and we head out, eager for the journey ahead of us. I haven't been on a date (just as friends) in a while, I'm scared that I'm not gonna know what to do or say and I'm just gonna mess everything up and lose Sean again. Now we're at his car, and I freak out even more. Not just about the date (just as friends), but also because of the pairs of footsteps coming from behind us.

"Aw, looks like our little Sean has found himself a boyfriend," Oh look, the whole gang is here! Sean's face is immediately covered in a mask of anger, his fists are clenched so tight they're turning white, he's like a bull ready to charge.

"Let's just go Sean," He doesn't move, I tug on his shirt sleeve. "Come on, just forget about them,"

"Aw, come on, Sean! I've seen what you can do. So, take your best shot," Austin taunts, signaling his hands like 'come at me'. Sean doesn't move. Thankfully he opens his car door and starts to climb in, as do I.

"Fine, go have fun with that fucking freak!" that was the breaking point. Sean sprints out of the car and uppercuts Austin in the nose, he must've broke it or something. I get out of the car and race to his side.

"Come on Sean, we should really go," he steps back towards the car and starts to walk faster.

He opens his car door and climbs inside, I'm already sitting in my seat ready to get out of here. He puts the key in the ignition and starts the car, I look out the smudgy car window and see Alex caring for Austin, and Adrian angrily marching towards the car like a rhino about to ram its big fat head into it's prey. Before I know it we're speeding away and I can see Adrian flailing his arms in the air and chasing after us like an absolute psychopath. I take one look at Sean's hands and they were bright red, and a little purple.

"Oh my god! A-Are you o-okay?!" He looked at my wide-eyed.

"Oh! Y-Yeah! I'm f-fine," I just nod and brush it off.

The rest of the drive is silent, with only the sounds of the motor, the air conditioner, and the small muzzled sounds of the radio. I pull out my phone, texting my parents to see if I can spend the night, they actually got excited that I'm "getting more friends" and "getting better at being social" and "not staying in your room all day listening to that shitty music", my parents are weird. We turn a corner and enter downtown. It isn't as lively and vibrant in the afternoon, but it's still a hell of a lot better sight than my block.

It was hard to find a parking spot, but we managed to find one about two blocks away from the pizza place - Keep in mind I don't know what this place is called, because I've never been there - and I could see that Sean was getting a little annoyed, a little uneasy, and a little flushed . . . but that could just be that he's cold or something, it is pretty bitter compared to most nights. We start walking, I obviously didn't know where the hell I was going so I probably looked a little dazed and maybe even anxious.

We stop. Sean's looking at me with a rosy smirk. All of the sudden, my hand is in the tight hold of his. I looked down at our entangled fingers wide-eyed. My face is burning up. Why? I don't even have feelings for him . . . maybe a little bit, I mean as a friend! He's straight, and so am I, so why would this even matter? Well, he starts to run, hands still in sync, might I add. I can barely keep up, because I'm actually a sack of potatoes who never did anything in gym, except for hide under the bleachers, watch One Punch Man, and drink cans of tea.

We get to the first crossroad, there isn't many people. Doesn't surprise me, this part of downtown is never busy, at least that's what Sean told me. The light for us to stop disappeared and the walk sign lights up, he bursts into another sprint. More people are now in sight. He starts to slow down as we reach the next crossroad, there are definitely more people here. And I definitely catch a lot of people looking at us and glaring. Sean doesn't seem to mind, so that makes me feel a little better. But, there is still an achy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

As soon as the sign said we can go, he paces across the street. We continue on our journey to this place of pizza, catching glares and scoffs throughout.

"Ta-da!" He exclaims taking his arm that isn't latched to mine and raises it towards The Tipsy Tomato, The Place Where Pizza Comes to Die™. He starts chuckling. I jokingly scoff and joi in his laughter.

We walk through the front door, hands, may I add, still entwined. The room is dim lit, It has booths made of wood, and metal tables with a glass pane in the middle, under an assortment of random crap - like puzzles, magazine clippings, M&M's, pennies, etc.- with a thing of napkins. There are paintings all over the walls, I'm guessing local. It's a pretty small place, but it was still pretty neat.

We stand there for a little bit, just taking inthe scenery. I see a couple people look up and smile, I take a small breath of relief. Sean wipes his shoes on the black carpet that lead to the cashier. He drags me to the line, and don't forget, our hands are still laced together (Not that it matters, or that I even care). It wasn't long before we were standing face to face with the cashier, only a counter separating us and Ryan, the cashier. He looks at us, then at our hands and smiles.

"So what can I get you two today?" says Ryan in a high-pitched tone. Sean turns to me and pulls his face closer, his lips are now so close to my neck he could kiss it. I'm trying so hard to keep my face from heating up like a stove, but I can feel the red glow in my face.

"So, what do you want?" I can't make out any words, he was so close to my face that I just start stuttering Gibberish. He pulls away with a wide grin on his face, and he was chuckling in the slightest.

"Dork," he just keeps fueling the rosiness in my cheeks. He turns to Ryan again. "We'll have two slices of cheese pizza and two iced teas, please," He turns back to me. "Is that okay?" I quickly nod. 

"Okay, that'll be $12.46"

"Dammit" I didn't realize I had said under my breath.

"What's wrong?" Sean questions me calmly.

"We were in such rush, and so many things were happening at once, that we forgot to drive to my house so I could pick up my wallet and my stuff" Sean just smiles at me and takes out his wallet from his back pocket.

"It's okay, I was gonna pay for it anyways" he takes out his credit card and gives it to Ryan.

"What?! No, I can't let you do that"

"Already done" he smiles at me, pulling me closer, and then he . . .