Something About Us

Part Four

Part Four

Enter: Sebastian Dubois

      It was as though TJ’s kisses left prints all over my face. I felt like if Ed looked at me he would know I had been kissing TJ and that I wasn’t straight like the rest of them.
      “Why d’you keep checking your phone like that?” Kobe asked me once at lunch. His eyebrows were low and his eyes were narrower then they usually were.
       “I’m texting someone,” I replied curtly. We were at McDonalds as usual. I had ordered a Big Mac and to avoid answering anymore of Kobe’s questions I took another big bite of my burger.
       It wasn’t lying. I was texting someone. Only I wasn’t texting Teshai like I told him I would be. I was actually texting TJ, we were talking about little stupid things, but things that kept a smile on my face.
       Ed was ready to mock me. He took out his cell phone, tilted his head to the side, slouched down and gazed at his cell phone with a dopey grin. The whole group of us laughed. Even I laughed. “That’s how Bastian is looking right now. Whose got you whipped?”
       “Teshai,” Kobe offered.
       Dee looked astounded. She and Teshai were loosely connected and Dee was astoundingly nosey. Chances are she probably knew who she was really dealing with, chances are she knew Teshai wasn’t dealing with me. If there was some way to keep her from flying her mouth I wished I knew.
       “She’s so easy,” Rex said. “Huggies took her to a basketball game and she gave him brains in the bathroom stall.” The whole table laughed loudly. It was a good thing Teshai went to St. Paul’s and not St. Vlad’s so she didn’t have to hear about how the St. Vlad’s kids thought she was a slut.
       “A Raptors game?” Kobe asked, his eyes wide. He was a fan of the horrible team no matter how poorly they did.
       Rex snorted. “Are you blem, bruh? It was St. Vlad’s vs. some Brampton school. She felt so nice. Imagine if he took her to Domino’s Pizza or something like that. She’d probably let him hit it.”
      Between bites of my fries I kept texting TJ. Kobe kept sneaking glances over my shoulder and I was thankful I didn’t program TJ’s name into my cell phone. That would have been asking for death. All Kobe saw was the area code plus TJ’s cell phone number, something I had committed to memory; 846-4000.
      He looked at me smiling at my phone and I pretended not to notice him, texting TJ back as quickly as my fingers would allow. I fingered the cigarettes in my pocket. Perfect excuses to get outside so I could talk to TJ.

*

     Getting to TJ’s house without being seen was easier than I thought it would be. I made the trip on Saturday afternoon. I rode the route 36 bus until I found the stop he had mentioned to me. I crossed the street and walked until I found his house’s number. His yard looked plain and ordinary. There were two vehicles in the driveway; a van and a small white car. There was a recycling box on the porch and a wet umbrella in the corner.
      I rang the doorbell and TJ answered. He wore a blue sweater that brought out the colour in his eyes, and a pair of faded dark blue jeans. He smiled widely when he saw me. “I was afraid you were going to stand me up or something,”
     I shook my head. “I know better than that now,” I replied. TJ turned his face up and kissed me on the lips, a greeting I enjoyed more than anything. TJ’s father was ambling down the staircase and my palms flooded with sweat.
     Mr. Tramblay resembled TJ: the shape of the eyes and face along with the nose. His lips looked thinner than TJ’s. Mr. Tramblay was only a handful of inches taller than TJ. TJ’s eyes were blue-green but Mr. Tramblay’s were green, TJ’s hair was straight and blond, Mr. Tramblay’s curly and brown.
     “Dad, this is Sebastian Dubois. My . . . um. . .”
     “Your boyfriend. Call it what is is, son,” Mr. Tramblay said with a chuckle. He offered his hand to me and squeezed it so hard I felt bones in my hand crack.  This was the man that had hit his son over being gay not more than two years ago? “Nice to meet you, Sebastian. I’m TJ’s dad Jules.”
      My face was more heated then flames but I managed to smile and nod. TJ’s face was red and I was sure if I had been lighter my embarrassment would have been just as plain.
       TJ had prepared a place for us in his basement. There was a tray of little croissants filled with slices of cheese that were so fresh from the oven my hand felt hot when I reached out to grab one.
      TJ plucked a DVD from the shelves in the living room and waved the case around. “Have you ever seen Dazed and Confused?” He asked. He walked over to the white Xbox 360 and turned it on.
     “It sounds familiar,” I replied. My eyes widened. Confused? “It’s not some gay movie or anything?”
     TJ snorted. “It’s about a bunch of high school kids and their drug-fuelled adventures. It’s really good. It was released in the nineties but it’s set in the seventies. I wish I grew up in the seventies sometimes,” TJ said. He delicately fed the DVD to the Xbox and then jumped back onto the couch with me. His body was turned onto mine, one of his hands on my chest. I put my arm around TJ and he put his cheek to mine. His skin felt smooth and soft against my own.
       “The seventies were cool but the racism just started to decline. I think right now is the best time to be a black person,” I replied.
       “Racism started to decline? Didn’t the whole civil rights movement happen in the sixties? And we’re in Canada. No way things weren’t good for black people in Canada during the seventies,” TJ said.
       I gave TJ a look. “My mom came to Canada from Jamaica in the nineteen-seventies. She tells us stories about how the white kids at their high school told them the smelt and that they were jungle bunnies. Racism didn’t end when the civil rights movement ended. Racism isn’t over.”
     TJ frowned in contemplation. “I think we’ve come a long way,” TJ said softly.
     “We have.”
      TJ slipped his fingers through the opening in my hoodie. His fingers were cold in the heat and he buried his fingers further. I looked at him and he stuck his tongue out.
    “I'll bite that tongue off,” I growled.
     “Yeah?” He replied. We kissed open mouthed and then his tongue touched mine. I didn't run away but yielded to him and let him put his tongue further. One of us groaned and that caused TJ to giggle. My hand was on the back of his neck, toying with the hairs on the back of his neck. His hand rested on my thigh. Lightly, travelling upwards and inwards towards me. "TJ," I mumbled. He pulled away and looked at me curiously.
      "Hm?" He asked.
       "Sorry. I . . . " I felt nervous but could I really admit that to TJ? When I trailed off he massaged the back of my neck as though he understood. He kissed me slowly and then nodded.
     "We can go as slow as you like," he whispered. He reached for the remote and pressed play. While the movie started, TJ popped a bag of buttery popcorn in the microwave. 
      He poured it out into a plastic bowl with prints of fish on it and then placed the bowl between us. I seemed to forget that I was with TJ; I relaxed and bared my true self to him. There was something about TJ's openness that reflected itself in me.