My Brother's Best Friend - LGBT, boyXman

6

On Monday morning, I gathered together all of my notes for my volcano presentation and put them into my rucksack.

Ava had taken the papier-mâché volcano home on Saturday to paint it.

David was ready and waiting for me when I came downstairs, his satchel of marked essays already in the Beetle.

“So… What’s with the whole papier-mâché volcano thing?” David asked finally, as we set off for school.

“A project for my geography class.” I rolled my eyes. “It started off as just research and a presentation, but one girl remembered we’d made models in Year Seven and blown them up on the sports field, and asked if we could do it again.”

“Let me guess… That was Ava.”

“Yeah.”

David laughed.

“So how come you and her have never… you know…?”

“What? Slept together? I’m gay, David.”

“Are you?” He looked at me. “Oh… I thought you were just fooling around with me. Perhaps bisexual.”

“Nope. Gay. Don’t tell Matt though,” I said quickly. “He… Well, I don’t think he likes gay people very much.”

David made a noise in his throat.

“He did hit William Bauer, a kid in our year. He was gay. Although, William did hit Matt in the face with his locker door, so that might have had something to do with it.”

I laughed.

David parked the Beetle in one of the teacher’s spots and we clambered out.

The other kids had long since stopped teasing me about coming to school every morning with the history teacher; one kid had made the joke a little too often, and I’d broken his nose.

“See you tonight.”

I disappeared through the double doors that led to the reception before David could speak.

I met Ava in our form room.

She’d already dropped the volcano model off in the geography room.

“You okay?” She asked me as I slid into my seat.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, just… because of…”

“I’m fine,” I said shortly.

“Can I sit here?”

A voice broke in before Ava could continue her sympathetic crusade.

I looked up at the bloke stood beside me.

“Sure, I guess.” I frowned at him. “You’re… Daniel?”

“Dale.” The boy grinned. “You’re Tristan.”

I nodded.

“So… Why do you want to sit here?” I asked, motioning the other empty seats.

And his usual seat, beside the window.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?”

Dale looked over at Ava, who was watching us curiously, before he shrugged.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me?”

“Oh…”

I stared at him for a moment, feeling myself start to blush intensely.

“Erm… I guess I could… When?”

“Wednesday afternoon?” Dale suggested.

I was about to refuse, because that was Ava and I’s cinema and dinner afternoon, when Ava nudged me hard and nodded.

“Alright… I can meet you after the big assembly, if you like.”

“Outside the reception at three?”

“Yep.”

Having gotten my answer, Dale returned to his seat, grinning at his friend.

I frowned a little.

“Do you think he did that for a bet?” I asked Ava. “I’ll look like a mug when he doesn’t show up on Friday.”

“He seems nice. I think he was in my English class in Year Nine. He’s smart,” Ava said. She smirked at me. “Someone’s very popular all of a sudden.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Well, first you had Da- your brother’s friend.” She quickly changed what she was going to say at my sharp glance. “Now Dale…”

“So… Am I coming across as easy?” I frowned.

“No. I wish I had blokes chasing after me,” Ava said wistfully.

“No-one’s exactly chasing,” I said. “After all, my brother’s friend ended things… and he’s the only bloke I’ve ever really been with.”

“Well, still… I’d like a boyfriend.”

“So go out a find one,” I said. “There are plenty of boys in this school.”

Ava sighed and started doodling in her notebook.

I left her to her sketching, and went to my first lesson.