Stupid Boys

07 Your Call

"Jesse Harper is a babe."

"No way does it say that." I protest, snatching the phone out of my sister's hand and zooming in on the picture. Last week I made the stupid mistake of saying that Jesse and Jake had gone out - during family dinner. And, considering that I said it with slight disgust, Bianca saw that as an oppourunity to stalk him. And now, a week later, she's managed to hack into all of his socials and found numerous anonymous comments about him online and written in school toilet cubicles.

May I add, not cubicles at either of our schools.

I cannot stress this enough when I say that my sister scares the living shit out of me. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to see her climbing through my window. I never cross her. I did once, last year and will never again.

I made the mistake of telling mum that I'd seen Bee sneak out a few times and woke up the next day with three dead snakes on my pillow.

"Only child." she clicks her tongue as she moves onto the information laid out on her laptop, "Adopted at the age of 7. Ah, of course he thinks he's bloody Oprah - he's the older kid in the orphanage who actually got picked." she tutts and I check over her shoulder too see the screen. She has 14 tabs open on this one guy. If she isn't working for the government in 2 years, I will asume only one of the two possiblilites: she's been assasinated, she's been imprisoned in an extremely high security correctional facility.

"Okay, you know what? This is weird. I barely know Jesse. Maybe him and Jake are actually a good fit." I try to say without clenching my buttcheeks.

"Yeah right. You can't even say that with a straight face." she pauses and laughs to herself, "Literally."

I pause for a second.

"Wha-"

"Get out of my room, Kings." she laughs over me. She cancels all tabs on the boy who's middle name is Isaac and another set of them appears. I decide to not know what they are about and feel safer when I leave her room.

"You know his adopted mum had thirteen miscarriages before him." she comments blankly as I leave.

"Bee I— woah, thirteen? Poor lady." I say and close the door as she mutters something to herself that I don't quite catch.

I go back into my room and land back first on my bed. I stare at my blank ceiling. Jake has those glow in the dark stars that he's had forever on his ceiling. Thinking about him makes my fingertips tingle. I don't know why. I don't know what it means. It means nothing.

I grab my headphones and phone from my bedside table and put them on, flicking onto Adele's best and letting sad piano fill my ears. My best friend is going to leave me and start hanging out with Harper all the time. I have other friends, though.

"Yello." Joe's voice rings through the receiver in a sweet sound.

"Ugh.. Joey." I groan, putting him on speaker and picking up my unsolved rubix cube. And turning the sides.

"Whatsup, Kings? Wanna come round and play Fifa?" he says quickly, a whistle from the game playing through.

"Maybe. I'm adding on Ramir." I say, putting down the cube and adding Ramir's number onto the call.

"Boys!" his voice bellows through the phone so loud that I have to physically move my phone away from my ear.

"Little louder, Ram. Don't think we heard you." Joe comments and another noise from his game plays.

"Regina called you a slut." Ram mimics in a high pitched, American voice.

"What?" I laugh and turn the sides of my cube as quick as I can.

"Because it's a three way call." silence follows, "Don't tell me you guys haven't seen mean girls!"

"Don't tell me you have." Joe says and I laugh.

"Guys, what's going on with Jake and his new... friend?" I grimace into the phone, turning the sides much slower in anticipation.

"You mean boy-toy." Ramir laughs which makes me cringe even more.

"It was aught to happen. I mean, Jesse is the only other out guy in our school." the other one says.

"That's not true." I defend but find myself struggling to think of any.

"Why are you so mad about this, anyway?" Joe asks and my silence follows, just enough for Ram to jump in.

"Oooh... Kings, are you..."

"What? No!" I say almost immediately, sitting up suddenly.

"We're going out tonight." a voice that wasn't on the call before says firmly.

"Oh hey, Tye!" Ram says excitedly.

"I added him." Joe says and I sigh.

"Out? Where?" I ask and of course, Ramir:

"Out of the closet! Oooh!"

Last time I was at a club, something happened. That something that hasn't left my mind since.

Kiss.

Fuck.

"I'll tell Jake." Tyler says quickly.

"No!" I interject and find myself breathless, searching for lies, "He's got something on with Jesse tonight."

"He wouldn't want to come anyway."