Ocean Blue | gxg ✓

chapter twenty-seven

elliot

I've never been more grateful to have Sundays off. Duncan has stuck to his Beauty and the Beast ambitions, and honestly, he's not terrible. We're at his house, where Neema is guiding him through the audition script the director posted somewhere online. He's getting into it in this way I didn't think he could. Duncan is always just so ... Duncan. Right now, though, he definitely seems more like the Beast. It's freaky.

Then he says, "Rawr," in a deep bass tone and totally ruins it.

"You think that I'll get it?" he asks Neema after running through it a few times. We've been giving him feedback—Neema moreso than I—and he's been taking it in stride. "I know I'm a junior, but I haven't done a play before."

"You've got it. We only have two other guys this year," Neema says, shaking her head.

I glance over at her, where she's sprawled across Nelson family's living room couch. Her sweatshirt is oversized and pastel pink and bears a small toothpaste mark, and her leggings are covered in Lady's fur. Cat hair and all, she manages to look good. Photo-ready. I, on the other hand, am in my pyjama shirt from last night and a dirty pair of shorts I stole from Duncan years ago. Very not photo-ready.

"Wait, what happened to John Johnson and the Regan twins? And Adam Turner?" I ask her. They were the local Theatre Whores, really rambunctious guys who might have been more popular at a different school. I'm not even sure if they were gay or not, but—according to both Ambers—had "really girly vibes" that were a total social turn-off.

Maybe I should have spent more time with them.

Neema shifts her coils away from her face and pouts. "Graduated. All of them."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. The bitches." She pushes her massive sleeves up to her elbows. "But yeah, so, there are two freshmen guys coming in from the middle school everyone is super excited about. Neither of them are particularly Beastly, though, so."

"Duncan time?" Duncan asks, grinning.

"Duncan time."

"Dude," I say, "remember how you said you couldn't pull a High School Musical: The Musical: The Series?"

Duncan peels off one disgusting sock and flings it in my direction. "Don't jinx me, devil woman!"

"Anyways," Neema interrupts, "Duncan, I think you have a good chance. These kids are low-key sopranos. Not very Beastly."

"Imagine your balls not having dropped yet," I say. "Couldn't be me. Are either of them Gastonly?"

Neema laughs. "No, unfortunately. Which means you could probably convince Klein to let you genderbend."

"I thought you weren't kinky enough to chew through leather?" Duncan asks.

I throw the sock back. It hits him on the forehead, and he lets out a strangled gasp as he swats it away from him, onto the carpet. "Kinks change, baby girl." We haven't talked about my feelings towards the swim team, but I think we all know I won't be going back. Not after everything a few weeks ago. It's been radio silence ever since, even at work (minus constant, ignorable glares), but I don't need to invite a resurgence in the drama.

The two of them gag. "Ewwww," says Neema. "Gross."

"Got any eggs?" I ask, already preparing to shield myself from the next sock. "I need to up my intake."

"Just the eggs inside me," Neems says. "My baby eggs. My mini-Neema eggs."

"The forbidden caviar," muses Duncan.