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Okay so I know I was pretty convincing when I said I was a partier, but I’ve never actually been to a real party, those ones where everyone from the school goes, gets blackout drunk and someone always loses their virginity. Yes, I’ve had a few drinks before, once even with Noah on his birthday last year, but I wasn’t a drinker and wasn’t interested to start after seeing what it had done to people, Noah for example.
I was finishing up the chemistry homework from lunch when my phone went off.
Noah: Hey, so the party is at Marcus MacIsaac’s place 2148 Champlain promenade. Starts around 10:00
Me: Sounds good
I paused for a moment before typing.
Me: Thanks again for the invite
There was maybe ten seconds too long of Noah is typing…
Noah: No problem, see you tomorrow
Me: See you
And just like that, it was done. The party was at Marcus’ house? aka number three on the list, could this get any better? While on my Snapchat I saw some people had added me. I counted 11 girls that had added me by username. Is this cause I’m on the list? I added the ones I knew and left the ones I didn’t. After being too distracted, I finally gave up on chemistry and went downstairs to find my family eating supper.
“Oh sorry dear I forgot to call you down, here I’ll grab you a plate,” my Mom said, rushing to the kitchen.
My brother was talking to my Dad about hockey and didn’t acknowledge me. When Mom rejoined the table I let the conversation lull until I decided to speak.
“So I’m going to a friend’s place this Friday for a bit.”
“That’s nice dear could you pass the salt George?” my mother said without looking at me.
After a few more minutes of hockey talk, I muttered a quick thanks and went back to my room.
Sometimes I wonder if my parents even know I exist. But, if we’re getting deep, I did this too myself. Whenever I came to terms with the fact that I couldn’t force myself to love girls, I wasn’t ready for people to know. And I didn’t want them to suspect. So I withdrew. And since my brother was always what you could call “a full load,” my parents let me, because it was easier for them. It was lonely.
The next morning I rushed into English and found Thomas once again, sitting beside my usual spot. As I sat down he looked up from his phone and shot me a friendly smile.
“Hey do you have a partner for the book report?” he asked casually.
“Oh, no…what book report?” I said confused.
He gestured to the board and I now realized it wasn’t “cook airports” but book reports Mr. Krone had written on the board yesterday. I then made a quick impulse decision.
“Do you want to be partners?” I asked timidly.
“For sure,” he replied.
For sure. Will he have to come over so we can work on it and then he drops something and we both go to pick it up and then our hand’s touch and we look into each other eyes and then lean in and…
“Your book reports must be passed in on Monday, I will not be accepting assignments as late as last time,” stated Mr.Krone.
“So what book should we do?” I asked after Krones monotone lectures somehow failed to keep my attention.
“What about this one, I saw you reading it a few weeks ago and it looked good,” he said taking out a copy of “Challenger Deep”.
I shot him a quick smile. He had bought the book, maybe thinking of me. Thomas Elliot Levesque, maybe the best looking guy in school.
After we had been set free from English, Thomas caught up to me in the hall.
“Can I uh, ask you a question?” he asked.
“Of course, shoot,” I said.
He stopped walking and looked me nervously in the eye.
“Sometimes…I uh find the English hard to read…and I was wondering…just cause I don’t want you to do all the work…if you could read it to me?” he asked, obviously embarrassed.
I think it was maybe right there that my heart actually melted. But I didn’t want him to think I was pitying him, so I played it cool.
“Of course, it’s no problem. You can help me with my french while we’re at it” I said, trying to make him feel less awkward.
My efforts worked for his golden eyes lit up.
“Thanks, Arthur, here’s my number I’ll talk to you soon,” he said showing me his phone.
My heart was filled with joy and couldn’t help but smile as I walked to science. I had his number and he was gonna call me. Is all this because of the list? My thoughts were interrupted when there was a tap on my shoulder. I swear this is the most social contact I’ve had in my life. I turned around to see Evelyn Ryerson, a pretty white blonde girl accompanied by some other pretty white blonde girls I didn’t know the names of.
“Hey Arthur, how are you? Its been too long,” she said, acting like we were old pals when I wasn’t sure if we had ever even spoken before.
“Oh…uh yeah it has,” I murmured.
The other girls giggled from behind.
“Anyway, heard you’re going to Marcus’ party Friday?”
“Yeah I am, are you guys?”
The others giggled more.
“Of course silly, cant wait to see you there,” Evelyn said, continuing down the hall followed by her giggling entourage.
Fuck I hate kids. Also, Evelyn had a boyfriend named Bradford, so why she made a strange attempt to flirt is beyond me. The last thing I wanted was to be roped into a hetero love triangle.
That night, I was at my desk doing my ecology slideshow, when I got a facetime from Thomas. I quickly fixed my hair and shoved the pile of dirty clothes under my bed and then answered. He looked like he was sitting in his bed and he wore his cute reading glasses.
“Hey Arthur”
“Hey Thomas, what’s up?”
“So I was wondering if we could start working on our report,” he asked.
“Oh yeah for sure..lemme grab the book,” I said reaching over to my bookshelf.
There was only a moment of awkward silence and I understood why. Thomas found it hard to read in English, it being his second language, and I wasn’t going to make it hard for him.
“Okay, do you have your copy?” I asked.
“Yep, right here” he said, holding up the book.
“Okay great, also don’t hesitate to tell me if some of the words are tricky. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman. Chapter one; There are two things you know. One: You were there. Two: You couldn’t have been there.” I said, reading slowly and as clearly as I could.
For hours I read to him. Often he would stop and ask me about a word or a phrase and then we would keep on going. It wasn’t until quarter to midnight when I heard a faint knock on the door, I then realized it couldn’t have been my door for my parents never come up to my room. Thomas replied to someone in French and starting speaking softly with whoever was at his door.
“Hey Arthur that’s my mum, I’d better get to bed,” he said softly.
“No problem, we got a lot done today, see you tomorrow” I replied.
“Hey Arthur?” I heard him say as I was putting the book away.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you”
“No problem.”
“Goodnight Arthur”
“Bonuit Thomas”
There was a cute laugh as he hung up the call. I fell back into my chair and couldn’t help but laugh myself.
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