Read Tango with a Twist (Smashwords edition.) Page 20
#scenebreak
When something large and sturdy dropped onto the foot of my bed way too soon after sunrise, I didn’t really need to hear the heavy sigh to know it was Corey, who was no longer known as Boyfriend. He lay there face down, kneeling beside the bed with his arms at his sides, face-planted on my blanket.
With a sigh of my own, I sat up and crossed my legs. “Hey, Corey.”
“Hey, Foxtrot.” His voice was muffled by the blanket, but he sounded pretty dead inside.
Dad hovered in the doorway. He wore the dragon jousting suit and an expression that told me he remembered what’d happened the last time Corey’d let himself into my room. I waved him off. He gave me a nod and left.
I sort of awkwardly dropped my hand onto Corey’s head. He reminded me of a sad puppy, so I patted his hair. Dad did that kind of thing when I was depressed, but Corey’s hair felt surprisingly soft, which made the moment weird. I shifted my hand to my lap. “You wanna talk about it, champ?”
“She dumped me.” His voice sounded comical filtered through a comforter.
“Well, you did cheat on her.”
“I know.” He sat up abruptly, revealing a blotchy face and bloodshot, puffy eyes. No surprise he’d been crying his heart out. “I am stupid. I had the best girl I will ever know and I fucked it up. I am so stupid.” He hit himself upside the head, which was a little scary. “Stupid!” He looked at me directly. “Can I pretend you’re still gay?”
“I was never actually gay. . . and. . . why?”
He looked down at his hands. “It’s easier to talk to you if you’re gay. My straight buddies just want details. . . and I really don’t want to talk about that.”
I ran a hand through my hair and patted the mattress. “I’ll always be gay for you, Corey.” In my head it was clever.
He took my comment at face value and sat on the edge of the bed. He heaved another big sigh.
“Dude, I know how much Tango means to you. What. the. hell?” I kept my voice as kind as I could, but it was a total bonehead maneuver what he did. He’d really hurt Tango.
“I didn’t know. . .” He shook his head. “I’m just stupid, that’s all.”
There was something he wasn’t saying. Well, there was a lot he wasn’t saying, but there was something he was avoiding. But he’d almost said it, hadn’t he? He didn’t know. . . what?
I remembered looking down at Tango from my bedroom window. And she’d seen Corey and Monika through his window. Tango had a thing for late night visits and bedroom windows. And I knew Monika. What had she said to Corey that morning? “You must get chilly.” Because she knew he left the window open in case Tango stopped by. If she were trying to score points, she’d dig up that kind of thing over, say, a delicious coffee beverage while commiserating about a vandalized car. Yeah, she thought like that.
“You didn’t know it was Monika,” I said.
His expression told me I was psychic. I had to be.
“Your room is on the first floor and you didn’t even know it was Monika until. . . well, until after you’d already sampled the milk and cookies.”
He looked at the floor. “Doesn’t matter. I still did it.”
I closed my eyes. Please let him not be more of a gentleman than me. “Did you stop her or decide, what the hell if it’s too late. . .”
“What the hell?” He smacked my arm. “Of course, I stopped her, bro, seriously?”
I nudged him back. “Why didn’t you tell Tango that part?”
He deflated like a spent balloon. “Yeah, because that would’ve sounded so much better.” He addressed a pretend Tango in the doorway. “I know I screwed someone else, but it’s not like it should count since I thought she was you.” He looked at me. “I know enough to know that a girl ain’t going to like that either.”
Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t
And he did. . . but, kinda. . . he didn’t. I mean, how many red-blooded American guys would not have taken the oh-well-since-I-already-did-it-I-may-as-well-enjoy-the-moment route? I’m not entirely sure I would. Wouldn’t. Whatever.
Monika had orchestrated the entire ugly scene.
What an unmitigated bitch.
And. . . he cried.
Scooching closer, I reached out and dropped a hand on his neck.
He didn’t let out with the big time sobs. His shoulders shook a little while he hung his head. I put an arm around him. He dropped his head on mine.
Good times.
K-pop appeared in my doorway. “Your dad said I could come up.” He gestured down the hall. “I can go.”
I shrugged. “It’s a party.”
With K-pop there, Corey started to pull himself together. “Hi, K-pop.”
“Hey. . . Corey.”
And there was the kicked puppy again since his name was no longer Boyfriend.
More tears.
I patted his head.
K-pop looked me up and down. “Nice skivvies.”
Skivvies? “Thanks. People seem to see my underwear a lot since I moved here, so I put extra thought into my choices.”
“Captain America’s shield is very fortuitously placed.”
Stellar. Not many people can find an opportunity to use a word like “fortuitously.”
“That’s why I bought them,” I said.
We watched Corey weep. Periodically, I patted his neck.
“So, K-pop,” I ventured, “what brings you to my bedroom at this ungodly hour of the morning?” I waved him into the chair. “Just hoping for awkward conversation?”
“No school today.” He smiled sheepishly. “You said maybe we could dance in your garage?”
Oh, yeah. “Absolutely.” Anything to distract the snuffle monster drooling on my shoulder. “You have some stuff you want to work on? A song?”
He grinned. “I’d love to throw down those moves you did to Beast.” He crossed his feet at the ankle. “Why’d you pretend you just dance ballroom?”
Corey lifted his head. “He didn’t want to blow Katy’s cover.”
“Cover?” K-pop asked.
“He’s better than any of us, and she thought he’d be a dick about it.” Corey wiped his face and blew his nose into sheets I would rip from my bed just as soon as he left. “She should know better by now.” He blew his nose again. “Gay dudes aren’t like that.”
K-pop opened his mouth.
Not wanting to delve into the subtleties of Corey’s self-delusions, I raised a hand and gave a quick little shake of my head.
Corey grabbed me in a bear hug so fast I couldn’t duck and weave to avoid it. He held on tight and thanked me for being such a good friend.
K-pop’s expression wandered from amused to slightly uncomfortable.
I extricated myself from Corey’s grip and picked a pair of non-lethal sweats from the floor, shrugging into a t-shirt as well. Then I pulled off the shirt, used it to wipe Corey’s slobber off my chest and chose a different one.
ten
Twist sat in his car and listened to the mic in Fox’s room. What did Katy see in either of those guys? They were worse than the boys in Teen Wolf, the way they ran around weeping on each other’s shoulders and acting as if the world was their locker room. Wait a minute. Locker rooms. The football team. He looked up. Sure enough, the entire starting lineup, minus Corey, was eating breakfast tacos across the street.
He tapped over to the feed inside the diner. He listened for half an hour before hearing something important. “The bitch dumped him for that pretty boy from Austin.”
“The fag?”
“The fag needs a beating, that’s all I’m sayin’.”
The others muttered their agreement.
Twist smiled. He climbed out of his ca
r and hurried across the street. Sometimes local worked better than anything on the internet.