Author: Jay Argent
Category: LGBT
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Chapter 14
The drill made Alex’s skull tremble. The dentist had been working on the tooth for fifteen minutes, despite repeated promises that it would soon be over. Alex didn’t mind. He wasn’t particularly scared of the dentist, and he had a rather high threshold for pain. Besides, most of his face was numb from the anesthetic.
“We’re done now. That’s all,” the dentist said after another fifteen minutes. She was an elderly lady, close to retirement.
Alex thanked her politely for the treatment and left for school. Suddenly he remembered that his phone had vibrated in his pocket just before the dentist had started to push the massive needle into his gum. He read the message about Liam’s birthday and replied quickly. Then he had to run since he was already late for chemistry class.
When he arrived, the teacher opened the classroom door for him, and Alex took his seat next to Rick. They had been sitting together for the entire year, even during their recent friction. Rick had already organized all of the equipment on the table and was setting fire to the gas burner. Carefully, he added one spoonful of sodium sulfate to the liquid in the petri dish and mixed it with a glass stick.
“Eric and I made sure the fag won’t bother you anymore,” Rick whispered as he took the pipette to fill the test tube.
“What?” Alex shouted, regretting the outburst immediately when half of the class turned to look at him. He waited until everyone went back to their chemistry work and asked again, whispering this time, “What the fuck did you do?”
As soon as the class was over, Alex pushed Rick and Eric out of the classroom to a place where other students couldn’t listen.
“Alex, we’re a team,” Rick said. “You are our star swimmer, and we want to win Eastern Regionals.”
“And what does that have to do with Liam?” Alex asked.
“That has everything to do with Liam!” Rick said quickly, staring at Alex. “With all due respect, Mr. Captain of the Team, your swimming has really sucked since you started hanging out with that queer,” he added with zero respect in his voice.
“Besides, any friends of that fag are not welcome in the locker room,” Rick continued, and Eric nodded.
“You can’t be serious,” Alex said and looked at both boys. The looks on their faces told him that they were.
“The choice is yours. It’s either us or the fag. If you keep hanging out with that queer, you’re not welcome on the team,” Eric said.
Alex was furious. It was the second time he had heard that ultimatum: first from Sofia, and now from Rick and Eric.
“It’s none of your business who I’m friends with,” Alex said. “If Liam is a threat to your manliness, then you’re much smaller people than I ever imagined. Grow up!” he said and marched off.
Alex walked to his locker, feeling seriously pissed off. Sofia had been his girlfriend, and he still missed her sometimes. Rick and Eric were some of his oldest friends, and now he was losing them, too. And all of this was because of Liam, who had just moved to Fairmont.
There was something in Liam that Alex couldn’t explain, and that something made it difficult for Alex to end their friendship. Nonetheless, the swim team was his second family, and it felt bad to lose that.
Alex walked out to the parking lot and opened the door of his car. He would skip the rest of his classes. The time had come to make a decision.
His seventeenth birthday isn’t that significant of a milestone in the life of a young boy. Liam, at least, didn’t think it was so important. Lazily, he crawled out of bed and pulled the curtains. Even the brightness of the Saturday morning didn’t cheer him up. Alex’s behavior was bothering him.
Since learning that Rosa knew Liam was gay, Alex had hardly spoken to him. Also, it troubled him that it might have been Alex who had sent Rick and Eric to intimidate him. What other reason could Rick and Eric have had to say those things? Why didn’t Alex break off his friendship with Liam himself? Why he had left school in the middle of the day yesterday?
Liam’s head was full of questions to which he had no answers. He had last seen Alex in history class but had heard nothing from him since. He still hoped that Alex might come to his birthday party, but the hope was so fragile that he didn’t want to break it by calling Alex and asking.
“Oh. There’s my pumpkin. Happy birthday!” his mother fussed and hugged Liam when he arrived in the kitchen for breakfast.
“Happy birthday,” his father said, pouring himself more coffee.
“Thanks,” Liam muttered and opened the cupboard. Luckily, there was some cereal this time.
After Liam had eaten, his mother passed him an envelope. “Your father and I have a small gift for you,” she said. Liam looked at the envelope, unsure of whether he was expected to open it.
“We thought that you might need some new clothes and that you might want to choose them yourself,” his father said. Liam’s eyes opened wide when he saw how much money his parents had put in the envelope.
“Thanks!” he said, jumping up to hug his mother. “You’re the best.”
“Even though it’s your birthday, I need you to help me clean the house for the party,” his mother said.
“That’s okay,” Liam replied. He didn’t have anything else to do but to worry about whether Alex would come. Any distraction was more than welcome.
“We have quesadillas for lunch,” his mother said. “And your cake is already in the fridge. I hope Alex likes chocolate cake.” Tortillas were Liam’s favorite, and his spirit had been high until the mention of Alex sent it into a major tailspin.
“Um … I’m not sure whether Alex will come,” he said tentatively, and his mother looked at him, amazed.
“Is he busy today?” she asked. Liam hesitated for too long, and she pressed him. “Have you had a quarrel or something?”
“No, nothing like that,” Liam said. He could give no reasonable explanation as to why Alex might not come. “He has just been a little odd lately. I hope he comes,” he said finally.
“He better come. He’ll have to deal with me if he misses my son’s birthday party,” she said with such determination that Liam had to smile a little.
They cleaned the house, Liam starting with his bedroom. First, he gathered all of his comic books and stacked them on a shelf. A moment later, he put them back on the floor and started to organize them in chronological order. When he was happy with the outcome, he arranged them in piles on the shelf.
Liam was about to delete the unnecessary files from his laptop but decided that his mother’s definition of cleaning couldn’t possibly be extended to that task. Instead, he arranged his laptop nicely on the table before getting the vacuum cleaner to remove the dust from the floor.
A couple of hours later, the house started to look neat and orderly. “You guys have done an amazing job,” Liam’s mother said to Liam and his father. “Lunch will be served in ten minutes,” she announced.
Liam was sweaty and needed a shower. Cleaning the house had been much harder work than he had anticipated. However, it had offered him a comforting break from worrying about Alex.
After drying himself with a big white towel, he took his best clothes from the wardrobe. He wanted to look nice when Alex came. Thinking about Alex made him smile again, and he decided to stop worrying so much. Alex was his friend. Surely he would come to his party.
“These tortillas are ridiculously good,” Liam said as his family sat at the table, enjoying their lunch. His mother looked satisfied.
“I am happy to hear that,” she said. She reached over to ruffle his hair before remembering how important perfect hair styling was to Liam. She pulled back her hand.
“Great. You’re learning,” Liam said when he realized that his hair had survived the impending attack. His father laughed.
After his third tortilla, Liam thanked his mother again for the great lunch and set his plate in the sink. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was half-past two, which meant that Alex would arrive soon
. Liam spent the next half hour in his bedroom, walking around nervously and looking out the window.
Soon it was three, but there was no sign of Alex. At five minutes past three, Liam assumed that Alex was on his way and would arrive soon. At fifteen minutes past three, he became somewhat worried. By half-past three, the endless disappointment could be read on his face. Alex wasn’t coming.
Liam’s mother appeared at the door and saw his sad face. “I’m sorry. Maybe Alex has a good reason for being late,” she said, giving him a weak smile.
“No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to be friends with me anymore,” Liam said. It was time to accept reality. His mother asked what had happened between the boys, but Liam said he didn’t want to talk about it right now.
“Would you still like some cake?” she asked.
Liam didn’t answer but walked bravely to the kitchen after his mother. He had lost his appetite, and as great as the cake must have been, he didn’t taste anything. All his senses were numb. He ate the cake bite by bite, holding back his tears.
When he had finally eaten the tiny piece that he had cut from the enormous cake, he tried to smile at his mother. Then he shuffled back to his bedroom, closed the door, and drew the curtains.
An old t-shirt hanging on the back of his chair reminded him of Matthew. Until their separation, Matthew had spent every birthday with him. The shirt was the last present his friend had given him before disappearing from his life. He wished that Matthew was with him now, celebrating his birthday.
Liam thought he might watch a movie, so he turned on the TV and randomly picked a DVD from the shelf. The movie started to play, but he felt like he was watching it from behind a thick layer of fog. His eyes filled with tears, and Liam folded his arms around his legs. The scene on the TV became meaningless, and he just sat on his bed and cried inconsolably.