ACROSS THE STREET AND TWO DOORS DOWN by Spanky de Bautumn

Jamie sat up and looked back to see if the girls had heard what he just said. They were in their own adolescent world talking about what they were going to do first thing.

Jamie turned to Matt, “What did you just say?”

“You heard me.”

“Not in front of girls, we’ll talk about this later.”

Matt said, “Oh, alright,” sounding disappointed but hopeful.

After finding a place to park, the boys had their hands full trying to keep the girls from running a muck. They finally reigned them in and while standing in line, Matt was thinking he might have blown it with Jamie.

Matt had been into boys, especially feminine looking boys since he went away to summer camp two years prior and got into a romantic relationship with a boy named Frankie, who looked a lot like Jamie. Was he mistaken, did he read Jamie wrong? He hadn’t mentioned anything about having a girlfriend. Maybe he hadn’t been wrong and Jamie just didn’t know who he was yet. He made a decision to go ahead and take a chance, what’s the worst that could happen, he wasn’t big enough to beat him up.

Jamie was perplexed, he wasn’t sure what he should do or what he should say. This is the first to time anybody, male or female has ever made a pass at him. What added to his confusion is that he had to admit he was flattered that Matt appeared to be attracted to him. He was still a virgin and a relationship was not at the top of his agenda, but he did think Matt was cute, for a boy.

They got their sisters on the merry-go-round and stood there, shuffling, neither one knowing how to start. Finally, Jamie said, “Okay, Matt, what’s going on?”

Matt looked around, waved at his sister, cleared his throat, and said, “I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot here, we just met yesterday and I guess I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

“Mistake?”

“Yeah, well, I suppose you’ve figured out that I like boys.”

“That would be my guess.”

“When I met you yesterday, you were so funny and cute, and well to tell you the truth the only reason I wanted to come is because of you, not my sister, and I could give a shit about the Python. That’s all I thought about last night.”