Serpentine Walls (10 page)

Matthew looked up, and Pete started, realizing he’d been staring, but Matthew grinned and patted the seat beside him. “Sit down and stay awhile.”

When Pete settled next to Matthew, the nearly full pitcher on the table reminded him of his burning desire for more beer. Pouring himself another mug, he tilted it to his lips and chugged it down to the halfway point.

“Whoa.” Matthew blinked. “Thirsty?”

“Could say that.”

Rubbing the back of his hand roughly over his mouth, Pete watched Jed and Bud come into the club from the restroom. They paused, talking to each other. Jed seemed angry, his gestures forceful as he got in Bud’s face about something. It was actually kind of hot. Bud ducked his head like he was apologizing, and Jed turned his back on him and headed for their table.

“You okay?”

Matthew’s voice jerked Pete’s attention back to him.

“Yeah. Just feel like getting drunk right now.”

“Be my guest. But will I have to confiscate your phone?” Matthew asked, arching his eyebrow.

“Huh?” Then Pete remembered about the drunk texting. “Oh. Probably.”

Matthew held out his hand with a playful expression.

“You guys should do some karaoke,” Angie said. “Where’d Aidan go? The three of you would be awesome together.”

“He left,” Pete said.

“Well, Pete?” Matthew asked. “You want to sing something? Show ’em how it’s really done?”

“Why the hell not?” As they stood, Pete said to Jed, who was back at the table, “Wanna join us in making fools of ourselves?”

“No, thanks. I can’t carry a tune. I’ll be your fanboy in the audience.”

Pete snorted. “We’ll need it.” He followed Matthew up to the front.

Matthew grabbed the book of tunes. “What do you want to sing?”

“Soul, R&B, Motown.”

“Okay. I love Motown. Should we be Diana Ross and the one Supreme?” He flipped through the pages. “Oh, I like this one.” He pointed to “You’re All I Need To Get By.”

“That’s a great one. What do you sing, bass or tenor?”

“Tenor, usually.”

“Perfect. You get to be Tammi Terrell, then.”

Matthew pretended to pout. “I wanted to be Marvin Gaye! No fair.”

“Next time.”

“You say that to all the girls.” Matthew huffed out a sigh as he made out their request slip, and Pete grinned, suddenly wanting to put his arms around Matthew and squeeze.

The middle-aged woman operating the karaoke machine looked bored. Her red hair, a color found only in a bottle, was tightly curled in a style reminiscent of Lucille Ball in the 1950s. When Matthew handed her the request slip, she glanced at it, then jerked her head toward the microphones. “Go ahead.” Her voice was flat and nasally, accent more Midwestern than Southern.

“Oh, there’s no wait?” Matthew turned to Pete. “You ready for this, Marvin?”

“You’re all I need, Tammi….”

The woman set the machine to their selection and picked up one of the mics, announcing tonelessly, “Matthew and Pete, singing ‘You’re All I Need To Get By.’”

Clapping and cheering came from their table of friends, along with a loud, piercing whistle that could only be Bud’s. Pete and Matthew grabbed the mics, smiled at each other, and launched into the song.

Singing a love duet with Matthew was a hoot. He widened his eyes in mock-adoration as he serenaded Pete in a surprisingly lovely tenor voice. Pete went for channeling Marvin Gaye—smooth and urbane—an effect somewhat spoiled when Matthew batted his eyelashes at him and made Pete laugh. They managed to hit the harmonies almost flawlessly and ended the song making exaggerated heart eyes at each other before they dissolved in laughter.

“God, I love that song,” Matthew said as they made their way back to the table.

“It’s awesome. Ashford and Simpson were genius writers.”

“You guys!” Angie said. “You sounded so good together. And that song is so sweet.”

“Aw, you’re just a big romantic,” Pete told her. “I’m surprised you didn’t make Brian slow dance with you.”

“Hey, she didn’t even ask me,” Brian said, putting on a hurt expression. Angie swatted him.

“Nice voices.” Jed poured Pete a fresh beer. “I’m impressed.”

“Thanks.” Pete dropped down beside him while Matthew remained standing.

“Thanks for the song, Marvin,” he said to Pete. “I’m gonna call it a night.”

“I hope it wasn’t something I said, Tammi.” Pete held out his hand.

Matthew grabbed it, giving him the adoring eyes. “You, Marvin? Never.”

“Jeez, guys, you can dial it down,” Brian said while Angie giggled.

Pete pulled his hand out of Matthew’s and grinned. “Later, dude.”

“Yo. We still meeting about your movie Tuesday afternoon?”

“Yep. Three o’clock.”

“Cool. Brian, Angie, Jed, good night.” Matthew bowed to them and walked off through the club.

“I love him,” Angie declared, watching him go.

“You love everybody,” Pete said.

“Oh, wait, I
love
this song! Who wants to dance?” Angie looked around the table and got no response. “Aw, come on, Brian!”

“How’d you know to pick on me?” Brian grumbled but allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and dragged onto the dance floor.

“Well.” Pete regarded Jed over the top of his beer mug as he took another swig. “Alone at last.”

“I guess so.” Jed started playing with a napkin, turning pink under Pete’s scrutiny.

“You and Bud looked like you were getting into it back there.”

“What?”

“When you came out of the bathroom.”

“Oh. Not really. I just wanted him to stop it with the homophobic remarks.”

“You mean calling Aidan a princess? Yeah, well, that’s typical Bud. He’s not even homophobic; he’s just an asshole at times. I should know, being his cousin.”

“Well, I could tell it pissed you off, and I don’t need that kind of crap either, coming from a teammate.”

Pete decided not to mention that what actually pissed him off was Bud’s interruption of his and Aidan’s “moment.”

“I’m surprised you don’t have to deal with that kind of crap all the time with your rugby team. Do they all know you’re gay?”

“I guess. I haven’t exactly announced it.” Jed shifted his chair back a fraction, and Pete admired the bulge of his biceps. “But a few of the guys have my back. They usually shut down the fag talk so I don’t have to.”

“That’s good.” There was more to Jed than met the eye, Pete thought as he watched him down his beer.

Jed set his mug on the table with a clunk. “So, uh, what’re you doing after this?”

“Nothing.” Pete consulted his phone. “Wow, twelve thirty? Glad I don’t have to get up early tomorrow.”

“Um, so, you wanna come over? Play a video game or something?” Jed’s face was beet red.

Pete considered for a moment, cock giving an interested twitch, pretty sure what was on offer was more than a video game. He and Jed weren’t exactly setting the place on fire with their chemistry, but sex was sex, and he wasn’t about to pass up a chance at getting some. Besides, he liked how Jed had stood up to Bud.

“Sure.”

P
ETE
and Jed lay on Jed’s narrow single bed in his dorm room, the smell of sweaty gym socks permeating the air. Jed smiled shyly at him and kissed his neck, his erection pressing into Pete’s thigh. Pete tried not to think too much about Aidan’s big bed with its silken sheets as Jed fumbled his way down Pete’s chest, dropping kisses here and there. He wondered what Aidan was doing right now.
Or who.

Jed put a hand on Pete’s hip, breathing heavily, and Pete tried to get his head back in the game, staring at a Baltimore Orioles poster on the wall while Jed inched his way closer to Pete’s half-hard cock. He winced as the room started to spin, realizing he was drunker than he had thought. Maybe he shouldn’t have chugged that last beer.

“Jed,” he said, lifting his head and then lowering it as it started to pound.

“Huh?” Jed paused the slow nuzzling he was doing in the crease at the top of Pete’s leg. At the rate he was going, Pete could count on a blow job by tomorrow.

“Um, nothing, just I’m pretty wasted, so….”

“Yeah, me too.”

Pete was about to suggest they sleep it off when he felt Jed’s mouth surround his cock.
Oh. Okay
. Pete closed his eyes as Jed began to give him an inexpert blow job. It felt pretty good. Yawning, he started to drift….

He woke up to sunlight streaming through the window, Jed snoring beside him. He tried to remember what had happened, but all he could recall was falling asleep in the middle of sex. Feeling bad that he had done that to Jed, he kissed him awake.

“Huh? Oh, hi.” Jed smiled and rubbed his cock against Pete’s with a low humming sound.

“Mmm, yourself. Sorry I fell asleep on you last night.”

“S’okay. You’re awake now.”

Morning breath wasn’t too bad as long as there were mutual blow jobs involved, Pete decided later. He had declined Jed’s offer of breakfast afterward, though. He didn’t want Jed thinking this was going to be more than it was.

F
UCKING
film
. Pete left Cabell Hall clenching his fists, wanting to kick something as he walked along the sidewalk. It was a nice early October day; the weather had finally cooled off and some of the leaves were even starting to turn. But Pete was deeply inside his head.
Those parents—they could give a crap what they did to their kids
—

“Pete!”

Startled out of his brooding, Pete lifted his head. Aidan lay on the Lawn, a jacket bunched up under his neck, sunglasses on. He was a tempting sight, all stretched out on the grass in his tight jeans and black T-shirt, and no one was with him for once.

“Hey,” Pete said, still gripped by the feeling of fury that the film had evoked.

Aidan propped himself up on his arms and stared at Pete. “What’s up? You look bummed out.” He patted the ground next to him in invitation.

Pete went over and sat down. “I just saw
The Squid and the Whale
for Professor R’s class. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Oh, I love that film. Such a bunch of fucked-up people, the whole dysfunctional family bit. And Laura Linney, God, what an actress.”

“Yeah. And Jeff Daniels, what a shithead of a dad. I don’t know. It’s a good film because it got to me.” Pete shook himself, trying to get over it, but his emotions were still roiling.

“Oh, right.” Aidan sat up and took off his sunglasses, his eyes sharp with interest. “What do you think it is about movies that can do that? Like, get such a reaction? Is it the screenplay? The acting?”

“I have no idea. But you know how in some movies it’s not very true to life? This one was so real I’m still pissed off.”

“Why are you pissed off?”

Oh
. Pete hadn’t told anyone but John and Angie about his parents breaking up. But Aidan was fixing him with those big green eyes, totally focused on him. He’d almost forgotten how Aidan could do that.

“I—um, my parents split up right before school began.”
Ugh. Get over it
, he ordered himself as he felt his throat tighten in a familiar ache.

“Oh shit. That sucks.”

“Tell me about it. My dad is shacking up with his bookkeeper.”

“Charming.” Aidan touched Pete’s knee with a small grimace.

Pete lay down and stared up at the blue sky. “Yeah. I’m kinda glad I’m here at school, but it’s been hard on my mom. I’m worried about her.”

“Is she alone at home?”

“No, my sister and brother are there.”

“Oh, right, you’ve got that big family. Is that Austin, the brother you came out to?”

Pete stared at him from his prone position on the grass. “You remember that? Wow. No, not Austin—he works for a congresswoman and lives downtown. It’s my younger brother, Nate; he’s still in high school. My sister, Missy, is in college, but she’s going to George Mason and living at home. Thank God she’s there. Even though it’s not fair that she has to deal with everything while the rest of us are gone.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you knew, right? It sounds like it was sudden.”

“It was out of the blue, man. I think for my mom too. I don’t think she even knew Dad was having an affair until he left.”

“My father has affairs,” Aidan said, matter-of-factly. “But he hasn’t left. Sometimes I wish he would.”

Pete sat up. “Really? Is your mother okay with that, or does she even know?”

“Oh, she knows. But she’s got her own issues to deal with. Mental health stuff.” Aidan’s expression was tinged with sadness for a fleeting moment, and Pete had this weird desire to hug him.

“Wow. I… I’m sorry, man. Do you have sisters or brothers?”

“No. I’m an only child. My parents were in their late thirties when they had me. But let’s not talk about me. I told you my story is boring.”

Pete considered the play of sunlight and shadows on Aidan’s face. “I don’t think anything about you is boring.”

“I’m not as interesting as you think I am. Promise.”

There was a short silence, during which Pete wondered why the hell Aidan would say that, and then Aidan spoke again.

“So, tell me about this movie you’re doing. A guy in a bed?”

“How did you—? Oh.” Pete flushed, remembering his drunken texts. “Yeah. It’s for Professor R’s film fest, and Matthew’s helping me with it.”

“That’s smart to get Matthew to help. He does really good films. So, what’s it about?”

Pete plucked a blade of grass and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger, still recovering from embarrassment about his stupid texts. He took a deep breath.

“It’s about a guy who’s lived his whole life conforming to other people’s rules and expectations. And how that has literally made him sick, so sick that he’s bedridden. That’s where the film begins.”

“Then what happens?”

Keeping his eyes on the ground like he was searching for a four-leaf clover, Pete said, “Um, a bunch of people from his life visit him at his sickbed, and he has these flashbacks and realizations. Like, he sees the points at which his life took a left turn—where he wasn’t true to himself, but then he just let it go on the way it was going.”