The Geek and His Artist (4 page)

BOOK: The Geek and His Artist
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Simon glanced at the clock and sighed when the green six mocked him. Usually, The Bastard would have gone out drinking by this time. Most of the time, he’d come back drunk enough to not even look for Simon, flop down into the recliner in front of the TV, and pass out shortly thereafter. But today was the day before “payday,” so The Bastard was instead cursing at the latest episode of
How I Met Your Mother
and in general being an ass.

Simon pushed the self-pity away, annoyed with himself for it, and dug out his sketchbook and pencil. He’d gotten good at hiding it quickly if the door opened so The Bastard couldn’t destroy his drawings. With another deep breath, he opened the pad to a fresh page, clicked his pencil a few times to get a point, and closed his eyes. When he had a solid picture in his head, he put pencil to paper and got lost.

 

 

T
WO
DAYS
later Simon finally felt like he could breathe. The Bastard had left for the bar an hour before, and Simon took off as soon as he knew The Bastard hadn’t forgotten his wallet. Now he flipped his skateboard into his hand and pulled open the door to McDonald’s.

He waved to Kip and the rest of the guys as he crossed the restaurant and flopped into a chair at their table. “Hey guys. Sorry, got hung up.”

Kip threw him a look that Simon did his best to ignore. He hadn’t told any of them what home was like, and they hadn’t asked. He guessed they weren’t going to pry into something that was none of their business. Based on the way Kip looked at him now and again, though, he was pretty sure Kip knew at least some of what was going on.

“Yeah, yeah, we know you just don’t want to hang out.” Tony grinned.

Simon rolled his eyes, knowing Tony didn’t mean it. He appreciated the fact that, despite not knowing exactly
why
he couldn’t always hang out, they never really gave him shit for it, aside from the teasing. “Yeah, well, who’d wanna hang out with you?” he asked, pulling a snort from the other guys at the table.

“We’re just crazy. It’s the only explanation,” Deck said, snickering.

Tony leaned over and punched Deck in the shoulder.

“Only way to explain that hair. Oh wait, you don’t have any.” Tony rubbed his hand over Deck’s bald head.

Deck aimed a punch that Tony dodged.

Simon laughed. “Yeah, yours is
so
much better.”

Tony’s grin widened and he pointed to the bright red spikes in a line on his head. “Duh, mohawks rule.”

“Dude, mohawks died in the eighties.” Kip dodged Tony’s crumpled napkin.

“You’re just jealous. Those blue and purple spikes all over the place are seriously lame.”

Kip grinned. “I’ll have you know everyone loves these spikes. They’re sexy! Right, Simon?”

Kip
was
sexy, there were no two ways about it. As tall as Simon at just over six feet, he had a lean body that he put a lot of effort into. His summer job was for his dad’s contracting company, which was all physical labor, and his body showed it. He had a pixieish face that should have looked goofy on a grown man but seemed to work for Kip, deep blue eyes that changed with his moods, and a smile with dimples that certainly caused Simon a bit of discomfort once or twice.

Simon, before he’d discovered his geek, had had to fight very hard to keep from eyeing his friend. But he
had
discovered his geek, and though Kip hadn’t gotten
less
sexy, he’d managed to put aside any attraction and just be friends. It hadn’t been easy, especially since he knew Kip was bisexual, but he’d managed it. He’d also done his best to keep his own sexuality to himself, not sure if the knowledge would change things with Kip. He certainly wasn’t in the best situation to date anyone, and messing with his friends was the last thing he wanted to do.

He snorted. “Sexy, yeah, right. Who told you that?”

“Hey! There are plenty of people who think I’m sexy!” Kip scowled.

“Name one,” Deck challenged.

Tony snickered. “He can’t. Oh!” He picked up a cheeseburger that had been sitting on his tray and threw it at Simon. “They put mustard on it.” He wrinkled his nose. “Told me to keep it anyway. Like I’d want that.”

Simon knew what Tony was doing. They may not have known exactly what went on at home, but they did know money was not something Simon had much of. Tony was very creative in finding ways to buy Simon dinner without actually doing it. So even though he knew what Tony was doing, Simon appreciated not having to actually face it. “Never seem to get your burgers right, do they?” he asked as he took a bite.

“Nope,” Tony said, shaking his head. “I don’t know why we go here.”

Simon didn’t reply, focusing instead on his burger. Kip, Tony, and Deck kept up the dialogue, picking on each other, and Simon just let it go as he ate. In all the times he’d moved, in all the “friends” he’d made, none of them had really felt like friends the way these three did.

When he’d shown up at school on his skateboard the first day, Kip had slid in, riding right next to him on an almost identical board. A few moments later, he’d found himself with Tony on the other side and Deck right behind, both on skateboards as well. By the end of the day, he’d been part of their group, and that had been that.

His eyes strayed out the window as he took another bite of his burger, and he nearly dropped the thing when he saw his geek at the drive-through. He swallowed awkwardly and blinked. His geek was focused on the window and his food, so he hadn’t seen Simon. Simon couldn’t decide if it’d be better to get out of any possible line of sight, or if he was hoping his geek would see him.

Before he had a chance to choose, his geek took the bag of food and pulled away from the window. He watched, his eyes glued to the beat-up silver Kia as it stopped
right
next to Simon’s spot at the window. His geek’s gaze was focused on the contents of the bag, probably making sure the order was correct.

Simon registered somewhere that his friends had gone silent, but he couldn’t seem to care. Because a few seconds later, his geek looked up, their eyes met, and his geek’s face brightened in a huge smile. Simon stared, his cheeks coloring, but he couldn’t have stopped himself from returning the smile. It looked like his geek was going to get out of the car for a second, but the person behind him honked their horn, and his geek waved and instead drove off.

Simon couldn’t move for the longest time.

“When are you going to ask him out?” Kip asked in Simon’s right ear. Kip was the only one of the three of them that knew about his hearing aid. He’d managed to keep it from Tony and Deck and, as far as Simon knew, Kip had never told them.

Simon looked over at Kip, blinking. “What?”

Kip grinned. “When are you going to ask him out? You’ve been watching him for what, now, four months?”

Simon felt the blood rush to his face. “I… uh….” He glanced at Tony and Deck, but they were in a deep conversation of their own. Simon thought he heard mention of the
Normandy
,
but he couldn’t focus enough to be sure. “You… know?” was all he managed to spit out.

Kip’s eyebrows went up. “Dude, gaydar. I’ve known all year.”

Simon’s eyes widened, darting to Tony, then Deck and back to Kip. “Do… do they know?” he whispered.

Kip nodded. “Tony figured it out. We had to tell Deck—he’s kind of oblivious to things like that,” Kip said tilting his head at their friend. Simon must have looked worried because Kip hurried to add, “They don’t care, as long as you don’t try to molest them after gym class or something.”

The idea was so ludicrous, Simon couldn’t help but laugh. He laughed so hard, it took him a full minute to get control of himself, by which time Tony and Deck had stopped talking to watch.

“You okay there, man?” Deck asked.

Simon nodded, holding his stomach as he tried to get a hold of himself. “Yeah, fine. Shit.” He shook his head and picked up his burger, but Kip apparently wasn’t done.

“So, when?”

Simon shook his head. “No way.”

“Why not?” Kip looked so puzzled, Simon started chuckling again.

“Dude. First, he’s probably going out with someone. Second, he’s a geek. He’s not going to be interested in someone like me. And third? He’s probably straight.” He shook his head and finally took another bite of burger, which was cold by then, but Simon didn’t care. Food was food.

Kip laughed. “Yeah, straight, sure. Straight guys do not look at other guys like that, much less smile like that. Are you kidding? Could you imagine Carson Whitney looking like that at a guy?”

That was almost as ridiculous as the earlier statement and sent Simon into another peal of laughter. Carson Whitney was the straightest, most uptight jock in the school. Quarterback of the football team, he was the son of one of the richest families in the area. Simon may only have been there a short while, but he’d heard enough over the fall semester. He never quite understood why Carson was in public school, except that there’d been rumors of him getting kicked out of private school for getting caught fucking a cheerleader under the bleachers. Simon guessed Catholics had a bigger problem with that than public school did. But the idea of Carson smiling at one of his teammates like that…. Simon had to admit that it wasn’t likely his geek was completely straight with that kind of expression aimed at him.

“Besides,” Kip added, “I’ve seen him at school a few times. I’ve never seen him with anyone but… yeah, gaydar? He is
so
not straight. Trust me on that.”

Simon considered that for a long minute. “Well, doesn’t change the other stuff.” He shrugged.

“And what’s wrong with someone like you?” Deck asked, eyebrow raised.

Simon realized Deck was pointing out the three of them were a lot like him. “Uh… I didn’t mean…. Aw fuck, you know I don’t mean you, you ass.”

Deck grinned. “Yeah, I know. Still doesn’t change the fact that there’s no reason he wouldn’t want you. You ought to ask him out.”

Simon shook his head. “No.”

“Really—” Deck started.

“Leave him alone. When was the last time either of you asked someone out?” Tony asked.

Simon threw him a grateful look, then went back to the last of his burger. But he had more to chew on than the beef and bun. Kip’s words were taking root in his head, and Simon was hard-pressed to get them back out again.

Chapter Three

 

 

S
IMON
LOVED
the first couple of days after The Bastard got paid. He was never home during the day or evening, and when he did stumble in drunk late at night, it was usually to fall straight into bed, not even noticing if Simon was there or not. It meant Simon had a lot more freedom for those few days.

He wanted to hang out at the skate park, since it was unseasonably warm. But his trigonometry grade was shit, and he needed to go to the library to see if there was a book or two that could help him. He was nervous about his grades—he hadn’t yet received his fall grade report—but he knew he hadn’t done very well in trig. On top of that, he had a book project to get started on for English class.

So despite the beautiful day, he climbed the steps of the public library, tucking his skateboard under his arm. After spending some time digging through the online catalog, he had a list of possible books to help with his trig. When he found them, though, he was annoyed to see they were in the reference section and found he couldn’t check them out. With a sigh, he loaded them up and found a table in a corner.

He paused, chewing a lip, but decided to just get his other books too. Back at the catalog, he found a few of interest and jotted down the numbers. As he turned to find the right shelves, he caught sight of a head of brown hair.

He stopped and stared for a moment.
No, it couldn’t be. Too coincidental.
But when he thought about it… it wasn’t all that coincidental. The part of Pittsburgh they were in wasn’t
that
big or crowded, and it would make sense that, if they went to the same school, they’d go to the same library.

Simon looked around, trying to decide what to do. He headed for the shelf next to where his geek was standing, even though it was the opposite way from where he needed to go. He slipped into the aisle and kept his eyes fixed to the
Star Wars
shirt he glimpsed between the shelves.

He didn’t know
what
he was doing, but he
was
being ridiculous. He should have just stayed over on the other side of the library. What if his geek came around the end? What would he say when the numbers on his paper were on the exact opposite side of the library from where they were?
This is borderline stalking, Simon. Get a grip!

But he couldn’t just walk away either. When he got to the end of the aisle, he crept around to the next and saw his geek walking away toward the checkout desk. Simon followed, keeping a shelf nearby to hide behind if his geek turned around. He paused next to the last shelf before the checkout and watched.

His geek smiled at the older lady behind the desk, and when she said something in reply, he nodded. He handed her a library card, saying something Simon couldn’t make out from there. He did catch the deep voice, though, heard enough to give him new fuel for his fantasies. Simon couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away. His geek wasn’t doing anything particularly special, just standing there, replying to the librarian, but Simon didn’t care. It was enough to get a glimpse of him when Simon had been sure he’d go the rest of the break without one.

Simon tried to see what the books were, but he couldn’t see enough of the covers. It didn’t matter, though, because it wasn’t the books that held his attention so much.

When are you going to ask him out?

Kip’s voice in his head surprised him. Simon knew better than to think he could manage to actually date someone, not with The Bastard. But he could… maybe… say hi. He took a deep breath, and rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans.

BOOK: The Geek and His Artist
4.35Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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