Page 27 of Nate

He remembered back to Gage and Max jumping in the ring, shouting in surprise. They’d put him up on their shoulders like he’d just won a world boxing championship. “After that, I took that same mindset into every fight I had. Started racking up victories, got a reputation as a hard-hitting ruthless motherfucker, got some fame and a lot of money.”

“That’s pretty awesome. You have your own origin story.”

Nate laughed at Kevin likening his background to the creation of a super hero. “That’s one way to look at it.”

“And you used your money to start your gyms.”

“Not all of it. Some of it I gave to Max and Gage, so they could start their own businesses too. Gage was having trouble getting a loan to open up his bike repair shop. And Max had finished his tattoo apprenticeship a couple years before and was looking to get his own place.”

“Seriously?”

“I love those two. They had it even harder than I did growing up, but they still cared enough to help someone like me. We’ve been loyal to each other ever since that day in the locker room. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them. I tried to make the money a gift, but those assholes insisted on paying me back with interest.”

Kevin grinned. “Yeah, what assholes.”

“So what’s your origin story?”

“Nowhere near as cool. Two parents, one black one white, both professors at the state university I attended after graduating from high school a year early. Tuition and housing were taken care of through academic scholarships and being the child of faculty members, but my parents were the type who insisted if I wanted spending money, I had to earn it. So I was a math tutor.”

Kevin abruptly stopped talking and took a long swallow of water. When he set the glass back down, he continued on. But Nate sensed he was leaving something out.

“After I graduated I worked for a small company but pretty quickly decided to do strictly free-lance work. I like it. I get to choose what projects to take, set my own rates and hours and I can work from home. It’s a pretty sweet deal.”

“That’s good. But I think you just pulled ayada, yada, yada.”

“What?”

“You skipped over something in your origin story. Were you a villainous math tutor who started a crime ring of buying and selling test answers?”

Kevin stared down at his bowl, idly stirring the remains of his soup. “No, nothing like that. Just something that makes me look like a complete idiot.”

Nate crossed his finger over his heart. “If you want, I could go find a needle,” he said.

“That’s not necessary.” He sighed. “I didn’t start dating until my sophomore year in college. But I had my first sexual experience my freshman year.”

“What happened?”

“It was with this soccer player I was tutoring. He was really cool, but dumb as a box of rocks when it came to math. I’d been helping him for a while. In return he got me good seats at the soccer games, even invited me to hang out with the team afterwards a few times. I’llyada, yada, yadaagain to get to the point. He asked me to blow him once. So I did. And I continued to whenever he asked again. Sometimes, he reciprocated. Then, he asked me to do his assignments for him. So I did.

I was walking up to the house where a lot of the soccer guys stayed to give him the third assignment I’d done when I heard my name through the window. I eavesdropped, thinking he was gonna say something like, I have a secret. I’m gay and Kevin is my boyfriend.”

“But that’s not what you heard?”

“Not even close. He was bragging that this ‘freshman fag’ had a crush on him and he was using me to pass his math class. They all thought it was funny. Lots of high-fiving took place. He didn’t mention the blow jobs of course.”

Nate winced as he pictured what Kevin had heard.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. I just took off. I didn’t drop the papers in a puddle of water and run off to an empty warehouse crying tears of pain that turned into screams of rage thereby unleashing my dormant mutant powers or anything like that. I just went back to my dorm, threw away the work and avoided the guy. I also quit tutoring and got a job in the computer lab instead.” He shrugged. “And that’s my lame ass story.”

“And that’s why you assumed I was playing a trick on you that first night at my house.”

“Yeah. My past association might have caused me to jump to conclusions. Sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize. I probably would have reacted the same if that had been my experience.”

Kevin laughed. “You might have thrown a few punches.”

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