Page 29 of Dire Straights

“Well, maybe you’ll end up getting back together, down the road. Stranger things have happened.”

Stranger things certainly had happened. I’d made a guy come in his shorts and now I was walking to his house in hopes that maybe that could be a regular thing going forward. Hopefully without the shorts. And without the freak-out. But it was Maddy, so that last part might have been non-negotiable, at least for a little while.

“I don’t think so, Mom. I’ve got a lot of stuff going on.”

“What kind of stuff?” She asked. “Are you talking to another girl already?”

“No,” I said quickly. “I’m not really interested in talking to girls right now.” It was technically true, though I highly doubted she’d get what I was really implying with my statement.

She let it go, which I was thankful for. I didn’t think she’d have a problem with me being bi, she and my dad had always been really liberal and had raised me to be progressive and open-minded. But I was definitely not ready to have that kind of discussion with her yet.

We chatted a bit more about general stuff before we said goodbye. The timing was perfect, as I was just strolling upMaddy’s driveway. I hadn’t noticed the night I’d walked him home after the party, but there was a really fancy red sports car in the drive. The top was down, and the leather seats were gleaming. I wondered whose car that was, since I was pretty sure it wasn’t Maddy’s. We’d talked about our home lives, and we were both from suburban middle class families. I didn’t know much about his roommates, other than that one of them was Kelani’s brother.

As I approached the front door, I realized I hadn’t really prepared any kind of speech or really organized my thoughts and feelings. Part of me wanted to stop and process everything and decide exactly what I wanted to say, but on the other hand I thought maybe speaking from the heart might be a little more fitting for the situation. And if I didn’t sound perfectly rehearsed, Maddy might be a little more trusting and not so guarded, anyway.

So I knocked, and waited. It took awhile, but eventually the door slowly creaked open a bit, Maddy’s face appearing in the sliver of open space. He looked incredibly nervous and kind of miserable. What exactly did he think I was here to say? I was a little nervous, but only because I wasn’t sure how he would react to me coming there. Maybe he’d wanted more time to pout and brood.

“Hi,” I started. “Are you busy?”

He glanced back behind himself into the house briefly, before shaking his head. “Not really.” He wasn’t really meeting my eyes and when he did, it was only for a second.

“Can we talk?”

It really looked like he wanted to say no, but he breathed a deep sigh and gave a small nod.

“Do you… Want to come in?”

“Yeah.”

He stepped back to let me in through the door. As I came in, I saw a tall, muscular guy standing in the kitchen with the sides of his head shaved and short dreads on top.

“Oh, hey!” He said. “You’re friends with my sister, right?”

“Yeah, I am,” I said. “I’m Ren Suzuki.”

“Cyprian Knight,” he introduced himself back.

Maddy explained we had a group project due tomorrow and needed to work on it, so we would be in his room.

Once he’d ushered me in and shut the door behind us, I couldn’t help but look around at his living space. It was somewhat utilitarian, with a bed and desk and dresser, but there were a few personal touches here and there. The frog he’d won on the boardwalk that he’d said reminded him of me was sitting on top of his dresser. So he hadn’t thrown it away, at least. The barracuda I’d gotten was on my bed.

We stared at each awkwardly until I cleared my throat.

“So, uh, I know you don’t really want to talk to me right now, but-”

“I never said that,” he interrupted me, but then looked kind of regretful that he’d spoken up.

“Well, youhaven’ttalked to me,” I pointed out. “I thought maybe you were mad about what happened.”

He winced, like I’d zapped him with a taser. “Can we please not talk about that?”

“Which part?”

His eyes narrowed, and his head tilted. I felt the corner of my mouth trying to tug up into a grin, but steadfastly held it back, knowing it would only piss him off more. Now that I could see he didn’t hate my guts or flat out refuse to see me, my nerves were mostly gone.

“You know which part I’m talking about.”

“Okay, I think I know which part you mean. But can we at least talk about the stuff before that?”

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