Page 59 of Unlovable Player

It’s quiet on the street outside except for the occasional car door slamming and a dog barking somewhere.

“You’ll have to make me a new playlist now.”

I hear him swallow in the quiet. “I’ll make you as many playlists as you want. Now go to sleep."

Fuck,I’m practically glowing while I try to fall asleep.

There arepancakes and bacon waiting downstairs for us the next morning.

“Ma, you didn’t have to cook.”

A little radio is playing some country song and Lisa licks batter off her finger as she sways to it. “I was hungry, sit down, eat!”

We do as we’re told.

“A few of your uncles and aunts are coming over today for a BBQ, you guys don’t have to stick around if you’ve already got plans, but you should wait for them to get here to say hi.”

“We don’t have any plans,” I say.

“I thought you wanted a tour of Jersey?” Austin asks.

I shrug. “We can go to the boardwalk another time.”

“Don’t go to Atlantic City, that place is covered in trash and full of hooligans.” Lisa says as she cuts into a pancake. “Do get a hot dog though, and did he try the hoagies at that place?”

I stifle my smile at the ‘hoagie’ thing.

“I’ll get him one,” Austin says with a grin.

We’re watching TV after taking a shower, (not together unfortunately), when the doorbell starts ringing and Austin’s relatives pour into the house and filter out into the back yard.

His uncle Pete is a balding, rotund guy with a big jolly laugh and sparkly brown eyes. He shakes my hand and slaps me on the back when Austin introduces me as a ‘friend from school.’

“You on the hockey team Sebastian?”

“Yep.”

“What position do you play?”

“Right now, I’m playing left-wing.”

“Right now?”

“Usually I’m a center.”

Uncle Pete’s eyes get wide. “You’d better watch out Oz, this one wants your spot on the team.”

Is it okay to punch the uncle of the guy your sleeping with? I didn’t think so.

Austin just snorts and slaps me on the shoulder. “He can try.”

That elicits a hearty chuckle from his uncle and a couple of others.

Lisa has changed into jeans and a puffy jacket, like most of the other women there, she’s sipping beer from a bottle and bopping to the music playing on a boombox one of the uncles brought with him.

“What’s the occasion?” I ask Austin.

He looks confused, so I gesture to the crowd gathered in his garden.

---