Page 79 of Changeling
“I mean, I guess there’s a handful of pretty cool people in the show, but they’re alluber-young. Mostly freshmen. We have lunch at different times. No classes together. Sorta puts a damper on things.”
It hit Nathan then what was probably the reason for such alienation toward Leven from his classmates. “Don’t tell me it’s coz of something stupid like the gay thing?” he asked. The thought made him want to wrap his hands around something very tightly, and he resisted the urge to touch his eyebrow again.
Leven huffed out a laugh. “Easy for you to say. You’ve already been through this shit.”
“Uh…yeah,” Nathan rubbed at the back of his neck, “not so much, kid. This is all sorta…new for me.”
Leven eyed him skeptically.
“Okay, so I obviously broadcast it pretty loudly that the redhead is mine,” Nathan admitted, “and he’s not much better. Actually, he’s worse. But it’s not all normal, cut and dry.” Nathan tried to think of how best to explain things, but there wasn’t any real way to do it other than to just come right out and tell the truth. “I’m not gay, all right? At least…I’m not into other guys. Justhim. And me and him being an us, well, that’s only been for about a month.”
Leven was silent, and Nathan feared for a moment the kid might be offended by his admission. When Nathan looked up, the teenager was staring at him.
“Shit,” Leven said finally. “So you’re straight, crazy hot—like melt me into a puddlehot—and Red gets you to fall in love with him so deeply, you switch teams for him? That’s like straight out of a gay romance novel, yaoi Japanese comic book kinda crap. Kinky.” Leven winked at Nathan. The gesture was very Sasha-like actually, which disturbed him to no end.
“Kid, you are beyond creeping me out,” Nathan said, “but I think there may have been a compliment in there somewhere so I’ll just say thanks and leave it.”
Again, Leven laughed. Nathan decided it suited the kid. He had a feeling it didn’t happen nearly as much as Leven would have people believe.
“So, kids your age treat you like crap for being different. Huh,” Nathan nodded. “Good to know not much has changed since I went to school. But don’t let ‘em get to you,” he said more seriously, looking over at Leven on his parallel crate. “It’s how they win. And those kinds of people…they don’t deserve to win.”
Leven’s smile stretched as wide as Nathan had yet seen it. “No worries there,” he assured him, finally picking his sandwich up and taking a large bite. He spoke around his chewing. “They can all go blow themselves. No one’s changing my stripes for me. The one thing that’s worse than having people hate you for what you are and what you can’t change is letting them get you to hate yourself for it, too.” Leven nodded to himself as he swallowed. “That’s what Wade says. She can be pretty cool when she wants to be.”
Nathan understood that as little brother speak for‘I love my sister’. “You talk to the redhead yet?” he asked, figuring that switching gears was probably a good idea. “And it’s Sasha, if ya wanna know. I’m Nathan.”
“Introductions at last,” Leven beamed. He held out the hand that wasn’t currently holding a sandwich and Nathan took itwith a sideways grin. They shook. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Only-Gay-For-His-Boyfriend.”
Nathan pulled his hand back from the kid’s lingering hold. “Okay, you need to cut that out right now. Frankly, the underage flirting gives me the willies, and you know I’m taken. Is that whole ‘all gay men want a straight guy’ thing true or what?”
The otherwise pleasant expression on Leven’s face twisted into a grimace. “Uh, no. I can vouch that I have no intentions on any of the breeders on the football team. But really?” Leven said, looking at Nathan in a way that said he really wanted him to pay attention, “gay or straight, I’d take any guy as long as he honestly wantsme. The details don’t matter as much. Ya know?” Leven took another large bite of his sandwich.
“Yeah,” Nathan said with a more genuine smile again, “I think I know just what you mean.”
Leven grinned as he gave Nathan the once over yet again. “You wouldn’t happen to have a younger brother, would you?”
Nathan was sorely tempted to find some way to set Jim up over that but he didn’t want to mislead the kid. “Twin brother. Not identical. He’s here with us too.However,” he added before Leven’s moon eyes could get any bigger, “he’s still too old for you. He’s possibly even straighter than me. And really…he’s not nearly as pretty. I’d just be setting you up for disappointment.”
Leven laughed. “I’m just impatient, I guess. Kinda don’t wanna have to wait for my prince to come, or whatever. I just want him herenow. Typical stupid teenager stuff, right?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” Nathan said. Their crates were close enough that he managed to buck Leven in the shoulder. “And that ain’t so bad. There’ll be stupid adult stuff for you to agonize over before ya know it, kid. Ain’t life grand?”
Nathan’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket with a new text message. He checked his watch. He was late to meet up with Sasha.
“You gonna keep chowing down up here?” Nathan asked as he looked up from his phone, and then realized how unnecessary that question was since Leven had somehow managed to finish off the sandwich when he wasn’t looking and was now downing the last bite. “Well then, unless you gotta run off to class, wanna come with me to meet up with Sasha downstairs? We really do want to talk to you about all these deaths.”
“I have a free period next,” Leven said, crumpling up his now empty brown paper bag and getting up off the crate, “but even if I had the ACTs coming up, I’d still choose an afternoon with two hot guys over class.”
Nathan rolled his eyes but couldn’t resist smiling. “Fine, but you flirt with my incubus and there’ll be hell to pay.” He went for the roof door ahead of Leven and opened it.
“You call him your incubus?” Leven asked, swooning as he placed a dramatic hand over his heart. “Oh, that’s love all right.”
Nathan held the door open for Leven, mainly because he needed a minute to mentally yell at himself for letting ‘incubus’ slip out of his mouth so easily. He shook his head.
Truer statement than you know, kid.
Chapter 32
“Goahead,kid,”Nathansaid as he, Sasha, and Leven gathered around a few of the expensive looking teal seats in a corner of the auditorium. It amused Nathan that they were the exactwrongshade of blue-green to match Leven’s hair. “Cam said you’ve been pretty helpful. Wanna fill us in on what you know?”
