Page 112 of Mr. Picture Perfect
“I trust the guy who quotes people for a living,” I say.
“Then I … guess I’ll stay here with you,” he decides with a nod. “I’ll stay and be the person you can depend on. And when this is over with, we can …” He nods again with more certainty. “… we can go back to being ourselves.”
“You promise?”
“Yes.” He lifts his backpack off the floor and sets it between us. “So which one of these twenty rooms is yours?”
I fling his backpack over my shoulder. “I’ll show you.”
The room I took is down the hall a little from the lounge, right across from Anthony’s. It was the only room that lacked a view of the pavilion. Something about it being out of sight helps me relax more, which is the purpose of us staying here. I help empty Noah’s backpack into a couple of drawers, though he didn’t seem to bring much with him. Just before we leave the room, I can’t help myself and tackle Noah onto my soft, springy, oversized bed, surprising him. After just one kiss, we become lost in each other, and soon, we’re grinding against each other’s bodies, our hands all over each other as we lose our breaths, making out.
“I’m so happy you’re here,” I moan against his lips.
“Me, too,” he moans right back.
It must be half an hour later before the pair of us arrive at the swimming pool behind the guest wing. Considering the size of the entire estate, the pool is proportionately quite small, but circled by a lot of large paved areas with coverings, lounge chairs, sofas, and even a tiny dining section complete with a grill and outdoor sink. Dean looks like an actual king seated in the circular hot tub attached to the pool, a wineglass in one hand with a bottle sitting next to him on the edge of the tub. Anthony floats in the center of the pool on an inflatable lounger, arms behind his head, chatting away about something to do with Reverend Trey’s most recent advice to him and how it’s helping him “manage his unaddressed anger”, with Dean interjecting a word of wisdom now and then. TJ swims around casually, appearing relaxed and content, now and then floating on his back. He looks over upon our arrival and calls out for us to join them. Noah and I end up sitting by each other near the hot tub with our legs dangling in the pool. TJ and Anthony gravitate toward us, and before long, all of us become engrossed in relaxed conversation under the stars. Dean tells us some funny anecdotes about babysitting Tyrone “centuries ago”. TJ tells us all about life at his university and the odd (and slightly self-entitled) peers and professors he deals with, about whom Noah seems to be particularly intrigued. One of his professors has the last name of Myers, which sends Anthony into a venting spiel about his own parents and how they’ve been putting so much pressure on him to make something of himself, which in turn only makes him feel like “more of a loser”. Dean, who has come up to the front of the hot tub where it meets the pool, shakes his head in pity and says, “I’m telling you, Anthony, you’ll find your right time, you’ll find your moment to shine. Don’t you dare give up.” And Anthony, who has apparently become Dean’s apprentice and number one fan, nods at once and says, “You better bet I won’t give up. I’ll prove them all wrong about me. Fuck yeah, I will.”
I catch Noah’s eyes several times, and when he looks my way, he smiles, appearing happy.
I think we both needed this.
“What about you, Teej?” asks Anthony from his inflatable lounger, giving TJ a nudge with his foot. “You got yourself a chick hidden away on campus?”
TJ flicks his eyes at me once, then shrugs at Anthony. “No, I’m too busy to date.”
“C’mon, we’re all friends here, we’re all bonding. Tell us. You are one good-lookin’ young guy. I’m sure you got a chick’s number in your phone you’re gonna call the second you go to bed.”
TJ laughs him off. “No, really, I don’t.”
“Don’t lie.”
“And what about you?” TJ suddenly retorts, adopting a funny smirk and crossing his arms on the edge of the pool. “You have so many jobs around town. Don’t you get hit on by girls all the time?”
Anthony bristles and shrugs. “Sure, yeah, can’t keep them off of me. What about it?”
“Why don’t you have a girlfriend yet?”
He blows air out his lips and shrugs again. “None of them can keep up with me. I’m a lot to handle.”
“So you think the special one is gonna appear at the pageant and bid on you?” asks TJ. “Y’know, the one whocankeep up?”
“Dunno, guess we’ll see,” he mumbles.
Dean, peering up at the stars in wonder, asks, “Can we even still properly call it a pageant if the real purpose is to auction each of us off for a date?”
“Is it even a real pageant without judges?” asks TJ in return.
“There aren’t judges?” asks Anthony, his face wrinkled.
“Nope,” confirms TJ. “Just the lovely emcee Frankie Lopez and Mayor Nadine herself.”
Dean starts to laugh. “Then what in the world did we actually sign up for?”
“A circus,” mumbles Anthony, then reaches for his beer—and the whole inflatable flips over without warning, dumping him into the water. Dean bursts into laughter, soon followed by TJ, Noah, and myself. After Anthony clambers his way out from underneath the giant floating lounger—which in and of itself is a hilarious scene to witness, inspiring even deeper laughter from all of us—he shouts out, “Fuck y’all!” before joining in the laughter, wiping water out of his eyes.
Our time at the pool is followed by an hour lounging on the couch watching TV and carrying on with conversation. Soon, Dean tires out and says goodnight before departing to his room. TJ is the next to head off, leaving the three of us on the couch to enjoy the rest of our night. Anthony doesn’t even make it to his room, nodding off on the couch during a commercial break and snoring. I shut off the TV, tuck a blanket over Anthony’s snoring body, and head off to my room with Noah.
It’s well after midnight when we’re lying on my bed. “Brought it with me,” I tell Noah when he asks about a colorful nightlight I plugged into the corner of the room by the window. “Just in case you did follow through in staying here with me.”
