Page 72 of Pride High

Omar was pleading with Silvia to put on a slow song they could dance to, so Anthony went to another corner of the shop and took out the scrap of paper in his pocket. He’d done so countless times during the day. He studied the handwriting, which was neater and rounder than his own, as it spelled outCameron.It was a nice name. Anthony read the numbers beneath this again, already on the verge of knowing them by heart. All he needed to figure out was when to use them. He wanted to call Cameron right away, but that would come across as desperate. Which he was. Not in an “I’m so in love with him!” kind of way. Anthony simply wanted to get to know him better. Still, maybeit would be better if he waited for Cameron to call instead. Oh shit! What if he was trying to now? Nobody was home except for Mike, who was guaranteed to say something embarrassing.

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” began playing over the store speakers. No way was he sticking around to watch Silvia and Omar get snuggly together.

“Gotta run!” Anthony shouted over the music. “See you guys later.”

“See ya!” Omar shouted back.

He glanced back as he slipped out the door. Omar was holding Silvia’s hands while trying to coax her into the middle of the aisle. Anthony felt the same tumbling sensation that he always did when they became romantic, like he was about to fall and didn’t have enough time to brace himself. Today it was easier to recover from. He thought of Cameron, how excited he was to receive that phone call, and how nervous he would be the instant the phone began ringing.

Once at home and in the safety of his room, Anthony paced back and forth, working up the courage to call. His palms were sweaty by the time he grabbed the handset and started dialing. The answering machine picked up. He listened to a voice too old to be Cameron. After the beep, he hung up without saying anything. Smooth! Anthony waited on pins and needles in case Cameron hadn’t made it to the phone in time and magically knew that it was him. He should have left a message. Although maybe they had one of those special Caller ID boxes next to their phone that displayed and saved each number. Which would mean there was evidence that he’d called and not said a damn thing. Ugh!

Finally deciding that he was being foolish, he tried again with the same result, but this time he left a message.

“Hey, it’s Anthony,” he said. “I’m just hanging out at home so… You know.”

He felt nervous after hanging up. This increased when his parents came home. Anthony ate dinner with them, tensing at any noise that sounded even remotely like a phone ringing. He was watching TV afterwards and just beginning to relax when it finally happened. Anthony was on his feet in a split second. He raced to the kitchen where the nearest handset hung on the wall and grabbed it.

“Hello?”

“Anthony?” Cameron said, not sounding certain.

“Yeah! Hey, Cameron!”

“Hey. I got your message.”

“Pretty great, wasn’t it?”

“The best,” Cameron replied. “I like how open-ended it was. No indication if I should call you back. Just an update that you were at home and doing nothing.”

“That’s all I wanted to say,” Anthony teased. “You’re interrupting that nothing right now.”

“Oh! I can call back some other time.”

“No no, it’s fine,” Anthony said. “Hold on.” He waited three beats before adding, “Okay. I’m done doing nothing now.”

Cameron laughed. “I was planning on calling you anyway. I had to stay after school for theater, and when I got home, I had some chores to do.”

“It’s cool,” Anthony said, panic slowly spreading through him. What were they going to talk about? He had plenty of questions but not enough privacy to ask them. Even if he made it to his room, he could still be overheard.

The other end of the line was equally silent until Cameron said, “Where do you live?”

“Just off Locke and Brown.”

“John Brown Boulevard?” Cameron asked.

“Yeah. How come?”

“That’s not far from me, but you’re a little farther north. If we both start walking along Brown, we could meet in the middle.”

Anthony considered the idea. “Do you mean now?”

“That’s what I was thinking, yeah.”

“Okay. Wait, which way am I supposed to walk?”

“South.”

“Which direction is that?”

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