Page 68 of Pride High

“No!” Cameron said. “Only when they rope me into taking some bit part out of necessity. I do the sets. Carpentry mostly. I work with wood a lot.”

Anthony snorted. “Yeah, me too, but only because it’s lonely being in the closet.”

“It’s less lonely when you have someone in there with you,” Cameron said with a sly smile. “So you want to be a reporter?”

“Me? Nah. I only took journalism so I could hang out with my best friend. I like it though. Especially now.” Anthony studied him for a moment. “How did you figure everything out? About yourself, I mean. What tipped you off?”

Cameron took a deep breath. “Have your parents ever made you hang out with someone, even though you didn’t like them?”

“Besides my brothers?” Anthony asked with a twinkle in his eye. “Yeah. There was a kid my age who lived across the street. My mom was convinced we should be best friends, even though we had absolutely nothing in common. He was obsessed with sports and always wanted to play catch, or talk about some game I hadn’t seen, or show me his baseball cards or whatever. So lame!” Anthony grimaced suddenly. “Uh… Do you like sports?”

Cameron laughed. “No. Not really.”

“Bang!” Anthony shifted to the left suddenly. “I just dodged a bullet!”

He was kind of weird in the best way possible. Cameron let his eyes linger on the black jeans that had so many tears in them that pale white skin was visible beneath. The black T-shirt was torn up too, but only around the hem of the waist and sleeves. “I had a similar experience,” he said, bringing his attention back up to Anthony’s face. “My parents would hang out with another couple who had a daughter my age. Just like you, they assumed that meant we would be friends. The thing is, she had this crazy-hot older brother…”

“I’m all ears,” Anthony said, grabbing his sandwich and taking a bite.

Cameron grinned before continuing. “He was a lot older. Five years, maybe more. I was in the sixth grade at the time. Have you ever seenTheGoonies?”

Anthony looked offended. “Have I everseen it?” he repeated incredulously. “It’s my favorite movie of all time!”

“Mine too! Who’s your favorite character?”

“Tough call,” Anthony said after exhaling. “Mouth? I don’t watch Corey Feldman’s new movies, but he was great in that.”

“I agree, except Idowatch his latest movies.”

Anthony’s shoulders slumped. “Okay. I do too. I’ve seenLicense to Driveabout a million times. But only because it’s always on cable. And because I kind of like it.”

“Ha! Well anyway—”

“Wait!” Anthony interrupted. “Who’s your favorite? You didn’t say.”

“A true Goonies fan doesn’t have a favorite,” Cameron teased, but then he added, “Mikey probably.”

“What? He’s the most boring character!”

“No,” Cameron said softly while staring into Anthony’s eyes. “He’s the sweetest.” He let that sink in before adding, “And his brother Brand is the hottest. That’s who this girl’s older brother reminded me of. He even worked out in the middle of the living room like Brand did. Sit-ups while watching TV, or sometimes free weights… Meanwhile, his little sister was hellbent on treating me like I was a girl. Which was fine, but I just wanted to hang out with her brother. So I asked him to train me.”

Anthony laughed. “Really?”

“Yeah. Can you imagine some sixth grader coming up to you now and asking for lessons on how to do push-ups?”

“Was he cool about it?” Anthony asked.

“Nope. He was kind of a dick, but I can be very persistent and managed to get a little closer to him. Not emotionally. I just mean that I wasphysicallycloser to him as he berated me for not doing anything correctly. On a few occasions, he even touched me to help with my posture. That’s when I knew, because it was like electricity except I couldn’t get enough. Up until that point, I kept telling myself that I wanted to be more like him, but the truth was—”

“You wanted to be with him,” Anthony finished with a nod. He took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. “Sorry,” he said after swallowing. “I can’t get past it. Mikey?Really? Data has all the cool inventions. Chunk is hilarious. Mouth can speak a million languages. Who the hell chooses Mikey?”

Cameron shook his head in exasperation. “There wouldn’t be a movie without Mikey. He’s the heart of the group. And he’s adventurous. Like you.”

Anthony made a face. “Like me?”

“Yeah. I doubt many gay guys had a boyfriend in junior high. One that they met at computer camp of all places.”

Anthony shook his head. “You lost me.”

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