The football stadium was filled to capacity. It was the first game of the season, and the Mighty Center City Wolverines were facing their cross-city rivals, the Hillmont Ravens. The players had just run onto the field, and the spectators were cheering wildly.
“There he is!” shouted Melissa Caldwell, a junior at Center City. Beside her stood her brother, Kyle, a sophomore.
“Who cares,” replied Kyle as he watched the young tailback run confidently onto the field surrounded by his teammates. Melissa grabbed his arm and squeezed it tightly.
She squealed, “He looks so sexy in his football uniform!” Kyle glanced onto the field and had to silently agree with his sister. Brad Chambers had been a frequent guest in the Caldwell household since they arrived in Center City during the summer. Melissa invited him into their home on the first day of their arrival after watching him mow the yard next door. He wore only a thin pair of athletic shorts and leather sandals. He watched for the next few weeks as Melissa spun a web around Brad as a black widow spider smothers her prey. Now, she was the envy of every girl in school, and many of the male population- including Kyle.
Kyle watched as Brad scanned the bleachers for his sister. A broad smile appeared when he finally noticed her jumping around wildly trying to get his attention. He took off his helmet and then threw up his hand. “Oh,” she squealed, “he sees me!” Several girls looked at her and scowled. Since school had started the week before, Kyle heard numerous girls make comments about Melissa and Brad’s relationship. He even heard that one girl was taking bets on how long they would be together. It appeared that Brad had been a player since the sixth grade, and he had left behind a long line of heartbroken girls.
Kyle had yet to make any close friends since their arrival. In fact, he had not made any attempts to associate with anyone. Brad had tried to get him to go to the community pool with him and Melissa, but he refused. He had a secret crush on his sister’s tall, blond boyfriend, and he feared that seeing him in a Speedo would reveal his secret. He was also not out, and he was afraid that his sordid attraction to his sister’s boyfriend might jeopardize his closeted existence. Staring at Brad's body would definitely expose him. He feared that not only would Brad be offended, but also his sister might go into a rage at her little brother’s lustful attraction to her boyfriend.
He almost gave himself away a few weeks earlier when Brad got up from the sofa after a heavy petting session with Melissa. Kyle didn’t know they had returned from a Saturday night movie, and he unexpectedly walked in on them as they made out in the dark family room. When he turned on the lights, Brad jumped to his feet and quickly pulled up his sweatpants. His face reddened as Melissa ranted about knocking before coming into a room. Kyle was too embarrassed to reply that the family room was open and had no doors. He rushed from the room straight to his bedroom and slammed the door shut. He understood why Brad had left a long list of brokenhearted girls behind.
Kyle watched the game unenthusiastically while Melissa cheered loudly beside him. She had insisted that he accompany her because he knew she would sit alone if he didn’t. It had become an unspoken rule that the other girls would ostracize whomever Brad was dating at the time. Of course, after their brief moment of Brad’s affection and attention, they would be welcomed with open arms into the club of broken hearts.
Kyle also wondered how long their relationship would last. Melissa had seemed unusually protective of him since school began. She was constantly calling him at night after football practice. If he didn’t answer when she assumed he should be home, then she would pace around the house with her cell phone in hand waiting for his return call. Three nights earlier, he had called extremely late, and Melissa charged into her bedroom and slammed the door. When Kyle later went to his room, he could hear his sister’s voice screaming obscenities on the other side of the closed door.
Kyle looked around the crowded bleachers to see if he noticed anyone from his class. He knew no one would speak to him because he was one of a few hundred nameless sophomores who walked hurried through the halls. Even other sophomores ignored him; but then again, he didn’t make any attempt to make friends. He didn’t have an extroverted personality like his sister or her handsome boyfriend. Instead, he was happy being left alone. He could usually be seen walking through the halls alone with his head down so he wouldn’t have to engage in a conversation with anyone.
He looked down onto the field when Melissa let out a shriek, stood and started dancing around on the narrow bleacher. “Brad just made a touchdown!” He watched as Brad threw the ball onto the grass, puffed out his chest and walked away triumphantly. The shouts and applause from the spectators rewarded his athletic efforts. To Kyle, it only meant that he would have to endure an hour of listening to his sister once again praise her boyfriend.
Bored with the game, Kyle pulled out his phone and began playing a video game. He tried to ignore his sister’s excitement when she pulled on his sweatshirt and squealed with delight at Brad’s performance on the field. At half time, he got up and went to the restroom. On the way back, he stopped to get a soda and soft pretzel. When he sat back down beside his sister, he noticed two boys staring up at him from a few bleachers below. They giggled before looking away.
* * * * * * * *
“I don’t know why you don’t just talk to him,” insisted Andre as he looked over at his friend sitting on the bed.
“I can’t,” replied Buddy as he looked up sadly at his young, black friend. He had known Andre since the third grade. In the sixth grade, they realized they were gay when their playful sexual games became more serious. For two years, they became ‘boyfriends,’ but that ended when they decided that they were more friends than lovers. Andre was now dating Tyler, a white boy he had met in the arcade at the mall. It had become his mission in life to find his lonesome friend a boyfriend.
Andre asked, “Why not?” as he stood and walked around the small, cramped bedroom.
Buddy rose from the bed, picked up a shirt off the floor and hung it on a hanger in the closet. “Do you really for a minute think that someone like Kyle Caldwell is going to like someone like me?”
“Why not?” asked Andre. “You’re a nice guy,” he remarked before adding quickly, “and cute, too.” He playfully poked Buddy in the stomach. Buddy giggled and stepped back.
Buddy was attractive. Andre had watched his friend over the past couple of years grow from a small, immature boy to a tall, dark-haired young man. At 6-foot tall, he was thin and lanky with a trace of a brown mustache forming over his upper lip. His blue eyes sparkled when he got excited, and he would slowly twirl the small diamond earring in his ear when he got nervous.
Buddy opened the door to his small bedroom and pointed out into the hall. “And I live in a trailer,” he replied sarcastically. “Do you think he would want trailer trash like me?”
“Hey,” remarked Andre defensively. “I live next door. Am I trailer trash, too?”
Buddy slammed the door shut and turned toward his best friend. “You know what I mean, Andre.” He sat back down on the bed as Andre sat beside him. “You got lucky with Tyler. He don’t care that you’re poor.”
“True,” replied Andre as he looked at his sad friend. It was a discussion they had relived many times over the years. Both were from poor families and lived in an area of the city known as ‘Shabby Town.” Andre had dropped out of school the previous year because he got tired of being taunted and bullied.
Buddy leaned forward and placed his head in his hands. “God, that boy is so cute. I melt whenever I see him walk into third period.” He lifted his head and looked excitedly into Andre’s face. “Yesterday he looked over and smiled at me.”
“See,” Andre replied reassuringly. “Maybe he likes you.”
“Maybe I’ll get on a cow and fly to the moon,” remarked Buddy sarcastically. “I heard someone say his family moved into a huge house in Forest Glen.”
Andre let out a slight whistle. Homes there cost a gazillion dollars.”
Buddy laughed at his friend. “More like a half million.” A frown appeared on his face. “His sister is dating Brad Chambers. You remember him, right?”
Andre nodded and replied, “I sure do. He thinks the world revolves around him?”
“Yeah,” replied Buddy. “So, do you think for one minute that her brother is even going to give me the time of day? Besides,” he added, “I don’t even know if he’s gay.”
“You said yourself that he won’t talk to girls,” reminded Andre. “He’s really cute and comes from a rich family. He should have every girl in your class after him. You know what kind of sluts they are. Instead, he’s by himself all the time.”
“That’s when he’s in school,” replied Buddy. “Maybe he has a girlfriend at his old school.”
Andre smacked Buddy on the arm. “You’re good at picking out gay guys. You used to tell me all the time that someone in our class was gay. I wouldn’t believe you until they would come out.”
They sat quietly for a few minutes while Buddy opened his history book and read over a handout the teacher had passed out in class. Andre looked over and asked, “So what are you going to do?”
“About what?”
“Kyle,” he replied. “Are you going to talk to him?”
Buddy asked, “And say what? Are you gay? If so, you want to come back to my trailer and suck face until my drunken mom comes home. But don’t worry. She’ll probably not even know you’re around because she’ll take some man she waited on at the restaurant to her room.”
Andre didn’t reply because he knew Buddy was telling the truth.
* * * * * * *
On Saturday afternoon following the football game, Kyle entered the family room to find Melissa and Brad wrapped like a pretzel on the sofa. They jumped apart when Brad looked up and saw him. He quickly pulled his sweatpants up.
“Why don’t you knock before entering?” She shouted as she straightened her bra under her blouse.
“Duh,” Kyle exclaimed as he threw up his hands. “No door.”
Melissa stormed from the room. Kyle grabbed the control and turned on the big screen television.
“Turn on a football game,” Brad insisted.
“There’s a movie I want to watch,” replied Kyle as he changed the channel to HBO where a Harry Potter movie was playing.
“No one watches this crap,” Just then, Melissa entered the room and plopped down beside him.
She scowled at Kyle and asked, “Don’t you have a television in your room?” Kyle ignored her and turned up the volume. She and Brad started to talk quietly. Occasionally, his sister would giggle and tell Brad to “stop.” He was afraid to look over because he didn’t know what he might see.
He looked over when Brad stretched out on the couch and announced, “I’m bored.”
Kyle ignored his sister when she asked him politely to go watch television in his room. He knew they wanted to resume their heavy petting, and he was enjoying that he was preventing them from being alone.
Their parents weren’t home, which was not unusual. So, he had decided that he would take it upon himself to play chaperone in their absence. Their father was an architect, and he traveled frequently around the world. Their mother was a federal prosecutor. Her job required long hours away from home. As a result, there was little parental supervision. Being the sole male in the house most of the times, he took it upon himself to make sure his sister’s actions were monitored. He did, however, suspect that Melissa and Brad were already sexually active.
His actions weren’t the result of concern for his sister’s reputation. Instead, he was jealous that she was doing what he secretly wanted- sex. Therefore, he amused himself in a childish game of preventing his sister from enjoying the pleasures he desired. He was particularly jealous of her relationship with Brad. Even though he despised Brad’s arrogance, he still longed to have someone like him. And who wouldn’t. Brad was everyone’s dream boyfriend.
He glanced over when his sister rose from the sofa and left the room. Brad let out sigh of boredom. “Hey, Little Bro!” he hollered at Kyle. “Why don’t you turn on a football game?” Kyle ignored him and continued to watch the movie that he had long ago grown disinterested in. He only continued to watch because he knew it irritated his sister and her boyfriend.
Melissa returned to the room with the game of Twister. Brad moaned when she laid the game on the floor. “Not again!” he cried out.
Melissa giggled and said, “You know you enjoy it.” She walked over to Kyle and tossed the spinner into his lap.
He scowled and asked, “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Spin it for us, Stupid,” she replied as she stepped back over to the vinyl game now opened out in the middle of the room. Kyle wanted to resist, but he thought it might be fun to watch Brad’s reaction as he twisted and turned on the game.
He flicked the spinner with his finger and announced, “Right leg, blue.” He continued to watch his movie, at least until the game became more interesting. “Left hand, yellow,” he said as he glanced over at Brad. He spun it again and called out, “Right leg, red.” He watched as his sister attempted to put her leg between Brad’s legs. Brad bent lower so she would have to press her knee against his crotch.
He gave the spinner another flick of his finger as he stared at Brad. “Left leg, green.” Brad reached around Melissa as she tried to step around his left leg. When she did, she let out a squeal and they both fell to the ground.
“Get off me!” she shouted as she attempted to push Brad off her. “You’re hurting my hip.” Brad rolled off her, and she stood and hobbled to the sofa clutching her left hip.
Brad sat beside her and asked worriedly, “Are you all right?”
“I think so,” she replied as she rubbed her hip. She batted Brad’s hand away when he tried to feel it.
Kyle looked over when she called out his name. “Bring me the spinner.”
“Why?”
She held out her hand and snapped her fingers. “It’s your turn to play with Brad.”
“What!” screamed Kyle. “I’m not playing this stupid game with him.”
Brad started crowing, “Chicken shit! What are you afraid of, you’ll lose?”
Kyle sat back, crossed his arms and adamantly insisted, “I’m not playing that stupid game.” He really wanted to play. However, he was afraid his sister and boyfriend would notice just how much he did want to play.
Brad walked over and lifted him out of the chair. “Put me down!” Brad placed him onto the game and started cawing again.
“Chicken, bawk, bawk!” he laughed as he flapped his arms and danced upon the game. “Bawk, bawk!”
“I’m not a chicken!” hollered Kyle.
Brad puffed out his chest and challenged him, “Prove it.”
Melissa giggled and shouted out, “Left leg, blue.” Knowing he shouldn’t, Kyle placed his left leg on the blue circle. Melissa laughed again and said, “Right hand, green.”
The game continued for several minutes. Occasionally, Kyle could feel Brad rubbing against his body. As they continued to play, their bodies became intertwined. Kyle was bent forward and facing Brad's crotch. He looked over when a flash of light appeared to his right. Melissa was standing beside them taking a picture with her cell phone.
“Quit taking pictures!” shouted Brad. “This is uncomfortable. I can’t let your brother win.” Melissa laughed and spun again.
“Right hand, red,” she shouted. When Brad reached between Kyle’s legs, he lost his balance, falling onto Kyle. He was lying directly on top of Kyle with their faces only inches apart. They could hear Melissa laughing as she circled them taking pictures.
Kyle raised forward and attempted to push Brad off him. Brad rose, extended his hand and helped Kyle to his feet. “How about another game?” he asked challenging.
“No way,” Kyle replied. “I just beat you in this one.”
Brad asked, “Best of two out of three?”
“Nope,” said Kyle as he scurried from the room. He hurried upstairs to his bathroom, stripped naked and jumped into the shower.