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"I'm living for the only thing I know When Emmitt announced that the scheduled speaker wouldn't be appearing I was a little depressed. He was going to be talking about HIV and other STDs. I was interested in hearing about them. "Well this sucks the big fat weenie," Cyrus announced getting up. "I know babe, but hopefully he'll make it next time," his partner Josh said patting his hand. I met Cyrus in my accounting 101 class back freshman year. Neither of us knew the other was gay. It wasn't until we ran into each other at one of these meetings that we found out. It was through these meetings as well that we met Josh and soon afterward Josh & Cyrus started going out. I stood up as well. "Well guys, I guess I'll head back to the apartment. I've got plenty of studying to do before finals." "You heading home for Christmas, bro?" Josh asked as he got his and Cy's coat. "Nah. I can't. Too much stuff to do at work. Year end and all that. And being low man on the totem pole, I'm the last one that gets picks of vacation. Plus even if I could, it's kind of expensive to fly these days." "Yeah, that airport sucks. We need a better alternative don't we?" Cyrus said putting on his coat. "Well, if we don't see you before the holidays, have a great one darling." "You too. You guys have a good holiday. We'll have to get together for dinner sometime next month." "Definitely," Josh agreed. We all exchanged hugs and they headed out the door. I got my coat off the table and backed up a bit to put it on. I ended up bumping something. I heard a voice say "I'm sorry." "It's my fault, I was in your way," I replied turning around. "I should have..." Oh my gawd. It's the kid from my Karate class. The one that's been bugging me about going for coffee. He gets this surprised look on his face. "Kevyn?" he exclaimed. It takes me a second to gather my wits about me. "Oh hi Bastian. Fancy meeting you here." Good job dork-boy. I see you mastered the fine art of communication. I took a quick glance around the room. Most of the others had gone. "I could say the same thing to you." I didn't really have a response to that and he didn't say anything more. We stood there for a few minutes before I decided that maybe I should be getting home, and get some homework done before attempting to get a full night's sleep. "Well, I guess I'll be going then," I spoke, picking up my jacket from the table next me where I had dropped it when I bumped into Bastian. "Would you like to go for coffee?" He asked me, rather rushed, like if he didn't say it in one breath he'd chicken out. "No..." I started to say to him. As soon as the N sound came out of my mouth I could see his face drop, his whole body slouch a little. "Oh, ok, I guess I'll be going too then." He started to turn to head out the door. I grabbed his arm. "Wait, Bastian. You didn't let me finish." He didn't turn around. "I know what you're going to say." "Really? What was I going to say?" "You were going to say either ‘No, I'm not interested' or ‘No, I'm seeing someone' or ‘No, you're too young for me.'." "Young for me? How old do you think I am?" "I don't know. You said you were a junior, so if you started college right after high school that would make you around 20, 21." "Yeah, I'm 20. I turn 21 in March. But I wasn't going to say any of those things." He turned to face me. "No? But you don't want to get coffee with me for some reason." "No, I don't. Actually I don't even like coffee. I would have gotten a hot chocolate. But that's another story. What I was going to say was, ‘No, but are you free for dinner tomorrow night?'." He didn't say anything for a couple of seconds, as though he was trying to comprehend that I just asked him out for dinner. "Dinner?" "Yeah, dinner, you know, the meal you eat at night? Also known as supper?" His face suddenly brightened. "Yeah, dinner would be great. I love dinner." I chuckled at his enthusiasm. "That's great. I love dinner too. Do you like Italian?" "Yeah, Italian's cool. It's one of my favorites." "Great. I know this great little place a couple of towns over. You game?" "Yeah, that would be great!" "Ok then, how about we meet in the student parking lot next to Ruggles at 6pm?" "6pm, student parking lot next to Ruggles. Sounds great Kevyn." He grabbed his coat. "I'll see you tomorrow night!" "Tomorrow night it is, Bastian." He walked out of the room. No, that's not quite right, I think he just floated out of the room. I chuckled softly to myself as I open my coat and slip into it. He certainly did seem excited about going out to dinner and it's obvious by the fact that he was at the meeting that he's gay. I got outside and pulled my jacket closer to me. It definitely got colder since I arrived on campus for the meeting. I hate winter. Of course, I'm not a big summer person either. I just like the spring and the fall. When it's not too warm and not too cold. It's comfortable. I got into my car and turned it on. I didn't bother with the heater as it's such a short distance to home, it wouldn't even get above freezing before I got there. The roads to home were pretty deserted, being in the college area, there wasn't a lot of traffic after school hours. I pulled into the driveway and parked my car next to my landlady's. My landlady drove a land yacht. A 1978 Lincoln Town Car. Or the Blue Bomber as she called it. I'd driven it a few times for her, to take her places. It did ride nice, for an older car, and you did tend to feel secure with fifteen feet of solid steel surrounding you on every side. I closed and locked the car and headed toward the backstairs to go up to my apartment on the second floor. The light near my landlady's back door suddenly came on, temporarily blinding me. I heard the door open. "Kevyn? Is that you?" My landlady's voice came from inside. "Yeah, Mrs. K., it's me." "Can you be a dear and take out some trash for me?" "Of courses, Mrs. K. I'd be happy to." I altered my course and headed toward her back door. She opened the storm door for me and stepped out of the way as I entered. Her house was always warm and inviting. The smell of chocolate chip cookies hit me as I stepped further into the kitchen. "Where's the trash?" "It's in the living room. It's the box and it's packing material. Francis and Jacob sent me some presents for Christmas." I headed toward her living room and looked at the box on the floor. It didn't look heavy as it did bulky. There were wrapped gifts on the coffee table and on the floor near the tree. "Everything out of the box?" "Yes, I believe so." "How did you get the box in here? With all these presents inside it must have been even heavier." "The delivery man who brought the box was kind enough to bring it in. He was a young thing, rather cute too. I think you'd like him." Oh yeah, the other thing about Mrs. K, besides being my landlady, she was also one of the few people outside of a select group of friends that knew I'm gay. She pretty much picked up on it when I first moved in. I didn't say anything to her but she said something to me. She said something about how I reminded her of her youngest son Francis. She kept trying to find a guy to fix me up with but I'd resisted so far. I reached down into the box and I moved my hand around to make sure she hadn't missed anything. I got to the corner and my hand striked something other than Styrofoam peanuts and I grabbed onto a small box. I pulled it out. "Good thing I decided to look, otherwise you would have thrown this out." I handed her the box. "Oh my, I'm glad you did. Thank you Kevyn, dear. Let me get you some cookies. They're still warm from the oven." I grabbed the box and lifted it off the floor. "That sounds good. Let me just bring this to the curb and I'll be right back for the cookies." She opened the front door for me and I headed out to the street. Like I thought when I first saw the box, it was bulky but not heavy. I left it on the curb next to the trash barrels I had put out earlier in the day for the trash pickup in the morning. Mrs. K greeted me with a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies when I got back into the house. We had barely gotten seated in her living room when her phone rang. She stood back up and headed into the kitchen. She picked up the phone on the third ring. "Hello?" Pause. "Oh hello Francis, dear." Pause. "No, no, not at all. Yes, the box did arrive. Thank you very much. No, Kevyn brought it out to the curb." I grabbed my cup and plate and carried them into the kitchen and put them in the sink. I took the cookies off the plate and waved at Mrs. K. She waved back while she continued to talk to her son. I headed out the back door and upstairs to my apartment. I pulled my jacket tighter around me as I headed up the stairs to the second floor. Winter was definitely here. It was colder and windier then when I headed back from school all of a half hour ago. I got my keys out of my pocket and unlocked the door. The warm air from the apartment greeted me as an old friend as I stepped inside. That was one of the nice things from living upstairs from Mrs. K. She liked to keep her home warm, and living above her, I got a lot of the heat upstairs. I dropped my coat on the back of a kitchen chair. The light on the answering machine was blinking so I hit the play button on my way to the fridge. The machine made it's usual wurring noises as it rewound the tape. I opened the fridge as the first message started to play. "Hey bro, it's me. Hope you're doing well. Give me a call when you get a chance, ok? I need to talk to you. Talk to you later." The machine beeped, signaling the end of the message. I grabbed a diet coke out of the fridge as the second message started. "Kevyn, this is Abby from the clinic. Please give me a call when you get this message. Your latest results are back. I'll be in the office until eight. The number is 555-4448." I glanced up at the clock on the wall as the machine beeped, signaling the end of the last message. It was 7:55. Hopefully she was still there. I grabbed the phone and dialed her number. "Can I speak to Abby please?" I said when the call was answered. "Yes, she's expecting my call, this is Kevyn Travato." "Hold on, let me see if she's still here." I got put on hold for a few seconds. "She's still here, let me connect you." "Thank you." "This is Abby." "Hi Abby, it's Kevyn, you called." ‘Oh yes, hi Kevyn. Thank you for calling me back." She paused. "Well?" I could hear her take a breath in. "I'm sorry Kevyn, the results are still the same." I didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. "Are you still there Kevyn?" "Yeah, I'm still here. Are you sure?" "Unfortunately. They checked several times. I'm sorry." "Ok, thanks Abby." "Are you going to be ok?" "Yeah, I'll be ok. Not much I can do now is there?" "I'm sorry Kevyn. Please call me if there's anything I can do for you." "Thanks, Abby. Goodbye." I could hear her say goodbye as I hung up the phone. I put the phone down in it's cradle and sat down heavily in one of the kitchen chairs. The phone ringing jolted me back to the present. I must have zoned out cause the clock on the wall said it was almost eight thirty. I reached up and picked up the phone. "Hello?" "Hey bro, long time huh?" "Oh hey Jeff." "Kev? You ok?" "What? Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking about school, that's all." "You sure?" "Yeah bro, I'm fine. What's up?" "If you're sure you're ok?" "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry I didn't call you sooner." "It's ok. I figured I'd save you the dime and call you back. So how have you been?" "Ok pretty good, and yourself?" "I'm doing ok." "How's Melanie?" "Well, that's the reason I called." "Oh?" "Yeah, I got your Christmas card today..." "Wow that was quick. I only mailed them like two days ago." "Yeah, that is quick. I broke up with Mel." "You did? When?" "Just before Thanksgiving." "That was like three weeks ago. Why didn't you tell me?" "Sorry bro, I meant to. I just got really busy with school and stuff." "What happened?" "Well you know how I get together ever week with a group of the guys at school to play poker, right?" "Yeah." "Well after Mel and I moved in together back in the spring, she started complaining about the time I was spending with the guys. Now I'm only spending one night a week with them playing poker. I work three nights a week and every other Saturday. But she started getting really bitchy about the fact that I was going away with the guys Thanksgiving weekend. We do this twice a year. Memorial day weekend and Thanksgiving weekend. We were fighting about it for a few weeks and finally I had enough. She moved out the weekend before Thanksgiving." "Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. You doing ok?" "Yeah, I'm fine. It's kind of a relief you know? I pretty much decided she wasn't the one." "So what are you going to do now? You got someone else lined up?" "Nah, man, I'm gonna stay solo for a while. Pretend I'm a monk or something. How about you? You seeing anyone?" My thoughts turned quickly to Bastian and our dinner the next night. My first real date with a guy. "Nah," I lied. "Between school and work I barely have enough time to sleep let alone date." I had to steer the conversation to something more safe. "How are you folks doing?" "They're doing good. You know dad, he's always trying to get mom to go golfing with him. She can't stand the game, but that doesn't stop him. He keeps asking. I have a feeling he'll keep asking right up till the day he dies. Mom'll probably bury him with his putter or something." The image of Jeff's father being buried with his putter caused me to laugh out loud. "Just make sure she gets a plaid lining for his casket." Jeff started laughing on his end of the phone. "That's good. I'll have to mention that to mom. Hey, I hate to cut this short bro, but my roommate wants to use the phone, plus I've got some classes to study for. Talk to you later?" "Of course bud. You know where I am." "Yup, same here. Catch ya later." "Not if I catch you first!" "Bye." "Bye." And with that, he hung up. The thought of Jeff's father being buried with his putter brought another laugh to my lips. I placed the phone receiver back into the cradle and shut of the lights in the kitchen. Even though it was only a little after nine, I was wiped and I decided to head to bed and crash a little early. I wasn't really in the mood to do homework or much of anything else. |