Something Like Summer (4 page)

Fifth-period choir meant
not only being with Allison again, but being surrounded by people
he had known for years. Choir was made up of either weird artistic
types or religious sorts who also sang in church. Despite the two
different backgrounds, everyone got along and the atmosphere was
always relaxed.

Their teacher, Mrs.
Hammond, had enjoyed minor success on stage earlier in her life and
also taught drama. She took singing and acting very seriously, but
was also a very disorganized person who rarely bothered to direct
the class. Today she seemed as reluctant to start the school year
as her students and was fine with letting the hour pass without her
interference. Ben and Allison spent this time catching up with
everyone they hadn’t seen since spring and exchanging juicy bits of
gossip that had occurred over the summer.

The final class of the day
was science. Ben walked to it slowly, feeling like Charlie from the
Willy Wonka movie. This was the last possible chance to have a
class with Tim, his last shot at a golden ticket and the amazing
behind-the-scenes factory tour that came with it. In his mind he
was pulling back that candy bar wrapper as slowly and carefully as
he would like to undress Tim. He stepped into the door just as the
bell rang and stood there, waiting for his dreams to become
reality.

“
Hello?” complained
someone who had watched way too many valley girl movies before
pushing past him. “I swear!”

That left one desk for Ben.
He took his seat, still looking around for any hint of silver eyes
and dark hair. Nothing. Nada.

Ah, well. At least he still
had the chocolate to enjoy. The teacher of this class, Ms. Hughes,
was the same he had last year. She was one of those rare teachers
who were considered cool by her students. Some teachers tried too
hard by putting up posters of the latest music bands and ineptly
interjecting slang into their lectures. Ms. Hughes wasn’t like
that. She was just herself--a middle-aged spinster who had a
passion for science and managed to transfer her enthusiasm to those
she was teaching, usually through innovative and fun experiments.
The topic of the day was pheromones, which had most of the class
laughing, but not Ben, whose thoughts were on the scent of sweat on
the evening air as Tim ran to him.

__________

Chapter 3

After suffering a week of plastic
green seats and hyperactive freshmen, Ben decided to give up on the
bus. The mechanics were holding Allison’s car hostage for another
ten days while parts were ordered, and Ben couldn’t take the
humiliation of being the only junior travelling by bus anymore. He
was locking his bike up when Allison came running over from where
her father had dropped her off.

“
I found him!” she
declared.

“
Who?” Ben said as
casually as possible, knowing damn well who she meant.

“
Johnny Depp,” Allison
retorted. “Who do you think I mean? I tried calling you last night
but it just rang and rang.”

Ben made a mental note to
verbally abuse his sister for ignoring call waiting. “So where is
he?”

“
Tied up in my basement
and waiting for you,” Allison said, licking her lips indecently.
“You wish. I just saw him in passing after sixth period yesterday,
so at least we know that he goes to this school.”

Allison spotting Tim must
have broken the curse, because Ben saw him that very day. To be
fair, the renewed hope inspired Ben to take long detours down
different hallways, but the strategy paid off. On the way to lunch
he saw Tim leaning against a wall, talking to two other
students.

Unfortunately they were two
of the biggest assholes in school. Bryce Hunter was a huge jock who
had been the size of an ox for as long as Ben could remember. He’d
always looked like he was twenty-five, even in junior high. Next to
him was Darryl Briscott, who was short and bordering on fat, but
came from a very rich family, and that guaranteed his
popularity.

Ben eyed them warily for a
moment before turning his attention back to Tim, whose Adam’s apple
bobbed in amusement at something Bryce was saying. There had been
days when Ben questioned his recent obsession, dismissing it as
temporary insanity induced by raging hormones. Crazy or not, seeing
Tim again rekindled those stalker’s flames. He was everything,
absolutely everything, that Ben looked for in a guy. From the
outside at least. His choice of company cast doubt on everything
else.

“
Timmy!” squealed a voice
that would test even the patience of pigs. Krista Norman bounded
directly in front of Ben on her way to ‘Timmy.’ Despite her
unfortunate voice, she was one of the most popular girls and
drop-dead gorgeous. She ran over and took Tim’s hand in her petite
little paws, and beamed up at him. Tim returned the million dollar
smile, much to Ben’s disgust.

“
Hey, faggot!” These
charming words were spoken by none other than Bryce Hunter himself,
who had noticed Ben standing there and staring.

Any chance of resisting the
oncoming blush was ruined when Krista added, “He really is, you
know.”

Ben risked a glare at Bryce
and a sarcastic little wave to Krista as he walked away. Figuring
there was nothing more to lose, he glanced at Tim one last time as
he went. Tim appeared amused, returning Ben’s funny little wave.
The gesture was genuinely cute when he did it, which made Ben twice
as angry.

Why couldn’t people’s
insides match their outsides? The world would be such a wonderful
place if the nicer someone was, the more beautiful they became.
Jerks like Bryce and Darryl would be disgusting, pus-covered
trolls, and everyone would see them for what they were. Tim, too,
if these were the sort of people he chose to hang out with. Instead
of the princely appearance, he would be ugly, hunched, and so
wretched-looking that Ben never would have noticed him. Or if Ben
had, he would have at least known right away that Tim wasn’t worth
all the emotions and fantasies that he had wasted on
him.

* * * * *

Ben was having one of those
days, a parade of unpleasant events that began in the morning. He
was stuffing his backpack into his locker before heading to the gym
when something wet splatted onto his neck. Ben turned around to
find a spit wad almost as big as his fist lying on the ground. The
hallways were still full of kids, but Bryce’s massive form was easy
to pick out of the crowd, a satisfied leer painted across his
face.

At least Tim wasn’t with
him, which was something of a small miracle. Allison having spotted
him had indeed broken the curse. Over the past two weeks Ben had
run into Tim at least twice a day. Each time Ben hastily averted
his eyes and cursed the flush that came over his face. He hoped his
red cheeks were mistaken as angry instead of bashful. After all, he
had nothing to be embarrassed about, since Tim was clueless as to
Ben’s former crush on him.

The fun-filled day
continued in gym class. Leon was having his wisdom teeth removed,
which meant at least a week of misery without his company. Worst of
all, they were playing baseball, a sport very difficult to go
unnoticed in. His first time at bat, Ben cussed loudly after his
third strike. This infuriated the coach, the bald one with the
twisted nose, who commanded that Ben run the two-mile trail through
the woods that nestled against the school. At least this was an
escape of sorts. Ben slowed to a walk as soon as he was hidden
behind the trees and wondered if he could get away with
self-inflicting this “punishment” until Leon came back. He would
rather run alone every day than play baseball.

Then there was a
substitute teacher in Spanish, which of course meant that the
entire class was misbehaving. Ben usually enjoyed that, but one of
the boys asked the teacher how to say “faggot” in Spanish. For
whatever incomprehensible reason, the substitute decided to answer
this question, and
“mariposa”
was happily parroted throughout the remainder of
the class, with a number of pointed looks in Ben’s
direction.

Lunch should have brought a
welcome break from the day’s hardships, but Ben was greeted with
Allison’s announcement that she and Ronnie were now boyfriend and
girlfriend. Ben callously responded to this news by saying, “That’s
retarded. You haven’t even been on a date yet.”

The look of hurt on
Allison’s face made him regret his words. Ben
was
happy for her. Mostly. Ronnie
was a nice guy. Dates, romance, and possibly hot kinky sex were
sure to follow in due course. That’s what rubbed Ben the wrong way.
This was Allison’s fourth boyfriend since they had been in high
school. In the past three years, Ben hadn’t had so much as a mildly
flirtatious encounter. The ease in which she found someone stirred
the green-eyed monster inside of him.

What could he do, though?
He wasn’t old enough to get into a gay bar, and the local
newspaper’s personal ads were almost strictly heterosexual, except
for a few placed by men older than his father. Even Ben’s meager
sex life had been cut off when he came out of the closet, a
decision that he was beginning to regret. An unreciprocated blow
job at this point sounded as meaningful as marriage.

The rest of their meal was
accompanied by awkward silence. Ben knew he would have to make
amends later, but he was in too foul a mood to back-peddle or
smooth things over at the moment. The rest of the school day passed
without incident, but the grumbling thunderstorm outside helped to
fuel his sullenness until the last period was over.

The rain had at least
stopped by the time he was buckling on his Rollerblades. Allison’s
car had made it out of the shop for two whole days before breaking
down again. Ben had abandoned his bike and decided to start using
the inline skates he had begged for and received last Christmas. He
wasn’t very good yet, but he managed to do everything but stop
gracefully. A meandering bike path that wasn’t used much was his
choice of route today. The detour would take him longer to get
home, but it would also help him avoid other students. He just
wanted to make it home to the comfort of mindless TV and the
leftover cookie bars his mom had baked the night before.

Trees became a blur as Ben
skated faster than he usually dared. He was finally getting the
hang of these things! The woods gave way to a manmade channel clear
of foliage. Here the ground dipped low and then high again, winding
like an empty river through the woods. Ben always wondered what
purpose it served, until one hurricane season when it rained
nonstop for two weeks. The ditch took the excess rain water and
moved it safely away to somewhere less civilized. That was the only
year he had seen the ditch full of water. Otherwise it remained a
dry but green miniature valley.

Ben was beginning to feel
better as he zipped along the path that ran along the ditch. That’s
when he saw Tim. He was further along, wearing his usual jogging
outfit except this time with the addition of a backpack. Obviously
he had decided to jog home rather than taking his Richie Rich
sports car. Instead of the usual wave of hormones Ben experienced
whenever he saw Tim, this time he felt only irritation. He didn’t
want to be reminded of the things he couldn’t have. He wanted
solitude.

“
Get the fuck off my
path,” Ben muttered under his breath as he thrust with his legs and
increased his velocity. He felt like a bullet shot from a gun, and
right now he wanted nothing more than to barrel into Tim and knock
him aside without even so much as a backwards glance. Why the hell
not? He was sick of being the victim of everyone else’s barbs and
lunacy. Why not strike back? He wouldn’t knock Tim over, but he
could at least give him a scare by cutting directly in front of
him, maybe jostling him a little bit in the process.

Ben grinned with wicked
determination as he neared, but at the last moment he began to
panic. There simply wasn’t enough room on the path to pass by
safely, at least not at this speed. Maybe a skilled skater could
have done it, but Ben was still too green. He was more likely to
veer off the path and injure himself. Tim was less than ten feet
away when Ben decided to abandon his reckless course of action. He
tilted his left foot to brake, before realizing that the brake was
on the other skate. In his panic he tried to turn, but his left
foot was still tilted, causing Ben to trip over his own leg. He was
airborne for the briefest of moments before slamming into Tim,
knocking the jogger off the path and into the ditch.

Impacting with Tim had
mostly halted Ben’s flight through the air. He landed with a thud
on the grass next to the paved path, shaken but otherwise
unscathed. From the gasp of pain and long string of cursing, it was
clear that this wasn’t the case for his victim. Ben pushed himself
to his knees and looked over the ditch’s edge. Tim was sitting up,
supporting one leg in the air. He lowered it tentatively to the
ground. As soon as the foot touched grass, Tim hollered hoarsely
and lifted it back up again.

“
Oh, god! I’m sorry. I’m
sorry!” Ben sputtered as he stood and slid down into the
ravine.

Tim’s face struggled with a
mixture of confusion and anger. “What the hell
happened?”

“
I don’t-- I’m just a
klutz.” Ben had reached Tim’s side and stretched out his arms as if
he intended to pick Tim up before he realized how unrealistic this
was. “Is your leg broken?”