Chapter 11A: Confrontation

Thanks to Jim for editing!

Standing nearly two feet taller than my brother, his roommate, Greg Hugh, still looked good. It's long since past the days that Greg could unnerve me with one little look, but with his short dark hair, narrow blue eyes, a charming smile and his tall, toned body, he was most definitely still worth looking at. I was actually a little disappointed to see him go as I waved him out of the two-bedroom apartment that he shared with my brother. Apparently, he was meeting his parents for lunch and didn't want to be late.

It was Sunday again, and after an excruciatingly slow church service, I'd found myself driving my brother home because Leanna was going to spend a little extra time with Grannie Tenny at the retirement home. My brother had gone to change. He never felt comfortable in ironed clothes. I would have left then, but Greg had been there, getting ready to go leave and I'd spent five minutes helping him pick out a shirt to wear. Although, I'm not sure how much help I was. I wasn't paying attention to the shirts as much I was paying attention to Greg when he took them off.

I looked up as Chad came from the hall leading to both of the two bedrooms in the apartment. He looked much more like himself in faded jeans and a black band sweater. He'd pulled his hair out of his ponytail and the pink strands looked knotted in the back where the band had been.

"Aren't you going home?" he finally asked as he plopped down on the white sofa furnishing the small space of the living room, along with the entertainment center and a large, beat-up gray arm chair. Chad lifted the remote, and eyed a football game on the television before he started flipping through channels.

I thought about my brother's question for a long moment before I slid over the arm of the sofa and got comfortable next to him. "No."

Chad glanced at me. "No plans today?"

"Not really," I replied, staring at the television. It looked like every channel he flipped to was playing commercials.

"Your friends busy or something?"

I turned my head to look at him, and smirked. "Am I buggin' you?"

"You will be when Leanna gets here," Chad responded meaningfully, but then smiled, elbowing me. "You're cool right now. I'm just wondering why you're still here, that's all."

"I don't know what's going on with Haily and Joe, but Caleb's baby-sitting his niece," I explained. "I'm not really in the mood to go do anything, anyway."

"What about Milo?" Chad responded. "He's busy, too?"

"He's with Assface," I said, annoyed by that. Not because I didn't think Milo should hang out with Jame. They were friends, and that was his choice. I guess I just hated it that I couldn't see Milo when Jame was around. When I told Chad this, he wanted to know why I let Jame stop me. It was hard to explain to my brother, who would have serious issues if anyone ever made it difficult for him to see Leanna, that Jame was simply so hostile towards me that I preferred to avoid him. I wasn't running from him. He didn't intimidate me, but I could hardly enjoy any time with Milo if he was around, not to mention I was pretty sure that when Jame and I were near each other, Milo felt uncomfortable about it. Part of me wanted to say that that was Milo's problem, and he needed to figure out how to stand up to his friends.

But, I felt guilty for even thinking that since, in all other areas, he was trying. The Halloween party even had my friends warming towards him. At least, Haily was under the impression that Milo wasn't so bad, since she'd been clinging to me as I followed him around Wednesday night. Caleb thought Jerry was a pretty cool guy. He didn't seem to have an opinion about Milo, which was perfect, since with the majority of the male population, Caleb either hated them, or had no opinion. Of course, Milo still had a strike against him, being a friend to Jame Graham. I had no idea what Joe was thinking. He'd acted like he was having a good time on Wednesday night, but Thursday at school he couldn't stop talking about how stupid it was--and worse about the people who had been there.

But, Milo had made an effort. I guess I was still trying to figure out how to make one when it came to Jame Graham, when I really, really hated him. As it was, I'd decided that it took way too much energy to even think about him and stopped talking about him. Chad was more interested in how Milo and I were getting along, anyway, and as we talked, I found myself about complaining about Emily Hill showing up at our house. Chad thought she'd seemed nice, too, and was a little surprised that Milo couldn't stand her. I explained that Milo's relationship with his dad wasn't exactly a good one, and how Milo was terrified of what would happen if his father ever found out he was gay.

"Milo thinks his dad would flip if he knew."

"Not everyone has our parents, Nels," Chad pointed out, yawning. "I mean, look at Leanna's mom, she's always looking for reasons to tell Lee what's wrong with her. Why do you think she spends so much time with us?"

"I know. But... Milo's different, you know? He can't really confide in a lot of people... or, he won't. I don't know," I said, scratching my head. "I guess it just bothers me. He's alone most of the time--always worried about what someone else is going to think of him."

"He can talk to you, though, right?" Chad pointed out, and I gave my brother a wan smile.

"Yeah, but that's different. It's not like either of us has met anyone who's gay before. I can talk to him about things like that, and I mean... he can talk to me, but it's not the same, you know? It's like, he knows I accept him because we're not that different. But, there's no one else..."

"So, bring him home more often," Chad suggested. "It's not like none of us don't know what's going on with you two."

"I know... and I've kinda been thinking about that," I admitted. "I mean, I think Milo knows that Mom and Dad... and you know what's up, but I don't wanna bring it up with him if it's gonna freak him out."

"So... don't bring it up, then," Chad replied. "Just bring him by, Nels. Let him get comfortable. He'll figure out that it's not a big deal to us."

"Maybe," I replied thoughtfully, realizing that it couldn't hurt to get Milo around people who would accept everything about him.

We were suddenly interrupted when my brother's front door swung open, and Leanna walked in as if she lived there, dropping her purse on the floor and hanging her coat next to mine. She looked flushed, and her glasses were so foggy from the cold that she just took them off and slid them into her sweater pocket.

"Hi, Nelson," she said when she spotted me on the sofa with Chad, who as always, looked happy to see her. "I thought you were going home."

"I am," I told her, but made no move to get up as I watched Leanna walk around me to lean down and kiss Chad. My brother grabbed her when she did so, pulling her down into his lap to prolong it, and I watched as they made out like I wasn't even there. I supposed that they wanted me to leave, but really, they weren't bothering me any, so I kept watching, clocking my head and wishing that I could see Milo.

"Hey, Leanna?" I said, as if she wasn't busy with my brother at all. "Can we talk?"

Chad's the one who pulled back from his girlfriend to narrow his eyes on me. "Weren't you leaving?" he asked pointedly. He'd been complaining about not seeing Leanna as much as he wanted to lately, with his heavy schedule and all that charity he liked to dish out, so I wasn't really surprised that I was pestering him now. But, I opted to ignore it when Leanna swatted his shoulder and looked at me.

"Sure," she replied. "What did you need to talk about?"

"Blow jobs."

Chad seemed to choke on something, and raised his brow at me from behind his startled girlfriend.

"Blow jobs?" he repeated.

"Yes," I said seriously, and then looked at Leanna, deciding that she'd be more help with my question than my brother. "I was wondering how to do it. I mean, I know how, but it was harder than I thought... Or, I guess I should say more difficult..."

"Okay!" Chad said loudly, pushing Leanna off of him so he could escape. "This is one of those things I don't need to hear."

"That's why I'm not asking you," I pointed out.

"No," Chad replied, as Leanna tried really hard not to laugh. "You're my brother asking my girlfriend how to..." he paused for a moment, suddenly looking both thoughtful and disturbed as he looked between us. "Actually... you're probably asking the right person," he remarked, and Leanna glared at him, blushing as she straightened her short hair. "Okay. You've got five minutes," Chad stated, pointing at me. "Then you're out of here. I'll be... somewhere else."

I waited patiently as Leanna laughed at Chad as he retreated down the hall, shaking his head, and when she finally turned back to me I regarded her curiously.

"So, is there some kind of trick to it?" I asked, and when she opened her mouth but couldn't seem to get any words out I added, "Don't worry. I won't ask you to draw any diagrams or anything."

It was thirteen minutes before school ended on Tuesday. Usually during this time, Mrs. Bates would have us reading, or she'd be going over what we'd covered during the day, not telling us to put away our books and pay attention. I glanced over at Milo, who was holding his head in his hand as he turned his attention to the front of the room. He looked tired. In fact, he'd looked tired every time I saw him today. The day before had been the same, but today was worse because I couldn't even get him to smile. At least not really smile. He'd force little ones in my direction every time he thought I said something that was supposed to be funny.

Like Milo, I turned my attention to Mrs. Bates, who was counting heads. She only did that when she wanted us to split up into partners, and since she always told us to choose someone from our own table, I already knew who mine was. She confirmed my suspicions a moment later when she spoke. Only today, something was different as she explained that in two weeks the semester was going to end along with all first semester classes, including hers, and that we'd be taking the first half of our final exam this week. She had one of the guys closer to the front of the room lift two cardboard boxes that had been sitting next to her desk so she could unload the contents. The room was met with mixed reactions when she began to unload dolls of both genders and several nationalities from those boxes, all a little bigger than Caleb's newborn niece.

"Aren't we supposed to be taking home eggs or something?" I remarked before I could stop myself, and Mrs. Bates raised her eyebrows at me.

"This was in the budget this year, and much better," she informed me as she lifted one of the dolls and rocked it in her arms like it was a real infant. I frowned as she approached me with the thing, and the room was met with snickers as she passed it down, ordering me to support its head. "Congratulations, Mr. Larmont, it's a girl."

I glared at Milo, who'd found a reason to laugh for the first time that day, and as Mrs. Bates returned to her desk to lift more dolls, I set the toy on the table and jumped when a horribly loud wailing sound started coming from it, causing my teacher to turn back around.

"You never leave an infant on a table, Mr. Larmont. Pick her up. You'll find a key sticking out of her back, you'll have to turn it until she stops crying," Mrs. Bates told me, and as I did as she said just to get the thing to stop, she walked around the room, passing out dolls to half of the students in class. Haily looked interested in the one she got, while Milo looked pleased that he didn't have one. I just complained that my wrist hurt from holding the key, which really wasn't that easy to turn. That's when Mrs. Bates told me I should get used to it, because I'd have to turn the key every time it cried, and not only that, but I'd have to feed it and change it, too. I wasn't sure how that was possible, exactly, but she continued by passing a stack of diapers and a special bottle to everyone who had a baby. When I was finally able to release the key without my doll crying, several others started up, including Haily's, and they all got the same instructions as I did before Mrs. Bates explained that we had to log every time the baby cried and why it was crying; then she told us that if anyone felt like cheating it would be a bad idea since she'd know if there was neglect or abuse involved. "No dropping your baby," she finished.

Mrs. Bates demonstrated several ways to take care of the dolls, and then five minutes before class ended she instructed everyone who already had a doll to choose a partner, and for once, it was anyone in the class. Guys were pairing up with girls, but since Haily already had a doll, that left one obvious choice for me. I looked at Milo, smirking. He didn't look like he was going to enjoy this assignment very much.

"Hey, daddy," I remarked, holding out the doll, which was dressed in a lot of pink.

Milo shook his head.

"No," he stated, and when I saw him eyeing a few girls looking for partners around the room, I frowned at him. I could understand his desire to fit in, but no one was going to pick on him for having a male partner because first, there were other guys or girls pairing up with the same sex because it was more convenient, given the location of where they lived, and second, I wouldn't let anyone pick on him. But, I didn't have to convince him of this because a moment later the situation sorted itself out when Milo and I were the only ones in class left without a partner.

"Guess you're stuck with me," I remarked, and held up our doll to find its lifelike blue eyes looking back at me. "It'll be interesting trying to explain to my dad why I'm taking this to work with me tonight," I mused, remembering that my dad had asked me to help out in one of the bakeries.

To my surprise, Milo shoved the bottle and diapers into his backpack and then took the doll from me, tucking it under his arm as the bell rang.

"I'll take it tonight," he said. "We can switch tomorrow before lunch."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"If you ignore it while you're working it drops both of our grades," he said reasonably.

"If you say so, daddy."

He glared at me. "Don't call me that."

"Okay," I agreed, cracking a smile. "But can I call tonight? You know, to see how little Sabrina's doing?"

"Sabrina?" he repeated, his eyebrow lifting.

I made a point to look as hurt as I possibly could. "Our baby!"

"You're an ass," Milo remarked, but he was trying not to laugh. "And if you even mention this doll when you call, I'm hanging up on you."

I bit at my smile as he left the table with our assignment, glancing back at me in the process and graced me with just enough of a smile that said he didn't mind being my partner at all.

Who cared about the damn baby.

Wednesday morning, snow blanketed the lawn surrounding the school, steaming off the warming asphalt in the parking lots and surrounding streets in a way that made everything seem pleasantly messy. I headed towards the entrance of the main building with Caleb. Joe wasn't far behind us, arguing with Kelly about whether or not he was seen flirting with Jennifer Powell yesterday after school; and Haily had gone to track down the blond freshman from our parenting class, Tim, because he'd ended up as her partner. They'd made an arrangement that Haily would take their assignment home every night if he took care of it during school hours; and given her mood this morning, I guessed that she was ready for him to take his turn.

"So?" Caleb asked as we headed up the stairs.

"You actually want me to comment on that?" I remarked. He'd had another dream. This time a fish grilled him up and ate him for dinner, and it didn't make any sense to Caleb because he'd had pork last night.

"Not really," he decided. "So do you wanna do something tonight? I've been kinda bored."

"Sure. Like what?"

"Swimming?" he suggested. I paused just outside the doors to spend an extra moment looking around at the snow and to feel the cool temperature over my skin before he rolled his eyes and shoved me forward. "The hotel has that indoor pool," he explained.

"Okay. I guess. I'll have that baby from parenting, though. It's my turn."

"Whatever. Bring it. It's not like it'll bother anything."

"If you say so," I agreed. I didn't bother asking how Caleb planned to get us into the hotel pool, which wasn't generally open to the public. He wouldn't have brought it up if he didn't already have it worked out.

"How did you end up with Milo as a partner, anyway?" Caleb asked.