Virgil put his fist to his mouth to stifle the laugh that wanted to burst forth. "Shut it, V."
"But I didn't say—"
"You were going to."
"Oh, what? You're psychic, now?"
"Yeah, Virg, I can read your mind."
Virgil plopped down on his bed and looked at Richie expectantly. "So… what do you wanna do?"
"Something that doesn't involve movement," Virgil saw his friend wince as Richie sat on the chair by Virgil's desk.
"Take it off."
"Huh?"
Virgil rolled his eyes at Richie's apparent confusion. So much for psychic. "Your shirt, Rich, take it off. I'll be right back" Virgil walked down the hallway and ducked inside the bathroom. After a couple of minutes searching the drawer that held the array of things his family kept in the bathroom, Virgil found his prize. He returned to his room with the little blue bottle. "Jeez, bro, really did a number on you, huh?" Virgil noticed Richie eyeing the bottle in his hand warily.
"Why do you have aloe Vera?"
"Pops keeps it for bug bites and aftershave," Virgil shrugged. "Lay down. I'll put some on your back."
"Aftershave," Virgil caught a quirked eyebrow before Richie turned to lie on the bed.
"Yeah, says it burns less," he positioned himself over the blond and squirted some of the gel on his hands.
"Jesus! That's cold, Virg."
"No, it's not. You're just really hot."
"I didn't know you swung that way V," Virgil paused over Richie.
"Ya learn something new every day. But that's not what I meant, and you know it," he quickly moved the topic to something else. "How'd you get so burned anyway?"
"It was a water park, bro. Pale kid plus trunks plus water plus lots of sunlight equals…?"
"Freckled lobster monster," Virgil grinned. "I gotcha." He rubbed the gel in and let Richie sit up.
After a few minutes' chatter of Richie's impromptu vacation with his family in which Virgil learned that Sean Foley tanned much better than his son, Richie broached the topic Virgil had been so skillfully avoiding. "So… you're gay, too."
"Well, bi, technically, but I get it if you don't—" it was at that point that Virgil's brain caught up with what Richie had said. "Wait, too? You're gay? Since when?"
"Since always, I guess. I've only really known since seventh grade, though." Richie shrugged as if to say it wasn't that important.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" That brought Virgil up short. He just shrugged and shook his head. "How long?" Another question that didn't have an exact answer.
"Not as long as you, since freshmen year." They both let the subject drop at that.
"Hey," Virgil looked up at Richie. "There's a Mad Cow marathon tonight. Wanna go watch it?"
"You know it, Rich. Bad horror movies, here we come. You might want to put your shirt back on before we head down, though." He heard Richie give a put-upon sigh as he headed for the stairs.