[ C U P I D'S L O V E S H O T ]
Chapter Three
"So let me get this straight. You staid aftershock to study, but when you got home you were so wiped out that you fell asleep and forgot to do your homework?" Vivian asked me for the third time in the last two minutes. Was it that shocking for me to miss a single fucking day of homework?
"Yes," I sighed irritably, scribbling down random things that made no sense at all. I was hoping the teacher for once didn't actually read through and check for the correct answers.
Vivian gently placed her French manicured hand on my shoulders and gave me a light squeeze. "I know I shouldn't say this, but I just want to let you know that I'm proud of you, Adam," Vivian said all too seriously, staring deep into my eyes, like a doctor would when admitting to their patient that they had cancer or some sort of disease.
I rolled my eyes. My dad was the same when I got home. As soon as I walked through the door he popped out of nowhere, ran and gave me a bear hug, saying that he was proud of me for staying outside pass six o clock. That was the perfect time for me to tell him that I was planning on getting a makeover.
I summoned up my courage and asked him, knowing that he could quite possibly say no, since we weren't the richest people in the world.
"Hey, dad?" I questioned hesitantly.
"Yeah?" He muffled out while eating an English muffin with God knows what was inside of it. The thing was dripping with a type of purple concoction.
"Vivian is planning on giving me a makeover so I need—"
My dad like the gay man he is was screaming and bouncing everywhere like he was having the hugest body writhing orgasm in his life. He nearly squealed when I mentioned makeover and before I knew it he was out of the room with his English muffin splattered on the floor.
I only knew he was still in the house because of his still squealing voice from inside his room. You see, my dad is the very stereotypical gay person. Slim, high voice, great sense in fashion, but it somehow didn't rub off on me, tons of friends both outside and inside his workplace, and very socially aware, unlike me I was inept in that department.
My father also has an amazing "gaydar", when I was only four he took me to Chuck E. Cheese and told me that it was okay for me to be gay. I however had no idea what he was talking about and went back to dressing up my Barbie dolls in her sleazy pink skirt, pampering her up for a date with Ken.
My dad comes out with a suitcase, walking stiffly and sternly like the people in the Matrix, "Adam," my dad begins looking dead serious at me, wearing his rainbow T-shirt and bright blue skinny jeans. A feat that only he could manage. "I've been waiting for four years for this day," my dad said, pulling out a metallic suitcase that had a digital keypad on it. I just stood there, wondering what the fuck was in the suitcase.
He stared at me a little longer, various kinds of emotions flickering on his tanned face. "For four years, Adam," my dad says, typing in the nine digit code and popping open the two clasps that held the suitcase closed. He opened it slowly and when it was finally fully opened he looked back up at me, "are you ready, son?" That's when I knew I was in deep shit. My dad only called me by son when he told me when my mom had died and when he sat down with me and told me I was going to have another father. Thank God that didn't happen, 'cause the potential husband-to-be was a huge dickhead. In fact that's probably why my dad liked him. Knowing my dad, he probably loves huge dickheads.
"Yes," I whispered, bracing myself for whatever the fuck was in the suitcase. Whatever was in there it was going to change my life. This was a trial of passage that my ancestors must have passed along from generations to generations, waiting for this exact moment.
"Yes, yes I am," I confirmed again, confidently this time.
He pulled out a red velvety pillow the color of grape wine that reflected the illuminating lights casted from our chandelier and on the pillow was a . . . credit card? I looked from the credit card to my dad's face, back to the credit card then back to my dad's face. He was biting his bottom lip, smiling at me and gauging my action. His arms were stretched out waiting for me to pick up the credit card.
"You're fucking ridiculous," I muttered before walking past him and into my room.
"Oh my gawd, Adam!" Vivian shrieked in my ears, shaking my shoulders.
"What!" I growled. I only had five minute left before the bell rang and I was only halfway through guessing my answers.
"Look," Vivian sighed dreamily and pointing to northern wing of the school. I followed her index finger and my mouth dropped wide open before Vivian giggled and closed it for me.
I had to take several calming breaths to remind me the person Vivian was pointing to was an absolute asshole no matter how incredibly good looking he was. Up ahead was Levi, walking through the grass liked he owned the place. Everywhere girls stopped and stare to ogle the Greek being that was dressed in a wife beater that showed his well defined six packs and pectoral muscles, khaki shorts that hugged his deliciously taut ass and displayed his firm calves. He had on a pair of leather flip-flops that showed feet so scrumptious it would have given a person with a foot fetish the orgasm of their life. A pair of black sunglasses adorned his five o clock shadowed face. Smirking as he walked on by, the bastard knew what kind of affect he had on people.
"I don't see why he even bothers wearing a shirt," I mumbled to myself as the bell rang and that's when it dawned to me. I wasn't in class yet. I always get to class before the bell rings. I quickly said my goodbye to Vivian and ran to first period, AP Chemistry.
There were only a few stares and murmurs as I walked in class. Some people asking their friends who I was and others just gasps at me. I darted through the throng of people socializing in front of their lab tables and quickly went to the back of the room to my lonesome one.
"Class, take out your composition notebooks and label page 32 "Mayonnaise Lab," Mrs. Lee instructed lazily, while playing Tetris on her computer. I happily followed her instruction. I loved doing lab, not only was they fun to do, but labs also meant a break from the usual painstaking notes she makes the class take.
The door opened interrupting the class and in walked Levi with his golden bronze skin lighting up the whole damn room. The teacher dropped her marker she was using to write instructions on the board as she took in his appearance. "Ma—may I help you Mr. . . ?" Mrs. Lee asked all red faced and flustered.
"No mam, I'm actually your new student," Levi said in that deep, Greek kissed voice of his, winking at the sixty-two year old teacher. Fucking gross. The guy would fuck anything that has two legs.
No, scratch that.
Levi would fuck anything with legs. Period. Two legs, four legs, six legs, you name it.
Mrs. Lee realized Levi was flirting with her so she decided to step in a time machine and revert back to her twenty year old self. "Sit anywhere you like . . .?"
"Levi." He said, amused at the teacher.
"Well, Levi baby, sit anywhere you like," Mrs. Lee said batting her grey, dull eyelashes and smiling a smile that threaten to pop out her false teeth. She introduced herself to Levi, giving him a handshake that lingered a little longer than it should have.
Levi looked around the room and spotted me sitting by myself in the back. He made his way through and plopped his backpack that was probably filled with condoms on the table. "Hi," a voice of smugness greeted me.
Like the good person I am, decided not to ignore him and answered back. "What the hell are you doing here?" I seethed
"Time of the month for you," Levi asks, pulling out a slim Jim to munch on. I automatically step in like the good student I am and yanked the beef jerky out of his hands. "No food during labs," I smiled, showing my blue braces and all for him to see. Something I wouldn't have normally done, because I'm deathly afraid of people seeing them.
He just sneers at me and pulls out another one. Not the twenty-five cent one this time, but the long ass fifty cent kind. "You still didn't answer my question," I glared, narrowing my blue eyes into cat slits behind my glasses.
"It'll be easier to order you around," he shrugs lazily, taking a huge chunk out of the slim Jim, causing me to scrunch my nose in disgust. I could just smell the mixture of chemicals wafting through the air choking me with the lives of the cows and chicken they killed to make it.
Then two girls, Katie and Sarah also known as the school's blow up doll, decided to interrupt our intense staring contest. "Hi, Levi! My name is Sarah and this is Katie!" Sarah introduced in the most annoying high squeak voice one could have made, rivaling Minnie Mouse herself, and then pointing to her partner in duo. She bent down so her forearms were resting on the black wooden lab table, showing Levi a good view of her cleavages. I snorted in disgust but the trio didn't seem to notice.
"Hello there ladies," Levi flirted; staring directly at her chest, making it known he was checking her out. Katie seemed to notice this and decided to make a big puff, causing her chest to heave heavenwards then down. "We were just wondering if you'd like to sit at our table," she asked, twirling her hair, attempting to do a Vivian move. "Unless," Sarah interjected, giving me a disgusted brief once over look, "you were busy with your new . . . friend?" The other bitch, Katie snickered at the question.
Levi sent me a look and rolled his eyes, "of course not," he snorted. Levi went and followed the two girls back to their AIDS infested table, leaving me by my lonesome self again, but before he left he snatched the Slim Jim back.
The whole period passed with Levi carelessly bellowing out his sexual innuendos to the girls and in return Katie and Sarah shamelessly answered back with their own dirty ones. At the end of class Levi accomplished his goals and already had the two girl's phone number along with a date with both of them.
"Hey, wait up, Adam!" Levi called after me after I stormed out of class. I don't even know why seeing Levi flirt with the two sluts angered me so much.
"What!" snarling, waiting for him to catch up to me.
"Here," Levi said thrusting his backpack to my stomach, "take it to second period for me. The girls and I are going to hang out behind the stadium benches for a while," Levi said, grinning at the idea of whatever he's envisioning in his head.
"No!" I yelled furiously. I was tired of the shit he was making me do, tired of the way he was treating me and damn well tired of his attitude. "That wasn't part of our agreement." I fumed and to my utter embarrassment, lisped all thanks to my braces. "We agreed on me doing housework and homework, not school work," I continued, ignoring his laughing at my lisp.
"Ah, see that's where you're wrong. I clearly said "housework, homework, and etcetera," the bastard said with a smug look. "Etcetera meaning anything else I want you to do, as long as it's legal." He continued as if I didn't understand the terms by now. I cursed at my stupidity for agreeing to terms with something that wasn't lucid.
"That's not fair!" I whined like a girl, not giving a shit of how I sounded.
Levi smirked and I knew what he was going to say next, "life's not fair," Levi said before swaggering away towards the double doors that lead to the stadium. My stadium that I used to gaze at Dayton with! The asshole was going to taint it with who knows what unholy act he was planning to do with the two blows up dolls.
"Hey, Adam," Dayton greeted me with a smile as I sat down at my seat. I noticed that once again Dayton wasn't sitting at his usual seat but next to me. "Do you know where Levi is?" Dayton asked when he saw me with his backpack.
"Probably having sex with two sluts behind the stadium benches," I grumbled, taking out my agenda to write down today's outline.
Dayton let out a long sigh. "He isn't what he seems to be, Adam," Dayton said, trying to defend Levi.
"I have eyes, I have ears, I'm the fucking soon to be Valedictorian, I know what he is," I retorted back. I immediately felt guilty for doing so. Dayton has been nothing but nice to me lately and all I've been doing was demanding answers on why he was being nice and snapping at him.
"Sorry," I mumbled out.
"No problem," serene, friendly voice replied back. I wonder how Dayton does it. He's one of the most popular student in this school along with Vivian, he's a jock, captain of the soccer team not to mention, and also has amazing grades. I bet if he wanted to he could steal my spot as Valedictorian. Yet out of all those things he's always been nice to people even to me. He'd never let any of the fame and popularity got to his head and that's why I guess I fell for him. He was just a down to earth, sexy, kind, and intelligent person. The ideal man every girl and gay guy would look for.
"Where's Vivian and Chad?" I asked, glancing up from my agenda to Dayton. He was just staring at me with a confused look. It was like his body was still here but his eyes told another story. They were far off into someplace. His eyes snapped back into present and he narrowed his eyes at me with a calculating look. "Who would have thought," I heard Dayton mumbled to himself, but decided not to ask him about it. I would have certainly felt embarrassed if someone called me out on my self-talking problems.
"Where's Vivian and Chad?" I asked Dayton again, once he was back to normal.
He let out another sigh. He's been doing that frequently. "Vivian got suspended . . . again and Chad had to escort her to the office." I didn't even ask why she got suspended. Probably another one of her verbal fights with the teacher.
The door swung opened and Levi walked in with a grin chiseled on his face. His black hair was ruffled up, hickies were evident on his skin, lip sticks blotches decorated his wife beater, and his khaki's zipper was unzipped and slightly clung low on his hips. He didn't even have the decency to clean up after himself.
"I have a note," Levi said to the teacher, handing it to Mr. Phillips. The man just nodded without questioning Levi about his appearance. Levi made his way to mine and Dayton's aisle with that damn smirk on his face. His hands finally zipping up his fly.
"Nice marks," Dayton drawled, rolling his eyes.
"Crazy mosquitoes here in Florida," Levi replied, which made no fucking sense at all. Mosquitoes don't leave marks the size of lemons.
That's when an ingenious idea struck me. I could literally here the click to my light bulb above my head go on. "My, that was fast," I said with a smirk.
Levi narrowed his eyes at me, not quite getting what I was saying. "What's that suppose to mean?" Typical. I'd have to go in-depth about the issue for him to understand.
"Just saying," I said rolling my shoulders around, faking as if I had a kink in them. "Did they even get off?" Levi growled, finally understanding what I was saying.
"Yes," He bit out harshly. Dayton was off on the sideline watching our boxing match with amusement crinkled in his eyes.
"Oh, I didn't know that was possible to do in . . ." I took a glance at my Superman's swatch, making a big deal to tell the time. "In five minutes," I finished, seeing Levi's scarlet colored face.
Our match was put on hold when Chad walked in the class. His mysterious grey eyes immediately snapping towards the three of us with a questioningly look.
"Hello, Adam," Chad's soft voice greeted me as he sat next to Dayton. Dayton's body unconsciously reacted by directing itself to Chad as if there was an invisible magnet pulling them together. Their body language gravitated around each other as if they were meant to be one. With the way they were acting, one would have thought they were destined lovers, arranged by fate. They're relationship was nothing like what high school relationship should suppose to be. Theirs went deeper than the outskirts of the surface that high school was based on.
"Hey, Chad. How's Vivian?" I asked, nervously. Chad's piercing grey eyes were making me a bit edgy. It was as if he could see things deeper inside me that no one was meant to see.
"Fine." Chad replied back without any elaborations, still staring at me.
"Oh, that's good." My voice squeaked a little towards the end.
For once I was grateful for Levi's rudeness. He reached over my desk and snatched his backpack away, pulling out another Slim Jim.
"Is that all you have in there?" I questioned with disgust. I hope he chokes on the sodium nitrite that's packed into those things.
"Oh yeah that reminds me," Levi said whilst chomping on the jerky, "You're free from your duties for today and the weekend. This earned us a questionable look from Dayton. "He's my newest slave," Levi said happily.
Dayton like the good friend he was gave me a concerned look. "Another one?"
"Yep," arrogant voice answered back. "Even got him to clean my bathroom." Dayton's faced twisted and molded itself from concern into a look of pure horror. I could see his sympathy for me radiating from his warm eyes. I gave him a brief nod into return to confirm that it was indeed every bit as horrible as his face was making. Well, it wasn't exactly that horrible, considering my reward at the end.
Wait. Why am I getting three days off? I know I shouldn't judge Levi, sense this is the second day of only knowing him, but there's really nothing more to him. He was the typical sex driven twelfth grader, so why was he giving me three days off? Two of them which are the weekend. Knowing him he probably desecrated his toilet this morning just so he can watch me clean it again.
I glared at him suspiciously. "Why exactly am I getting three days off?"
I have a date with Sarah and Katie," Levi grinned and I wanted to punch myself for even asking.
"I hope you know those two are class A skanks," I offered trying to annihilate that grin of his, but I only made that damn sexy grin of his wider. It's not fair how the jerks always end up being sexy while people like me gets stuck looking like the white version of Erkel from Family Matters.
"I don't know why you're complaining. That's three days for you to do whatever you people do. Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, or whatever," Levi sneered. "Actually you should be thanking me." I was ten seconds away from hitting Levi, even though I'd just somehow injure myself in the process. Hell, he'd probably think of it as a massage with those fucking muscles.
"Do I look like I play Dungeon and dragons?" I growled.
"Hmm, let me see," Levi gave me a dull look and begin ticking off his fingers as he checked for the sign for what a person should look like if they played D&D. "Glasses? – check, braces? – check, clothing style? – check, ugly ass hairstyle? – check. Congratulation all you need is a shit load of acne on your face to make you certified."
"That's enough, Levi!" Dayton snarled. The first time seeing him with such an angered expression. "You have absolutely no excuse to act that way towards Adam at all." Levi's gaze turned heated towards Dayton, but he didn't say anything.
"Whatever." Levi grunted, turned face forward to do his work.
Dayton sent me an apologetic look which he shouldn't have had to and also dropped the subject by doing his work too. I decided that I should probably do the same thing. I wasted enough time over arguing with Levi when I should have been studying for the Greek test later.
Fuck. I didn't even get to study last night all thanks to Levi.
I had a skill that acquired years of training to perfect. Over the past four years of my high school life I would like to say that I perfect the art of ignoring unwanted things, but even I couldn't ignore the piercing grey eyes that seemed to have stitched itself to the back of my head. For the whole period I couldn't shake the feeling of someone watching me and I also knew that that someone was Chad. Only a mystifying guy like him could cause an effect like that.
The bell rang and I instantly sprang forth from my chair, causing a thunderous loud scraping sound against the floor, ignoring the shocked looks of every single student in the class as they watched me bolted towards the door that would lead me to sweet, sweet freedom from Chad's gaze.
"Hey Adam, wait up!" Dayton's chocolaty voice called after me and I couldn't help but to freeze and turn my whole body around to his voice. "We were just wondering if you'd like to eat lunch with us . . . if you're not busy that is."
Holy shit. Did Dayton just invite me to eat lunch with him? And like an idiot I looked to my left and right then finally pointing to myself, "me?" I asked stupidly even though I clearly heard my name gliding out of his mouth gracefully, like my name was destined for it to be mouthed by him, but then I met Chad's gaze and I painfully snapped back into reality.
"Yes," Dayton chuckled lightly at my gawk. "Unless you're busy of course," Dayton added in.
A loud obnoxious snort came from Dayton's right. "I'm positive he doesn't have anything better to do. He's probably one of those kids that walks around the campus acting like that had something to do, but in reality they're just waiting for the bell to ring."
I decided to ignore Levi's comment and agree to Dayton's offer. "I'd be happy to," I beamed up at Dayton.
"What the fuck is that?" I heard Levi elegantly asked as I dug into my tofu salad that was stylized beautifully by me. Cucumbers layered the edges, giving it a floral look. Carrots, snow peas, peanuts, and small dices of tofu littered on top of the cabbage leaves. All of which were marinated lightly with Braggs Liquid Amino. I'm a pretty damn good chef if I say so myself, even though the salad involved no cooking at all.
"Food."
"This is food," Levi said, taking a huge ass bite that took out half of the greasiest shit of an excuse pizza and plopping down beside me on the wooden bench that Dayton picked. It was a pretty good spot. It was directly under the tree shade, blocking out Florida's unbearably hot sun.
"That looks like a heart attack," I said disgustedly, taking a bite of diced tofu. At least Dayton and Chad cared about their health. They both had a ham sub that should have been called a salad sub, 'cause I didn't even see a trace of ham in there.
"Adam." I looked up to Chad and his lifeless gray eyes greeted me. "I would like to learn more about you," he said softly. I had to strain myself in order to hear him over the roaring laughter of nearby students.
"Oh . . ." Well this was weird I didn't really have anything to share. What they see is what they get. Unfortunately like Levi said I had no life. My whole existence was basically based on school, Vivian, and dad.
"I like to work out," I lied. I hated working out with my dad, but it was the only thing interesting about me I suppose.
"No need to lie," Levi jeered beside me, munching on another Slim Jim. "The only thing you probably ever lifted was a pencil."
I decided to ignore him again. "What about you, Chad?" I was pretty excited for myself. I've never talked this much to anyone before. At least I now know that I could sufficiently hold a conversation instead of freezing up like those other unsocial people do in movies.
"I hate drawing," Chad replied back, voice blending in with the wind. This baffled me a bit. I'm not sure, but using common knowledge, I'm pretty sure if someone talks about liking/loving what to do the other person would reply about their likes too, right? People just don't switch from the subject of liking to hating so quickly. I looked to Dayton and Levi to see if I was the only one that noticed it, but they weren't bothered at all.
I guess I was really socially inept after all.
"Oh. What do you . . . hate to draw?" I asked hesitantly, as a sad smile appears on Chad's soft lips.
"Numbers."
I frowned slightly at his reply. Who draws numbers? Weren't numbers supposed to be written?
I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly," sorry I don't understand. Could you show me?" I asked attempting to draw out the conversation. Practice makes perfect, right?
"Yes," Chad took out a sketchbook from his backpack, flipped to a certain page and handed it to me.
I gasped when I saw his sketch. The picture was so vibrant in an odd black and white dull way. It showed an old man lying in a hospital gurney. The facial structure that was sketched on the old man's face showed that he was in obvious pain. His eyes were wide opened in horror, staring at the ceiling light of the hospital room. His mouth was gaped open, letting out a scream. To the right of him showed an EKG monitor that was showing a series of abnormal zigzags. In the picture, the room that the man was in was plain just like any hospital rooms usually were. The corner showed a wilting flower with dead petals littering the clean linoleum floor.
My eyes darted quickly around the sketch, absorbing the drawing in. Everything was so surreal it was like I was part of the sketch itself and somewhere in my body I could feel the old man's pain as if it were my own. Above his head was a series of weird symbols that looked similar to the alphabet. Weird shapes of what seems like triangle and other figurines connected sporadically directly under the gurney.
"What is this?" I whispered, pain meandering its way through my nervous system. I could feel the sun's heat blaring through each and every individual pores of my body, the soft murmuring wind futilely trying to calm the heat sweltering from inside of me like a fan trying to put out a forest fire.
Chad's soft mysterious voice answered me. "Under the gurney are Greek Acrophonic numbers."
I eagerly returned the sketchbook back to Chad and immediately I felt the burning sensation go away. "What does it translate to?" I asked fully intrigued now.
Chad opened and closed his mouth several times, contemplating if he should tell me or not. It was the first time for me to see Chad act this way. He usually showed no emotions at all unless when he was with Dayton and even then only a hint of happiness escaped through his façade. "1/14/2052" Chad finally explains.
I nodded understandingly. "I'm guessing that's the day he dies?" I infer.
"Yes . . ."
"And the symbols above his head were Greek symbols for his name?"
Chad nodded and I felt so damn proud of myself for being smart. "And what's his name?" I asked. I wanted to know — no needed to know the man's name. I felt such a connection through the drawing. Something that I wasn't going to tell any of them or else they'd think I was crazy.
A sad smile crept on his face again. "It doesn't matter. It wouldn't change a thing even if you did know," Chad says, getting up to throw his trash away along with Levi and Dayton, leaving me alone at the table in confusion.
Somewhere amidst of all the joyous laughter of hormonal teenagers and the soft whispering wind, I could hear my name being calling out.
"Adam . . ."
