Bobby skipped Friday's classes, like he had when John first left. The night before he had padded quietly down the kitchen at two, stocked up on an unopened bottle of juice, made some sandwiches; he grabbed bags of chips and some fruit because he felt guilty, with the email to his mother still unanswered and everything. With any luck, he'd be able to stay in his room until Monday morning, leaving only at night to get more supplies. A person could forget or at least refuse to deal with, a lot of things in three days.
"Bobby, it's Dr. Gray." Bobby got up to answer the knock.
"I wasn't feeling well, that's why I didn't go to classes today." She came in, holding a brown paper bag that smelled suspiciously like Chinese food. His mouth watered at the thought and then he realized he still had the remains of a turkey sandwich sitting on his desk, the Compose feature of his email was open and blankly staring around the room, and there were three empty soda cans stacked on top of one another on his desk, next to the sandwich. She chose not to notice and sat on his bed, still holding the bag.
"But you felt well enough that you didn't come down to the Infirmary." He started to explain, probably blow any semblance of credibility but she held out the bag and interrupted him. "Here. Your favorites, down to the cheese wontons. I assumed your absence was more along the lines of you having something on your mind and needing time to think." He nodded and placed the bag on his desk, than sat on John's bed, facing her. "You don't have to talk to me about it now but I'm more than willing to listen if you want to." He nodded and she waited a moment. "You'll also find that today's assignments are in there, so you should rescue them before they get greasy."
"Thank you." She smiled and he smiled back. It was hard not to smile with Professor Gray; she seemed genuine, all the time.
"You've had to deal with a lot recently, with John moving back with his father, increased work load, starting to look at colleges and consider your future, and I bet the strain of keeping an important and prominent part of your life from you family is starting to take its toll." He nodded again. "While Chinese food is in no way, an easier way to deal with the issues affecting you, I've found that food can be a comfort." Bobby smiled.
"Thanks." She reached over and patted his knee.
"Good luck. And enjoy the food. I hope you don't mind, but I did steal a fortune cookie. There's still two left for you."
"It's ok." She walked to the door and after she closed it behind her. He stood and went to the bag, pulling out a plastic bag of homework assignments and then taking out the cartons of Chinese food, steam rising off them as he placed them on his dresser. Going and digging through John's drawers, he found the plates and cups from last October when they were the only teenagers in the Mansion, everyone else somehow home or away on the same weekend, where they stayed in and watched DVDs on the laptop, leaving only to have snowball fights in the middle of the night on the front lawn.
Pulling out a fortune cookie he opened it and read, 'Absence sharpens love, but presence strengthens it.' For once the lucky numbers more than less matched his own- 13, 17, 27, 38 and 39. Contemplating as he crunched the cookie, he dug out another pair of chopsticks, and left the room, going to Warren's door and hesitated, listening to the French opera that played softly. He knocked and after a moment Warren answered. "Professor Gray picked me up some Chinese food and there's more than enough for one and I was wondering if you'd want some. We could talk." Warren nodded and stepped forward, closing his door behind him, Bobby stepping back half a step.
"That would be nice. Thank you." They walked back to Bobby's room and quietly split up the food. Bobby sat on John's bed and Warren sat on his. They ate for a few minutes, not speaking anything more than 'pass the duck sauce'.
"Why did you do it?" Warren looked up, and finished chewing, delicately resting his chopsticks on the edge of his plate. "I mean, I had just told you I had a thing for John and that we had been dating."
"I guess you don't find spontaneity attractive."
"Not when the person being spontaneous had just listened to me confess something huge and decides to use it for his own fucking gain." Warren flinched slightly at the profanity and changed his hold on the plate, so it balanced on his thighs, shifting his feet on the ground so the plate remained perfectly level and his posture straight. Bobby placed his on the bed next to him, crossing his legs Indian style.
"I, I'm attracted to you Bobby and on one level I was a little over- excited because I thought there was the possibility you might feel the same. Not right now, but at some point."
"I'm in love with John." Bobby stopped himself but again too late. Warren smiled softly.
"I've realized." Bobby's posture slunk as the truth of the words hit him. He was in love with John; it explained the jealousy and the way he kept climbing back into John's bed to sleep at night, the never ending preoccupation with John's emails and the way he would read each a dozen times in one sitting, no matter how short it was, the dreams where he woke up sweating, the sheets iced to his legs and groin. "Bobby, I'm sorry. I acted stupidly. And I understand if you would prefer not to forgive me but I'd hate to lose a good friend because of one stupid action. I care for you, no matter how misguided my method for showing that was."
"I... Christ Warren, why the hell do you have to be so well mannered? I feel like a Neanderthal." Warren smiled and picked up his wonton, breaking it into smaller pieces and then wiping his hands on his napkin. He picked up his chopsticks and ate in small quiet bites.
"Some habits die hard," he said when he finished, setting down his chopsticks again.
Bobby nodded and fiddled with his hands. "So I guess, we're friends? Provided, you don't try to kiss me again."
"It was that bad?"
"No, I mean um..."
"Bobby. Joking."
"Oh." Bobby smiled and Warren picked back up his chopsticks. Bobby followed suit, moving the plate back to his lap.
"So are you going to tell anyone?"
"What? About John?"
"That you're bisexual." Bobby shrugged, then shook his head. How would anyone bring that into the conversation? Oh by the way, Marie, part of the reason I wanted to break up was because I couldn't stop having wet dreams about my roommate. And Remy, when Iwas checking you out in the locker room last week, thank you for not noticing. And telling his parents? Hey Mom and Dad, guess what? I'm a bisexual mutant! They don't even have support groups for people like me yet, let alone for you!
"Have you told anyone... that... you're um..."
"Gay." Bobby nodded and focused back on his plate, feeling his cheeks turn red. "No. Well, I assume past lovers have caught on but my parents don't know."
"Friends?"
"Bobby, the people I have here are the first people I've ever met that I feel comfortable enough around to call my friends. You're the only person here who knows, yes."
"Oh." Bobby drank some of his soda; feeling his mouth temporarily damp, then go back to being dry. "How long have you known?"
"About the time puberty hit, I realized that my feelings towards the other boys in my dorm would not be considered heterosexual. Plus a few... rendezvous with other boys confirmed my feelings."
"And none of them threatened to tell about the wings?"
"The ones that would profit from black mailing me, or even knew of my family's status and weren't just strangers I met in clubs or around had to factor in the fact I had just as much blackmail on them, considering they had only found about my wings through sex with me; plus there were the trump cards of my father's lawyers and business associates." Bobby nodded and chugged what remained in his glass. "How did you find out?"
"When I was younger I, had crushes on guys and girls but I always assumed I was confusing friendship and crushes or it was just hormones. But after I found out what bisexuality was and started seriously falling for John... that kind of negated the hormones theory."
Warren nodded and finished eating, drinking the last of his soda. Balancing the cup on his plate, he bent down and placed it on the floor, to the side of his feet. "Why don't you want to tell anyone?"
"Because... I mean, I don't even get who I am completely and I'm gonna expect people to just get rid of the image they've had? I've been in this school since half way through the seventh grade Warren. I know some of the people here better than my family. How... how can I explain to them...."
"Who you truly are?" Bobby shrugged and shredded a stray water chestnut; digging his nails in and feeling it break into smaller and smaller parts. "I guess you have to have faith in yourself to know who you are and in other people to understand and accept you."
"Easy for you to say. I haven't exactly seen you going around talking guys with Kitty."
"No one has asked my sexual preference Bobby and if they did, I'd tell them."
"You didn't tell-"
"I showed you."
"That's not quite the same." Warren leaned forward and lifted the plate gently off of Bobby's lap, holding it steady. He dropped the water chestnut, and wiped his hands clean with the napkin. Warren waited until he placed that on the plate and moved it to sit on top of his, placing their chopsticks into a cup. "You could have warned me."
"How?"
Bobby shrugged. "Dunno. Would have been the well mannered thing to do." Warren laughed. "Besides, without John here I guess I don't have much of a reason to tell anyone. Well, I mean other than you but um. Crap." Warren laughed again.
"Perhaps some weekend you'd like to head into town with me? I'm fairly certain that my old ways of persuasion will be enough to get us into clubs, regardless of our ages."
"...old ways?" Warren rubbed his thumb and pointer finger together and Bobby's mind automatically made the sound, ch-ching. He shrugged. "Guess that'd be ok."
"Alright. It's a date, but not in the date sense." Bobby laughed.
"So I guess, I don't need to hide in my room for the rest of the weekend."
"I believe "Terminator3" is playing on HBO tonight. In two minutes," he said as he checked the clock, "if you'd like to go see it."
"Sounds cool." Bobby got up and started to gather up the cartons, tossing them into the brown bag. Warren took the dishes and walked into the bathroom, placing them in the sink and running the water over them. "I'll do those later," Bobby called, wadding the bag up the most he could and throwing it into the trash. Thinking for a moment, he iced the whole thing and then broke it into tiny pieces.
"Impressive."
"I'll make a lot of friends in college." Warren laughed and they headed to the living room.