“Your turn,” he said.
“Oh . . . umm . . . no drama.”
“Great. No horror. I hate scary movies.”
“Me too. Clark makes me watch them and then I can’t sleep for a week.”
“That’s actually spousal abuse,” he joked. “Okay, comedy then.”
“Thank God,” she said. “What makes you laugh, Solomon Reed?”
“I don’t know . . . slapstick?”
“I knew it,” she said. “I know this is old school, but are you a fan of Mel Brooks?”
A huge smile stretched across his face.
“Where’d you come from?” he asked her.
“Upland,” she said. “Keep up, will you? I vote Robin Hood: Men in Tights.”
“Is my mom paying you to be here?”
“No,” she said, scanning the screen for the movie. “But I do like to swim. And, you know, a free root canal would be nice, should the occasion ever arise.”
“She told you about the pool, I guess.”
“She did. And you’re going to swim in that pool, yeah?”
“That’s right,” he answered.
“She seems pretty psyched,” Lisa said. “That you asked for it, I mean.”
“No pressure,” he said. “Did she tell you my grandma bribed me?”
“No she did not. How so?”
“Said she’d buy the pool if I hung out with you.”
“Smart,” Lisa said before getting really quiet.
“Just the first time,” he said. “Not anymore. I want you here.”
“Oh good. I was getting scared this situation would forever ruin Robin Hood: Men in Tights for me.”
“That would be tragic,” he said. “I think my grandma’s hoping you’ll fall in love with me and save me from myself.”
“Too bad I’ve got Clark,” she joked.
“Too bad I’m gay,” he blurted out, closing his eyes and expecting the silence to be deafening.
“Yeah, too bad,” she said with a big smile.
She raised her hand into the air for a high five and he sort of just looked at it until she put it back down.
“I’ve never told anyone before.”
“Oh my God,” she said. “Thank you.”
“For being gay or for telling you?”
“Both?”
“You’re welcome. I sort of had a panic attack when you got here.”
“I figured. Your mom said you were trying to find socks.”
“She’s a bad liar,” he said, raising his foot into the air and wiggling his toes.
“At least give her credit for trying. She seems really cool.”
“Pretty cool,” he agreed. “Dad too. This wouldn’t really work if they weren’t, I guess.”
“And, umm . . . do they know? That you’re gay?”
“Why waste their time with it? It’s not like it’ll ever be an issue anyway.”
“Yeah, but, it’s who you are, right?”
“I guess so,” he said. “I don’t really know how to be any way else.”
“When did you know?”
“I was twelve maybe. Something I just knew one day, even though I hadn’t known it the day before.”
“So it’s like that, huh? A feeling? Not just being into other dudes?”
“Oh no, it’s that too. Of course it’s that. But it’s more, I think. Not so much a feeling as a fact, like having blue eyes or brown hair. It’s just maybe something you don’t discover until you’re ready to understand it better.”
“Like being straight,” she said. “Only we don’t have to deal with all that closet bullshit.”
“Bingo,” he said.
She slipped off her shoes, and put her feet up with his.
“Oh,” he said, standing up. “I have candy.”
“Make it happen, Cap’n,” she said.
When he got back from the kitchen, a box of Mike and Ike’s in one hand and Hot Tamales in the other, he sat much closer to her, so close their elbows occasionally grazed during the entire movie. And like they’d done it a million times, without even thinking about it, they silently passed the candy back and forth between them with their eyes locked on the screen.
TWELVE
LISA PRAYTOR
Lisa ended up staying at Solomon’s house until well after midnight. Then, just as they were about to say good-bye at the front door, she asked if she could give him a hug.
“Sure,” he whispered. “But make it quick.”
She didn’t. She held on just long enough for him to know she meant it. And she did mean it. He had told her something he’d never told anyone else in his entire life. If that isn’t friendship, then what is? She was in the inner circle now. Hell, she was the inner circle. And all the progress she’d made in just two visits with Solomon was enough to help her ignore that little pang of guilt she was feeling in her stomach.
“You can tell Clark, too,” he said before she left. “He should probably know he’s got nothing to worry about.”
Even though it was one in the morning before she got home, she needed to talk to Clark. He was at his dad’s again, so she knew he’d be up late eating junk food and playing video games or something. And he was.
“Yellow,” he answered. She could hear a TV in the background.
“Well, you don’t have to be jealous of Solomon anymore.”
“Bad date?” he joked.