aterovis_bleedinghearts.pm6 (18 page)

Bethany had the same hair as her mother and Asher, but longer. It came to just past her shoulders and hung in shiny brown ringlets. She was very pretty, with a heart-shaped face and perfect pouty little lips. Asher said she had been doing some modeling where she was going to school and was trying to get into acting. I could picture her on a movie screen. She had that look about her; she carried herself like a star.

In the rec room, there was Marcus, Asher’s brother, and Jacob (“Call me Jake”) playing Nintendo 64, while Jamie divided his time between watching them and playing with a pile of Star Wars figures on the floor.

Marcus looked like he was from a different family from Asher and Bethany. He had wavy sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, where both Asher’s and Bethany’s were a steely gray color. He looked more like Jake’s brother than Asher’s. Jake had blonde hair, too, although it was darker than Todd’s and Gilly’s. His eyes were the same shade of blue, though, as everyone in their family’s seemed to be. His hair was longish, but not as long as Todd’s. His look was more skater than surfer, even to his outfit — baggy jeans, wallet chain and layered shirts.

Jamie was adorable, same white-blonde hair and blue eyes as Gilly. He still maintained a little of his baby fat, not enough to be chubby, but enough to give him that soft baby look.

Everyone else was in the kitchen putting the finish-154

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ing touches on dinner. Tom and Janice, Gilly’s parents, were standing over an open oven arguing over who was going to take the ham out. Tom pulled an oven mitt off long enough to shake my hand and Janice took the opportunity to duck under our arms and grab the ham.

He chased off after her, insisting that she let him carry it while she insisted that she was fine. Tom was slightly overweight with prematurely white hair and glasses.

Janice looked much younger than he did with her blonde hair cut in a pageboy style. She was built like Gilly, thin and small with delicate, pretty features. Mrs. Davis —

Deb — was scooping huge mounds of fluffy mashed potatoes into a bowl while Judy, Gilly’s crazy aunt, was cutting a cake. Judy had piles of hair of an unnatural shade of red that towered over her head in a gravity-defying feat of hairdressing magic. She wore an abun-dance of make-up and looked rather like a carnival gypsy in her brightly colored muumuu. Her nails added to the effect; about two inches long and painted bright red, they looked like talons. I suspected they could be considered deadly weapons. When we were introduced, she dropped the knife she was using to slice the cake and swooped in on me for a big hug. It was like being attacked by a giant fluffy bat. It was almost impossible to pinpoint her age; she could have been the oldest or the youngest sibling in the Davis clan.

There was only one person I hadn’t seen: Asher. I turned to Gilly as we went back to the rec room and asked, “Is Asher here?”

“No, he said he wasn’t feeling well and wanted to stay home, so they left him,” she explained.

“Oh,” I breathed a small sigh of relief.

“Are you guys fighting?”

“Sort of,” I said and left it at that. Thankfully, Jamie barreled into us at that moment and distracted Gilly from pursuing it further.

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“Will you play Star Wars with me?” he asked as he wrapped himself around my legs and looked up at me with those big blue eyes. How could I say no to that?

I sat down in the floor with him and he handed me a Darth Maul figure. “You be him and I’ll be Obi Wan Kenobi,” he told me.

“Who can I be?” Gilly asked.

Jamie looked at her with a puzzled expression for a moment before saying, “I don’t have any girls.”

“What about Princess What’s-her-name?”

“Amidala, and she was a queen, not a princess. And I didn’t want her.”

“Why not?” Gilly persisted.

“Cuz she’s a girl,” Jamie finished decisively, as if that explained everything. Gilly shrugged and moved over to watch Jake and Marcus battle it out on Goldeneye. I heard her mutter something about males and violence, but I couldn’t catch all of it.

We fought with our figures, making light saber noises and other cool sound effects until we were called to dinner.

Dinner was another experience entirely, quite unlike any I’d ever had before. It was like one of those families you see on TV or in the movies, like those big Italian families in Mafia stories, except they weren’t Italian and they weren’t Mafia...at least as far as I knew. Everyone talked over each other and food just kept going round and round. I swear it seemed to keep multiplying like some sort of Biblical miracle. While on the surface everyone seemed quite genial and happy, I sensed an undercurrent of unspoken tension, especially with the Sheridans. I didn’t really have time to think about it, though, since questions kept coming at me from every side. I tried to keep up with them, but I’m pretty sure I missed a few. I was very relieved when dessert was served.

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After dinner, Asher’s family had to leave, but everyone else headed for the living room where they settled down and continued chatting. After a few minutes, Judy excused herself to go smoke. A few minutes later, Gilly asked me if I wanted to take a walk, to which I quickly agreed. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her family; they were just a bit overwhelming.

We walked around the back yard for a while before finally settling on the back porch on a swing. We talked about nothing for a few minutes before Gilly excused herself to go to the bathroom. She hadn’t even shut the door before Judy appeared from the bushes and sat down beside me on the porch swing. I wondered how long she’d been lurking in the shrubbery.

“You’re not really Gilly’s boyfriend, are you?”

“Huh?” I managed.

“You and Gilly, you aren’t really boyfriend and girlfriend. I can see.”

“What do you mean you can see?”

“I see many things. I see that you only love other boys, and since Gilly is not a boy...”

“How do you know that? How do you know I’m gay?” I hissed. I was getting panicky.

“Don’t be scared. I don’t judge, I simply see. I see many things most people don’t. It’s not that they can’t see, they just often choose not to.”

“What else do you see?” I asked hesitantly.

She reached out and took my hand. “I see you are scared. You have been hurt very much and you have not yet healed. You are in danger; someone wishes you harm. You must find them before they accomplish the task they have set before themselves. Your paths are intertwining; they converge repeatedly. From this point there are many paths you can chose, but there is only one that you will survive. Watch your step carefully.”

She dropped my hand and stood up. She looked down 157

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at me for a second, then began to walk away.

“Wait!” I called after her, “Do you know who it is?

Who’s after me?”

She paused and turned back to me, her face was lost in the shadows so that her voice seemed to come from nowhere, “You must discover that for yourself. It is your path.” I felt the hairs on my arms stand up, and then she turned and melted into the darkness.

Gilly came back out as soon as Judy was out of sight, but before she could even sit down her mom called her back inside.

“I’m sorry, Killian. I’ll be right back, I promise,” and she ducked back inside.

She hadn’t even been gone for a minute before the door opened again. My mind was still swirling with Judy’s words so it took a moment for me to realize that it wasn’t Gilly, it was her brother Todd. He hadn’t noticed me on the swing as he walked to the rail and leaned against it. I was debating whether or not to make my presence known when he turned around and noticed me. He started a little, then cursed under his breath.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he said.

“S’okay,” I told him.

“You’re awful quiet,” he said as he came over and sat down beside me. I couldn’t help but think that this was all like a carefully choreographed play or a TV

sitcom, with everyone coming and going in such a seemingly synchronized way. “So you’re Gilly’s boyfriend now. You’re the guy she’s been after for so long.”

“I guess,” I laughed nervously, although it had been phrased as a statement and not a question. Good thing I was or some poor guy would be feeling really special right about now. I shifted a little because Todd had sat down closer to me than I was comfortable with. I was feeling a little flushed from his closeness; he was very attractive.

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“You guys don’t seem to be all that enthusiastic about it,” he commented. He looked at me closely and again I felt vaguely uncomfortable, like he was seeing through me.“What do you mean?” I asked warily.

“Just that you guys don’t seem to have the body language you usually see with two people who are first going out.”

“Get lost, Todd,” Gilly said suddenly from behind us. We both jumped. I hadn’t even heard the door open.

“Since when are you an expert on body language?”

“Gilly, I’m just looking out for you. That’s all,” he said standing up and moving away from the swing.

“Thanks, Todd, I know. But you have to remember that I’m a big girl now. I’m only 18 months younger than you. I can take care of myself.”

Todd looked at me one last time and I could tell that there was more that he wanted to say, but he just shrugged and walked back into the house.

“Sorry about that. I warned you that I had a weird family.” Gilly said sitting in the once again vacant spot next to me.

“It’s okay,” I told her, “but I really think I need to be getting back home. I didn’t finish my homework.”

Gilly smiled, but it didn’t look like she really meant it. “Okay,” she said, “Will you come in and say good-bye to everyone first?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said.

Then before I could react she leaned forward and kissed me. I jerked away without thinking.

“Gilly…I’m gay,” I said softly.

“I know, but I thought maybe if we...” she never finished; instead she just burst into tears.

“Oh geez, Gilly,” I said, feeling very helpless and unsure of what to do. I patted her awkwardly on the back. After a few minutes she managed to stop crying 159

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and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands.

“I’m sorry, Killian,” she sniffled, “I promise I won’t do it again.”

“It’s okay, Gilly,” I said, still feeling very awkward, “It’s not that you aren’t a great girl, you are, it’s just...if I wasn’t gay, I’m sure I would like you a lot. I mean I like you now as a friend, but if I was straight I’m sure I’d like you as more than a friend...”

Gilly reached out and placed a finger on my lips to shut me up, “You don’t have to apologize or explain anything, Killian. I was out of line and I’m sorry. We agreed that this was just for show. I just got carried away. Let’s just pretend that never happened? Okay?”

I nodded and we both stood up and hugged briefly. We went back inside and after saying good-bye to everyone I went out to my car, but my strange night at Gilly’s house wasn’t over yet. Before I could get in my car someone tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around with a yelp, but it was only Rick.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, “I just wanted to say good-bye and tell you if you ever need to talk, I’m available.”

“Um, thanks,” I said uncertainly.

“I know this must be a confusing time for you right now. Asher talks to me and he told me what’s been going on for both of you and as you know, he isn’t handling things very well. But hang in there; hopefully he’ll come around soon, and he’ll need his friends when he does.”

“He hasn’t seemed to want me as his friend lately,” I said. I was a little angry that Asher had told my personal business to Rick without even asking me.

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“Asher doesn’t know what he wants right now.

In time, though, he’ll sort things out, and so will you. Just give him time.” He patted me on the back and started back towards the house. I got in my car and drove away from what had to have been one of the oddest nights of my entire life.

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I went to sleep thinking about what Judy had said and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up.

In fact, it totally distracted me all morning at school, as well. At one point I paid attention enough to realize that I had no idea what we were talking about and thought that this would be a bad thing come test time, and then I spaced out again.

I was still in my own little world at lunch when I realized someone had sat down next to me. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was the only member of Gilly’s family, besides her parents, that hadn’t cornered me the night before.

“Hey, Jake,” I said.

“Hi, Killian. Can I talk to you for a few minutes?” he asked. He was wearing a baggy pair of carpenter’s jeans and a long-sleeved Creed concert T-shirt, accessorized with the requisite wallet chain. Today he had thrown in a silver ball chain necklace. His blonde hair was tucked behind his ears in a way that I found very ap-pealing. Was everyone in Gilly’s family attractive or was it just me?

“Sure, why not?” I said.

“You were friends with Seth, right?”

Wow, that was about the last thing I had expected him to say. “Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that.” I 162

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said finally.

“I heard that you’re even living with his dad now.”

“Yeah, I am.” I wondered where this was leading.

He looked around at the tables near us then leaned in closer to me, “Wasn’t Seth gay?” he asked quietly.

“Um, yes.”

“Is it true that his dad is too?”

“Yes.”

“Then, um...are you?”

Uh oh, dangerous waters; what should I say? “I’m dating your sister,” I said, deciding to go with a non-answer.

“I know, but that’s not what I asked.” He was sharper than I had given him credit for.

“Look, Jake, do you think we could get together later maybe and talk about this?” I looked around meaningfully.