Being True (17 page)

“What is it?”

“I’m supposed to stay by your side, but I need to pee.”

“You should’ve thought about that before you started drinking so much,” I told her.

“And maybe you should stop trying to be my mother,” she said with stitched eyebrows.

She was right. I was being silly. But being here without Javi made me nervous. “Go get in line,” I said. “I’m just gonna check and see if Javi’s back here. If I don’t find him, I’ll come inside and join you.”

She twisted her lips in thought. She didn’t like the idea, but she apparently had to pee really badly. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll give you five minutes.”

I turned around and exited the kitchen door.

F
INDING
J
AVI
wasn’t going to be easy. The backyard proved even more crowded than inside. People cluttered the lawn and clogged up the swimming pool, which had been turned into a froth of choppy white waves as people splashed about.

Laughter echoed throughout the night even louder than the steady downbeat of the music blaring inside. The cops would likely be raiding this place soon. And since Claudia was already a tad tipsy, I hoped once I located Javi, we could get away from here before the minors in possession citations were handed out.

I wove in and out of the pods of people that had gathered in circles. Those who recognized me as Javi’s friend said hello. I returned the greeting with a smile and a nod before continuing on. Most people, though, glared at me before looking away.

By the time I’d made a lap around the entire backyard, I still hadn’t found Javi. A quick glance at my watch told me my five minutes were up. If I didn’t head back to Claudia soon, she’d bust out of the house with a searchlight.

I aimed for the back door when I noticed a side yard. I hadn’t seen it at first because the night shadows had created a dark pocket around that part of the yard. It was a small area about twenty feet in width between the house and the wooden fence.

It was as good a place as any for Javi to be.

I cut back through the maze of drunkenness, emerging a few feet from the side yard. Shortly after rounding the corner, I stopped in my tracks.

Javi was here, but he wasn’t alone. Rance was with him.

Luckily, they were facing the street and hadn’t seen me. I quietly inched away. Though Rance had been giving me a wide berth at school, I couldn’t count on the same treatment outside the protective school walls. It was just simpler, and safer, to avoid him all together.

Once I stood unseen at the corner of the house, I sighed in relief and leaned against the stucco.

“I just don’t understand.” Javi’s voice drifted on the air.

“What the fuck is there to understand?” Rance asked. His tone had a harsh, angry edge to it.

“You barely talk to me anymore, and when you do, you’re an asshole. I’d like to know why. For fuck’s sake, man, we’ve been friends since we were kids. I’ve known you longer than anyone else.”

Rance sniffed. “And here I’d thought you’d forgotten.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t sweat it, Javi,” Rance said. His big feet crunched across the grass.

I was about to bolt when Javi spoke, stopping Rance from leaving. “I
am
gonna sweat it,” he replied. “Until you give me a good reason for what’s going on. You’ve been different these past few months. Like you’ve been avoiding me or something. I tried to give you space, figuring you had some shit with your parents to work through. The last you told me was they were getting a divorce. Is that was this is about?”

“My parents are fine,” Rance said. “My dad sleeps on the couch, and my mom cries herself to sleep every night. Everything’s back to normal.”

“Shit, man. I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“How could you? You don’t come over anymore. Or invite me to your house.” I could hear the pouty child in his voice. “I miss your mom’s cooking.”

“Dude, you’re always welcome. You know that.”

“I don’t,” Rance said. “Not anymore.”

“I don’t understand. What’s changed?”

“You.” The sulky kid gave way to a pissed-off teenager.

Javi’s audible gasp revealed he hadn’t been expecting that answer. I had been. The source of Rance’s beef with Javi had to be his friendship with me.

“How have I changed?”

“You mean besides the ugly new pet you’ve got following you around school?”

“Who are you talking about?” Javi asked. I appreciated the confused tone in his voice. He had no clue who Rance was referring to. That meant he didn’t see me the way so many others did. “Are you talking about Tru?”

Rance snorted. “Do you have any other Donkey-from-
Shrek
lookalike motherfuckers trotting behind you these days?”

“Tru’s a nice guy,” Javi said. This time his timbre changed. He immediately went on the defense. “What the hell do you have against him?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Rance responded. “He’s not worth my time.”

“That’s a pretty sucky thing to say.”

Rance laughed. “I don’t collect strays the way you do, man. I stick with people who are worthy of being around me. I don’t waste my time with losers. Much less dump my friends for guys the world shits out of its ass.”

Dump? That was an interesting choice of words.

“Don’t go blaming this on Tru, Rance. You checked out on our friendship long before he came to Burbank. We both know that. And I wish you’d tell me why.”

Suddenly, unseen hands shoved me forward, and I sprawled onto the grass.

“Tru?” Javi asked. He ran over and helped me up. We turned to see who’d pushed me. Rance’s girlfriend, Lucy, stood with hands on her hips and a hateful glare in her eyes. “What the fuck, Lucy?”

“Don’t ‘what the fuck?’ me,” she said. With her long dark hair and blood red lipstick, she resembled a witch. “This little fuckhole was eavesdropping.”

Rance and Javi both turned to me. Javi appeared stunned. An impish smile danced across Rance’s lips.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No,” Javi said. “You shouldn’t have.”

Lucy crossed to her boyfriend and pressed against him. “Why don’t you break his jaw next time?” she asked. “Maybe that’ll teach him a lesson.”

Javi spun to face them while Rance glowered down at Lucy.

“Shit, Lucy. Thanks a lot,” Rance said.

“What?” she asked, clearly oblivious to what she’d just revealed.

“What did you just say?” Javi asked her. “Next time break his jaw?”

She refused to meet Javi’s eyes. Instead, she glanced up at Rance, who crossed his arms and glared at her too. She was about to get it from all sides.

“When was the first time?” Javi asked. He crossed the lawn to them and switched his gaze from Lucy to Rance. “Want to tell me, Rance? When the fuck was the first time?”

Javi’s angry words drew the attention of some of the party guests like Oscar Gomez, an ugly, scowling member of the Jock Brigade Rance had been spending more of his time with. Selina Perez and Ruben Lopez, who had been among the first to greet me in the halls after seeing my picture with Javi in the school paper, inched closer to witness the events with a macabre curiosity. Some people even exited the pool to avoid missing the action. Destiny Villarreal, who’d asked for my help in math class, was one such rubbernecker. In only her bra and panties, she crossed the lawn.

Last to arrive was Claudia. She cut through the onlookers, surveyed all of us, and said, “What the fuck is going on?”

“Oh, look,” Rance said with a nod to Claudia. “Another of your loser friends.”

Javi practically snarled. “It was you, wasn’t it?” he asked. “You’re the one who beat up Tru on his first day. That was why you were in ISS, wasn’t it?”

Rance lowered his arms and took a step toward Javi. Javi wasn’t a small guy like me, but he was nowhere near Rance’s height or bulk. At least four inches and about fifty pounds separated the two. “And what are you going to do about it?”

Suddenly, I was standing between Javi and Rance. It wasn’t exactly the wisest place to be, but I couldn’t let Javi get into a fight with his best friend. No matter the circumstances, Javi would likely regret being such a hothead later. “It’s no big deal,” I said. “We should get out of here. Claudia will drive us home.”

I nodded to Claudia, who joined me at Javi’s side. “Yeah,” she said as she tossed a grimace at Rance and Lucy. “This party blows worse than Lucy.”

Lucy lunged, but Rance stopped her with one meaty paw.

“I think it’s time for you to go,” Rance said to Javi.

Javi didn’t reply. He turned around and cut through the gathered crowd.

“W
HY
THE
fuck didn’t you tell me?” Javi yelled as Claudia drove us back to my place. I’d never seen him this upset. I couldn’t tell if his anger was solely directed at me or at what he’d learned about Rance. “And you,” he said to Claudia, who sat next to him in the front seat. “I bet you knew, didn’t you? Why did you keep it from me too? You know how I feel about bullies.”

“Don’t be yelling at me,” Claudia said through gritted teeth. She took her eyes off the road to shoot Javi a long, piercing stare. By the time she returned her gaze to the road, Javi had taken several deep breaths. “Besides, it wasn’t my story to tell. I promised Tru.”

Javi turned to look at me. “But why?” he asked. “Didn’t you trust me? I thought we were friends, especially since….” He stopped, not sure whether it was okay for him to bring up the fact I was gay.

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” I said. “I knew how much Rance meant to you, and I didn’t want to put you in a situation where you felt like you had to choose.”

“That’s not good enough, Tru.” He had calmed down a lot, but the anger in his voice still cut through me like a switchblade. “Friends aren’t supposed to keep things from each other. And I thought that’s what we were. When you told me you were gay—”

“Wait,” Claudia said. She peered at me in the rearview mirror. “You told him?”

I nodded.

“And when were you planning on sharing that little tidbit with me?”

Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. “I was going to tell you,” I said to Claudia’s reflection. “I wasn’t going to keep it from you.”

“Can we deal with one secret of Tru’s at a time?” Javi asked. He sat sideways in his seat, trying to get a good look at me. “Why keep this from me?”

I had no choice but to tell him. No matter how pathetic it made me sound. “I was scared you’d stop talking to me,” I finally admitted. “You and Rance have been friends for, like, ever. And you were the first person who was nice to me. Who became my friend. I didn’t want to lose that. I figured once you knew, there’d really be no choice. That you’d just choose the guy who’d always been your friend and leave the loser I am all by myself again.”

“Stop the car,” Javi told Claudia.

“What?” she asked. “I’m driving in the middle of the road here.”

“Stop the fucking car!”

Claudia slammed on the breaks. When Javi opened his door, I couldn’t watch him exit the vehicle. What I feared was about to come true. Javi was walking away.

“Move the fuck over,” Javi said after opening the rear door.

“Huh?”

“I said move the fuck over.”

I undid my seat belt and scooted over as Javi climbed in next to me and shut the door.

“Can I go again, Your Majesty?”

“Please do,” Javi replied to Claudia. He rubbed my shoulder like he had the day I fell off my bike. The warm comfort of his touch almost brought me to tears. “Look at me,” he said.

I glanced up into Javi’s smiling face. He stared at me as if I was the weirdest and most wonderful thing he’d ever looked upon. “I don’t abandon my friends, Tru. And it hurts my feelings that you think I’m the kind of person who would. I don’t care what people think or what they say. Not even Rance. Does it suck that he can be the biggest douchebag in the world? Yes. Does that stop me from wanting to be his friend?” He paused. “Well, maybe a little. But it’s not something I just turn off. Not for you. Not for Rance. I’m a big boy who makes his own decisions, and you and Rance are going to have to trust in my friendship. And trust I’ll make the decisions that will keep us friends.”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and drew me close. I wanted to bury my head in the crook of his neck and rest my hands on his chest, but I didn’t. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch and inhaled Javi’s sweet scent. Both always seemed to make everything better.

“And what’s with this new look?” he asked while gazing down at me. “A new hairdo and clothes.”

“Claudia helped me get ready for the party,” I told him. “I didn’t want to embarrass you with my usual self.”

Javi chuffed. He ran his fingers through my perfect do and messed it up. He flicked my chin and then my nose. “I like your usual self,” he said. “Don’t change a thing.”

I didn’t know how to respond. It was perhaps the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. I was about to say that when I caught Claudia staring at us through the rearview mirror. When our eyes locked, she turned back to the road.

She obviously thought Javi’s words sweet as well. She wore the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her.

Chapter 7