Boyfriends with Girlfriends
Read Boyfriends with Girlfriends Online
Authors: Alex Sanchez
ALSO BY ALEX SANCHEZ
Bait
The God Box
Getting It
Rainbow Road
Rainbow High
Rainbow Boys
So Hard to Say
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people,
or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents
are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events
or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Alex Sanchez
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Book design by Laurent Linn
The text for this book is set in Arrus BT.
Manufactured in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sanchez, Alex, 1957–
Boyfriends with girlfriends / Alex Sanchez.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When Lance begins to date Sergio, who is bisexual, he is not sure
that it will work out, and when his best friend Allie, who has a boyfriend,
meets Sergio’s lesbian friend, she has unexpected feelings which she struggles to understand.
ISBN 978-1-4169-3773-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4424-1990-2 (eBook)
[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Homosexuality—
Fiction. 4. Bisexuality—Fiction. 5. Lesbians—Fiction. 6. Identity—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S19475Bo 2011
[Fic]—dc22
2010004236
To those who dare to live label-free
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With gratitude to my editor, David Gale; my agent, Miriam Altshuler; assistant editor, Navah Wolfe; and all those who contributed to the creation of this book with their encouragement and feedback, including Bill and Jackie Hitz, Erica Lazaro, Tim Luscombe, John Porter, Dhamrongsak “Noom” Preechaboonyarit, John “J. Q.” Quiñones, Nancy Schwartz, Pattawish Thitithanapak, and my inspiring typist, “Toast.” Thank you all.
L
ance tapped the beat of
A Chorus Line
’s
“What I Did for Love” on Allie’s bedroom door. “Hi, it’s me!”
“Come in, you!” She opened the door in a jean skirt, adjusting her bra. Ambushed by her cleavage, Lance slapped a hand over his eyes.
“Oh, come on!” she giggled, holding up a tie-dyed T-shirt. “Help me decide! Should I go with the—”
He peeked through his fingers and cut her off: “No way!”
She lifted a zebra-stripe blouse. “How about the—”
“Ick!”
“Okay”—she held up a pink Lycra top—“I’ll go with the—”
“Good!” He checked the time on his cell, eager to go meet the boy he’d friended online that week. “You think he’ll like me?”
“He’s going to go wild over you,” she replied while pulling her blouse on.
“Wild is good.” He put his arm around her and she snuggled up beside him in front of the mirror.
She’d always thought Lance was hot. At swim meets, when he strutted around the pool deck nearly naked, she’d often thought:
If he were straight
or if I were a gay guy, I’d be all over him.
“Feel something?” She planted a playful kiss on his cheek. “Anything?”
“Sorry.” He began to hum a show tune, a nervous habit.
“From
My Fair Lady
,” Allie said.
“Right? What is it?”
He blushed, realizing what it was. “Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?”
“Meanie!” She pulled away. “Shoes?”
“Your rose-color pointy pumps,” he said, dabbing his blond hair with some of her gel.
“So, what did you say this guy’s name is?” Allie asked as they climbed into Lance’s car.
“Sergio,” Lance said, pronouncing the
G
with an
H
sound. “He’s Mexican. Hot and spicy!” Lance considered himself an equal opportunity dater, attracted to all types of guys—Latino, white, black, Asian. . . . He’d been attracted to Sergio’s café latte–color skin, thick black hair gelled into spikes, eyes dark as night. And although his nose seemed kind of big, even that was cute. “He’s a cousin of Penelope’s from Drama Club.”
The boys had gotten to know each other a little bit over the phone and Messenger. They were both seventeen. Sergio lived in a neighboring suburb and went to Liberty High.
“Home of the roaches,” he’d joked. “Ew, yuck, right?”
Lance went to the Academy, a local private school. “But I’m not a big preppy or anything. I’m pretty down-to-earth.”
“Good,” Sergio replied. “Me too.”
Sergio had an older sister in college; Lance was an only child. Sergio had a guinea pig named Elton; Lance had an Irish setter named Rufus.